The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Outbreaks of COVID force schools to juggle fall schedules
Athletic contests across the state are being postponed or canceled as COVID-19 outbreaks continue to send students out of schools and home for remote learning.
A COVID-19 case closed Darien on Thursday and canceled all athletics for at least one day.
Darien’s girls soccer and girls volleyball games scheduled against Stamford were postponed.
Superintendent Alan Addley said it will be determined later Thursday whether Darien will remain closed Friday.
Darien has four contests scheduled for Friday: 7-on-7 football against Greenwich, swimming and diving against Westhill/Stamford and field hockey against Stamford.
Darien’s boys soccer game against Westhill was previously canceled after a COVID-19 case forced the Vikings boys soccer team to halt activities for two weeks.
Darien and Westhill are among other athletic programs postponing or canceling games as schools move to distance learning after outbreaks.
Darien and Westhill are both playing in the FCIAC West Region this fall. If Darien has to postpone or cancel any more games it would further disrupt the schedules of New Canaan, Stamford, Greenwich and Wright Tech, which also play in the West.
This week, McMahon went to full remote learning, canceling every sporting event until Nov. 2.
Yet it was Mitchell’s talent to inspire dozens of boys and girls, entertain them, humor them, tell them anything they wanted to ask, tell them some things they may not want to hear that was on full display over an hour on this warm October evening.
“I can only imagine what certain families are going through, that kids are going through,” said Mitchell, who attended grades three to nine at Greenwich Country Day before going on to Canterbury School, Brewster (N.H.) Academy and Louisville. “I’ve seen moms and dads cry losing jobs, losing so much. To be at least able to give kids a glimpse of hope, to feed them knowledge as much as I can, to find ways to inspire. Everybody is going through it. We can’t do something like this at school obviously with COVID, so the best way to bring that light of hope was at a socially distant event.”
The kids got a kick out of Mitchell telling them he has played drums since fourth grade in the Country Day band, still has a drum set at home and joked how he’s a top-five singer in the shower. That was only after he had drummed home his essential points about education, effort, willingness to absorb the wisdom of others. And, oh yeah, play defense.
“Don’t let anyone outwork you, whatever field it might be,” Mitchell said. “No one.”
Mitchell had a workout in 11 hours … at 6 a.m.
He let them in on the fact that he eats duck every night during the season and has size 16 sneakers. How he used to eat two big gold packs of Gummy Bears every day until last year. How he drinks at least a gallon of water a day, is in bed by 12 on non-game nights, sleeps 8 1⁄ hours.
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And, oh yeah, loves to play with Nerf guns. He wanted the kids to ask anything and to listen. The man nicknamed “Spida” had them in his web.
“Don’t assume you know the answers,” Mitchell said. “No question is too stupid. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Listen to your elders, people who had done it before you. Without listening you don’t get anywhere. I didn’t listen to anything my mom would say. She was right one time. I was like, it’s a fluke. And it would happen again and again and again. Eventually I stopped being hard-headed and figured it out.”
Asked what she thought watching her son, Nicole said, “I’m so proud of him.”
In March, he and Rudy Gobert were Ground Zero of COVID in sports. When they tested positive, the world of athletics changed overnight. He returned months later to light up the NBA bubble with his play before falling by two points in Game 7 to Portland. The sports world watched him weep on the court.
In the process, he became one of the young NBA spokesmen among seeking to end social injustice. As a former Louisville player, he wore “Say Her Name” on his jersey in honor of Breonna Taylor. Five days after returning home, his grandmother, Nicole’s mom, died and he would send out an emotional Instagram post that touched the hearts of his 3.2 million followers.
Just the other day, he was one of four NBA players who met with vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris for a video hitting on topics ranging from voting to police to education. Nicole is a teacher at Country Day. Education is at the core of their being.
“This is the craziest year of my life,” Mitchell said. “The last game my grandmother saw was my 57point game. Obviously that is for her. She helped me in so many ways, always there for my mother and sister.
“Speaking with Sen. Harris, we were able to talk about improving education and how there are two different Americas we live in and understanding until we are all educated about what’s going on we can’t come together as a nation.”
Mitchell went to private school at Country Day and he went to public school in Westchester County. Nicole talked about her son seeing teammates in less fortunate surroundings.
“He saw the injustices of zip codes,” Nicole said.
“I’ve seen the polar opposites,” Mitchell said. “This isn’t just Connecticut. This is around the world. There are such disparities only 30 minutes away and opportunities that aren’t available to certain kids. I want to show people the difference. You choose what you want to do with it. At least you know. I think a lot of our country is misinformed about the discrepancies. That’s my biggest push.”
He is driven. He tested positive for COVID. He spent the time in quarantine trying to figure out how to be a better 23-yearold man. After he broke his wrist in the 10th grade and gave up his baseball dreams, there he was a couple of years later ranked 43rd in the nation among basketball recruits, bent on outperforming the 42 ahead of him. When Dennis Smith of NC State, De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk of Kentucky were taken ahead of him in the 2017 draft, Mitchell made them targets for his motivation.
He talked about keeping a video clip of motivational speaker Eric Thomas on his iPhone. How Thomas says he can kill an alligator with his bare hands, because after they eat themselves full, they’re satisfied and are almost paralyzed. The message: Never be satisfied.
“I haven’t made it past the second round of the playoffs and it eats at me every day,” Mitchell said. “That moment everyone sees me laying on the ground crying. In my head, I’m trying to never have that feeling again. Once you understand a setback is there to help you grow, you’ll be in good shape.
“There’s always more you can do. Not just in basketball, in life. Are you happy just with a job or do you want to be a CEO or a manager? Guys like LeBron, Kobe, Jordan, they’re never satisfied. My biggest motivation is, what are you going to do next?”
The immediate answer is he’s waking up at 6 a.m. for a workout.