|
General Update - Winter Training
On Dec 28th, Bear left to return to Berry for the start of winter training. One of the swimmers in our area Hunter Kenny, tested positive for Covid around Christmas time, so he stayed home. The first thing the entire team did when they arrived on campus was to take a Covid test from their cars. The only positive test I'm aware of was Billy Blood, who Bear swam with every day during Christmas break, and moreover, was with him the day before at the movie theatre.
At this point, I was thinking the team was going to cancel the trip to Florida and just train on campus, like they did last year, but surprisingly they did fly down to Miami, and then bus back up to Winter Springs, where they will use the FIU facilities.
We had been told by another parent that follows swimming that Birmingham Southern had to cut their winter training short due to a Covid outbreak, but that's apparently not true. We haven't heard much from Bear since training started, other than to let us know that BSU is still in Florida and he knows because they are training in the same facility. We also got a quick text from him informing us that one of the girls on the team tested positive while in Florida. We haven't heard how the coach is planning to deal with that, especially since the swimmers share rooms with 2 or 3 other teammates.
If somehow the team makes it through all of this, they are supposed to have a winter training meet on Monday. Given they are doing two-a-day practices as well as dryland/lifting I don't expect times will be good at all.
The fact the teams were still travelling to Florida gave me hope the conference championship meet would take place as scheduled. Unfortunately, the positive Covid tests in Florida complicate that, and may in fact cause more harm that if the teams hadn't gone down.
|