The Life of a Student Athlete: New normal a great place to be

By LYDIA PLAHN/For The Herald — Often I spend my time writing this column about the abnormalities that have come with this year’s sports seasons. Topics such as masks, no fans and odd schedules are topics that I try to inform people about. While these things may seem small to most readers, they are rather large when looking through the scope of high school athletics.

Most everyone could tell you an abnormality about the last 16 months of their lives. So, in my column, I decided to write about something that just felt very normal.

Last night the Lowell basketball teams had a home game against Oakridge. There were fans there. Yes, actual fans, people who came to watch just for something to do on a Friday night. Many fans for both teams filled the gym with the largest crowd it has seen for a basketball game this season. The fans cheered.

Two games were played in a row last night: boys, then girls. It was a pretty close game for the girls, not so much for the boys. Any other year I would say that this event seemed like a normal Friday night basketball competition. But this year this night was something that felt out of the ordinary: It felt normal. An accumulation of all these things made this basketball game feel like it could be happening any other year and not in the pandemic year we have been living in.

While it is impossible to ignore some changes, like most of the players and audience wearing masks and having to write down your name on a list for contact tracing, having a game like this felt like a glimpse into the “new normal” we are all hoping to achieve sometime soon. And this new normal felt like a great place to be.

Lydia Plahn, a sophomore at Lowell High School, writes about her experiences while participating as a member of the volleyball, softball and basketball teams.