STUDENT: Lauren Sciabbarrasi
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PROJECT ADVISOR: James Hart
ABSTRACT
The purpose of my photo story project was to “Capture COVID.” As a member of the Penn State Scranton softball team, I chose to tell the story of our team during an unconventional 2020 season. Through a series of six images, I captured the feelings, emotions, challenges, and perseverance of the players and coaches during the 2020 skills development program. Each photo is accompanied by a brief description, and I crafted an intro text to “set the scene” and paint a contract between previous seasons and our “new normal.”
Capturing COVID: Penn State Scranton Softball
It is 4 p.m. on a crisp, yet warm, fall afternoon. For most Penn State Scranton softball players, this is the start of a great practice. The girls drive to the field and, if they arrive early, talk amongst themselves or jam to some music. Then, all 15 girls make their way to the dugout, where playful banter fills the space. No one worries about where they sit, who they interact with, or how. Practice begins, and the team runs in a herd around the warning track. Then, it is full of sharing equipment, exchanging high fives, and practicing team drills. This account, from senior second-baseman Lauren Sciabbarrasi’s 2019 season, seems “like a distant memory.”
Now it is 2020. The girls drive to the field and must remain in their cars until Head Coach, Mar Tsakonas, arrives. One by one, the girls put on masks and approach Coach Mar for their temperature and symptom check. The girls are not permitted to enter the dugout until they are cleared. There is a maximum of eight girls per practice, based on the day of the week. Upon entering the dugout, each girl claims a spot six feet apart from her teammates. The girls run around the warning track, panting under their masks, in a single file line. This year, there is no sharing equipment, exchanging high fives, or practicing team drills. This is the new reality of all Penn State Scranton softball players in the wake of COVID-19.
While this is not the season many of the girls envisioned, starting catcher, Katherine Lahey, notes that she is “happy we get to have a season at all,” after the team’s Spring 2020 season was canceled. The girls have not seen one another as a team since fall practices in 2019. Some former teammates graduated and some transferred to other campuses in the interim. Starting second-baseman, Lauren Sciabbarrasi, noted that she feels “very fortunate” to get to play, but that “something is missing.” She continued, “I know we are a team, but only ever seeing eight of fifteen teammates is difficult.” Many of the girls described the difficulties of trying to bond with teammates that they never get to see.
For both the players and coaches alike, the structure of practice feels new and slightly dysfunctional. While practice starts at 4 p.m., temperature and symptom checks take up 10 minutes of practice time. If a player has a temperature over 99.7 degrees Fahrenheit, she must sit for two minutes and get retested. If her temperature remains over 99.7 degrees, she must go home and miss practice that day. When practice does start, Coach Mar must pause between each activity and individually sanitize each softball. While she has three buckets in rotation, the sanitization process is very tedious. Giving and receiving instruction is a new challenge. The combination of six feet of separation, a mask, and the wind muddles communication. Starting pitcher, Emily Scarfo, mentioned that “while she understands the necessity of wearing a mask, they make everything much harder.”
While COVID-19 largely changed the climate of softball practices for the Penn State Scranton softball team, Coach Mar and the players are in good spirits. Starting first baseman, Brooke Kloss, mentioned that “even though things have to be different, we are all just happy to be out here doing what we love.” Watching the girls practice serves as an inspiration in such troubling times. They were able to move beyond the restrictions that COVID-19 placed on their sport and continue to develop as individuals and as a team. Coach Mar said that she is “very proud of her girls and knows that the Spring 2021 season will be one for the books.”
References
- Brooke Kloss (first baseman) in discussion with the author, October 2020
- Emily Scarfo (pitcher) in discussion with the author, October 2020
- Katherine Lahey (catcher) in discussion with the author, October 2020
- Lauren Sciabbarrasi (second baseman) in discussion with the author, October 2020
- Mar Tsakonas (head coach) in discussion with the author, October 2020
