WINTHROP — When the Winthrop girls basketball team lost to Amesbury on March 3, the Vikings officially closed out their winter season and started to look ahead to spring. Little did they know that two weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic would shut down sports at the school for the next nine months.
This week, Winthrop High boys basketball, girls basketball, boys hockey, girls hockey, gymnastics and swimming and diving were all officially allowed to return to play — the first Vikings teams to practice since March. Due to the town being in the “red” COVID-19 designation during much of the fall season, MIAA rules forced Winthrop to push all of its fall sports to the new “Fall Sports II” season that begins in late February. Those MIAA rules softened a bit for the winter season, allowing “red” districts to play sports if their respective school committees and health departments were also on board. So while Winthrop is still “red,” the decision to proceed with winter sports was made by all parties involved.
“We’re very fortunate that we live in such a close-knit community and we were able to work so closely with the Health Department and the school committee to come to a decision,” said Winthrop Athletic Director Matt Serino. “We’ve been in constant communication with the Health Department while we put together a plan to return to sports safely, and we’re very excited that we were all able to come to an agreement.
“I’d like to thank (Winthrop Public Health Director) Meredith Hurley, (Winthrop Superintendent) Lisa Howard, (Winthrop High Principal) Matt Crombie and everyone else involved in helping us come to this decision,” said Serino.
Winter sports teams got back out on the courts and the ice starting Monday, and the excitement around the school has been palpable.
For Serino and coaches like girls hockey coach Anthony Martucci and girls basketball coach Joe Lowe, the level of enthusiasm they’ve seen from their teams in just the first week of practice has been unlike any other year.
“It’s been so awesome to see the kids’ excitement every day when they show up for practice,” said Serino. “You can really tell that everyone appreciates the fact that they are able to come back and play, and you know that they all want to take advantage of the opportunity.”
“It’s been very exciting,” said Lowe, who is set to start his second year as head coach for the girls basketball team. “We know that we have a lot of eyes on us being the first teams to come back to play, so we just want to make sure we’re doing our best to follow all the protocols and play this season in the safest way possible.”
“The girls have been beyond excited to get started again,” said Martucci. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so happy to run through skating drills. To think that we were one of the last teams to play and now we’re back, it’s like being on a long vacation. It’s nice to be away for a bit, but eventually you just want to get back.”
Both coaches are hopeful that they are setting the stage for what could be a return to in-person learning for Winthrop in the future.
“The biggest thing in my opinion is that getting us back to playing will hopefully open up an avenue for us to get the kids back in school,” said Lowe, who is also a teacher at the school. “This is a special group of kids and we have a special community, and I know that everyone wants to do everything they can to get the kids back in school.”
“Coming in to practice is really just giving the kids something to look forward to every day, and that’s great,” said Martucci. “After missing so much time on the ice and at school, I think they’re all just excited to start coming back to the building each day.”
Winthrop teams will practice for the next few weeks before starting to play games in early January.
