For some senior athletes, patience paid off

At the beginning of the school year, a lot of high school seniors weren’t going to have a season in their last year of high school. They were patiently waiting to see if they would be allowed to play this year.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, schools have had to cancel some high school sports. For a lot of fall student-athletes, they were able to have a high school season their senior year of high school as long as the covid cases stay where they are, or keep going down. 

California is starting to reopen some sports back up, which will give some seniors the ability to play this year. Yet even when it looked like some seniors wouldn’t have a season doesn’t mean that they just stopped working out and staying active just to stay prepared.

Callum Armstrong, Emma Svoboda, and Kyler Raymond are three senior student-athletes who each represent different sports at La Quinta High School that have now restarted their seasons.

Armstrong is a fourth-year football player, while Raymond has run for the track and field team for three years. Lastly, Svoboda is a fourth-year basketball player.

“I work out, play basketball, and do other extracurricular activities to stay active and in shape,” said Raymond. 

“If we have no season, my plans stay the same,” said Raymond, “just keep working out and continuing that until I go off to college.” He is hoping to attend the University of Kansas in the fall.

Raymond has a positive outlook: even if he didn’t have the opportunity to have a normal season, it wouldn’t hit him too hard. “I have my whole life ahead of me,” he said.

Raymond plans to play three games to “get as much film,” or video highlight reels, so he can send them out to colleges to demonstrate his skills and technique. 

Callum, who just ended football season last Friday, said they had cohorts with a maximum of 10 people in a group— is all socially distanced during practice. 

Transitioning from high school to college basketball will, no doubt, be an interesting experience.

“I chose Oklahoma ultimately for their coaching staff,” said Svoboda. “It was just an environment I knew I wanted to be surrounded by.” The coaches are going to push me to be the best athlete and student.” 

As much as Svoboda admits she will miss her teammates and coaches, she’s excited to play at the next level.

“Over the years, I will say the competition out here in the desert has gotten a lot better out here,” she said, “but it is nothing like college basketball is going to be.”

Ramond and Callum both hope to attend the University of Kansas, while Svoboda will attend the University of Oklahoma.