By: Nicolas Rontanini
With 2022 rapidly coming to a close, and with the new year on the horizon, the impacts left in Covid’s wake are starting to be mitigated. Primarily, campus life seems more abuzz than the previous two years, especially in regard to Athletics.
Now that many events on Adelphi’s campus have returned to an in-person format, turnout for games has increased. According to Kailey Broderick, a recent graduate student and lacrosse player, attendance at these games had increased for the fact they had returned to a new kind of normal.
“Since athletics have returned to `normal,’ there have been a lot more fans,” Broderick said. “Even just supporting other teams at our school had increased, because we were able to go to games whether it was indoors or outdoors.”
It would seem that many are excited about this change, especially after the impacts that Covid had on Athletics and its players.
“Athletic life differs in person than with Covid because in-person is how life is supposed to be,” Broderick said. “You can see your teammates face to face, go to lifts and practices without masks and see each other outside of just playing the sport.”
As such, the limitations of the pandemic hit athletes especially hard. However, according to Broderick, this in turn meant that athletes came out of the pandemic even stronger than before.
“We all understood the feeling of getting something taken away from us, and we knew to make the most of it going forward. I saw a different level of determination on all of the teams, and we were all so excited to be back to our new normal,” Broderick said.
She added that the lacrosse team gave it all to make the best of their first season back in person.
“We worked hard and we made it back to the Final Four. We proved to ourselves we could get back there after having an unsuccessful season during Covid. Although we didn’t win it all, that was a huge win for us all-on the field and off the field.”
Overall, the new normal created in the wake of the pandemic has had positive outcomes for many in the Athletics community.