Some sports return at Lane — while learning is still left to the side

Updated at 7:28pm on 1/8/21.

On Chicago Public School’s (CPS) third day without learning, some Lane sports went back to normal with official practices. But other sports are still caught in limbo — with uncertainty clouding their future competitions.

This comes after Chicago Public League Athletics announced on Twitter last night that certain high schools may resume sports Friday, Jan. 7 if there are enough staff to run events.

Basketball

The Girls Basketball team had an official practice today in one of Lane’s gyms. Caroline Meyers, a player on the team, said the entire team showed up and practiced with two coaches — Megan Molloy, who is not a teacher, and another coach, who is a Lane teacher that told the team that he has been coming into school since the work stoppage.

Meyers said Molloy contacted the team last night through email and Google Classroom to tell them about their practice.

“She was able to email us last night to tell us that we had practice today. And then we also have a Google Classroom that she runs,” Meyers said. “And so she’s had access to be able to post on that too.”

Molloy has the players’ best interest in mind as the team looks to more practices in the future despite the ongoing work stoppage.

“Now that we can practice I am not worried that team will be behind; but my fingers are crossed that an agreement can be reached soon between the CTU [Chicago Teachers Union] and CPS so that they [the players] don’t fall behind in school,” Molloy said.

The Boys Basketball team, however, did not have practice today. Instead, they had a team workout in one of Lane’s gyms coached by a freshman coach, Kamil Chmielewski, and a JV coach, Michael Cole who are both non-CPS teachers, according to player Shaheed Solebo.

The team was contacted by Coach Matt Villanueva, a non-CPS teacher, about the practice over Google Classroom.

“Our Payton game has been postponed, and we don’t know when is our Farragut game — that we were supposed to play today [but] has also been postponed,” Solebo said. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen next week, but our nonconference games are not mandatory so I don’t know if they’ll postpone all of our nonconference games. But our conference games, we have to play. So I know all of those games eventually get postponed if we don’t play them.”

Bowling

City finals for the Boys Bowling team were supposed to be on Wednesday, Jan. 5 but were cancelled and have not been rescheduled.

Daniel Esguerra of the boys team said the bowling team hasn’t had any practices during the work stoppage because practices are held at Waveland Bowl and are funded by Lane.

However, he’s had a couple of practices on his own since the work stoppage.

“I have individual practices normally in times where we don’t have practice, but having the option to have practice funded by the school definitely provides a lot more to the team and myself as well,” Esguerra said.

His coach, Justin Perez, is not a CPS teacher, and he’s had contact with him over the work stoppage. David Ruge, a non-CPS teacher, coaches the girls team and has been in communication with them, according to Arielle Gearring of the girls team.

Gearring said the team is planning practice for Sunday if most of the team agrees to it, but the team feels very optimistic.

“We’re very fortunate that we have the resources to be competitive that many other CPS schools don’t,” Gearring said over direct message. “A consistent place to practice when this lockdown ends, constant communication with our coaches.”

Boys Swimming & Diving

The Boys Swimming and Diving team had a practice today, according to swimmer Max Todorovic. Todorovic has not been in contact with Coach Mathew O’Hagan who is also a Lane teacher but another swimmer on the team has.

That swimmer notified the team of their practice today, according to Todorovic.

Competitive Cheerleading

The cheer team had practice today, but cheerleader Tessa Mitchell couldn’t go because she is still awaiting a COVID test that she took on Tuesday at Lane.

“Since we didn’t have school for a while, a lot of people in school that aren’t usually tested got tested, so I think that testing got super backed up,” Mitchell said. “So everybody who is waiting for a test result was not allowed to go to practice. So I happened to be one of those individuals who was not able to go to practice because of how backed up the testing is right now.”

Mitchell said that she usually receives her test results by Thursday, but she still hasn’t received any.

“This has never happened before. It’s usually very quick and easy,” Mitchell said. “Unfortunately, a lot of our team has gotten sick. So it’s been hard to practice.”

More worrisome, the team has a competition on Sunday.

“We’ve missed a full week’s worth of practice already,” Mitchell said. “We’re supposed to have a practice every single day this week and it’s just not happening. And it’s a huge bummer.”

The team received communication through their assistant coach who is not a CPS teacher. She’s been able to communicate with the team where the official coach, Nicole Vale cannot because she is a CPS teacher.

Competitive Dance

The dance team is mainly captain run for halftime performances during the football and basketball season; however, they are now entering competition season.

“Having our coach at practice is a necessity right now during our competition season as the captains don’t lead or choreograph those routines,” said Angela Diaz, one of Lane’s dance captains, over direct message.

The dance team’s coach, Natalie Mahler, is not a CPS staff member, so the team has been in communication with her.

All of the team’s practices this week have been cancelled, and if they cannot practice this week, they will have to pull out of some of their competitions.

“We aren’t allowed to practice if the building isn’t open, but I believe, word right now is that if we are remote, then we will potentially go back to practicing,” said Diaz. “Falling behind is a worry especially because rescheduling our competitions isn’t possible as we compete against private and suburban schools that are still in session and have been in session since early August, but we know the state of severity we are currently in.”

“The health of the Lane community is far more important to us than immediately returning to our season,” Diaz said.

Wrestling

According to girls wrestler Noemi Marchan, the team had a competition today against DePaul College Prep and Phoenix Academy.

Because wrestling practice is not at Lane, the work stoppage looks different for the wrestling team than it does for the other sports teams.

“We wrestle at a place called Beat The Streets Chicago [BTS] and they basically provide us with additional mat time and competitions outside our school,” Marchan said over direct message. “Without them then a lot of us wouldn’t be wrestling off-season or on breaks.”

Coach Matthew Yan does not have to be at all practices because the wrestling team uses BTS.

“He comes to BTS sometimes to shadow us — the BTS coaches run the practice but he sometimes comes and provides additional help,” Marchan said.

Off the fields

While a decent percent of Lane winter athletes are or will soon be eligible to return to play, Lane’s student body awaits a return to normal school.

Lane offered optional activities on Friday to give students a chance to socialize and get back into the building. The school was expecting up to hundreds of students according to Lane Principal Edwina Thompson, but she did not respond to an email request regarding the number of students who actually showed up.

Lane plans on offering the same activities next week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, contingent on district plans.

“If in-person instruction is reinstated or remote instruction implemented, ‘winter enrichment activities’ will be cancelled,” an email to the Lane community said this morning.

A form was sent for students to sign up for Monday activities. In an email sent to the Lane community, Principal Thompson said, “at this time, classes have been canceled for Monday, January 10, 2022; if that changes, we will notify families via email.”

Numbers obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago this afternoon show Lane has the second-highest vaccination rate among students in the district at 83.18%, .01% behind the city leader, Northside. Lane lags behind much of the city in percent enrolled in testing, at 15.41%, according to the data.

Alex Burstein contributed reporting.