Virus put basketball on pause
In a period of interruption, routine can be a therapeutic practice.
The Watson Chapel High School boys basketball team stuck with a regimen of preparing for the next opponent, although it had to wait 18 days to play another game this past winter. A case of covid-19, followed by contact tracing, forced the Wildcats to observe a 10-day wait before they could resume basketball activities, but the return to game action was delayed after a scheduled opponent had to postpone a game with similar issues.
Marcus Adams, the Wildcats’ head coach, said his team missed playing during the long break.
“While we were out two weeks, we stayed in contact, so we Zoomed every day,” Adams said. “We talked about game planning. Even though we didn’t have a game, we actually sat there and we had a scouting report as if we were actually still going to play the game. We stayed in contact every single day with those guys, and I said, ‘I know you play video games together, don’t you?’ They’re online a lot, so that brings them even closer together.”
The Wildcats were just beginning a winning streak when their season was paused. Nearly three years removed from last playing in a state tournament, they were hoping the 18-day break would not stop their march to contention for a championship in Conference 4A-8, which covers teams from Magnolia to Crossett in the third-highest classification under the Arkansas Activities Association, the state secondary-school athletic and activity governing body.
A day after Watson Chapel won a game at Warren, Adams received some bad news — Marcus Strong, a sophomore reserve shooting guard, had tested positive for covid-19.
Strong said he tested for the coronavirus after his father had gotten it from work.
“I had to quarantine,” Strong said. “I was worried about the team and the activities the team was doing. I didn’t want to interfere with that. I had to quarantine, and the team had to quarantine. I was watching the team and watching basketball and stuff like that.”
Contact tracing forced the Wildcats to quarantine for 10 days, meaning they couldn’t play against Star City and Crossett. A game at Monticello was pushed back in order for Watson Chapel to have more practice time, but the following opponent, No. 1-ranked Magnolia, had to cancel a date because of covid-19 protocols in its own program.
For high school, college and professional basketball teams, staying in good health has taken on a whole new meaning in the past 13 months. Instead of one row of chairs lined close to each other on a sideline, benches have been redefined with seats positioned 3 to 6 feet away from each other, per social distancing recommendations.
Crowds have been limited to partial capacity with respect to city and school district regulations. At Watson Chapel, the visitors’ pullout bleachers were folded all season, with fans of both teams seated in the permanent home stands.
On the evening when the Wildcats were originally scheduled to host Star City, the girls teams from both schools met in a key conference battle. The Star City Ladydogs defeated the Lady Wildcats en route to an unbeaten conference season.
Last season, the Ladydogs went into the 4A state championship game with a 32-0 season, just one win away from their first title in eight years.
Coach Becky Yarbrough, who finished her 30th season at Star City last month, took her team to Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs to help her team get used to the championship environment ahead of their scheduled 2020 title bout against the Farmington Lady Cardinals.
“We watched the first few games so the kids could get a feel for that,” Yarbrough said. “We went there before we checked in the hotel.”
Then, in the infancy of the coronavirus pandemic, both teams were given bad news.
“They told us in the lobby, you’ll have to go home,” Yarbrough was told. “You won’t be able to play the game. We were in shock. We got on the bus, still in shock. Looking at the kids’ faces and the disappointment, I felt bad for them and the assistant coaches. It was their first time, and they didn’t get to experience it.”
Yarbrough has been there. Her teams finished second in the 1993 and 2010 state playoffs, and her 2012 team won the 4A title over Farmington.
State athletic officials gave both teams hope that the championship games could be made up, Yarbrough said.
“We gave [the players] workouts to do,” she said. “We had hoped we might play, but everything had to be in place. We were peaking at the right time. We were 32-0, peaking at the right time, had a good class of juniors and just had to turn around.”
After 2½ weeks of communicating with Farmington’s coach, reality set in for Yarbrough. The game, and all other high school activities in Arkansas, were canceled for the rest of the school year. All finalists that didn’t get to play were declared state champions.
That didn’t make up for the experience of playing on the biggest stage of a high school player’s career.
“Not being able to play in the championship game was disappointing and devastating,” Yarbrough said.
It also paled in comparison to the losses off the court that Star City schools suffered afterward.
“I did lose my assistant coach Jeff Wilkerson to covid this past December,” Yarbrough said. “He had a long, long battle. I was on the bus to a game in White Hall when I got the call.”
Yarbrough also mentioned the death of Star City elementary teacher Stacie Branson from covid-19 on March 1.
“You think missing a game was really heartbreaking, but you see how [covid-19] can really affect the people close to you,” Yarbrough said. “Missing a game, you can live with that. [Covid-19] affected us in a lot of ways.”
A new season came in November, and along with it a new arena built next to the previous home gymnasium at Star City. Yarbrough relied on Andrea Floyd, the school’s head of nurses, for the proper protocols to help her team avoid missing games.
“We talked on weekends and late at night. She became a team member,” Yarbrough said.
The Ladydogs went 29-4 this past season, earned a No. 2 ranking in Class 4A and won district and regional tournament championships in their new digs, but they lost their second-round state tournament game to Harrison.
Just getting to play again was a victory in itself.
“I credit that to the community and dedication of kids, faculty, administration, all of us working together,” Yarbrough said. “If I can say one thing, facing this adversity together, it made us closer. I think we value the little things we took for granted before covid. I credit my kids on the team because they did a good job wearing their masks. I was on them every day. On the bus, we put seats between them. We utilized three different dressing rooms at home, but on the road, we went dressed most of the time. I would only allow a few to go into the dressing room at a time.”
Adams’ Watson Chapel team returned to the court after covid-19 protocols and extended a three-game winning streak to 10 games. That
“You think missing a game was really heartbreaking, but you see how [covid-19] can really affect the people close to you. Missing a game, you can live with that. [Covid-19] affected us in a lot of ways.” — Becky Yarbrough, Head Girls basketball coach at Star City High School
string ended with a district championship loss to Magnolia, which defeated Watson Chapel again in the 4A South Region tournament final at the Star City arena.
Like the Ladydogs, the Wildcats earned a second-round bye in the 4A state playoffs in Adams’ previous workplace of Morrilton, only to lose to Blytheville.
“Those kids were eager to get back to playing,” Adams said. “Once we got back practicing, my coaches and I were actually pleased with the effort, and we were out two weeks. We knew these guys were ready to come back just to be around to play some basketball.”
Strong did not return to the court, however, despite being asymptomatic.
“I missed it a lot,” he said.
“Me personally, I love basketball. It really hurt me that I missed basketball.”
He said he was happy to see the Wildcats get to contend for a championship, however, after back-to-back losing seasons.
“It meant a lot to me,” said Strong, who is now covid-free. “As a whole, this team works hard. We work hard for everything. It meant a lot.”
Strong’s goal for next season is to help a more experienced Wildcats team bring home the school’s first state title since 1999. His plans for the future are even grander.
“I want to go to the NBA,” he said. “If that doesn’t happen, I want to become an architect and build houses. I used to always watch TV shows about building houses. I fell in love with it.”