Sports editor Jared McMurry prompted area coaches with the task of nominating athletes who went above and beyond during the pandemic. The following are responses from Southmont fall athletes.
Addison Charles, Girls Soccer
During the quarantined portion of the COVID-19 pandemic, Southmont athletics implemented Plt4m workouts for all of their athletes. And soon-to-be senior and three-sport athlete Addison Charles knew she had to take advantage of it.
“Doing the Plt4m workouts were what really prepared me for August and the beginning of the season,” Charles said. “Doing those workouts really helped me grow in both strength and agility. Since we couldn’t be in the weight room from March to June, doing these at home workouts were crucial for me, as well as my fellow peers, to make sure we could be in the best shape. Once we were able to do July workouts, I made sure I went to every single one available so I could get back into quote-on-quote soccer shape.”
The hard work paid off when Charles and her teammates came together and helped give the Mounties a fourth-straight girls’ soccer sectional title.
“I do believe my hard work paid off,” she said. “I definitely could have been in better shape, but I do believe that once practices got going on and we were playing games, I got in much better shape. Also winning another sectional show how much hard work the team had put in together. Obvisouly these are very unprecedented times, so being able to play sports and be with our teams has been crucial to us athletes.”
Logan Phillips, Boys Soccer
Southmont junior Logan Phillips put in the work during the spring and summer and it showed up with individual success this fall.
“I felt like me putting in hard work during practice and during the summer paid off to the extent of me being able to start every game and play with people older than me which I feel helped me get better as well,” he said.
At the same time, Phillips was disappointed with how the team performed on the field overall, and feels partly responsible.
“I felt as if I hadn’t put enough hard work in because we as a team were not as successful as we could have been, and I didn’t perform as well as I could all the time,” he said.
Macie Shirk, Girls Golf
Southmont’s Macie Shirk’s spring was suppose to be filled with softball games followed by a summer full of golfing. That all changed when the pandmeic hit in March, but she got right to work anyways.
“I found it easy to stay motivated because I was looking for something to do since we were having to stay home all the time,” she said.
Finally, in the summer, Shirk returned to the diamond with her travel softball team and hit the course playing in CIJGA tournaments and practice at the Crawfordsville Country Club.
In the end, the hard work paid off this fall when she led the Mounties girls’ golf team as a junior.
“I feel like it did pay off since I was able to play in regional,” she said. “I was proud to lead our team this year. It does make me want to work even harder for my senior year.”
Sidney Veatch, Volleyball
Southmont senior and IUPUI volleyball committ Sidney Veatch thrives off the energy of her teammates, so working on her own during the quarantine portion of COVID-19 didn’t come easy. But she made the most of her situation.
“Coach Nichols (Southmont volleyball coach) as well as my club coaches were making sure I was still doing the most I could with giving us workouts together on there, she said. “and making sure I was putting work in in while I was at home, which made it a lot easier for me to stay motivated.”
Veatch used Zoom to communicate with her coaches and complete both strength and conditioning and volleyball workouts from home, but what made it even easier was having her sister, Chelsea, at home to hit the ball back and forth to.
“It was also very helpful to have my sister at home with me as well,” Veatch said. “We would go outside and workout together, hit the ball back and forth or work on specific skills together. Having someone else workout and practice with me motivates me even more so it as good havig her with me the whole time and we could count on each other to stay motivated.”
