MCVB 2020 Off To a Different Start

 MCVB 2020 certainly looks a little different.  For starters, we zoom now, and have zoomed all summer about many topics, including the far too many social injustices, the many huge peaceful protests across the country and the reactions to them, the Corona virus and the varied responses to it, Black Lives Matter, and what MIDD life might look like this year, as well as what decision would be made about our season--to compete or not to compete?  We celebrated our seniors last Spring through a zoom celebration after everyone was forced to leave campus at a moment's notice, but we have come through the summer and have arrived back on campus, mostly together! We are missing two of our family members, Addie and Jane, who opted to have a different, remote experience this Fall, and we'll update you all on their experiences later, but we're trying to keep in touch with them to keep our MCVB family together.

Middlebury's plan was comprehensive, starting with a quarantine protocol before coming back, in addition to a totally new set up rules once back on campus.  Here's our President greeting students as they entered the Day 0 Testing upon arrival at MIDD. They had to unpack and move in alone--no parents were allowed in any dorms, and then they had to stay in their rooms until this first test came back negative, which was typically 24-36 hours.  After the first negative test, they could roam about campus (but not allowed off campus) and had to be retested on Day 7--all before classes or practices could start. By doing this, we figured we could create a sort of bubble and keep everyone as safe as possible from this horrible virus.  Here are a sampling of room selfies taken that first day when they all moved in:

That first week the students had to figure out how to navigate campus and re-connect with friends, all while staying 6' apart and through masks at all times, even outside.  Group sizes were limited to 10, dining services were to go only, tents were set up all over campus to allow spaces to gather physically distant from each other in case of bad weather.  Being confined to campus with limited group sizes created a plethora of small group gatherings as well as a lot of walking around campus out to the Knoll to enjoy sunsets, or out on the many open areas to enjoy the sunshine or exercise, as well as trying to catch up with friends and teammates.  Our hard work and diligence on the part of the students who are following these rules has paid off with only 2 students testing positive so far, which is extremely low for any campus!

 

 

 

 

There were several logistic glitches getting everyone back on campus, tested, quarantined, and getting access to the dining halls all while staying 6' apart and wearing masks everywhere inside and out.  None were all that big, especially given the huge change we were all undertaking.  One of those glitches, however, was delivering food to those in the third and last arrival group who's test results were taking longer than expected, and thus the food bag they were given on arrival wasn't sufficient.  The Fall athletes, who were in the 2nd group to arrive, were called upon to help deliver food to those stuck in room quarantine until those Day 0 tests came back negative, so here are some of our upperclassmen helping to deliver those meals!  Nice work--especially Ali who was helping out even with her boot and crutch!

The final NESCAC mandate came out shortly before we got started canceling any hope we may have had about possibly competing once in Phase 3.  This was pretty much expected, so in some ways it was just good to know what we were faced with, as a few Conference teams had already cancelled entire seasons.  Given the restrictions we were already planning around, being able to even play 6v6 against ourselves seemed unlikely, so we began planning practices around keeping people physically apart, and were finally given the approval to share a ball.  That was the one rule that had me most troubled because it's really hard to do much of anything in volleyball without another person and being able to share a ball.

 

We have now started practice and are hoping to move into Phase 2 later this week, so I'll update again soon to show what fun we're having playing outside on our grass courts!  This group of resilient, strong, energetic and fun-loving young women is a joy to work with!  They are taking this virus seriously and gently reminding each other about following the protocols to help keep us all safe.  We are happy to be back on campus together, and they realize the only way to keep us all on campus together is to follow the rules and do our best to help each other stay safe.  Despite all of the challenges right now, we are enjoying being together and they are an inspiration to me as they make the best of this current situation, working together to make this a meaningful and rewarding experience for all of us!