Cory Tubbs has felt more frustrated than usual lately.

Tubbs, head coach of the Norwich Free Academy girls’ swimming and diving team, has felt like there’s been a never-ending number of obstacles that keep popping up as she tries to get her team ready for a season held in a pandemic. Once she gets one issue taken care of, another arises, with multiple plans needed to take care of it.

It’s during those moments that Tubbs pulls back and takes a long view of life and uses gratitude.

“Everybody has their little issues,” Tubbs said. “I’m just trying to get through and I’m happy the girls have a season. And I keep telling them that.

“Every time something comes up, I say, ‘We have a season and we’re going to make the best of it.’”

The CIAC girls’ swimming season will be different than any other sport held this fall because teams won’t swim head-to-head in person. Their meets will be held virtually with times later compared to their opponents. It cuts down on the number of people inside the pool area.

“It’s going to be different,” Waterford head coach Brett Arnold said. “For the most part, all ECC swimming and diving coaches all get along really well.

“It is going to be a little different trying to get times. I’ve already told my assistant Ken (Pancoast) that he’s going to be up at the scoring table with me because we’re going to have to convert meter time to yards time. I’m a social studies teacher; I can barely add.”

The Lancers are fortunate they have a pool. Schools such as NFA don’t and won’t have access to a diving board this year, which is unfortunate for its divers, sophomores Hannah Ard and Camille Caldrello.

Another issue that NFA and other teams that use the UConn Avery Point have is how to keep the limit of swimmers in the pool area.

“We would love to be able to stream our meets, but we can only have 25 people in the pool area and I have 25 girls,” Tubbs said. “That means that I have to rotate some of my freshman swimmers in and out because (assistant coach) Cathryn Wilson and I count as part of the 25, plus the officials and the scorers. So we have to figure that out."

The swimmers cannot wait outside in the hallway, so Tubbs, Wilson and Fitch head coach Molly Condron have been trying to figure out a solution.

“We were looking into maybe getting a tent to put outside, but it’s going to start to get cold," Tubbs said.

“You get over one bump and then you have another that has to be considered.”

The CIAC has mandated that swimmers arrive in their suit and wearing a sweatsuit and that they keep all of their personal items, including towels, in a gym bag. Masks should be worn when at all possible when swimmers aren’t competing.

Arnold has been spending time after practices to disinfect the kickboards, diving blocks, bleachers, etc. He’s also had his relay teams get used to a new alignment that spaces them out. One stands on the block, the next stands six feet behind, and the other two behind the pool’s railing.

“There’s some maneuvering to do,” Arnold said.

Although Waterford is fortunate enough to have its own pool, Arnold said that he’ll miss the bus trips because there aren’t any road meets.

“Our very first meet was supposed to be on Sept. 11 at Woodland (of Beacon Falls),” Arnold said. “We always get off I-84 and stop at Pepe’s Pizza on the way back. We get all these fancy pizzas on the school bus. It’s part of building the team camaraderie.”

n.griffen@theday.com