By Genesis Olsen, Staff Writer
A sudden spike in COVID-19 cases at Bear River High School has caused the shut down of practice for girls varsity basketball, but the players still have the desire to be back on the court this year.
The duration of the quarantine shutdown has caused sports to look very different than previous seasons. Likewise, games have been completely shut down this semester and postponed and pushed back many times. At the start of the season, only conditioning was allowed. Once practice was permitted by the district, the students and coaches had follow many safety protocols. Players and coaches alike hope for some variation of a season despite the negative outlook.
Junior Morgan Peterson explained how COVID and the recent spike has changed practices for the team, elaborating on the minimal amount of games they are allowed to participate in.
“The virus has affected practices and games because we are back to not being able to practice with balls anymore,” Peterson said. ” The only way for us to play games is in Rocklin and we have to be an AAU team but. It is hard for us to play games when we can’t even have real practice.”
Senior Erika Junge has been on the girls varsity team for three years and acknowledged the differences that took place this year because of COVID.
“Playing is different this year [and] we have yet to have a normal practice,” she said.
Jennifer Krill, coach of the girls varsity team, elaborated on how practice was playing out with the safety protocols all participants must follow.
“Coaches must wear masks at all times,” said Krill. “Players do not have to wear masks while we are running conditioning. It would be extremely tough for players to run and exert that much effort with a mask on.”
Coaching during COVID has been an extremely different ball game for all coaches, and Krill explaines the difficulties she has had interacting and communicating with players during this difficult season.
“it’s very tough to connect with student-athletes, but hopefully we can change that soon,” Krill said.
Like many coaches, Krill still has hopes for the varsity basketball season, despite the many setbacks and difficulties everyone is facing.
“If we have any way to make it happen, I hope we can,” Krill said.
Junior Heaven Lafata is in her second year playing on the varsity basketball team and expresses a different opinion on the way people are treating the COVID virus.
“The virus isn’t going to go away ever, no virus does, so we should just be allowed to go back to normal,” said Lafata. “If anyone is afraid of having a season because they are afraid to get the virus, they don’t have to come. They can stay at home.”
Voicing the opinion of many girls basketball players, Lafata adds a final point.
“I hope we get a season this year,” she said.
