The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘A lot of challenges’ ahead for Sacred Heart, college basketball
FAIRFIELD — Mask on his face, heart on his sleeve, Anthony Latina walked off the practice court late Tuesday afternoon.
“Well, we started an hour late, one guy tweaked his ankle, it looked like we hadn’t practiced in 14 days and we were dragging a little at the end,” the Sacred Heart basketball coach said.
You could almost see the smile on Latina’s face underneath that mask.
“And it was great to see each other and be together, get our legs under us and have that camaraderie,” he said.
Game 1 — COVID willing — is at No. 24 Rutgers on Nov 25.
“As a coach, you do feel pressure to win,” Latina said. “But this year you feel a different type of pressure. We’ve got to make this work. I remember I was talking with UMass Lowell about game time (Dec. 4) and all that. I’m like, ‘If we tip off, that’s a win for both of us, it’s a win for NCAA men’s basketball and for NCAA athletics.’ That’s got to be the focus.”
One of Latina’s players started feeling a little sick Nov. 3, Election Day; the team already was off.
There had been an intra-squad scrimmage the day before, that player was tested and by Wednesday the results were back. COVID-19 positive. Depending on signups, SHU players and staff deemed Tier I personnel by the NCAA already were being tested once a week on Wednesday or Thursday.
There were two more positives. Nov. 2 was the first day of exposure, so the mandated 14-day pause brought the Pioneers, a very young team, back to basketball Tuesday.
“The guys were basically quarantined in their room or could go home and be quarantined,” Latina said. “Food was delivered to their rooms by the university.”
Players who were negative were allowed by the university to walk outside for 20 minutes with masks and with social distancing. Aaron Clarke, the 6-foot-1 junior guard who’ll lead the Pioneers this season, went home to New Jersey for a time.
“I was doing pushups, sit-ups,” said Clarke, who hasn’t tested positive. “I was dribbling the basketball in my house. My mom was kind of mad at me.
“I had been shut down a month before, because I had been in contact with someone. This actually was my second time. I had some experience, as crazy as that sounds. So today was rejuvenating.”
The players did virtual workouts in their rooms with the strength and conditioning coach. Body squats, burpees and pushups.
“We’d also have Zoom film sessions,” Latina said, “whether it was an intra-squad scrimmage or previous practice. We did a lot of X’s and O’s stuff.”
The coaching staff had to work from home. With the rising number of positive COVID cases in the area, the school, out of caution, paused all athletic activities from Nov. 6-8. That had no impact on the basketball team. The layoff did.
Passing. Ball-handling. Perimeter shooting. Finishing around the hoop. No practice for two weeks right before the start of the season, is, to use Lartina’s word, “problematic” in such a skill sport.
“These guys are well-oiled machines,” Latina said. “Their level of routine and commitment is very high. You got guys who HAVE to make their 300-400 jump shots. Besides the physical part being taken away, there’s a mental part, too.
“We tried to remain as positive with the guys as possible, as supportive as we could.”
Beyond the group sessions, the coaches continually reached out individually to see whether each guy was OK or needed more support.
“It was something we tried to be very sensitive to,” Latina said. “It’s such a difficult time for all kids. As adults, educators, parents, it’s imperative we make sure they are OK. One thing I have learned, what I observed is how resilient kids can be.”
They’ve observed protocols for months. Basketball. Online school. Eat. Sleep. In the meantime, they’ve watched schedules switch, never knowing whether they’ll actually be able to fit in a season.
“You get challenged in life,” Clarke said. “You’ve just got to take it day by day and find ways to overcome it.”
“You feel terrible for these guys,” Latina said. “The old saying, ‘ What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.’ Well, we’re going to have some strong kids.”
There are so many logistics. Latina talked about starting times, facilities opened to all athletes having to be cleaned, how without separate practice facilities like the basketball powerhouses, men’s and women’s practices must be carefully planned.
In mid-sentence, Latina stops. His phone was beeping.
“My reminder for testing Wednesday,” he said.
Beginning Monday, schools start getting tested three times a week. On Tuesday, the players shot around, kept distanced in the gym as they awaited the results of their testing. If they practiced and someone had come up positive, it could have shut down the team for another 14 days. “Why risk that?” Latina said.
Good news. All negative.
“You can’t ramp it up zero to 100 in one day and risk injuries,” Latina said. “It’s a tricky thing. You have to trust your players and your players have to trust you. These players are so competitive, they’ll go, ‘I’m fine.’ Listen, if you’re not fine, you’ve got to say.”
UConn and Sacred Heart went through the COVID shutdown essentially at the same time. At UConn, where the Huskies resume practice Thursday, the players could work in groups of two with one ball per group, on opposite ends of the floor.
“Tom Moore is a good friend; we called them,” Latina said. “I asked them what they were thinking and doing and I told them what we had in mind. They obviously have a private facility (Werth Center), have a little more ability to do some things.”
There was, Latina said, a game set to meet UConn on Dec. 9. When the Big East adjusted its December schedule, UConn couldn’t make that date work. Sacred Heart was unable to find another spot.
“The schedule is so crazy, who knows, we may end up playing anyway,” Latina said. “They get canceled. We get canceled. It’s local. It’s always a great opportunity for us.”
Latina has two kids. His wife, Jodi, works for WTNH. He knows they can’t stop their lives. He also knows that with students leaving campus until the second semester and the players essentially alone off campus, it is coaches who may be most prone to spread the disease.
“This is the start of my 26th year coaching, but I have no years’ experience with this,” Latina said. “At all levels of athletics, administration, government, it’s a very difficult situation. We’re all being challenged. If it was easy someone would have figured it out by now. You have people’s mental health, which is in conflict with isolating. People’s livelihoods are on the line, if you go out of business. You have to weigh all that.
“When you are in position of leadership on this, there are a lot of bad choices and you try to pick the best of the bad and do the most amount of good and least amount out of bad, knowing any decision is going to cause a little of both. There is a great deal of pressure.”
Iona’s Rick Pitino has called for pushing the NCAA schedule back and having May Madness. The NCAA Division I basketball tournament brings in about $1 billion a year. It is money the NCAA needs to operate. It is money the NCAA needs to operate every sport outside of football, and the NCAA already absorbed one year without it.
“When Rick Pitino speaks, people listen,” Latina said. “What he and others have said has some merit. Dan Gavitt (NCAA senior vice president of basketball) is also a brilliant mind, a very competent person that most people trust and respect.
“We have to have a season and get to an NCAA Tournament. Not necessarily just for men’s basketball. It’s for all college athletics. Look, we’re talking about tremendous opportunities for young people, life-changing situations for a lot of people that never would have gotten that opportunity. A college scholarship for most people is a lottery ticket.
“Cancel the season, I get it. I understand that, but it doesn’t take in account the negative ramifications of what can happen. Men’s basketball and football will survive. The others might not. Those kids in the other sports sacrifice just as much. Their commitment is at an elite level. So there is a lot of pressure on men’s basketball to do the right thing, the best thing, while keeping everybody healthy and safe. Everybody should be open-minded, remain flexible and ready to pivot at a moment’s notice. There is no magic bullet. There are a lot of challenges.”
There are. On Tuesday, the Sacred Heart hockey team, facing a small number of COVID cases and subsequent contact tracing, postponed its first four games.