On a recent Thursday, a few students stayed after school to work on a project for The Green Club. This specific project, The Green Closet, operates like a thrift store; however, all clothes will be free. 

The Green Club is one of the many extracurricular activities that are looking to increase membership in their extra-curricular group. The JV Girls Soccer team even had to sacrifice a couple games in the beginning of its season because they didn’t have enough players.

“Last year we couldn’t do any form of team bonding or things like that,” said Julia Ryan, the coach of the JV Girls Soccer team. “Because of that abnormality, I feel as though that’s why all sports in general have been struggling this year in terms of numbers.”

Meanwhile, The Chess Club pushes on with only two members. Covid-19 restrained teams and   clubs dramatically last year, but its disruption didn’t stop there. 

Many hands-on clubs had to temporarily end during the year of 2020. In some cases there may have been a way to continue the club even during the pandemic, although it just wouldn’t be the same. A big part of these high school clubs and teams are their ability to bring people together, laugh a little, and create outlets for students. 

“The Chess Club didn’t continue last year mostly because we couldn’t be together. The whole idea of club is the camaraderie, learning from each other, and making connections between students, which we couldn’t have done over an online platform.” said Jennifer Brown, the advisor of the Barnstable High School Chess Club. 

Even with the shortage of members, clubs and teams persevere and adapt to the many changes these past couple years have endured. 

“With a smaller club, we have manipulated our goals so that they are more focused and manageable to ensure that they will be completed,”  said Olivia Jonsson, a sophomore member of The Green Club. “Along with that, we’ve been working to set future initiatives so that when the current presidential seniors leave, we can continue to use their previous ideas rather than almost restarting our foundation each year.”

The outbreak itself had a large impact on after school activities, but time commitment and technology in general is a competitor to these extracurriculars. 

“Many high school students have a job on top of their usual homework load and they just don’t have enough time for a sport. Also, I think many kids are in a mindset where they’d much rather go home and sit on TikTok, than play a sport after school,” said Vanessa Pyy, a former coach of the Barnstable Girls Basketball team. 

For more information on the Barnstable High School Club opportunities, please visit this link: BHS Clubs