Skidding across the dirt, a ground ball comes flying towards senior shortstop Peyton Lusby. Conditioning was coming to a close for HSE Baseball, and tryouts were just around the corner, except on Wednesday, March 11^th, the floodgates of Covid-19 burst open upon the United States.

“Our initial reaction was that our season would be postponed until the summer,” said Lusby. “We had no idea that there would be no season at all. Tryouts began the next Monday and we all had no clue what was going to happen.”

After coming off of a state championship in 2019, the Royals only had a few returning players from that championship squad. With Lusby not being one of them, he took this as a challenge to himself to improve his abilities. Conditioning is just beginning and many of the seniors, who missed out on a junior year season, and several are struggling to get back into the groove of baseball.

“Not having a season had a big impact because not playing actual games for that long makes it harder to adjust going into the season,” said Lusby. “Everyone is just out of sync and working hard to get back in.”

The offseason is crucial to every athlete as it helps them get stronger, improve skills, and sometimes learn new ones. Lusby had several tournaments over the summer in which he participated in, which he thinks helped not only keep him in shape but helped him sharpen his skills and keep them in prime form

“The tournaments over the summer (that still happened), were huge for him,” said Tony Lusby, Peyton’s Father. “We really didn’t know what weights and practices in the fall were going to look like, so the summer play was very beneficial to him”

Realistically, the Royals are still defending state champions, and hoping to go back to back. But it will be up to seniors like Lusby, to help lead them to that and that begins by setting an example for juniors and underclassmen that nothing comes easy. Baseball season for the Royals opens on April 1^st of 2021, so Lusby and the Royals have a long road ahead of them. Story by Lee Cook