Morristown High School's 10-day shutdown impacted multiple swim teams. Here's why.
This isn't how Donna Gelegonya expected to start her third decade at Morristown High School. The veteran physical education teacher and coach hoped the high school swimming season tarnished by COVID was in the past.
Morristown was scheduled to host regular dual meets, as well as invitationals — albeit without spectators.
But Gelegonya had to pivot yet again when Morristown High School was shut down at the end of the day on Nov. 11. The Morris School District reported 21 cases of coronavirus, with 71 more pending.
The Colonials had a 6 a.m. practice on Nov. 11, but nothing in the afternoon. All extracurricular activities were canceled while classes were being held virtually.
Classes at Morristown High School resumed Nov. 22, so tryouts for basketball and wrestling began on schedule. Swimming and ice hockey practice were also allowed to resume, "right back to the swing of things," according to Colonials athletic director Smitty Horton.
However, Morristown — and the four teams which rent pool time there — had lost seven potential practice days.
Every athlete must complete six practices prior to NJSIAA competition.
During the pool shutdown, the off-site swim teams — Mendham, Park Regional, Parsippany and Parsippany Hills — were able to get together for dryland strength and flexibility training. However, Morristown students were supposed to remain apart to limit COVID transmission.
Gelegonya organized one virtual dryland session during the shutdown, "but even getting that together was difficult." Morristown also had to cancel a Nov. 23 scrimmage at Bayonne and wasn't planning to host its usual preseason time trials.
"No, you can't practice. No, you can't do anything," Gelegonya said. "I don't know what other people did over Thanksgiving. But as far as us, with practices, they didn't want anybody in the building. They wanted to do deep cleaning and keep everybody as safe as possible."
Cleaning vs. COVID
On paper, swimming is perhaps the safest indoor high school sport. The chlorine and other chemicals used to keep the water clean have been shown to kill the novel coronavirus. Most are similar to what's in the cleaning products on supermarket shelves.
Morristown has continued to schedule a 30-minute window between practice sessions and meets in order to permit the custodial staff to sanitize the pool deck.
Since use of the pool locker rooms has been banned, Morristown High School has eliminated swimming from its physical education requirements. Horton said visiting teams — including those who rent pool time and consider Morristown home — are "encouraged" to show up "ready to swim," putting on suits under sweaters before boarding the bus.
Girls preview: 2021 Morris/Sussex girls swimming team-by-team capsules
Boys preview: 2021 Morris/Sussex boys swimming team-by-team capsules
Regular dual meets are back today, rather than the virtual meets — where teams competed separately, sometimes at different sites — that became common last winter. The Morris County Championships will also be back at Morristown on Jan. 22.
Morristown confirmed an additional 23 COVID cases in the past week, according to the county website.
The New Jersey Department of Health's dashboard on COVID in schools has not been updated since before Thanksgiving. As of Nov. 21, there have been 881 COVID cases among K-12 students and 240 in school staff in Morris County. About 87 percent of staff is vaccinated.
Not all the Colonials swimmers will have completed their required practices when the team opens the season against Delbarton and Villa Walsh today at Morristown-Beard. Parsippany Hills was scheduled to swim Mendham, but that meet has been postponed to ensure all of both teams' swimmers have enough practices to be eligible.
Parsippany and Park Regional will open Dec. 3 at Morristown, both teams' home pool.
However, the Vikings and Minutemen have opted for an additional full week of practice before swimming on Dec. 7. Mendham and Park Regional will compete at Morristown. Parsippany Hills will visit Madison at the Madison Area Y.
"We get some practice time in, which is really what we need at this point," said veteran Parsippany Hills coach Bill Soden, who has only a few year-round swimmers.
"It's been choppy. You're in. You're out. Now we're going to get five days. ... Everybody who swims over there has suffered a bit, so other teams have a bit more preparation for the season. It's not a big difference, but you need consistency."
Jane Havsy is a storyteller for the Daily Record and DailyRecord.com, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. For full access to live scores, breaking news and analysis, subscribe today.
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This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Morristown High School shutdown impacting several NJ swimming teams
