While many teams haven’t gotten a chance to compete, softball is one of the few sports that may be able to practice and compete this spring. 

The DC State Athletic Association has recently announced that spring sports can begin their seasons April 1, paving the way for softball to start playing.

This will be the first time Wilson softball players will practice as a team since their season was cut short last year due to the pandemic. Preparation for the upcoming season would typically have started by now. “We normally start winter workouts after Thanksgiving,” varsity softball captain and pitcher Brooke McKalip said. “While we’re missing out on that, we are still going to get practice in before the season starts in the spring.”

The team plans to start practicing twice a week, doing outdoor training and conditioning. Coach David Thompson is even thinking of starting an intramural team.

“We are lucky to be a naturally social-distanced sport,” McKalip said. Being both outdoors and limited-contact, it’s less of a challenge to have a safe softball season than for sports like football and basketball, says McKalip. The team will host practices and games at Guy Mason in Glover Park.

“I feel really safe,” McKalip added. “I know the team is willing to follow the safety protocols.” Almost everyone on the team is returning, and practices will start at Guy Mason within the next few weeks. There will be tryouts held with no cuts coming soon.

Both the coach and the captain are taking in-person practices seriously, and they have been working hard to create appropriate safety procedures and guidelines. “We as a team didn’t think it was appropriate to have practices in an indoor facility,” McKalip noted. Other Wilson sports, including basketball and volleyball, were not allowed to practice or compete indoors this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The team is hoping to have a better and longer season this year. Coach Thompson has “been working on having a fulfilling season” and will know more about how many games they will play on March 4. If all goes well, the Tigers will play in the DCSAA Championships in early June.