College lacrosse practices this fall have featured challenges unlike any other time.

At many schools, pandemic restrictions have created limitations. For Johns Hopkins, the arrival of SUVs in nearby parking lots was a hint their workouts were about to be altered.

The Blue Jays haven’t practiced on Homewood Field, or with new coach Peter Milliman. With the campus closed to students for in-person activity, they were forced to be as resourceful as possible, instituting captains’ practices on various public fields in the area — the same fields used by elementary schoolers participating in rec league soccer.

“We’ll certainly laugh about that,” junior attackman Joey Epstein said. “Getting kicked off by fourth-graders is definitely a humbling experience when you thought you had committed to play Division I lacrosse at a premier program.”

Consider it just one more thing the Blue Jays hope will never be replicated beyond 2020. Hopkins went 2-4 before the pandemic shortened the season, and Dave Pietramala’s two-decade run as the program’s coach came to an abrupt end. The Blue Jays hired Cornell coach Peter Milliman two weeks later.

He still hasn’t met with his team, instead building relationships largely through Zoom, text messages and phone calls. Milliman knew coming in that it wouldn’t be a normal offseason, but Hopkins’ decision to hold its fall semester entirely online meant disruptions would last throughout the year.

No coach-led practices. No on-campus strength and conditioning. With on-campus housing shuttered, only half the freshman class made it to Baltimore for the fall (and they had to pitch in to split the rent on a house).

“It’s different, for sure,” Milliman said. “There are certainly challenges that are new to me in a lot of ways. I think they’re new to everybody in a lot of ways. Being at a new program has always got its issues, and being in one that has so many restrictions and limitations in what we can and cannot do with the guys, we’ve got an additional amount challenges to deal with.”

Milliman thought he had a good grasp on compliance issues from his time as a Division II coach at Pfeiffer, but he’s learned plenty about that facet of college athletics over the last seven months. Perhaps most striking is how little he can be involved with his players with the campus all but shut down.

So it’s been left to the Blue Jays’ veterans to organize things away from Homewood. Class schedules got in the way during the week, and workouts sometimes only included a handful of players. But it hasn’t stopped Hopkins from trying to implement the new staff’s preferred system on their own.

It isn’t a perfect replica of a regular fall ball, but the Blue Jays are trying to get up to speed with how coordinators John Grant Jr. (offense) and Jamison Koesterer (defense) plan to approach things.

Attackman Cole Williams, a senior back for his fifth season, said the biggest change is that Grant’s system is more free-flowing than what Hopkins is accustomed to.

“I wouldn’t say we’re as structured or as scripted,” Williams said. “We’re kind of enjoying playing without the spotlight of a coach, playing loose, playing fun, especially when we have these captains’ practices. They’re really fun. When there’s no coach around to yell at you, you get to play loose and play fun, which I think is ultimately making us better and is ultimately what Coach Grant Jr. wants us to do.”

But it’s ultimately on the players. Milliman isn’t allowed to control or coordinate a practice. He can’t even write a practice plan. Players can film workouts and forward the video to the coaching staff and receive feedback, but even that has limitations.

The compliance demands also extend into weight room work. Hopkins strength and conditioning coach Jay Dyer is allowed to work with the Blue Jays at his off-campus facility, but Williams said players have to pay like a normal customer to avoid committing NCAA violations. Some financially pinched players have set up weight sets in their apartments and followed Dyer’s workout suggestions at home.

It may not be ideal, but little is right now. And Epstein thinks Hopkins has done about as much as it can under the circumstances.

“Without a doubt, and maybe more,” Epstein said. “I think we’ve learned the system well. I think we’ve gotten to know our coaches well and each other, and the way they expect us to play and compete. Ultimately, it may benefit us. The fall is a grueling time usually. Then you go into winter and it kind of becomes one cyclical grind. I think this fall may have been a mental break without the stress of coaches constantly peering over your shoulder.”

Whether it proves beneficial remains to be seen. But Hopkins’ fall is decidedly different from other high-end programs. Check the Twitter pages of other Big Ten schools, and it’s not hard to find clips from fall workouts on campus.

Is it an advantage? Perhaps. The Blue Jays prefer to look at how they’ve made the most of their situation.

“Sure, these guys are out doing these practices, but they probably can’t do half the drills they want to do because of COVID restrictions,” Williams said. “They probably can’t do full 6-on-6 because that’s past 10 people. We kind of have that luxury because if we’re running it our own at a public field, we can get as many people as we like and we can do whatever drills we like.”

The drawbacks are nonetheless obvious. Milliman acknowledged he’ll be doing far more evaluative work in January than he normally would. Freshmen are bound to be somewhat behind in their college acclimation, especially those who weren’t in Baltimore this fall. And it’s still anyone’s guess how the spring will shape up — including when the season will actually start, what schedules will look like and how a postseason will be conducted.

“The most significant piece of information we have right now is the ever-present understanding that we just don’t know what’s next,” Milliman said. “We don’t know what’s happening, we don’t know how long, we don’t know the timeline, we don’t know what we need to know or when it’s going to change. I can’t really build a game plan off that, so we just have to build off what we do know and build off what is in place.”

And what’s that, exactly?

The Blue Jays have a core group eager to move past everything 2020 had to offer, including their on-field struggles in February and March. Holdovers have done what they can to get to know the freshman class and bring the team’s newcomers into the fold as much as possible.

The priorities are getting better every day. And for Hopkins, like just about any team, the first victory of the new year may well just be getting the chance to actually play in the new year.

“Having a 2021 season is the only goal right now, I think for everyone,” Epstein said. “And looking at other teams practice, that’s fine for them. I think whoever works the hardest and finds a way and is capable of responding to the most adversity is ultimately going to be the best off come the spring and hopefully come May or June.”