Patriot Pole Vault Club REOPENING Sunday March 21st

We are STOKED to announce that we are opening up the facility at Westborough High School this Sunday March 21st – a whole week earlier than we had originally planned :-) In order to open up the facility we will need help moving the mats from their storage area and setting them up. The setup will start at 2:00 and should only take about a half hour or so. After that we are gonna VAULT for a few hours. If you would like to help out and get in some vaulting this Sunday please let us know. We do have to cap the number of vaulters at 12 for now.

Starting Monday March 22nd we will be hosting practices 6 days a week (no Fridays for now – even Coach Doug needs a day off :-)). On Mondays thru Thursdays when school is in session the practices will be from 5:00-7:00. On the weekends the times will vary depending on various circumstances. Check our calendar on the website for a full practice schedule. Please note that you are NOT ALLOWED to skip your regularly scheduled team practice to attend our practices.

For the first week we will run “test practices” with veteran vaulters in order to make sure that we have all of our policies and protocols in place and we can make practices run efficiently. Once we have a good fix on how things are running we will open up practices to the general masses.

Outdoor practices are dependent on the weather and whether or not the facility is hosting a meet that day. Generally during the spring if it’s raining, the temperature is below 45° or there is high wind there is a good chance we will cancel or have drill only sessions. Practice times during vacations are also subject to change. As always, consult our online calendar, our FaceBook page and our Twitter feed for the latest updates, postponements and cancellations.

We will still have to have COVID-19 protocols in place for the foreseeable future. For now that means:

• As of now we can only allow athletes from Massachusetts to participate until the COVID-19 Travel Order changes. While your state may allow out-of-state travel, Massachusetts is not allowing anyone in from higher-risk states (as of March 5th only Washington, Oregon, Missouri, Hawaii & Puerto Rico are considered “low-risk”) without going through a whole lot of paperwork. We understand THIS SUCKS and we don’t like it either but we gotta follow the rules. As soon as we can we will allow out of state vaulters
• We will have to limit the number of athletes at each session – right now the maximum number of athletes per session is 12
• Each session will last 90-120 minutes and start and end times must be strictly followed
• Athletes MUST register for practices ahead of time on – we will not be able to allow any “drop ins”. You can register for these practices on our website on the front page in the “Club Schedule & Practice Registration” section. Click on any of the practices you wish to attend and a registration link will be shown. Please note that for now we are only adding registration links one week at a time
• If you are a coach and wish to register a large number of athletes please contact us ahead of time to make sure that we can accommodate your whole crew
• All athletes MUST sign a COVID-19 practice waiver form before each practice session indicating that they are in good health and have not been exposed to anyone currently experiencing COVID-19 symptoms before they are allowed to enter the practice facility. If you’d prefer you can print & fill out the waiver and bring it with you to practice to save time
• All athletes and coaches will be briefly screened for signs/symptoms of COVID-19 prior to each session (including having their temperature taken with a no touch thermometer)
• Athletes, coaches and spectators MUST wear masks at all times
• Everyone must follow our social distancing guidelines listed on our Patriot Pole Vault Club COVID-19 Policies and Protocols For Athletes and Parents page
• Coaches may attend practices free of charge but until we are sure of how things will be run this spring regarding spectators parents and other interested parties will be asked to wait in the parking lot.

As always if you are confused by Coach Doug’s ramblings or have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us via e-mail at polevault@patriotpv.com or call us at 617-302-PPVC