This fall, Lincoln senior Aidan McCabe thought he’d be spending his time scoring goals and running drills on the soccer field, not running through problems on Zoom calls. 

“My way of coping [with quarantine] was being more lazy and not using my time as productively,” says McCabe.

Like many student athletes, COVID-19 has prevented Mccabe from doing what he loves most: playing soccer. 

McCabe was out for the majority of last high school season with a knee injury, so he says this season, his last in high school, is even more important for him. Although the high school soccer season has been pushed to the spring, McCabe has been training with the Westside Timbers, his club team, since July 7. 

With training comes many safety precautions.

“We wear masks when we show up, check in and do health tests, and once we are ready to get on the field, we take off our masks and get into our cohorts,” says McCabe. “We have two cohorts, one on each side of the field. There is still the social-distancing aspect involved, but recently we moved into shooting and defending. Our coach keeps his mask on and stays between the two groups and isn’t allowed in either one.” 

McCabe has also started coaching for the Lincoln Youth soccer team, which he says “Helped [him] gain a better leadership role as a soccer player.”

After graduating from Lincoln, McCabe hopes to continue his soccer career as a walk-on athlete (making the team without a scholarship) at Oregon State University. 

In the long term, however, he says that college soccer isn’t a big priority for him. Instead, his interests lie with the Armed Forces.

“As well as soccer, I joined the Marines. We have heavy fitness workouts every Saturday, which I try to push myself [to do] as much as possible,” says McCabe. “I’m looking at a scholarship called NROTC (Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps) to become an officer in the Marines.”

For now, McCabe is still longing to see his high school teammates and friends, as well as missing his senior year. 

“The soccer season getting canceled left me with a hole in my life to fill,” says McCabe. “As soccer is a big part of my life it was hard when it was taken away in the earlier stages of the year.

Aidan McCabe

“Definitely lost a bit of fitness, my emotional health has decreased to. It was great to be back training with my club last night. My way of coping was being more lazy and not using my time as productively as I would have before the pandemic”

“We started practices with club 2 months ago with helped with regaining fitness that I lost. I also started coaching a Lincoln Youth Soccer team which helped me gain a better leadership role as a soccer player. Aswell as soccer, I joined the Marines and we have heavy fitness work outs every Saturday which I try to push myself as much as possible” 

“I’d say the main thing has not being able to see my teammates and some of closest friends from club and High School. As soccer is a big part of my life it was hard when it was taken away in the earlier stages of the year, it left me with like a hole in my life that was usually full”

“It’s definitely going to be a transformative year, we lost 13 seniors and I’m hoping to be able to help and introduce the younger players into the Varsity squad. I expect us to be pretty good like every year, the only thing I’d say is we’re not going to have as much experience as we used to which then gives me and you a leadership role and the opportunity to be a role model to any younger kids that make the team”

“I expect and hope we have a High School season, abit later than we would have liked but I’ll take what we get. Until then I have club, coaching and marines to keep fit and ready to give my all this year. My biggest thing is going to be my fitness which I’m working on as well as my Stanford fitness test time” 

“Hopeful, having a club season and being able to play games with my again, it’s a different feeling to High School season and a different level too. We got news about our club season starting in next couple of weeks which was the best news I’ve heard in a long time. We have a new coach and new players so it’s hard to tell right now if we’ll have a successful season but I trust the players we’ve got so I believe we can be great” 

“We wear masks when we show up, we check in and do a health test, once we are ready to get on the field we take off our masks and get into our cohorts. We have two cohorts, one on each side of the field. There is still the social distancing aspect involved but recently moved into shooting and defending. Our coach keeps his mask and stays in between the two groups and isn’t allowed in either one”

“Not really changed as much as you’d think. I’m going into the marines so college soccer wasn’t a priority for me. I’m looking at a scholarship called NROTC to become a officer in the Marines. I plan on doing this at Oregon State University with the hope of being able to walk onto the soccer team”