After a year of online school, Liberty high school has not only tried to resume academics but revive athletic programs. 

Unsurprisingly, high school sports have had their fair share of COVID-19 cases—Liberty is not an exception. With a total of thirty winter sports games canceled, “high risk” sports like basketball and wrestling have been hit especially hard.  

The boys basketball team, who has only played a total of nine games, was still able to place first in KingCo despite the team’s COVID-19 outbreak.

“Even though practice and our games are canceled, as a team, we still try to encourage each other to persevere and work hard, but it is definitely difficult to do so,” senior basketball player Josh Kim said. 

Kim and basketball coach Omar Parker think that their ability to adapt to these new circumstances is remarkable.

“Given these circumstances, this team is one of the most resilient teams I’ve experienced,” Parker said. 

The boys basketball team isn’t the only one that has had to adapt to new circumstances like COVID-19 outbreaks.

Liberty’s wrestling team has already been shut down twice due COVID-19, but freshman wrestler Chris Russel doesn’t let this impact him.

“Thankfully, I am still in the same condition before and after the shut downs, and I just continue to work hard,” Russel said.

However, for senior girls basketball player Maggie Hultquist who caught COVID-19, her experience has impacted her performance.

“Since I was out for five days, when I returned it was difficult to catch up, but it didn’t impact my health,” Hulquist said.

At the same time, behind the scenes of Liberty sports are staff members, athletic trainer Morten Orren and Athletic Director Danielle Zelinksi, who make sure that everything runs smoothly. 

The two work together to follow the Department of Health’s guidelines, which state that any “high risk” team must test three times a week. And if they have two or more positive cases in a span of fourteen days, they must shut down for a minimum of seven days. 

“Although this means that we have to test hundreds of athletes each week, we are willing to do so as long as the athletes get to play,” Zelinski said.

Despite following these precautions, COVID-19 has done its damage. 

“I would estimate that one-third to one-half of each ‘high risk’ sport team has caught COVID-19, which has made it even more difficult to schedule games,” Zelinski said.

But there is hope, some are predicting that a dip in COVID-19 cases are going to follow soon. So in the meantime, as they have done before, Liberty has persevered and remained strong, and the athletes are determined to work and persevere.