In a typical November, athletes and coaches begin to prepare and scout out for playoff competition. But this year is far from typical. Initially, the question was would fall sports even happen? Now the idea of playoffs for these sports seems far fetched, but it may be possible. 

Boy’s soccer is preparing for a “Playoff Experience.” The plan is that the playoff would consist of a two to three round tournament in each division of six teams. The purpose of this is to limit the amount of teams seeing each other, in effort to control the virus.

Captain Surya Balaji ’21 has been a major piece of the team and is looking forward to this opportunity. 

“We’re just grateful for the opportunity to get to keep playing and we want to maximize every minute we get together,” Balaji said. “We’ve just been trying to live in the moment and focus on what we can control.”

Girls’ soccer is exploring a similar playoff structure. They would also have a short playoff with strictly their branch of the FCIAC. While nothing is confirmed, blueprint details suggested that the top two teams in the branch would have a first round bye. Nonetheless, they would only be playing against two to three teams maximum. 

Captain Charlotte Barnes ’21 views the playoff opportunity as optimistically as possible.  

“I’d feel a lot more upset if there were no playoffs at all,” Barnes said, “so I’m just grateful that we might get the chance to win at least something for my senior year.” 

Captain Gaby Gonzalez ’22 added onto Barnes’ words, highlighting the possibility of the playoffs being cancelled because of COVID-19. 

“If playoffs were canceled because of Corona, that would be a huge bummer because it is essentially what we have been playing for and waiting for all season,” Gonzalez said.  “It would be a huge loss but at the same time we would need to stay positive and be thankful we got any sort of season in.”

Like both soccer teams, the field hockey team is also taking a cautious approach to a playoff structure. The field hockey team has won four straight state titles, and they’re planning on also taking part in a limited playoff. They would play only the teams in their “pod,” again like the soccer teams. They also have an automatic semi final bid being that they are the only undefeated team in the pod. 

Chloe Chaple ’21 is looking forward to building onto the team’s dynasty once again this year. 

“We’re excited and hoping to get as many games in as possible,” Chaple said, “but we’re also really upset that we don’t have states this year because we wanted to win again.” 

Shifting to the gridiron, the seven on seven league, which the football team had been participating in, is currently not planning on scheduling any playoff games. The team also participates in a private, full contact, 11-on-11 league; however, it seems also very unlikely that there will be a playoff scheduled in that. 

A lot of players on the team have expressed disappointment with this outcome, one of them being senior captain Sam Milberg ’21. 

“If corona is the reason we don’t have playoffs it would be very disappointing,” Milberg said,” considering how much time we put in and how safe we have been.”