Almost from the time a sports season concludes at any level – high school, college, professional – plans are made by coaches and work is done by athletes to get ready for the following season.
What no one expects is for a season to disappear before a practice or game even takes place.
Yet that is what coaches at Cazenovia High School, and every other high school in New York State, had to face as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Schools across the state closed in mid-March (Cazenovia did so on March 16), just as tryouts and practices were about to get underway. Gradually, hopes for any kind of season flickered away as the number of infections and deaths climbed.
On April 27, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association canceled its slate of state championships. Four days later, governor Andrew Cuomo announced that schools would stay closed for the rest of the academic year.
This unprecedented situation presented a unique and difficult challenge for Cazenovia’s spring sports coaches, who have done all they could to maintain connection with the teams they were supposed to lead.
Tim Mascari, the new varsity baseball head coach, said that his players, especially the seniors, had put in a full off-season of work to get ready for 2020 until the pandemic hit.
“A lot of my guys were deflated and feeling uncertain. “They had just put their hearts and souls into preparing for this season and it was taken away from them in the blink of an eye.”
To raise their spirits, Mascari said he created a Google classroom for all baseball players in his community, from Little League age on up, which included video clips of baseball drills or highlights of past Major League Baseball games and players.
On a more personal note, Mascari hand-delivered, to his returning players’ mailboxes and front porches, the set of new uniforms the team was supposed to wear this season, along with hand-written letters to each of them.
Then, each Wednesday afternoon, Mascari and the players hold a Zoom session.
“I ask a different player to find a joke for the week and share it to the group,” said Mascari. ” We have honest conversations about life and what everyone has been doing to stay active, sane and healthy. It has been great for our coaches and players to find a way to get to “see” each other.”
Varsity boys lacrosse coach Dave Falge said that he has also reached out to his players through tools like Zoom chats, in conjunction with the other coaches on the various Cazenovia teams – Erich Niemann, Tom Lafave, Rob Axelson and Chris Cannizzaro.
“We have assured they are being socially responsible, physically fit, working on their skill set and keeping the stick in their hands,” said Falge. “We have emphasized the importance of their academics and keeping them positive and connected.”
Yet according to Falge, there was also a feeling of melancholy around not having a season after a lifetime spent in the game.
“I have coached and/or played organized lacrosse for the last 46 years,” said Falge. “That’s 46 consecutive spring seasons spending significant time with teammates, coaches, officials, fans, families, administrators, media and the community. Everyone in our Cazenovia program, in their own unique way, needs the game. We are all looking for some type of medicine.”
