The Hayes’ Basketball program, like all sports programs across the school, are taking steps to preventing the spread of Covid-19.
In preparation for this season, the program, with help from the athletic department, took extreme care in preventing the spread of Covid-19, including masks, temperature checks and controlling player movement during team activities.
“We are taking every precaution that we can during these difficult times,” Boys’ Varsity Head Coach Adam Vincenzo said. “This is something our coaching staff does not take lightly.”
Before every practice, players are now asked to answer questions regarding any possible symptoms. Practices are more protected with pads and are structured to have as little contact between players possible. The players are also now required to bring their own water bottles to practice
“Our players do not have access to the locker room as we are trying to limit our contact and access to multiple spaces as much as possible,” Vincenzo said.
Despite this, the players are doing their best to get the most out of every minute of practice they have.
“We do all we can, whether that’s lifting or in the gym following all the guidelines so we can take advantage of all the time we can get,” junior guard CJ Holmes said. “We know it can be taken away from us.”
The coaches can only warn the players about the risk of the virus outside of the court, hoping that they make the right choices off the court as they do on the court.
“If basketball is a priority to them, they need to make decisions that show that,” Vincenzo said. “What a player does outside of basketball is out of my control.”
The players across both the boys and girls’ teams understand the sacrifices they have to make to keep playing the game they love, and to keep everyone around them healthy.
“We want to be safe so that we can have a great, fun and safe season,” junior forward Sophia Midura said.
Covid-19 has caused many cancellations and delays across the sports programs at Hayes, and the basketball program has faced its fair share of it. Due to the possibility of a cancellation of the season, the program moved up its senior nights in hopes of getting it done before such an event.
“It would be really disappointing for our seniors, who have worked so hard, to not have a night honoring them,” Midura said.
In the event of a positive Covid-19 case, all players will be asked to quarantine, and the coaches will work closely with the school nurses and the health department with the use of contact tracing to stop a potential spread.
“We look at our contact tracing sheets and what the practice structure looked like for the days in question,” Vincenzo said.
Through it all, the basketball program aims to stay strong and fight through the pandemic to keep up the spirit they had before the pandemic.
“No matter what we’re facing, we’re doing what we have to do to keep our winning culture going,” Holmes said.