They are not running from coronavirus. The Newtown High School Girls’ and Boys’ Track and Field team members are running despite it.

They run, though, alone — or maybe with a family member — following schedules devised by their coaches to keep them fit and engaged, even as the hopes of normal spring competition become ever dimmer glimmers on the horizon.

Members of both the girls’ and boys’ team are following social distancing directives, running solo in neighborhoods or unpopulated areas, said Boys' Assistant Coach Kevin Hoyt, as all fields are closed.

The coaches and team members, he said, just started April 6 with Google Classroom, “trying to figure it out; the best way to run ‘practices.’”

“A lot is not just for hopes of there being a spring season,” noted Boys’ Head Coach Becky Osborne. “It is to keep kids active in these trying, worrying times.” The coaches, she said, want the students to “feel a sense of community, even though they may feel alone.”

The coaches hope to do a few video chats as the days go on, said Osborne on April 9. “We want to try to keep kids engaged, giving them something to look forward to,” she said.

When students signed up for Track and Field, they provided coaches with e-mail addresses, said Hoyt, which has made it easier to now connect with the team members. The individual coaches have set up their own sections for sprinters, throwers, jumpers, and so on, Hoyt said, so team members can go to those sections for specific workouts.

He agreed with Osborne that the schedules are a means of getting the students outdoors and moving, “as best we can. We have a pretty good group that will follow the training program.” Coaches hope to be able to provide suggested workouts until the last week of school — whenever that may be. On April 9, Governor Ned Lamont announced that Connecticut schools would remain closed at least through May 20.

Hoyt hopes that team members will contact their coaches directly if they have any questions or concerns.

“We are still holding on to the hope that we’ll get something,” said Osborne, even if it is only an interteam track meet to give the seniors one last time to compete.

“I feel awful for our seniors,” she said. “This is not how I wanted it to end for them.”

For the sophomore and junior Track and Field team members, this spring was also anticipated as a big season.

“This is the year you get looked at by colleges,” Osborne noted, adding that colleges, of course, understand that this spring is different. “But it is particularly tough for [the sophomores and juniors],” she said.

Girls’ Track And Field

It is not a lot different for the Girls’ team, said Head Coach Becky Knapp, as about 56 girls take part in the Google Classroom schedules, too.

That number is about half of what she had anticipated signing up for the spring season, “but I’m happy with it,” she said.

When school first closed, “there were a couple of weeks we didn’t know if we could even coach,” Knapp said. So she encouraged team members to use social media to stay linked, through fun little things, like sharing pictures of what they were up to each day.

Like the boys’ team, the Girls’ Track and Field Team has indivdualized workouts for the different skill sets. They are also taking part in virtual track meets, in which the members post personal times. Though relying on “a little bit of honesty,” the coach does not worry about that. The virtual track meets are, she said, inspirational. The week of April 13, 20 of the team members had taken part in a virtual track meet, and Knapp hopes more will take part in upcoming days.

Coach Knapp also is issuing a team challenge each week. This past week, she challenged the girls to decorate their driveways like a Newtown High School Track and Field pep rally. “It’s a way to show that we’re still a team, even though we’re training on our own,” she said.

The news last week from Governor Ned Lamont that schools would remain closed at least until May 20 was a bit disheartening, Knapp said. The team members were “definitely bummed, especially our seniors. It’s tough for them.”

Nonetheless, they are trying to stay positive, and social media has been a boon for most of the girls, Knapp added.

Her biggest fear is that even if school reopens and the teams are allowed on the fields, “How many can be around each other then? Our numbers don’t help that [if a limit remains of 50 or less to gather].” To compete with other schools’ teams might be impossible in that scenario, she contemplated, “because we have hundreds of kids [on the fields during a competition].”

The coaches hope that Google Classroom and connecting through social media continues to bring the positive to both the Boys’ and the Girls’ Track and Field team members.

The paths the student athletes follow are forged individually now, but time and persistence will bring them all together again, sometime.

“We’re still in it,” said Knapp. “We’re still doing it.”