For the month of March and much of April student athletes will be tasked with something that has never been done. Spring athletes will have delayed seasons due to the WIAA creating a spring alternative season that will host all spring sports from the start of March until the early May. 

“Lucky for spring athletes the WIAA granted us 15 contact days for coaches to hold practices with athletes. These days can only be held during certain times. You are not permitted to hold practice a week before the first official day of practice,” Athletic Director Joe Stellmacher said. 

For some, these contact days are very beneficial for the athlete but also just as beneficial for coaches.

“These days are very crucial especially in track and field because some of these athletes could have been triple jumpers in seventh grade but now may no longer fit the mold and have had essentially two years off and have forgot how to do it,” Head Track and Field Coach Matt Willett said. 

The contact days can help benefit athletes that participate in sports that need to practice all year round. 

“I’ve just been golfing as much as I can. Whenever I have time I’m always working on my short game or playing,” junior Tyler Johnson said.

While Berlin will not have any athletes that will have to jump from the spring alternate season to the normal spring season some schools will have to do this. 

“Currently we have three schools in the conference that have opted for the spring alternate season. I really feel for those athletes that will have to try and change from one sport to the next with no time to spare,” Willett said. “They will almost have to be training for two sports at once and one of them is in their free time. That’s hard for any athlete to do, but especially a student athlete.” 

Athletes may also not see top competition until later in the year when the alternate spring sport season comes to an end. 

“It definitely will be different to start competing again, but I played in many tournaments this summer so I stayed used to playing good competition,” Johnson said.

Berlin will not be participating in the spring alternate season as they opted in to the fall season. Spring sports will officially begin on April 19 and the alternate spring season will end around May 7 with some teams going shorter or longer.