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As the clock hit 8:30 on a Wednesday morning, every currently active student athlete sat down in their first period classroom with their gear for their game that was going to be played later that day. As it got closer to the end of the period, every athlete got informed from their coach that all sports practices and games were to be canceled because of the dangerous Los Angeles fires.
This decision was sent to the coaches by the Athletic Director, Mr. Dion Coley who was told by LAUSD officials. This decision left athletes and coaches disappointed that they were going to miss their game, but they didn’t know that they were about to go on a week-long hiatus.
The next two days of school were canceled due to the hazardous air quality which caused offseason sports to miss two days of practice and caused active sports to miss a day of practice as well as another game that was scheduled for that Friday.
Schools reopened on Monday Jan. 13 yet every sport was told that they were still going to be shut down and not allowed to practice or play any games until Wednesday Jan. 15.
This caused anger and disappointment from every sports coach and athlete at Van Nuys.
“I’m upset that we lost so much practice time when we could have gathered for practice for at least an hour indoors throughout the week,” varsity softball member Angie Volpe said. “I think that it was a tragedy what is happening to Los Angeles right now but if the athletes and coaches were able to, we should’ve been able to have the opportunity to practice.”
Losing this much practice starts to de-condition athletes who worked hard during practice to stay physically fit and active in their sport.
For sports that had games the day they returned, they were thrown back into playing without any practice time, yet still performed well.
This situation was a setback for every sport but they will now have to work harder than ever to get back to their regular routine and where they were physically the week prior.
