Take me out to the ball game, please Third baseman creates petition to jumpstart a cancelled season

the season.

BY MAX OSBURN

The Academic Senate meeting for April 12 included conversations about the conditions of education moving forward with the pandemic.

Pierce College President Alexis S. Montevirgen began the meeting with a report on COVID-19 and how the Los Angeles Community College District plans to operate as conditions improve for the campuses within the county.

Montevirgen detailed the COVID-19 response, the reengagement plan for students and faculty, and their meetings with government officials for feedback on those plans. Montevirgen expressed the optimism toward these strategies and the support from the government body .

“Just the fact that we are now in orange and that the county is already talking about being in yellow, it appears that we are re-engaging almost just as fast as when we were forced to go ahead and move to remote,” Montevirgen said, referring to the color coated reopening tiers for the state.

With these plans of reengagement showing much promise, Montevirgen explained that campuses are planned to be classified as yellow tier for the Fall semester of 2021. This means that campuses will be reopened for in-person instruction with up to 50 percent capacity and possible modifications and another 50% to be conducted online remotely.

But these advancements toward more “in-person classes” raised some questions and concerns.

Academic Senate member and psychology professor Ann Hennessey voiced her concerns over the disinfection processes for classrooms and the overall campus.

“In our building, we did our own cleaning because the people that were employed to clean didn’t really clean very often or very thoroughly,” Hennessey said. “My big concern is, given people already employed weren’t cleaning as sufficiently, what’s the plan? I’m just concerned about safety relating to cleaning.”

Proper sanitization would be one of the most important factors in reopening the Pierce College campus, which Montevirgen said the Senate would be prioritized with the newly introduced cleaning procedures.

BY ARIEL GIL

An overgrown baseball field fades in the spring sun at the same time as a petition to #letthekidsplay grows in signatures.

Third baseman Dirk Ryan has created a petition to help kick start the LA Counties baseball season and plans on gaining the attention of the district and Western State Conference.

“The whole district opted out of the season because of COVID,” Ryan said. “I saw a lot of my buddies from different counties starting to play. I just thought that it was kind of unfair that we haven’t gotten a chance to go and practice with our teams while they’ve been practicing all fall and all spring.”

The petition created currently has 98 signatures as of April 21, two away from reaching the goal.

Bringing this issue to light opens another window of opportunity for the players. Opportunities that have been potentially put on pause for them.

“Mission College, Valley College, Harbor, COC, pretty much everyone in LA County didn’t get to play,” Ryan said. “All of us want to play and this is one of our last chances to go to a fouryear or go play professionally. It was more just to help everyone out and give them a shot at least.”

Head baseball coach, Bill Picketts has a plan for his players in regards to getting them back in the spotlight.

“My goal right now for my student athletes that have been here a couple years, to get them out of here next year,” Picketts said. “Hopefully I can get them to play all summer, they can get some video out there and get some recognition from colleges.”

Since their season has been stripped away from the players, they have lost out on many potential career and educational opportunities.

“For me I had a few coaches that wanted to come watch me play but I didn’t have a season to do so,” Ryan said. “I had the opportunity to go to a four-year and I couldn’t show them what I had because our season got canceled.”

Pitcher Donovan Waitman had a potential offer for a division two school that had been put on pause due to the pandemic.

“I actually had an offer to Cal State LA before the pandemic,” Waitman said. “I really only came to Pierce to play this past season and hopefully go to a next college but because of the pandemic I wasn’t able to finish out my year and get exposure for the next college.”

Infielder Garrison Pregulman misses the connection shared with his teammates in a physical setting.

“We couldn’t do what we love and do what we came to Pierce for,” Pregulman said. “We couldn’t practice, connect, see each other, do anything besides Zoom.”

Picketts commends the team on their sense of sportsman ship and passion for getting back into

“They have stuck by me and stuck with each other and they’ve all taken this in stride,” Picketts said. “I think this petition and their frustration has gotten to that point where they have to do something to make themselves feel as if they did everything they could to get back on the field.”

With word being spread of potentially returning back to campus, this includes classes and sports programs.

Interim athletic director Susan Armenta is focused on maintaining safety while also trying to maintain the happiness of Pierce College students and players.

“I’m really excited that we can provide this opportunity to be on campus and show other departments that we can do this safely and hopefully effectively,” Armenta said. “Hopefully we can start moving towards all departments and all programs coming back on campus throughout this summer and fall.”

Picketts has a goal to get his players out and seen. He sees his players as his family.

“We’re here to get them to that next level,” Picketts said. “It sounds like such a cliche but they’re almost like your kids.”

“Know that there has been a district wide evaluation and discussions about the cleanliness of the campuses and know that the chief facilities, executive level at the district office, that some of these things have already been reported to the board,” Montevirgen said.

Senate members shared thoughts on how to implement the re-engagement plan.

Psychology professor Chad Snow presented his idea on some specific matters regarding contingencies for negative scenarios.

“One thing that my department might do is to have a backup plan privately if we are to return to campus 100%, because something wonderful happens and we’re able to go back,” Snow said. “We have to do what we have to do, but there’s always the ability to have a backup plan that’s not in place in any sort of official way.”

Montevirgen also explained the different plans and strategies of the re-engagement on campus and went into depth about the several aspects behind expanding the in-person classes.

“We will be going into each of the rooms and actually assessing what the room capacities are, because what we’ve often realized is that 50% of the room capacity--if the six feet social distancing is still a necessary requirement--would actually not necessarily work,” Montevirgen said. “What we say today may just change tomorrow. We’re going to need to be nimble enough to adapt accordingly.”