Athletes spend winter break on campus practicing
Three Waynesburg sports teams had to stay on campus during winter break due to games and matches scheduled over the holidays. The men’s and women’s basketball teams, in addition to the wrestling team, had events during the break.
The basketball teams were on campus from Dec. 26 until the start of the spring semester on Jan. 9, while the wrestling team was here a few days before Christmas and right after New Year’s.
Although the campus was empty, the athletes found ways to keep busy without the bustle of a full campus. Some of the women’s basketball team had team bonding activities to ease the quietness of the empty campus.
“This year some of the team went ice skating at the outdoor rink next to PPG. We ate dinner at Bob Evans several times as a team,” said junior accounting major and basketball player, Addy Knetzer. “One of our seniors had us over for a spaghetti dinner, and we had a ‘white elephant’ party, where we exchanged gifts around Christmas time.”
Some athletes lived relatively close to campus, so going home while on break was a feasible task.
Junior wrestler and criminal justice major Tristan Buxton is only 25 miles from home. Buxton went home almost every night during the break, so being on campus the extra days didn’t affect his family much.
Sophomore pre-med major and basketball player Anna Bartman has gotten used to the winter break games. She worked with her family to make sure she didn’t miss any holiday events due to the basketball schedule.
“I have always had basketball over Christmas break and been away so it didn’t feel any different to my family, said Bartman. “They definitely missed me being home, but they always worked around my schedule so I did not miss anything.”
The turnout to the sporting events was not affected by the absence of students. Women’s basketball played a majority of their games on the road, but that did not stop parents and fans from attending the ones that were at home.
“The turnout was similar to what it usually is, because most of our fans consist of our parents,” said Kassidy O’Keefe, a senior exercise science major and basketball player.
“A few students come to our games, but not as much as go to the guys games so we didn’t really notice a difference.”
Being the only ones on campus had its perks though. Students did not have the worry of being too loud during quiet hours or fighting over parking spots.
“It was actually very nice, especially because there was no fighting for a parking spot on campus, ” said Bartman. “However, after week two of being there alone we all really started to miss everyone.”