January 2021 rustlernews.com
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Under the guidance of assistant coach Dick Kloppel, senior Chloe Pace takes a shot as the girls varsity basketball team practiced in the fieldhouse on Dec. 22. Kloppel is a former CMR principal who also coached state-winning basketball teams during his tenure at Great Falls HIgh School. Photo by Beth Britton.
WINTERIN THE SPORTS AGE OF COVID-19
by Justin Bollich, Staff Writer Coach Aaron Jensen, like everyone else in the school district, didn’t expect all of the new challenges from COVID-19 this year. But he and the wrestling team are getting through it. Practice for wrestling started on Dec. 7, and the season started Jan. 8. “[The season will be] about three months, something like that, a lot more practice time than we normally have,” Jensen said, adding that the state tournament is set for March 5-6. Parents of longtime wrestlers aren’t super concerned, but students and parents joining for the first time may be worried. “We have had conversations with kids that are trying to get out for the team that have never wrestled and the parents are concerned,” Jensen said. “You know, wrestling being such a close contact sport, we just try to educate them that we’re absolutely as safe as possible.” Jensen and the rest of the team are doing everything they can to keep contact to a minimum. “We put them in pods with coaches, he said. “We coach specific kids and they don’t change partners. That’s the best we can do, and then we just talk to them about making sure that they are safe” While the wrestling team is managing Covid the best they can, some of the biggest problems with having wrestling during a time like this are things that can’t be controlled.
“There’s a lot of protocols, making sure that, you know, kids don’t come in with any symptoms, that we’re masking up, that we’re keeping the place sanitized,” Jensen said. “You just gotta know day-today if somebody gets contact traced from school, something like that, they gotta be out for two weeks.” Girls basketball coach Brian Crosby is also facing challenges from Covid for his team. “We [had] two girls that [were] contact traced. So they’re gonna miss how many days of practice,” he said. “That’s a challenge to kind of keep everyone on the same page -- keeping people healthy.” Like in wrestling, the basketball season has been shortened. “They’re only going to do our 14 conference games, so normally we play 18 and then have our divisional tournaments, so we lost four games so far,” Crosby said. “We’re going to do everything in our power to play; if we have to move kids around we’ll do it. Our hope is to get through the season.” While all of these changes can be a challenge, Jensen said he doesn’t really have a problem with them. “It’s challenging, but at the end of the day these kids can have a wrestling season, we can get all of our athletics in, and all of our activities in,” Jensen said. “I think the positives outweigh the negatives. It’s just good for these kids to have some sense of normalcy here at CMR, and activities play a big role in that.”
During the Jan. 8 competition against Billings Senior, JV wrestler Luke Leinhauser takes on his opponent. Photo by Amber Kegel/Russellog staff.
The Rustler and Bison swimmers prepare to take on their competition virtually during the first meet of the season on Jan. 8 at the Great Falls High School pool. Photo by Izzi Rukavina.
