Summer workouts to get underway

By Donnie A. Lucas

Summer strength and conditioning workouts for students in grades 7-12 are being allowed by the UIL starting Monday, June 8  but will come with new restrictions due to concerns for the coronavirus pandemic.

The school district has offered summer conditioning programs for both boy and girl athletes for several years, and in more recent years has been allowed to offer certain sport specific instruction.

“We are working on how to set up the workouts while following the restrictions,” athletic director Ryder Peacock said. “We know that there will be a maximum limit of 25 percent of occupancy for each facility, and there are limits to the number of participants in each group.”

Peacock said that the coaching staff will attempt to offer as much of the same instruction as possible.

In addition, students entering the seventh grade and any others new to the athletics program are required to have a physical exam conducted before they can participate in the summer workouts.

“We usually offer physicals at the end of each school year, but that wasn’t possible this year since we closed the school in March,” he said. “Other students who have participated in the past have last year’s physical exam on file, and we can use that.” 

Peacock said that UIL has put out some requirements, including regular cleaning of equipment between users.

“We are just going to have to control the environment more closely,” he said. “As we have with everything else the last couple of months, we will be cleaning stations before and after each session.”

Peacock said that junior high students will most likely be grouped separately from high school athletes, as well as boys separated from girls.

“We usually run 25-30 kids on the boys side each summer, so dividing them into two groups by grade level will probably work,” he said. “The plan is to run the boys and girls separately to keep the numbers down at each facility.”

Peacock was not sure which indoor facilities can be opened and what the times will be.

He added that he hopes to have a plan for reopening the weight room and other facilities including the gym within the next week.

“Until we find out what we can do with our gyms, we are having to wait,” he said. “They gave us guidance for summer conditioning, but they weren’t very clear about how we can use our indoor facilities.”

Peacock said that hopefully local sports camps for younger students will be allowed this summer. Currently, plans for all camps are on hold until more information is received.

Specific information about summer conditioning, use of school facilities, and sports camps will hopefully be available by the June 4 issue of the News.