In the 2021-2022 school year, Camas has adjusted back to in-person school for everyone. Despite certain restrictions, students and staff involved in extracurriculars are responding positively to being in-person once again. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was difficult for the Choir to practice since it was all online and concerts had to be cancelled completely. Ethan Chessin, a teacher at CHS, said that “we didn’t get to have concerts for about a year.”

But now, with the school being in-person, the Choir has been able to go back to normal with the exception of wearing a mask, which doesn’t have much of an impact on practice.

The Choir has also gone on retreats, and were finally able to have a concert on Oct. 14 for the first time in about a year. “Honestly, the big difference [between the COVID school year and this school year] is how grateful people are to have the ability to sing,” says Chessie.

Jasmine Edmundson, a junior in Select Vocal Ensemble says, “…being in-person really just changes the atmosphere of singing and hearing each other sing is really great.” Returning to school has allowed many to realize how boring zoom classes were, and this led to students being more appreciative to be back in-person.

Along with the performing arts of CHS, many other clubs and sports are returning to normal, in-person meetings and games.

Sam Greene is the main coach for the CHS Knowledge Bowl team. Knowledge Bowl is an extracurricular where students participate in a jeopardy-like competition, using only what they know in their brains to score points. Over the past year and a half, the Knowledge Bowl team has been stuck practicing and competing through a remote, online website that mimicked the physical paddles. Due to this, many people were not able to experience the dynamic environment Knowledge Bowl brings. 

This school year, they were able to transition back to in-person practices where players could practice with their teams. Greene said, “just being in-person and seeing people laugh and smile and lean over and chat without having to push a button and a space bar is really kind of nice.” In-person practices have brought back the socially-interactive aspect of knowledge bowl and the positive, dynamic environment that knowledge bowl has always held. 

On top of clubs and other school organizations, school athletics are impacted the most by the return to normalcy, as every sport was either cancelled entirely last year or delayed.

Katrina Le is a junior at CHS who participates in the girls’ swim team. Le said, “there were less meets last year…it’s pretty much back to normal [this year].”

Le is also in the Red Cross club at CHS. “There were only two volunteer opportunities last year which is not a lot compared to previous years…the meetings were very small, only five people showed up regularly… it’s back to normal this year,” said Le. Other sports and clubs have also said that they have been recovering from the lack of activities last year, and it looks like most clubs and sports have almost completely returned back to normal. 

After a long year of limited activities at CHS, students and staff are excited to be back to fully participate in all extracurriculars. Despite small restrictions, such as masks and social distancing, everyone engaging in extracurriculars is hopeful about what the new year of in-person school can bring.