The new normal UConn freshmen and their parents adjust to uncertainties
Ayanna McLean talks with her daughter, Mir, about five to six times a day, sometimes by phone, other times by text or Facetime. These conversations are generally lighthearted and bounce from one topic to another — from popular fashion trends to learning a new word in Arabic.
Then there was that call, spur-of-the-moment, three days before Thanksgiving.
Mir, a freshman on the UConn women’s basketball team, dialed home with some disheartening news. Someone in the program had tested positive for COVID-19.
“She cried,” Ayanna recalls. “We cried.”
A few hours later, the Huskies announced they were shutting down team activities for 14 days. Three games were canceled, including the season-opener against Quinnipiac on Nov. 28 at Mohegan Sun. A fourth was postponed indefinitely.
It was another emotional gut-punch in a year full of them for the Huskies, especially their six freshmen — McLean, Paige Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards, Nika Muhl, Piath Gabriel and Autumn Chassion.
“There was no AAU, no McDonald’s game, no Jordan Classic, no family trip. There was nothing,” Ayan
na said in regard to Mir, a five-star wing from Maryland. “She’s fed up.”
And their parents? As you can imagine, they’re hurting, too. The anticipation, the waiting for the season to … finally … start, is bubbling to the surface.
Bob Bueckers said family and friends ask him all the time when the games will begin. “Let’s just hope they have a season,” he tells them. His 7-year-old son, Drew, tends to be among the most curious.
“I’ve been on ESPN+ a lot,” he said. “I’ve been watching girls that Paige played (against in high school). I try to follow a lot of the Minnesota girls. Most of them are probably at schools around the Midwest. I’m just trying to find as many games as possible just to watch.”
UConn’s new seasonopener is scheduled for Saturday against UMass Lowell at Gampel Pavilion. That’s assuming there are no other COVID-related disruptions before then. Attendance will be restricted to family of studentathletes and coaches. Each player and coach will be allowed up to four guests.
Bueckers wants to be there for his daughter’s much-anticipated debut. He thinks he will be. But there’s some logistical hurdles that must be sorted out first. You know, out-of-state travel is a lot more complicated nowadays.
“I live in Maryland now, so I’m six hours from the campus. I could make a day trip out of it,” he said.
Not all families, however, will be able to make it. The U.S.-Canadian border is closed to non-essential travel, meaning Jackie Edwards will be watching her daughter Aaliyah’s first college game from her couch in Kingston, Ontario. For the Muhls, the trip from Croatia is simply too expensive.
Disappointing? Sure. But in the big picture?
“If that’s the biggest issue that we have, then we’re doing OK,” Jackie said. “If our biggest impact with COVID is not being able to travel to the games, then we’re blessed.”
For the Huskies, almost nothing has been normal. They’ve been in Storrs since late July, without the buzz of activity that makes college unique. The 11 players are split up into three apartments — otherwise known as pods — and can’t interact much with anyone outside of their bubble. Their temperatures are checked every time they use campus facilities. Masks are required whenever possible.
They’ve also been tested three times per week since early November, per NCAA recommendations. Should no other issues within the program arise, they’ll be able to resume full-team workouts on Tuesday.
“They can’t go anywhere, they can’t talk to anybody, they can’t do anything,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “For a couple hours every day, they’re allowed out to get some recess. It’s incredible what’s happened to them.
“And yet, they hang in there and they don’t talk about, ‘I’m done with this.’ They just talk about ‘When’s our first game, when are we playing, when’s our next practice?’ I guess, to me, that seems to be the best way to do it.”
“It cannot be easy,” Jackie Edwards said. “They’re resilient. To keep grinding not knowing if they’re going to get the green light, the amber light, the red light.”
They’ve tried to maintain some semblance of normalcy amid all the craziness and uncertainty.
For Aaliyah Edwards, that means getting together with her parents and 27year-old brother, Jahmal, every Sunday for dinner — virtually, of course.
“I proposed and everyone agreed,” Jackie Edwards said. “It just made sense. We’ve always been a very close family. It didn’t seem odd. It just made sense since we couldn’t do it in person.
“We say grace, have some dinner and a little chit chat as if she were home. She’s a vegetarian. She does a mean tofu stir fry with balsamic rice and a vegetable. Every now and then we do the not-so-healthy Sunday dinner.”
For others, it’s a simple call home on the way to practice.
“We miss each other,” Ayanna McLean said. “I think there’s this bubbling, and not just in Mir, they’re ready to let it out. That athleticism and competitiveness that resides in all those girls, they’re ready to let it out.”
Until then, the wait continues.
“I think we have adjusted to this new normal and living lives day by day, not knowing what can change in a week,” Muhl’s father, Darko, said in an email. “All that has toned down our emotions a bit, but once they actually start the season excitement will be huge!”