Spectator and Transportation Policies Expected Soon; training Rivalries Sprout

With games looming at the end of the week, we expect to share the official Hanover High policies with regard to spectators at home games and transportation to away games coming soon. Here is what we thik they might be: We expect that parents will be allowed at home games, but it is very possible that students for all schools and visiting parents may not be allowed. That is very liokely to be the case this Saturday for the Varsity and JV1 games Saturday at the HHS Turf (Merriman-Branch Field). Because there will be other games before and after the soccer games, it will be very understandable to havce spectators limited to just parents of HHS players. All spectators will be requir4ed to wear masks. That's a Town of Hanover requirement. Parents of Freshman players will very likely be welcome at Thursday evening's 6:30 scrimmage with the HHS Girls' Varaity. Parents of JV2 players will almost certainly be welcome to the JV2 game against Newport at Dresden at 4:30 on Friday. Parents are asked to stand on the far (East) sideline, wear masks, and dist6ance socially. It is likely that busses will be provided for an many road games as possible. We will always let you know the status of a given game as far in advance as possible. Because space on busses is limited, some students may need to be driven by parents. All students are allowed to be driven by their parents to and from away games. Carpooling is discouraged, but permissable. This has been left up to parental judgment. Students who are in existing "bubbles" would fall into this category. THere is no word yet on whether or not students will be allowed to drive to away games. Given that two of our away Varsity games at Lebanon and Hartford may be closer to HHS than home, it might be logical to allow this. One of the challenges of this rapidly-approaching season will the the comparatively small number of games. The Varsity and JV1 teams have 10 official games. The JV2 and Freshman teams have four each, and those were hard to come by. Each of those two teams benefitted by having games "donated" to them by the Varsity and JV1. Only in a pandemic season would three different teams (Varsity, JV1, JV2) have at least one game against local varsity opposition. This knowledge impacted the roster sizes when we made teams - Both Varaity and JV1 have the largest teams. We also created teams with the idea that the JV2 and Freshman squads might evolve into equal practice partners, capable of fillig the game void with rergular scrimmages. This hypothesis was put to the test at the first practice session at Dresden for all three sub-varsioty teams. The JV1 squad finished the day with an intrasquad scrimmage, and the Freshmen aquared of against JV2. The resulting match put to rest any doubt that this was a match made in heaven. The teams battled up and down the pitch in a scoreless draw that was broken just at the death by a Sam Calderwood blast, giving the Freshmen a narrow win. Both teams had orther scoring chances, and were denied by excellent goalkeeping from Christian Blix and Iver Skogerboe. The freshmen were also saved by a spectacular goal-line save dfrom defender Davey Tolliday. Frosh center back Justin Dickson was masterful as a defensive anchor. The Freshmen featured four strong center midfielders: Sayan Bhattachara paired with Wyatt Seelig to start, replaced expertly by Aaron Nyhan and Freddie Mierke, who announced his entrance into the game with a professional-looking header that was made all the better with his tonsorial streamlining. The JV2 squad, coached by HHS Concierge Ian "Bucket" Caldwell, looks full of potential. The TOD (Triangle of Death), consisting of Alex Brackett, Liam Wordin and Soren Styettenheim, was a presence at midfield, and Stettenheim just missed scoring a great goal, narrowly missing connections on a header. Will Taylor was downright dangerous up top, constantly threatening and winning a n umber of 50-50 balls. The JV2s were missing a couple of their important skill guys, and with Berkeley and Birkmeyer in the lineup, this panel wil be ready to roll.