It’s been more than a year since COVID-19 has made its presence felt and changed the way we go about our everyday lives. 

As more people are getting vaccinated and tested regularly, however, the more things start to open up. 

One of the first things to open up for the North Hollywood campus is in-person practices.

 Student athletes have been anticipating the return of sports ever since the first semester, when there was a webinar for how to get all the paperwork in. 

The process to get all the paperwork in has stayed the same for the most part to previous years.

First, the student athlete must complete a physical and get it filled out, signed, and approved by their physician. 

Next, the student athlete must make an account with athleticclearance.com and submit all the appropriate paperwork to the website, which includes the physical, some proof of insurance, an emergency card, and a confirmation page from the website with a signature. 

This paperwork will then be submitted to the school nurse for final approval.

Once all of this is taken care of, the student athlete must get a COVID-19 test at least 72 hours prior to returning back to school. 

With a negative test result, the student athlete must go on the LAUSD website or app and fill out the Daily Pass. 

They will click on the daily pass link, sign in as a student, submit their negative test, answer a few questions, then get a QR code in order to get the daily pass to enter the school.

As the name implies, the student athlete must do this process on a daily basis, each time they wish to do practice on campus.

For a couple of weeks, the procedure to get into campus as a student athlete was to come through the Magnolia Gate and get your Daily Pass scanned along with your temperature check by the new restrooms in the parking lot.

Since the week students and teachers have made their return to school however, student athletes now have to complete this process at the Weddington Gate near the Agricultural area.

As with previous years, each sport has their own designated area and even has to share their area sometimes in order to get a workout in.

Track and field is situated at the opposing team’s bleachers, where they do short and long distance events, and has opposite parts of the field where they do shot put and long jump. 

Boys soccer is situated at the far end of the field, close to where the football scoreboard is and girls soccer is situated closer to the middle of the field.

Baseball takes up the other end of the field, as well as the batting cage and sometimes the basketball court when it’s available to them.

Last but not least, volleyball practices mainly on the basketball court where they just set up their net. They also practice where baseball practices on the field.

Something a bit different to this year are the times that student athletes begin their practices for their respective sports. 

Track and Field starts working out first at a time between 3:00 and 3:30, and then baseball comes in a bit later, followed by soccer, volleyball, and lastly football, who get the field by the time track and field is over with.

The different timings of the sports are done to prevent overcrowding in accordance to COVID-19 guidelines administered by LAUSD.

With student athletes coming back to practice on campus, students and teachers going into hybrid learning, and seniors being able to have a grad night, it’s safe to say that we’re moving forward in the right direction out of COVID-19.