By: Andrew Braun
January 18, 2021
For nearly a year, no part of American life has gone unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic. High school students, such as those at Hoggard, have been especially affected. Nearly 55% of these high school students play a sport at school, these students, who
are involved in a variety of extracurricular and social activities, now find their lives hindered by the pandemic. These student-athletes have complied with new health and safety guidelines to keep playing the sport(s) that they love, all while maintaining their duties and obligations as students during one of our generation’s most significant and influential events.
To showcase some of the efforts of our own Hoggard student-athletes who continue to go the extra mile as coronavirus rages on, I decided that I would interview one of them and ask them a few questions. This month, I sat down with Logan Legg, a sophomore wide receiver on the Hoggard Vikings Junior Varsity (JV) Football team. Legg has been committed to the sport and his team through many different situations, the most recent, and most notable of his high school career being the COVID-19 pandemic. As a seasoned student-athlete at Hoggard, Legg was able to elaborate on what it is like to be a student-athlete during these special circumstances, and offer valuable advice to others in the same situation.
Q: What are some of the things that you enjoy doing as a student-athlete outside of Hoggard?
A: Before COVID, I loved hanging out with my group of friends from Hoggard. We usually would get together and go to the movies. Another thing my friends and I do outside of football is to go to the beach and relax. Also, I skateboard, I love playing guitar, and sometimes I like to watch Netflix, comedies are my favorite.
Personally, what motivates you to play the way that you do?
What motivates me most is the desire to be better than those next to me. Football is a family, and we play as a team, but family members are competitive. We are competitive for the sake of the team, and it never hurts to want to be better. Also, the general drive to win motivates me. The desire to help your team as a unit be better than the other team on the field, to take home the trophy at the end of the season.
As an individual teammate, how are you a contributive member of the Hoggard Vikings football program?
Personally, what I think makes me a good teammate is my encouragement to others. It's never good to put someone down because they drop a pass, you want them to get better. I try to tell them, “Hey you'll make the next one.” If I see my teammate make a mistake, I give them advice. I’m corrected all the time too, and if you can build self-checks among teammates on your team it really improves everyone as a whole. Being mean doesn't solve anything, and it would make everything worse as a whole. Self-checks, small corrections, helpful comments are how I make our team better.
I would like to talk about the COVID-19 pandemic for a moment. Describe how your average practice has changed since the beginning of the pandemic.
My first year the practices started back in June for summer workouts, and the main practice started around August. Practice used to be far more of a contact thing, where we would practice drills and routes by contact. We’d definitely be closer to coaches who could help us more individually. unfortunately due to new covid restrictions, we can't come as close to coaches. With that said, they are doing all that they can to teach us more and help us prepare for our first game in February. The other major change actually is that [football] is now a spring sport. practices have been going on since June socially. Our first games are coming up soon though: Feb. 25th for JV, and the 26th for Varsity.
Given the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, have you recently felt comfortable participating in a sport at Hoggard High School?
The coaches and football staff at Hoggard have done everything in their power to follow guidelines and make Hoggard sports as safe as possible. They have followed every guideline to make it as safe as possible. In addition to wearing masks at practice, [players] are separated into pods - there are position groups based on position and team. They are divided by varsity and JV, then both teams are subdivided by offense and defense, then by position. So for me like Varsity, the Varsity offense, then Varsity receivers.
As a student-athlete, what state of mind do you try to enter every game with?
Approaching the other team, I’m excited. I am confident in my team and am excited to finally see them take on an opponent with all that we've learned and built up-I want to see everything pay off. I'm never nervous approaching another team because I'm confident in what I've been taught by my coaches. you don’t want to stress out or worry about mistakes that you could make, you need to be in the headspace where you can and will execute what you've been taught to execute. You're on the team for a reason, and if you're playing it's because you're supposed to. do what you were put in to do.
At any level of athletics, do you believe that there is such a thing as a “typical” athlete?
From every one of my coaches, I am told one thing: There is definitely talent in athletes, but they've told me that the kids with talent are never as good as the ones who put in hard work. Talent won’t beat hard work on the field. Talent will only get you so far until you have to get the hard work done. My coaches tell me this every practice, and I think that they're right on that one.
Describe how you have benefited from doing a sport with Hoggard as opposed to doing it outside of school.
Leaving middle school, joining football at Hoggard before people before the year started and I had the original chance to meet people before school started to help me meet. Most of the friendships I made before the start of freshman year on Hoggard are ones I have now. Another important thing that I've gotten from football is discipline. Coaches instill a work ethic in me which definitely transfers over to the classroom and shows in my work that I put far more effort into the thing that I do. It’s helped with the discipline for sure, but it makes me feel more confident. It has made me more confident in the actions that I take and choices that I make and I feel more prepared mentally to take on anything in general. The strict routine has definitely kept my school and personal life more organized.
When you are able to play football “normally” again, what will be most exciting to get back to doing on a typical basis?
Running without a mask will certainly be good, but more importantly, having a consistent schedule. During my previous year of football, we practiced 4 days a week in the afternoons, but this year the schedule has changed from morning to afternoon to back again to in-between. Consistency is very helpful for me. Another thing I'm looking forward to is having normal scrimmages against teammates. The importance of scrimmages is that they help you apply what you've learned ofc more realistic game scenario. One final thing is coaches being able to spend more one on one time with us than currently. Them being able to demonstrate and help us learn quicker and more in-depth are things that I value and am looking forward to.
What advice would you give to any students at Hoggard (incoming or existing) wanting to try out for a school sport in an upcoming season?
This applies to any sport: just go for it, don't give up. Be prepared to work, give your all, and then some more. Hoggard sports are some of the most challenging things that someone can do in high school, but they are certainly one of the most rewarding parts of high school. I think every student should try one sport just to test any interest. I personally discovered an interest in football that I never once thought that I had.
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