Winter athletes trying to avoid COVID-19 web

<p>The locker room floor isn’t the most comfortable place to eat lunch, but it’s a trade-off that Mary Wilson is more than willing to make for another two months.</p><p>Back in early November, when COVID-19 contact tracing put more than 400 Center Grove students and staff members in quarantine, Wilson decided that she didn’t want to risk getting caught up in that web, especially during her senior basketball season. So instead of sitting in a crowded cafeteria and rolling the dice, she and a handful of teammates have opted to isolate themselves and eat in a less-than-ideal setting.</p><p>&quot;It is what it is,&quot; Wilson said with a laugh. &quot;I guess the fun part is I do get to spend time with my teammates more, and it’s more of a relaxed environment.&quot;</p><p>Wilson is far from the only athlete that’s taken similar steps. Franklin senior basketball player Kyra Baker has been eating lunch alone in the high school athletic office since the start of the school year. At Whiteland, athletes have been eating in the gym bleachers, where designated seats are measured out and marked to keep everyone at a safe distance.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>Others have gone so far as to avoid the building entirely; Greenwood swimmers Grace Nuhfer and Charli Graves are among those who are attending school virtually until their season is over.</p><p>Both Woodmen made the decision in November, shortly after Greenwood moved to a hybrid schedule. Some of their swim teammates have been considering doing the same when classes resume next week.</p><p>&quot;We were three weeks away from county,&quot; Nuhfer said, &quot;and I just knew, being my senior year, that I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to miss it.</p><p>&quot;There were so many kids out from contact tracing, and there were so many times where it so easily could have been me. … For me, it just wasn’t worth it to stay in the school at that point.&quot;</p><p>The efforts to steer clear of other students aren’t limited to the lunch hour, either.</p><p>Wilson says that she now spends her study hall in the ceramics room instead of the normal space, a large room with more than 100 students in it. She also sits in the back of the room during all of her classes, as far away from her classmates as possible — &quot;so if someone near me tests positive for COVID, then they can’t argue with it because I’m beyond 6 feet,&quot; she said.</p><p>At Whiteland, senior football player Ethan Myers says that he and his teammates were getting regular reminders from coach Darrin Fisher to keep themselves at arm’s length from other students inside the classroom during the season.</p><p>&quot;The athletes would sit in one corner and then everyone else would sit in the other corner,&quot; Myers said, &quot;and the teachers were okay with that.&quot;</p><p>Even with those precautions in place, the Warriors weren’t untouchable this fall; the team had its regular-season finale against Greenwood wiped out because of contact-tracing issues from the Woodmen’s previous game, and then defensive starters Donnevan Plummer and Ewan Niccum got contact-traced and had to quarantine during the two weeks before the sectional opener.</p><p>In an effort to make sure those two wouldn’t miss the sectional title game against New Palestine, Whiteland didn’t conduct any practices the week of the semifinal game against Seymour.</p><p>&quot;If we didn’t have practices,&quot; Myers said, &quot;then (Niccum and Plummer) didn’t have any practices to make up.&quot;</p><p>Such is the dance that many have had to do in order to keep seasons going. It’s been a complicated mess, but in this strangest of school years, messy has become an everyday thing.</p><p>On top of it all, there’s the social aspect of high school, which most have chosen to avoid if it involves anyone outside of their team bubble. That’s been a downer, but Baker — whose team already had to pull out of the Johnson County tournament in November because of a quarantine situation — says that the short-term sacrifices are worth making to ensure that the Grizzly Cubs can play out the remainder of their season.</p><p>&quot;Those things will be there whenever the season’s done,&quot; Baker said, &quot;but I only have one senior season, so I’m trying to do everything I can for basketball right now.&quot;</p><p>Likewise, Nuhfer is eager to get back into the classroom and learn in person; she says that all of her teachers &quot;have been amazing, and I feel so bad for the troubles they’re going through right now.&quot; But she’s not willing to jeopardize her championship season and hopes of a state podium finish in the 100-yard butterfly to be there these next few weeks. Nuhfer plans to resume in-person learning after the state meet next month.</p><p>But not before then. Too many potential landmines exist right now, and the smaller a circle an athlete keeps, the better his or her chances of avoiding them. During the season, most athletes have decided that living a &quot;normal life&quot; is not worth the gamble.</p><p>&quot;It is hard,&quot; Wilson said, &quot;but at the end of the day I just have to remind myself, and my teammates remind ourselves, that we’re doing this for the things that really matter, like having a season and having as many games as we can, trying not to get shut down.&quot;</p>