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Covid-19 has impacted and changed school and sports in many ways at Bellwood-Antis. Despite a few changes, every fall sport was able to have a successful season. Next up on the sports agenda would be winter sports. Preseason basketball and wrestling practices seemed to start up smoothly until the most recent spike in Covid-19 cases. Bellwood has switched to full virtual instruction until at least December 11. This puts all winter sports on hold until further notice.

Basketball and wrestling has already put in place some rules and guidelines to follow regarding Covid-19.

For basketball, the PIAA announced that a face covering is required. They will also work to observe social distancing of at least 6 feet when possible, and they intend to sanitize the ball regularly.

Even though the basketball team can’t be together practicing, they’re still trying to get themselves ready for the season. Every Wednesday they have a “whiteboard Wednesday” where they review all of their plays and talk about the season.

“I’m not sure about the season, but I hope we can have it,” said junior Connor Gibbons. “We can’t really do anything together as a team right now, but we can go to the gym or even outside to get some work in so when we start back up we aren’t rusty.”

As of now, the basketball team will be permitted to start practicing on December 14, and plan to begin playing games on January 4.

Similar actions are to take place in wresting too. Mats will be sanitized regularly, masks are to be worn off of the mats, and bench areas will be increased to help with social distancing.

During this time off most of the wrestlers are still working out and running on their own daily. Wrestling is a sport where it’s virtually impossible to keep distanced from each other, but head coach Tim Anderkovich is still hopeful for a season.

”I am hoping that we can have a shortened dual meet season and that we can get several of our league dual meets in before Districts in February,” Anderkovich said. “We are following all the protocols- wearing masks, temperature checks, hand sanitizers, washing the mats before and after practice, and we will be wrestling with the same partner or in pods everyday to cut down on exposure.”

Thinking back to early fall, the football, cross country, and soccer seasons started out slow, but they all eventually happened. Everyone remains hopeful for a winter sports season. Good luck to our Bellwood winter sport athletes.