By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — Lowell High School sophomore Lydia Plahn, a three-sport athlete whose favorite subjects are math and English, has become The Herald’s first student correspondent.
Beginning today, The Herald will publish her regularly appearing column called “The Life of a Student Athlete,” in which she describes her high school experiences while participating as a member of Lowell’s varsity teams. Her editor is Dean Rea, the retired newspaper journalist and university professor who covers the Lowell and Pleasant Hill communities for The Herald.
Plahn, 15, of Fall Creek, plays the flute in her school band, and she is a standout player on her school’s volleyball, basketball and softball teams.
“I have always loved school and learning about new things,” says Plahn. “My goals are to get into and attend a good college. I am very excited to be volunteering with The Herald and helping my community.”
The Herald continues to look for student correspondents to cover school and community news at Oakridge and Pleasant Hill. Anyone interested should do what Lydia Plahn did: Write to us at [email protected] and tell us about yourself and your interest in community journalism.
The following is Plahn’s first column for The Herald.
The Life of a Student Athlete:
The OSAA mask mandate’s effect on high school sports
By LYDIA PLAHN/The Herald — The pandemic has changed many aspects of the 2021 high school sports seasons. In addition to limited spectators and shortened seasons, all players are required by the Oregon School Activities Association to wear masks while participating in any athletic event or practice.
One of the biggest differences I have noticed while playing volleyball and other sports with a mask on is that it simply makes it harder to breathe. This difficulty is even more severe for people with respiratory problems like asthma.
From my personal experience, the hardest part is trying to take deep breaths when exercising intensely.
When I asked about the effects of masks he has seen, Pat Todd, the Lowell High School football coach and health teacher, said, “The lack of oxygen has led to several of my players feeling light-headed or feeling like vomiting.”
I reached out to my volleyball coach, Kristen Prenevost, to get another coach’s perspective. She said, “Masks create new challenges that we’ve never dealt with before. . . . It’s hard to read emotion when faces are covered. Sometimes a player or coach has to raise their voice to be heard, and when you can’t see facial expressions, it can come across as mad or frustrated when that wasn’t the intention.”
I did not consider how masks alter how a team performs beyond just breathing. How often do coaches or teammates try to read their teammates’ faces for their mental state, emotions after a tough play or energy levels? When I heard my coach explain how masks make it harder to read people, her words opened up a whole new perspective on how masks change a team dynamic.
While masks may affect our performance, we have no other choice but to wear them if we wish to continue playing sports.
Lydia Plahn, a sophomore at Lowell High School, writes about her experiences while participating as a member of the volleyball, softball and basketball teams.
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