Promising Basketball Season Interrupted by COVID Outbreak
By Nicolas Davalos and Daniel Peterson
The Albany High boys basketball team’s season had its share of success and struggle, and as playoffs begin, the Cougars ended the regular season playing, on average, an exhausting three games a week.
This number has increased exceptionally because of a coronavirus outbreak among the varsity team. The outbreak postponed games, practices, and all other team activities for about a month, and the team had to hustle to make all those games up.
Players note that COVID has impacted the team’s morale, playstyle, and conditioning among other things, and it played an important role in the team’s late-season performance.
The Cougars started off the season strong, winning eleven of their first twelve games before the outbreak occurred. However, notable injuries and positive COVID tests threw them off, causing the Cougars to have a 3–8 record through the last eleven games.The last game was a tough loss in their first playoff game against Vallejo.
“After the outbreak, we were rusty and our chemistry was down,” junior shooting guard Beau Jones said.
Jones was one of the six players to get COVID during the outbreak. He spoke on his experience and how it affected his playing, “I couldn’t do nothing. I stayed in my room all day. Every day felt the same: just playing games, sleeping, and studying.”
Returning to practices and games after being cooped up in a room all day for ten days straight is indeed a challenge, and Jones noted that when he came back he was “very out of shape.”
The outbreak also affected players who recorded a negative COVID test.
“I was lowkey nervous and kind of scared that I was going to catch it,” junior forward Altay Hodoglugil said.
Basketball is a contact sport that requires lots of physical play, so if someone practiced while having COVID, it’s very likely that another player caught it as well. There’s also the fact that players aren’t wearing their masks at all times during practice. They may need to take masks off for water or even just to breathe as the conditioning can at times be rough. These two factors played the most important role in the COVID outbreak and caused players who weren’t involved in the positive pool to feel anxious.
The impact the outbreak had, although mostly negative, wasn’t completely fatal to the team’s morale. Hodoglugil also talked about how the break provided a much needed rest from the exhausting schedule.
“We go two hours a day and we barely get any rest so it was cool to have a little break period.”
This “break period” wasn’t the same for everyone however, as some were forced to stay inside a room all day and others were able to go outside and live life at least semi-normally. Each team member’s experience was different.
The Cougars were determined to make a comeback in their first playoff game on February 8th versus the Vallejo High Redhawks after coming off a losing streak. The last time Albany played Vallejo was in the regular season, and Albany lost on a controversial and heartbreaking game winner. This provided players with all the more motivation to win this game.
Albany started off the game hot as they led by five points at halftime behind senior guard Jonas Lettau. The Cougars started to let up a tiny bit in the third quarter as they ended it down four with a score of 49–53, but it was nothing compared to the landslide they experienced in the final eight minutes of the game.
It was as if Vallejo flipped a switch that made them unstoppable, and Albany began to struggle in offense and defense. Vallejo started to hit three pointer after three pointer and slam dunk after slam dunk. Meanwhile Albany couldn’t hit a shot or even move the ball as Vallejo ended the game on a 24–0 run to defeat the Cougars 77–49. It was a tough loss to experience after an incredibly hard-fought Cougar season.
It is unclear whether or not Albany will have a chance to play another game but if they do, it’s a must-win game. Either way, the Cougars are determined to be back stronger than ever next year.
“Next season, we’re going to do even better because we have [strong sophomore players] Jamai [Harvey], Jaleel [Jackson], and some transfers coming,” Jones said.
