Due to the recent pandemic of COVID-19, LAUSD has officially shut down further school events as well as future sports games. On March 16,  Superintendent Austin Beutner announced that schools will shut down through May 1. 

In season sports such as baseball, softball, track, boys volleyball, and swim have been forced to cancel all future CIF events and seasonal games. 

“We were supposed to go to Santa Barbara and Las Vegas for tournaments after our win against Eagle Rock,” said varsity volleyball athlete Nathan Choe. “It’s sad to not be able to play alongside my team or go to any of those events.”

The Venice boys volleyball team was scheduled for two tournaments before and during spring break. 

“We’re missing a big part of our season and a lot of our league games and tournaments; however once we go back to school, I hope for an even more successful and fun remainder of the season,” he added. 

The baseball season has also been halted and is unable to determine their playoff seed. This saddens most of the players especially the seniors since this will be their last time playing a high school sport.  

“The coronavirus has been devastating to our baseball season,” said baseball althete Dylan Kim. “Our season looks like it’s going to be cancelled and I know me and a lot of the other players, especially seniors, are just saddened by the fact that we have most likely played our last game for Venice. Hopefully the season doesn’t end and we can play a couple of games before the year ends.” 

Although most of the team is devastated due to the amount of playing time they won’t be allowed to get, the seniors are especially bothered at the fact that they won’t be able to play their last high school baseball season.

“I was looking forward to my last year playing high school baseball with my friends who I call brothers and this virus took that opportunity away from all seniors,” said baseball player Andres Becerra. “Us seniors playing sports won’t get to have the full experience.” 

As for the girls softball team, they’re determination to make it to CIF championships has not been influenced due to the recent pandemic. Some are even excited to look forward to finally playing on their newly built home field that was recently finished during Venice High’s recent construction. 

 “My team and I are hoping to get back to winning as soon as possible,” said softball athlete Sophia Coon. “We were really excited for home games since our school finally built us a home field.”

 The momentum lost is something they cannot get back but, the team is still looking forward to a successful season.

“The coronavirus halted the momentum we had been building all preseason and season. We had a really good chance at making it to the championship,” said softball athlete Cailee Grayhorse. “We were all looking forward to the playoffs where we could show our team unity and make it to victory.”

Although they may not be able to play most of their league games, they’re still hoping to make it to CIF championships. 

“I’m hoping that once we get back to school we get to participate in playoffs, since there most likely won’t be time for our league games. We want more opportunities to play on our new field this season and we want to make it to the CIF championship,” she added. 

The Venice track team has also endured some roadblocks relating to all sports being cancelled. Since everyone is forced to oblige to the six-feet apart rule, the team is unable to hold group practices and in turn has forced each team member to uphold the responsibility to stay in shape. 

“This virus has prevented some of us from reaching our full capabilities, especially the seniors,” said runner Kaleb Macias. “I really feel bad because it was their last season and it’s come to such a harsh closing. We were all looking forward to league and city prelims and finals but that’s basically done with now.vWe are all trying to stay in shape so when we go back, we’re still strong,”

The swim team has faced many problems this year, from a hole in the pool roof, to the flooding of the locker rooms and eventually the pool being closed. Now with this virus the team has officially been through it all. 

“The coronavirus hasn’t really affected our season too much, there’s no more meets and all that, but I can’t say before that happened we actually lost our pool since the city has been doing maintenance on it, so our season kind of ended even before the virus came along,” said swimmer Andres Ayuayo.  

Since the pool has been closed down due to maintenance, the team hasn’t been able to get the same amount of practice as most of the other sports teams. 

“From my point of view it’s obviously affected our season because we can’t train, compete, or bond/hangout with the team,” said swimmer Seiji Yamaguchi, ”It’s hard to stay in shape when the schools pool was taken from us and even any community pools are closed during lock down. I was looking forward to having CIF’s alumni meet, and the new night meet against fast teams. Hopefully we can get back into the swim grind soon once it’s safe for everyone to go outside.”