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PALI BASEBALL PLAYERS HOLD

INFORMAL PRACTICES

SPENCER JUNG, STAFF WRITER

A

s the one-year mark

of being in quaran-

tine approaches,

members of the Pali baseball

program are determined to play,

even if it means heading back

to fields used by little leaguers.

Although COVID-19 trans-

mission rates have reduced

to the point where Los An-

geles Unified School District

(LAUSD) elementary schools

were given the green light to

return on Feb. 15, high schools

in the region remain closed.

The California Inter-

scholastic Federation LA

City Section (CIF-LACS)

canceled baseball season last

year and the prospects of

starting this season are dimin-

ishing as every week passes.

In mid-January, CIF-

LACS commissioner Vicky

Lagos announced that play-

offs for all fall sports except

Cross Country were to be

canceled. The status of base-

ball will be updated in ei-

ther late February or March.

Instead of sitting home and

waiting, Pali baseball players

headed to home plate at Cheviot

Hills Recreation Center, where

team members meet twice a

week for informal workouts, su-

pervised by parent volunteers.

These practices, organized

by players and their parents,

are considered unsanctioned

school events. According

to varsity head coach Mike

Voelkel, the Pali coaching staff

cannot participate and has no

affiliation with these practic-

es. They cannot be held at the

Pali field because of LAUSD

guidelines which required it to

be closed during the pandemic.

Members of the varsity

squad started practicing at the

Palisades Recreation Center

(PRC) on Nov. 16, but now

practice at Cheviot Hills Rec-

reation Center after the PRC

closed due to COVID-19 re-

strictions. Practices are held

every Monday and Wednes-

day from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and

are completely voluntary.

TEXTBOOK ROLLOUT RESUMES

KATIA STUTZ, STAFF WRITER

S

tudent textbook dis-

tribution resumed at

Pali during the first

week of February after the state

stay-at-home order was lifted.

The process was originally

scheduled to begin at the end

of the fall semester. However

Pali’s librarian, Andrea King,

explained that the school

was unable to distribute text-

books due to the statewide

stay-at-home order that was

in place from Dec. 3 to Jan. 25.

With students unable to

pick up textbooks on campus,

teachers scrambled to identi-

fy digital alternatives. Soph-

omore Lauren Shaulov said

that she is using a web-based

version of “The Tragedy of

Julius Caesar” in her English

class and an online website

to access her math textbook.

Before the textbook distri-

bution resumed, school staff

was looking for alternative ways

to distribute textbooks. “We

were going into the mailing

mode,” King said. “I have box-

es all over the library, because

we were set up to mail all the

books home that kids needed.”

However, once the stay-

at-home order was lifted, text-

book distribution officially

began. Students were able to

return and receive their text-

books or get electronic devices

fixed from Feb. 3 until Feb. 6.

The spring semester text-

book distribution was similar

to the process used in Fall at

the beginning of the school

year. Students who arrived

to campus by car picked up

and returned materials with-

out leaving their vehicles.

“We’re going to hopefully

try as much as we can to have

[students] come and pick up

all [their] English books for

the semester so [students]

won’t have to come back

again,” King said, “so that if

we do have another stay at

home order, [students] will

not be without [their] books.”

Illustration by Torey Howell

Photo by Daniel Scott