High School Basketball Returns to Play Amidst Pandemic Uncertainty
Minutes before tipoff, the basketball court in Wright Gymnasium on the campus of Maine Central institute is silent. The varnished hardwood bleachers are folded against the wall, leaving a swath of pale floor where a mountain of spectators should be. The chemical scent of cleaning products fills the air in place of buttery popcorn, and the buzz of the crowd is replaced by the lonely echo of a few bouncing balls, muffled quickly by the vast emptiness of the room. Without pep songs or applause, the athletes appear on the court, materializing from the locker room onto a floor as barren, seemingly, as a frozen central Maine cornfield.
“It’s weird not having fans,” said senior guard Ryan Friend after the game. “It’s harder to get into the game because there’s no one to get you going.”
This is the way of the world in a pandemic — utterly strange, oddly deflated, but not quite defeated. The Husky basketball squad still suited up for the season opener on January 15th, a 51–44 loss to the Dexter Tigers. Like each of Maine’s varsity basketball teams not barred from playing by a local virus outbreak, they competed before an empty gym.
Strange as the “new normal” for basketball may seem, it came with great anticipation for the players and coaches, who endured a painfully long and limited preseason just to get to the home opener.
The Maine Principals Association’s “Return to Competition” guidelines prescribe a step-by-step process for reaching competition readiness for each sport or activity based on its virus transmission risk. Basketball falls in the “moderate” risk category.
Practices were confined to “skill-building drills and conditioning” from December 7th to the 14th before progressing to “team-based practice with physically distanced group activities,” and eventually, “within-team competition (e.g. intra-squad scrimmages).” Beginning January 11th, teams could compete with other schools within their geographical area, marking the start of a regular season schedule.
Indoor crowds of more than 50 people remain prohibited, per Governor Janet Mills’ November executive order, high school sports included. Of the myriad challenges the Huskies face this season, the empty gym is perhaps the most immediate on game day.
Anyone whose attended a high school basketball game recognizes the palpable energy that fills the gym before tipoff. The players stream from their locker room tunnel and bounce through layup lines, riding on the energy of the room as they slap the glass and drop in finger-rolls just above the rim. A pep band blasts its tunes while cheerleaders shout their numbers, steady as metronome, melting into the vast sensory experience that is high school hoop.
“I miss the atmosphere. I miss the band. I miss the crowd. And I know [the players] do too. But we’ll take what we can get,” said Tardy.
The energy in the building was that of some unrecognizable purgatory — not quite a practice, and not quite a game. But neither this nor the mask mandate, which includes players on the floor, was enough to damage the athletes’ competitive fire.
Said senior forward Parker St. Clair, “It’s still a game, so I just try my best to get ready. It sucks not having fans, and it sucks wearing a mask, but we’re still playing. It’s still our senior year, and we’re still having a season.”
Friend and St. Clair know what the alternative is. Their senior football season was first reduced to 7 vs. 7 two-hand touch and then abruptly cut short in October as pockets of the virus appeared in neighboring schools, and the Maine Department of Education designated Somerset county with a “Yellow” status — meaning high school sports were a no-go.
After a fall season fraught with uncertainty, emotions are mixed for everyone involved.
“After we had our football season changed so much, it feels good to get out there and actually play normal basketball against another team,” said St. Clair.
Athletes, coaches, and administrators waited anxiously through the Thanksgiving holiday to find out the fate of their basketball season. For the seniors, any sacrifice was fair game if they could just get on the court with their teammates to compete.
Amidst these unfair circumstances, the cliches and maxims that so often spout from coaches suddenly have new teeth. The challenges at hand are far greater than a fourth-quarter deficit. The importance of living in the moment takes on new urgency when a positive test or two could end your season, or your career.
“We can only control the opportunity that’s in front of us,” said Tardy. “Every night that we can play we count as a privilege.”
Contact Nick Miller at nmille11@uoregon.edu
