Twenty-five students sit at desks anxiously awaiting the Deca club sponsor to explain how the pandemic will affect their ability to participate in club tournaments and activities. The first months of school have since gone by, and extracurricular activities and clubs have resumed for the year. Clubs give students the opportunity to expand their horizons and explore individual interest. With this year being different, multiple school clubs have had to alter their normal procedures as well as the opportunities that they offer.   

   Deca is a student organization for people who are interested in learning the works of the marketing and business world. They attend tournaments and conventions to showcase the member’s talents and skills. 

  Marketing Teacher Sean Fagan graduated from UGA with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and advertisement. This year is his first overseeing Deca, and he faces major differences in the way the club gets to compete. 

   “The Deca Regional Competition is in the first semester, and we are not sure if we are allowed to do that. It takes place in person, and we are not allowed to go on field trips in the first semester this year, so we might have to do it digitally,” Fagan said. 

  The competitions are a big component of what the club has to offer, so not being able to go to them might present quite a challenge. The meetings that the club holds once a month are also in person, but Mr. Fagan has taken safety measures due to the pandemic we are currently facing. 

     “We’ll observe social distancing practices in the room, and if the situation warrants it, we will actually do virtual meetings,” Fagan said. 

Speech and Debate is also a major club at Sequoyah that is trying to navigate its way through the pandemic. This club offers students the opportunity to represent their school in tournaments. Their mission is to help students become effective in communication and overall skills. They have been greatly impacted by the different rules and precautions that they have had to take this year.   

    Speech and Forensics teacher Matthew Bartula has been the leader of the Speech and Debate team for the past 10 years. This year, the club has had to adapt to the national changes that were made to the debate tournaments. 

    “We haven’t been able to go to tournaments physically, and our tournaments for the rest of this year are going to be virtual,” Bartula said. “Our meetings have also been taking place in the SE cafeteria, and we try to practice social distancing protocols as best that we can.”  

   This might be a little harder to adjust to because the team is used to debating face-to-face with other teams, but it is not possible to do that this year. Through their virtual debates, they will still proudly represent Sequoyah as they always do.  

    The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is also popular at Sequoyah, and their mission is for athletes to see the impact that Jesus Christ has on the world, and to let the student body know that people care about them and will be there for them.  

   Lacrosse Coach Zachary Lawson has been working with the FCA leadership team to allow the club to fully function during the times of Coronavirus. 

    “Our leadership team was formed at the beginning of the school year and has been preparing for [meetings] for a while now,” Lawson said. “We’re very excited to get things going.”  

    FCA has been eager to open as soon as possible, but they have been taking their time to make sure that everything is safe and that they could do all the things they would do any normal year. Their meetings will take some precautions as well. 

   “We are following all the guidelines that the county has put out, including strongly encouraging masks, especially if you cannot social distance. We are taking steps, however, to ensure that social distancing is just built into our program every meeting,” Lawson said. 

   Overall, every club has been presented with challenges due to the different dynamics that this year holds, and they are all finding ways to adapt so that the students can still participate in the many clubs that this school has to offer.