Over the past couple weeks, a new variant of the Coronavirus, dubbed Omicron, has been wreaking havoc throughout Tualatin. Although high school sports were shut down for the 10-day period when we were learning from home, many of the teams have made some outstanding achievements.

Basketball

The boys’ basketball teams began their season on Dec. 8. The varsity team has won all their games except for one. The boys’ team competed at the LSI tournament and got second place, where they lost to Link Academy, a top-10 team in the nation, during the championship game.

Although they happened to lose, the team is still proud of taking second place at the LSI tournament and becoming the highest ranked team in the state. This is no small feat, especially due to the fact that all levels of basketball at Tualatin were shut down for a month with no games or practices.

“It’s made it difficult to keep up with the other schools and teams that never got shut down. They have played more games and more practices with each other,” sophomore AJ Noland shared.

The girls’ basketball teams began their season on Dec. 4. Similar to the boys’ team, the girls’ team has faced a lack of practices and postponement of games.

While they have been facing an unfortunate situation, junior Quinn McMillen said, “It has pushed us to work harder as a team because we got shut down while the rest of Oregon continued to play.”

Cheer

The cheer team took home first and second place in back-to-back competitions after having only three days of practice and not being able to work on their routines.

 Senior Lacey Thurley shared their struggles. 

“A lot of the team got COVID,  so we lost valuable practice time for competition season. Other teams were able to practice their routines more than us, but we didn’t let that affect us because we were determined to show how hard we’ve worked at our competitions.”

COVID restrictions requiring masks during practice have also been a challenge.

“Although masks don’t restrict breathing, the team constantly feels the effects of heavy breathing due to the fact that we are now required to practice with masks on at all times,” sophomore Hunter Smith added.

Swim

The boys’ and girls’ varsity teams have faced many setbacks, including cancelled practices and postponed meets, just like the other Tualatin teams. The boys’ team has gone undefeated so far and the girls’ team has had a lot of best times.

Senior Noah Aicher shared, “Practices have been inconsistent for non-club swimmers, and our district championships are currently being relocated to our home pool.”

Like the dance team, the swimmers were challenged by losing several players to quarantine during the season.

“Our meets were postponed for the following weeks due to multiple COVID cases on the team,” sophomore Ella Plahn added.

Dance

The dance team started off their winter season on a good note after winning state for category champions in their fall season. However, the introduction of Omicron has caused some setbacks, such as state being relocated and practices having to take place online due to surging COVID cases. 

“Although we were behind schedule for state practices, we have been diligently working to recover the lost time,” sophomore Taylor Babicky said.

The team is coming up with creative solutions to help them prep for their remaining events.

“We have had long practices so we can learn the majority of our dances in a shorter amount of time,” sophomore Caitlin Cossa added.

Wrestling

Just like all winter sports at Tualatin, wrestling has had a lot of meets, tournaments and practices cancelled.

Senior Charlie Freadman said, “Most of us have only wrestled five matches, whereas in other years we would have wrestled around 40 matches by now. We haven’t had any duals, and most of the regular tournaments got canceled.”