The Washington and Lee University volleyball season has been moved to the spring due to COVID-19 concerns. | Pixabay
The Washington and Lee University volleyball season has been moved to the spring due to COVID-19 concerns. | Pixabay
The Washington & Lee University women's volleyball team, along with other fall sports, has been sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been working out hoping the season would be postponed rather than canceled.
Its hard work has not been in vain.
The Old Dominion Athletic Conference announced athletic competition would resume in spring 2021. Spring sports, along with fall sports, will compete with testing protocols set in place. Varsity teams also will develop training and practice protocols entering into the season.
Many of the Washington and Lee COVID-19 measures will remain in place, and no spectators will be allowed for games.
Washington and Lee, in Lexington, competes in NCAA D-III intercollegiate sports. The Generals, coached by Bryan Snyder, are coming off a 24-10 season and finished 9-3 in conference play. The volleyball team advanced to the semifinals of the ODAC tournament.
The plan for women's volleyball this season is a 12-match full round-robin schedule featuring single- and multi-team events. The conference website reported the season will begin March 13 and run through April 28. The ODAC tournament is set for May 1 with four teams qualifying.
In what has typically been the volleyball season, members of the team have been working out with athletes from other sports in a strength and conditioning program. The school’s coronavirus policies prohibited traditional team practices but allowed team activities. The school website reported an area that is used for track field events has been set aside for training for all sports. The hope is athletes will return to competition in better shape.
The workout area was set up outside to better follow safety protocols.
While working out, face coverings were mandatory with bottles of sanitizer available to athletes across the workout area. In case anyone forgot what was required, a sign welcomed those working out that reads, “Welcome to the Boneyard. Fill out your daily attestation. Bring your own water bottle. Wear your mask at all times. Go hard.”
The demands of having all sports sharing an offseason with a workout and different class schedules required that strength and conditioning coaches work out with athletes from different teams during a work session. To meet the challenge, workouts were geared toward finding components of strength and conditioning that translated to into the elements of each sport.
“It’s hard to put a value on coach [Hayli] Yetter’s and coach [Aron] Gibson’s contributions to this,” Jan Hathorn, the Michael F. Walsh director of athletics, said in a news release. “They wholeheartedly believe in the work they do and in offering our student-athletes a fantastic opportunity to train, regardless of the ever-changing circumstances. [They are] just outstanding individuals doing outstanding work.”
The school also opened the Richard L. Duchossois Athletic and Recreation Center.
Washington & Lee is the alma mater of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
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