If a basketball bounces in the gym and nobody is there to hear it, who won the game?
High school basketball teams in the Tri-Cities are about to find out the answer to that twist of the age-old philosophical question.
In a memo to school administrators and athletic directors, the executive director of BC School Sports, Jordan Abney, has outlined new safety protocols in the wake of additional public health measures announced Dec. 29 by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
While Henry’s announcement included a ban on tournament play through to the end of January, further protocols related to the restart of schools on Jan. 10 will also have a significant impact on the winter sports calendar at local high schools, including basketball, wrestling, skiing and snowboarding.
Abney said additional rules to reduce the number of visitors to schools mean spectators will be prohibited at school sporting events. Only individuals directly involved in the competition like the athletes, coaches, officials and medical attendants will be permitted in the gyms.
The absence of supporters like friends and family is a tough blow, said Stephen Bruyneel, the coach of the Centennial Centaurs’ senior girls basketball team.
“Playing in front of parents/family is great for the players and I know they will miss it,” he said. “It is hard to replace fans in the stands.”
Bruyneel said the empty gyms means players will have to lean on each other more for support during games.
More significant, though, is the loss of tournaments.
Bruyneel said the out-of-league games, like Centennial’s own Top Ten tournament that is traditionally scheduled for mid-January, are an important barometer for teams to measure their progress and enjoy a variety of competition as players and coaches prepare for a run at zone and provincial championships.
Instead, he’ll focus more on process than winning or losing.
“I measure things like successfully running our press break, setting up and running our offensive plays and zone defence,” he said.
Another tournament that won’t happen is the annual Legal Beagle at Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox Secondary that was scheduled to begin Thursday. The gathering of some of the top senior boys’ basketball teams is often a barometer of what might transpire at provincials in March.
The Archbishop Carney tournament scheduled for Jan. 7–8 at the Port Coquitlam independent school has also been cancelled.
BC School Sports’ Abney said individual sports like wrestling, skiing and snowboarding should also be “scaled down” as much as possible by reducing the amount of schools and athletes competing.
“The intent here is to strike a delicate balance that allows school sport to continue, but also limit the number of contacts the student-athletes are having in a sport context,” Abney said, adding he remains hopeful the latest wave of the COVID-19 contagion that is being driven by the virulent Omicron variant will subside in time for zone and provincial championships to take place later in the winter months.
