After nearly a year in lockdown, Burlingame’s baseball teams began optional practice on Feb. 15. Senior Taylor Kaufman, outfielder and member of the varsity team, is among the many athletes who returned to practice.

“I’m stoked that we’re finally out there,” Kaufman said. “They cancelled our season last year super early on and we were gonna be real good last year so it was a pretty big slap in the face to us.”

The season’s relatively early cancellation due to the pandemic last year meant that the team was allowed to return to the field earlier than expected this year, starting official practice on March 15.

“CCS allowed us to go early due to us losing last season due to Covid,” head varsity coach Shawn Scott said. “They thought it’d be the right thing to do to let us start a little bit early this year.” 

In order to stay safe, the teams follow new COVID-19 guidelines while practicing on the field. This includes daily temperature checks, wearing masks at all times, entering and exiting the field in designated spots and keeping the freshman, JV and varsity teams in separate cohorts. 

Burlingame’s first game will be a home game against Terra Nova High School on March 29. To minimize contact with other athletes from other teams, each school will provide their own baseballs while on defense.

“Normally the home teams provide the balls for the game,” Scott said. “They have to provide the balls for themselves when they’re on defense and we have to do the same when we’re on defense.”

As the 2021 season begins, students are enjoying the gradual return to normalcy. 

“It was a really long time since we’ve been together,” Kaufman said. “So it was a good thing to have that social aspect that baseball was able to bring to us.”