With her masked coach watching in the background, Butler volleyball senior Sophia Lucas returns a serve during the team's first open gym session Thursday in the high school gym.

BUTLER TWP — For the first time since early March, Butler High School athletes are formally working out on school grounds.

Under COVID-19 safety protocol and numerous restrictions.

“Whatever we need to proceed, we'll do,” Golden Tornado girls volleyball coach Meghan Lucas said. “We're back in the gym. That's what counts.”

The volleyball team had its first open gym Thursday. Boys and girls basketball, cross country, football and girls tennis have gotten under way in the past few days as well.

All Butler coaches and athletes will be screened for COVID-19 signs and symptoms prior to every workout. Those screenings include a temperature check and a brief questionnaire.

Anyone with a temperature of 99.5 degrees or higher is to be sent home.

“The first thing the student-athlete and parents must do is sign a participation waiver,” Butler athletic director Bill Mylan said. “We receive that before we even begin the screenings.”

The summer acclimization is broken up into three phases. Phase One goes on for two weeks and breaks every team up into groups of no more than 10. Those groups will remain constant and may participate in non-contact workouts.

Students must continue to wear masks indoors unless actively participating in a physical exercise.

“We've got 89 girls in grades 7-12 in open gym,” Lucas said. “Our groups of 10 will stay together for these first two weeks. I've got the gym divided into three work stations.

“Different groups do different drills and we rotate them the next day. The volleyballs get wiped down and disinfected during breaks.

“There's a lot of guidelines we have to adhere to, but we're still getting quality reps in. A lot of these girls haven't touched a volleyball in four months,” Lucas added.

Butler girls basketball has 14 players in open gym right now. They got started Wednesday.

“There's no contact, but we can still do skill work like ball-handling drills, stationary drills, shooting drills,” Tornado coach Mark Maier said. “Girls can dribble around cones and do lay-ups.

“We can do 2-on-0 drills, practice offensive moves while pretending the defense is there. We can shoot free throws. Everyone brings their own water bottle and every girl works out with her own basketball. The basketballs never change hands.”

If Butler had 32 girls in the gym, “they'd each have their own ball. We're adamant about that,” Maier added.

Phase Two — after 14 days, as long as the community disease load isn't rising — will allow the groups of 10 to merge into no more than 50 students who can now practice full contact. Social distancing in the locker rooms and weight rooms will still be maintained.

“We're using two weight rooms, the annex and high school's, to get more players scheduled in,” Butler football coach Eric Christy said. “On the field, we do what we can. We'll do offensive formations one day, defense the next.”

After 28 days, assuming the disease load is declining, teams may resume full practices and competitions. That is Phase Three.

Cross country may be a bit ahead of other sports teams.

“Social distancing almost naturally goes with running,” Butler cross country coach Rick Davanzati said. “There is always space between the kids.

“We'll adjust how we start a run, keeping kids apart, but they generally don't touch or bump into each other anyway. We use sand bags and calisthenics for conditioning, so the weight room isn't an issue for us.”

Lucas said she is not on pins and needles when it comes to wondering whether fall sports will begin on time or even occur.

“Not at all,” she said. “We're just going with the flow. We'll adjust to things as they happen.

“We're in the gym. That's a start.”