TOWAMENCIN- All of the public’s attention is on Fall sports right now. The headlines are all about whether schools will reopen or stay shut down. Nonetheless, happening all in the middle of an election season. But what about the people that already lost out on a full season? The ones that, in terms of high school experiences, have had arguably more lost than anyone else? Spring sports has been turned into the forgotten younger sibling of this pandemic.

“It was absolutely heartbreaking,” senior Carly Digiuseppe said.

Digiuseppe reflected on how she and her teammates felt when they were told the news about the 2020 campaign coming to an abrupt end after Governor Wolf decided to shut down all schools in Pennsylvania.

“I thought that we were going to be back on that Monday and everything would be normal again. I had no idea that we were going to lose out on our entire season,” Digiuseppe said.

The North Penn Softball team was coming off an amazing season where they made a run into the state tournament before getting bounced in the quarterfinals. The team had gone through the offseason with a lot of determination to get revenge and make a bigger and better run. Standout and record-setting pitcher Mady Volpe was ready to help lead her team back to the State Tournament.

“We had a really good team this past year. The seniors were ready to try and make a deep run in the playoffs again. I was ready to try and pitch my best to help make that happen,” Volpe said.

The Lady Knights are coached by Rick Torresani, who knew the only responsibility he had as a coach was to keep his players in an upbeat and optimistic mindset.

“That was the key for myself. Making sure the kids were okay. That was definitely the big thing and once we made sure they were okay, it turned to trying to do something for them,” Coach Torresani said.

The Lady Knights have recently started up practices while maintaining Pennsylvania’s social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines. So far, everything has been a success and looks to show a lot of plus sides.

“[Mady Volpe] has been an outstanding leader. She has been making sure people are doing what they need to do. I was shocked with the whole team because they started as if they never left.” Coach Torresani said as he reflected on the start of fall practices.

On the Baseball side of things, the same sentiments are being echoed throughout.

“We are getting back into the mode of regular practice, which is healthy for some guys, as long as we do it the right way,” Coach Kevin Manero said.

The Knights recently returned to official practices after months of uncertainty. Something that was very different for all of the baseball players and staff when things shut down they were over 1,000 miles from home. They had just taken their annual team trip to the Jackie Robinson Complex in Florida. They were less than 24 hours into their trip when receiving the news that they had to come home.

“Everyone was really upset, especially the seniors, but we were lucky enough to play a little bit of baseball before leaving Florida,” said Senior Steven Corrado.

After flying back and going through a holding period, on April 9th PIAA (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) canceled the rest of all spring sports for the year. Corrado says he was surprised but also anticipated the worst already.

“It was a shock but nowhere near as devastating as March when everything started. Everyone was bummed and I missed my junior year which was big for recruitment and we felt confident about this team going far,” Corrado lamented.

Recruitment was something a lot of people missed out on throughout the pandemic but Junior standout LHP Dylan Brown was lucky enough to not be part of that bunch. On September 2nd, Brown announced his commitment to the University of Notre Dame. Brown credits his free time in the pandemic to getting his game better.

“I started working out more and my velocity increased, and learned a new curveball. I was throwing with my brother Nathan pretty often and my club team coach,” said Notre Dame commit Dylan Brown.

Both Brown and Corrado are shaping up to be very key participants in what looks and hopes to be a Spring season. Coach Manero believes that this team is capable of doing what is needed to make this another successful season.

“We are going to have to adjust and learn how to prepare in a different way. We have a lot of guys that are winners, hard workers and really want to get after it. We have talent really in a lot of areas,” Coach Manero mentioned.

Both the Baseball and Softball teams for North Penn will keep hosting fall practices and working towards having a strong and successful 2021 campaign.