Archdeacon
couldn’t get comfortable, couldn’t sleep.
“I couldn’t lay thisway or that and I couldn’t sit,” she said. “I knowmy body, and it hadnever felt like this before. I just ached. Mywhole body hurt. I’ve got a bad back anyway and now it was killing me.”
But she said one of the toughest moments of this ordeal came just a few days ago when Matteo — his face masked, his feelings not — opened up to her:
“He said, ‘Mommy, when can I hug you and kiss you again?’
“I was like, ‘Oh geesh!’ It was cute, and it was sad. It really kind of breaks your heart.”
The virus first put Green and her team in the emotional wringer last March, when – after winning both the A-10 regular season crown and the A-10 tournament title – the Flyers were awaiting their NCAA Tournament assignmentwhen they sawthe season shut down.
This preseason, as the Flyers readied for the uncertain year ahead, Green said she and Andy, who is a school teacher, took all the precautions they could. Theywore masks, practiced social distancing and didn’t have gatherings in their home. Nor have they been in personal
contact with their families back in Iowa.
At Flyers’ practice, Green, her assistant coaches, the players and other personnel were equally diligent she said.
Regardless, she started feeling ill after a team scrimmage on Sunday, Nov. 22.
“It hit really quickly,” she said. “I had a fever, a sore throat, all the symptoms and I just kind of knew. And right then I followed all the protocol and began to isolate.
“The next morning we were scheduled for one of our regular testings — we get tested three times a week — and Iwasn’t surprisedwhen I found out I was positive.
“That I had COVID.”
‘Going on adrenaline’
Her first two days at home
she tried to work herself through her illness.
“I tried to navigatehowwe were going to prepare forour first game,” she said. “I did the film session (via Zoom) with the team and my staff and I talked to our administration about all theCOVID protocols. Even though Iwasn’t feeling great, Iwas busy nonstop those first two days.” And then it hit her. “Those first two days I think I was going on adrenaline, but then I realized I’ve really got to rest,” she said.
Soon Andy tested positive, as well — Matteo tested negative — and the Green family did its best to soldier through these strange, unsettling times.
Matteo turned out to be a real trouper.
“The few times I went upstairs, Iwaswearingamask and he was, too,” Green said. “He knew and he was real cautious. He’d say: ‘Mommy, I can’t come by you now.’
“He understands that and the importance ofmasks and that it’s all because ofCOVID. And that’s crazy when you think about it. He’s just 6. It’s kind of sad, too. But that’s the world we live in now.”
For some college coaches thatworldhasbeenlife-threatening and for some high school coaches around the nation it has been deadly.
Cleveland State’s women’s coach, Chris Kielsmeir, was one of the first coaches to contract COVID-19 and he ended up hospitalized and initiallywondering if he was going to survive. Three monthsafter hewasreleased from the Cleveland Clinic’s HillcrestHospital, he said he still feltweak and constantly fatigued.
Green was buoyed by the efforts of her players.
“They were great,” she said.“Wehavesuchgood, caring kids. Theywould textme and check in on me. They’d put a phone in the huddle and they’d all FaceTime me. They were awesome.”
Yet, all that attention from afar still didn’t temper the sense of isolation thatwould set in, especially at night.
“Aweek or so in I just had togetoutside so Ibundledup one night andwalked down to the end of our block and back,” she said. “Then I just sat down onmy front porch and looked out. I just needed fresh air.”
Back in action
Today, Green will be back on the sidelines as the Flyers meet Akron in their 2 p.m, home opener at UD Arena.
She first rejoined the team three days ago for practice.
“I really tried to be cautious,” she said. “I wore a mask and tried to distance myself. I didn’t give anyone a hug. I didn’t even touch the ball.
“But it felt great tobe back. It was the best thing for me andmademefeel like I’m on the upward, the right track.”
Yet, as she spoke of the tonic her teamprovides, she also showed the lingering effects of the virus. Every so often, her voice would give way to a cough.
That’swhy, she said: “This is no time to let our guard down. We’ve got to wear masks and social distance. This virus is not something to play around with. It’s real. And I knowIwas lucky. Alot of people are getting really sick and ending up in the hospital.”
Keeping an entire team healthy in these debilitating times requires real commitment.
But Green said her players know what is at stake:
“They want this season so badly, and they are doing everything they possibly can do to make it happen. We’ve had a couple of games canceled already. They see how fragile this is.
“Inourprogramwe always preach just ‘playing possession by possession.’ I preach living in the moment and oh man, right now that has never beenmore true. We’re practicing what we preach. Right now, literally, it’s day to day for us.
“Each daywe get that one practice, that one game and that’s all we know.
“Wetestthreetimesaweek and you never know what’s going to happen. If there’s a positive test, thewhole thing gets shut down.”