When many students think of winter break, they think of the time where they finally get to relax after a hectic semester. For student-athletes, it is a different story. Winter break means motivating themselves to stay active and ready for their upcoming seasons, but what does winter break mean in the time of a global pandemic?

For many student-athletes, there is still a large amount of uncertainty and with the spike in COVID-19 cases, there is a lot left up in the air. 

Hamline athletes hope to return mid-January for in-person practices. In the meantime, there will have to be some kind of individual programs in hopes to keep athletes on track for their eventual return. 

Back in March when everyone was sent home, Assistant Athletic Director and Strength and Conditioning Coach Chris Hartman designed many at-home workout programs for student-athletes to follow. These workouts were posted on the Hamline athletics website and Hartman has confirmed that he will be resupplying something similar to athletes for a break. 

“Collectively as a team there is an understanding that we need to be ready for a season so we’re all ready to put in our own work over our time off,” said Franklin Schreurs, a sophomore on the men’s basketball team. “We’re really getting in the groove of things so it’s not ideal that the long time off is coming up.”

When asked about being ready for a return to regularly scheduled practices after the time off, junior Avery Nelson of the baseball team said, “I know I’ll be ready for our season if we get one because I know what it takes, but I’m a little worried for the freshman who hasn’t experienced college athletics yet but hopefully everyone has some kind of plan to stay in shape.”

However, these plans vary due to the unpredictability of the upcoming athletic seasons. Students are unsure when they will be able to start playing again.

“It’s tricky because we normally start our indoor season in January and this year we don’t know when or even if we’ll have a season, so it’s hard to stay ready mentally because who knows if we’ll all of the sudden have a meet,” said sophomore Ellie Biggins of the Track and Field team. 

Many teams are giving their athletes workout plans, some of which include equipment, to try and retain the strength. 

“My coach said that he would send us workouts mainly lifting ones, but it’s hard to do with no gym access. I don’t have a gym membership and lots of gyms are closed still so it’s going to be hard to accomplish them,” Biggins said.

Most of Hamline’s student-athletes are not worried about the time off. There is still a sense of hope for the spring in terms of participating in some kind of an athletic season. However, like most things right now, there is no definite answer.