Every year, teams, as well as their coaches, have gotten together to eat dinner, build chemistry, and have fun. Team dinners have been allowed for many years, but that has recently changed due to recent COVID-19 precautions.

Over the past two years, we have lost many privileges here at school due to COVID-19, and team dinners happen to be one of them. However, I feel as though this can be changed.

At lunch every single day, there are over 300+ students going into the lunchroom, taking off their masks, and eating. People are not too far away from each other either, which leads me to question why team dinners are such a bad idea.

Jake Viele, a Senior captain on the boy’s soccer team, was informed that the soccer team was not allowed to have team dinner and that it would be too unsafe and uncontrolled. Many members of the team, as well as Jake, were confused by this.

How are the 300+ students in the cafeteria considered “controlled”? How is that much safer than letting 24 teammates and their coach get together and eat outside? The fact of the matter is that it is not, and teams should be allowed to meet and eat outside of school.

Team dinners are a way for teammates to connect and bond with each other with something other than the game for once. It strengthens chemistry within teams, which is extremely important in any team.

You need to build trust and relationships with your team in order to perform to the best of your ability. Cooperation within the team will improve, as well as productivity and work ethic. Besides all that, everyone enjoys them. 

To further delve into this issue, I asked our Athletic Director, Ms. Christina Tuomala, what she knows about the situation.

I asked her if it was an MIAA or local policy. “It’s the school’s policy. Other school’s have different rules for example Hopedale is allowing  team dinners outside. We know it is part of team culture with pasta dinners, getting together, and all of those things, but its also where we’re going to be spreading COVID-19.” She expressed, however, those rules only apply for indoor get togethers, “That’s why we’re not supporting, as a school, indoor settings where our teams are going to be close contact.”

Although many teams have accepted the precautions that come with team dinners, some feel as though these are not necessary.