Playing basketball during COVID era presents new challenges for SC high schools
John Combs wanted to be coaching his players on the basketball court Tuesday night. He was at home, however, watching other teams play on his computer.
Instead of playing a game against Spring Valley, the Westwood High boys coach was watching a live stream of Class 5A state champion Dorman against region foe Byrnes.
Combs, who also is president of the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association, tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday. He has experienced some symptoms — mainly fatigue, he said — and remains isolated at home away from his wife and two daughters. He is still teaching classes virtually.
“I knew this was going to happen. I just hoped we would be further along,” Combs said Thursday. “We got three games under our belt.”
Westwood had to cancel games for the next two weeks because of COVID protocols. The Redhawks can return to the court on Dec. 21, and their next game is against Ridge View the following day.
Basketball programs in the Midlands and around South Carolina are being affected by COVID in the first weeks of the 2020-21 season with games being canceled or postponed, or full programs on pause. Other local teams currently in quarantine or recently out because of coronavirus protocols include the A.C. Flora boys, Spring Valley girls, Dutch Fork boys, Blythewood boys, Chapin girls, Brookland-Cayce boys, Dreher girls and Keenan boys.
Just this week, there were 394 public school varsity basketball games scheduled with about 170 of them canceled or postponed, according to the South Carolina High School League.
“The physical and mental health of our kids and coaches is our biggest priority,” Combs said. “We still try to stay engaged with them through Google meets and let them know we are still thinking about them. Even though they are totally healthy, they are told they have to quarantine for 14 days. But we told them, if they are able, try and get up some shots and run to stay in shape.”
Keenan has paused basketball activities twice already because of COVID issues. The defending Class 3A state champions have yet to play a regular-season game, and they open 2020-21 at The Bash (formerly Bojangles’ Bash) on Saturday against Winston-Salem Christian.
“I’m just rolling with the punches,” Keenan coach Zach Norris said. “I am taking it one day at a time and praying we can make it through a season. We already have had enough setbacks. ... Kind of expected it to happen with the situation in the country at hand. You can never be assured of anything. And our kids are growing up and maturing through this.”
What a season during a pandemic might look like was already a top concern in the weeks leading up to the first games. The rise in new coronavirus cases around South Carolina — including a single-day high of 3,137 S.C. cases reported Friday — hasn’t made basketball’s outlook any less challenging.
Both Norris and Combs remain optimistic that teams in the state can get through a season, although Combs admits he’s a little less optimistic than he was just a month ago.
Navigating the pandemic
S.C. High School League commissioner Jerome Singleton on Wednesday said there are no plans to pause or shut down winter sports. The league will continue to monitor such things as COVID numbers and trends.
Some S.C. districts and schools have already made winter sports decisions. Sumter County, Orangeburg County, Manning and Marlboro County have shut down high school sports until January, hoping that COVID-19 numbers will go down. Sports at Bishop England High in Charleston are on hold indefinitely with the school going to all-virtual classes.
Lee Central and Ridgeland-Hardeeville high schools didn’t play fall sports and also won’t play winter sports.
Football was able to get through its season in the state even as many games being were canceled or postponed. COVID trends in South Carolina were largely unchanged during football season, with an uptick in new cases statewide during the playoffs. That sport is deemed high risk for COVID transmission by the National Federation of High School Associations.
Around 10% to 12% of the football schedule was affected by cancellations or postponements, according to the S.C. High School League.
Basketball is considered a moderate-risk sport, but it presents challenges because a team plays multiple games in a week. Meanwhile, coronavirus community spread is on the rise during the winter and holiday seasons. High school wrestling begins this week and will face even tougher challenges because it’s another high-risk sport, and one that usually takes place indoors. Hammond High School hosted an outdoor wrestling tournament on its football field this weekend.
Basketball programs already adjusted their 2020-21 schedules and reduced the amount of games being played. In a normal year, public schools can schedule up to 27 games, but this year most teams are trying to play between 14 and 18 contests with region games taking top priority because they determine playoff seeding.
Most, if not all, regions in the state are trying to play the same team twice in a week in region play to minimize how many programs are impacted if there’s a cancellation, postponement or quarantine.
Region 5-5A, which includes Lexington and Dutch Fork among others, began region play, and teams are playing each region opponent three times.
At the SCHSL’s suggestion, most teams are leaving one or two weeks open at the end of the regular season for makeup games. Sumter athletic director Curtis Johnson said Region 6-5A is considering a single-elimination conference tournament if all its teams can’t play the full slate of region games.
Still holiday tournament time
S.C. Independent Schools Association member Cardinal Newman High School announced this week it will be virtual for the rest of the semester. That means no extracurricular activities, including sports, until Dec. 19.
Cardinal Newman’s girls basketball team, which is nationally ranked in ESPNW’s high school power rankings, won’t be able to compete at this weekend’s Battle at The Rock in Rock Hill or the upcoming United Bank Holiday Invitational in Myrtle Beach.
The Cardinal Newman boys team had to cancel games with nationally-ranked Legacy Charter and couldn’t play at The Bash. Its next scheduled game is at the Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach on Dec. 26.
Cardinal Newman boys coach Phillip Deter said his team won’t be staying in hotels together like Beach Ball Classic teams usually do, unless players are staying with family. Others might choose to ride the team bus or with their parents from Columbia to Myrtle Beach, and back, for each game.
“Do everything we can to get to the Beach Ball Classic. Let’s make that our goal,” Deter said. “Our strength coaches put together a plan for the week so they can stay in some sort of shape when they left. If they do two weeks of that, we will hit the ground running when we get back.”
High-profile basketball events in Columbia such as the Chick-fil-A Classic at Richland Northeast High and MLK Bash at Eau Claire were canceled. Others S.C. events, however, including the Beach Ball Classic, The Bash, Cayce Roundball Classic and Poinsettia Classic in Greenville are moving forward despite some teams pulling out. The Cayce Roundball Classic has been reduced from 16 to eight teams.
The Bash is usually held at Ridge View High School, but Richland 2 isn’t allowing any multiple-team events at their schools this year. The event was moved to Cardinal Newman, which was no longer an option because of the school’s decision this week to shut down.
Bash tournament director Brian Rosefield spent Wednesday trying to secure a new location for The Bash, which began Thursday. Rosefield was able to get Columbia International University to host the three-day event, which runs through Saturday and features teams from the Carolinas as well as Compass Prep from Arizona.
Rosefield, also the Ridge View athletic director, said he was overwhelmed by support from coaches and everyone who played a role in keeping The Bash going.
“There has never been a thought to cancel it,” Rosefield said. “If I truly couldn’t have found a venue, they would have canceled. We were at the 11th hour.
“It has been an experience like no other, especially this year. But to be involved with a group of people that want to pull off something like this and do it in a safe manner is incredible.”
Fan capacity and safety measures
Capacity for The Bash is 250 spectators per game, and Rosefield said the event has all the recommended COVID safety protocols in place. Saturday’s games will be divided into two sessions and the gym cleared out and cleaned between the first and second session.
Schools around the area and state are limiting per-game capacity to around 150 to 250 fans. Richland 1 announced this week that it is limiting capacity to 150 fans at high school events, with no spectators allowed at the district’s middle school basketball games. Districts haven’t been clearing stands and sanitizing between games, but that might happen down the road.
Face coverings are required for spectators. Some teams are asking players to wear masks while on the bench, with some spacing out the bench seating to allow for distancing. North Carolina is making its high school basketball players wear masks during games, but that order came from Gov. Roy Cooper and not the high school association. Singleton said no such order is being considered in South Carolina.
SCHSL playoffs are scheduled to begin Feb. 15 for girls and Feb. 16 for boys. Only the top two teams in the region will make the playoffs, compared with the top four in a normal year.
The SCISA playoffs begin Feb. 19 and end Feb. 27 in Sumter.
“I would be confident we get through the season,” Deter said. “SCISA has come out since day one and said we are playing. We are wanting to make an opportunity for these kids. Having to shut down last year really hurt. Each school will be different, obviously ... but we want to make sure our athletes have some sort of experience through this type of pandemic.”
There is hope a vaccine will be able to slow down the spread, but S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster said this week there will be limited availability early on. The state Department of Health and Environmental Control on Friday said “it will be months before there is enough vaccine available for everyone.”
“I’m usually an optimistic guy, but I haven’t seen anything to make me think things will be better come the first week in January. I hope I’m wrong,” Westwood’s Combs said. “When you talk about the holidays, and just talking to more and more people getting it, I have a hard time believing things are going to get better in a timely manner.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
