Nederland coach, superintendent talk impact of COVID on volleyball

Published 12:27 am Thursday, August 26, 2021

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Nederland elected to cancel an upcoming tournament appearance after two players tested positive for COVID-19.

The volleyball team was scheduled to participate in the Dayton tournament Thursday-Saturday. The Bulldogs beat West Brook 3-0 Tuesday to improve their record to 15-3 on the season.

Head Coach Allie Crommett said the rest of the team is getting tested.

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“We haven’t been in contact with them since Saturday afternoon,” she said. “They were the only ones, who felt they have symptoms. I talked to them on Sunday and they haven’t been up here since then.”

Crommett said the team opted out of the Dayton tournament to err on the side of caution.

“With the incubation period, it is hard to really tell,” she said. “For me, I can’t in good conscience bring my kids and have them around each other and that many teams with the off chance someone has it and hasn’t tested yet.”

Nederland Independent School District Superintendent Stuart Kieschnick said the district is taking coronavirus-related challenges on a day-by-day basis.

“There is no rhyme or reason as to how COVID numbers are going to go up or come down,” he said. “Basically, we are doing it like all school activities. When we see a hot spot pop up, we take action to address it.”

Kieschnick said, as of Wednesday, he does not have any plans to issue a mask mandate, but said the district is urging faculty and students to wear one.

“At this point in time, we are still highly recommending that everyone still wear a mask,” he said. “We have no plans to at this time, but it is still a day-to-day basis. We want you to wear a mask, but if you choose not to, we understand.”

Crommett said her team is scheduled to return to the court Tuesday against Kelly Catholic High School at the Dog Dome.

“I have been really pleased with them up to this point,” she said. “I feel like our first week of play, even up to the Huffman tournament, we weren’t really doing a good job of playing low-error volleyball. We were missing a lot of serves and a lot of silly hitting mistakes.”

Crommett said her team has since played with skill and discipline.

“We made some changes and focused on doing a better job of finding where to put the ball away,” she said. “That has been huge, along with not missing double-digit serves.”