‘We’re ready to roll’: Coaches react to announcement
The Canton High girls basketball season ended on March 9 in the first half of the Class S quarterfinals with a power outage.
Canton never got to finish the game the next day as the rest of the winter sports tournaments were canceled due to the pandemic.
So coach Brian Medeiros was pretty happy when he heard Thursday that a modified winter sports season was approved by the CIAC’s board of control and would start with practices on Jan. 19 and games Feb. 8.
“I know the kids are excited,” he said. “I’ve been getting more messages recently from the kids, ‘Are we going to be playing?’ When [the state Department of Public Health] gave the thumbs up, there was almost that sigh of relief — OK, that’s the first
step.”
Girls and boys basketball, gymnastics and hockey will be allowed to compete, with masks and other mitigating strategies (although swimmers and gymnasts won’t have to wear masks while competing). Indoor track will be allowed to practice but competition has been pushed back to March potentially and will be revisited then.
Wrestling, determined a high-risk sport, was canceled, although wrestlers will be allowed to condition and do non-contact skill drills in small groups.
“I was very much a realist, after looking what happened with football and what was going on — I’m a union steward, too [for the teachers in the school] — I was pretty certain this was going to happen,” Bristol Central wrestling coach Matt Boissonneault said. “But even with that, when you see it, it’s a punch to the gut a little bit.”
For the East Catholic boys basketball team, a state title is often on the mind. Still the reigning Division I state champs after winning in 2019, the Eagles will have to wait another year to defend their title since the 2020 state tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.
Despite that, Eagles head coach Luke Reilly is thankful for any opportunity to play — with or without a state tournament.
“What we’ve learned throughout the past nine months or so is you’ve got to control what you can control,” Reilly said. “In what we’re in now, we will gladly take anything they can give us. Whatever the restrictions may be, whatever the outlay of games may be, whatever the schedule may be, we are just ecstatic for games.”
Count Newington hockey co-op coach David Harackiewicz in as thankful for some form of postseason, too. Like East Catholic basketball, Harackiewicz’s team is among the state’s top hockey teams with title aspirations. But he thinks a modified conference or regional tournament means just as much at this point.
“A championship is a championship,” he said.
Mitigation strategies in place for hockey include mandatory masking for all athletes while participating. Harackiewicz said that players had a chance in the fall leagues to adjust to playing with a mask, and built-in mask breaks throughout the game will allow players to catch their breath if need be.
“You’ve just got to get used to it,” Harackiewicz said. “Once you get used to it, you play through it. It’s not going to be ideal . ... I think the alternative of not playing versus wearing a mask is something players should just say, ‘Well, we have to deal with it.’ Plus you’re going to be using it in practice, so you’re going to be used to it.”
Harackiewicz knows the season will be a roller coaster. In college and professional sports, positive cases and outbreaks have inevitably forced quarantines, postponements and cancellations.
High school sports, too, will feel the impact of COVID-19 on a daily basis, he predicts.
“Kids and coaches are going to wake up every day; are we going to get an email or call saying we’re shut down, and we can’t play this week?” he said. “Or because of secondary contact tracing, we only have 10 players for a game. I think that’s just going to be on people’s minds the whole season. If you get through a game, and you’re able to play that game, it’s like OK, that’s a positive thing, and try and get through that 12.”
Southington gymnastics coach Cassidy Chamberland said her gymnasts, who won the school’s first State Open championship last year, were looking forward to competing and as far as she knew, they were planning in-person conference meets. Like swimming, gymnastics can have virtual meets or compete in-person.
“We’re ready to roll with whatever regulations and roll with the punches as we go,” Chamberland said. “I think it’s going to depend on the opponent and the judges but our team is all for doing in-person dual meets.”
Windsor girls basketball coach Kirk Murad was a little wary of jumping right into the winter sports season, especially with the higher positivity numbers of late (although the positivity rate was down Thursday to 4.37 %, from a high of over 10% earlier in the week).
“I’m a math guy, I see what’s going on, I see the new strains,” Murad said. “I don’t know any better than the Dept. of Public Health so I have to trust them.
“But I’m going in a little bit shaky. I know the kids need to play, they need to get out and do things.”
Murad also felt that players might opt out.
“Hopefully everybody comes back,” said Murad, whose school is in a hybrid learning mode but some students have opted to stay home for virtual learning. “I won’t know for sure til Tuesday. A lot of it is parent decision. Whoever shows up, I’ll coach them up and we’ll play.”