By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
With schools closed, sports canceled, and large gatherings prohibited, Sitka High athletes have turned to other means to keep active during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Sitka High junior Jojo Rock is on the Sitka High swim and softball teams.
“I’m just running for fun now, I usually don’t like running,” Rock said in a phone interview. Swim season is over, but she said she would normally be swimming and practicing for softball this time of year.
Thinking of the softball season that wasn’t, Rock said “I am so bummed. I literally talked about it all summer, all year, like this is going to be my year.”
Rock, a catcher and center fielder, recounted her favorite parts of softball:
“Just the sunshine hitting us when we’re playing a game, and we’re all in the zone. And once we go to bat and my team just starts cheering on for people and for each other. Just the encouragement and all the positivity I’m surrounded by.”
But the outbreak of COVID-19 ended team sports around the world, from Sitka softball to Major League Baseball to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Now, Rock said, she bikes the Cross Trail and runs sprints alone on Moller Field.
“I go biking once in a while, and I mostly go to the fields and run bases by myself.”
Rock hopes that once the quarantines end, she and her friends will be able to indulge in some softball again.
“Once we’re done in quarantine I’m probably gonna go play catch with my friends, just to get the love of softball,” she said.
She added that the outbreak and lockdowns have disrupted her social life as well.
“It feels like a really long weekend,” she said. “I usually just try to socialize over the phone as much as I can, but I miss going outside and hanging out with friends and just being able to walk around downtown.”
With her newfound spare time, she said, she’s learning to play musical instruments.
“I really want to learn how to play new instruments, like the ukulele and the piano are my go-to, and before the schools shut down I had a guitar class, so I’m kind of learning guitar,” she said.
Rock said she has read a number of Stephen King books in her time off as well. She also finished “Ghost Boys,” by Jewell Rhodes, in a single day.
“I never thought I would say this, but I definitely miss my classes,” Rock said.
Jojo Rock’s swimming friend Sophia Schwantes is in a similar situation.
With her yellow Labrador retriever Pendleton at her side, Wolves junior Schwantes runs about four miles a day in order to keep active.
“My friends and I have been going on hikes together, but it hasn’t been the same since we’ve been in really small groups.” She said local trails have offered some relief from town, and she and a handful of friends have spent some time in a skiff exploring the ruins of Fort Rousseau.
Schwantes, a topnotch swimmer, said closure of Sitka’s pools has made her athletic life difficult.
“It’s been really rough, I really love swimming, but ocean swimming is not my thing,” she said.
She donned her wetsuit twice in the last few weeks and swam in salt water, but the cold water prevented her from making it a regular event.
For now, Schwantes said her swim routine consists of dryland calisthenics and running.
But the impact of the global pandemic has spread beyond her sports life.
“It’s kind of all jumbled,” she said.
Tests in school subjects and the Standardized Aptitude Test and Advance Placement exams are postponed, and the School District is working on distance education plans for the remainder of the school year.
“I’m worried about school in general, because I’m not sure how this online school is going to be,” Schwantes said. “I’m worried about swim season next year, but I’m also thankful that I’m not a senior this year.”
While her daily life has undergone major disruptions in recent weeks, Schwantes saw a silver lining when it comes to her dog Pendleton.
“I think she’s probably pretty happy about it, because I’ve been taking her on walks every day,” she said.
