By Brennan Hartigan
During this school year, where everything has been virtual, the status of sports was in question. But eventually, schools were allowed to proceed with their athletics, one of them being basketball. The basketball season lasted mostly during the month of January. The season consisted of three games a week up until the first week of February, where there was a week off till the playoffs, which had single elimination games.
Despite schools being closed, the last basketball season ended up working out great. The whole place was very clean and everyone attending was very cooperative with the health guidelines and regulations. Kevin Quinlan, otherwise known as Coach Q, had a very important and special impact on carrying out the rules while still giving people the opportunity to watch our Herndon sports. Coach Q has great awareness about how everything is changing for students returning to school and having a good proportion of school virtually this year. The hardships that everyone experienced were shared between one another and we have made a lot of progress.
Coach Q had some advice to help students during these trying times: “The first thing that comes to mind is communication. I say it often a couple times a week and I say it to the player, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Everybody at some point is going to need help, so communicating early and often is the best way to do that. Sometimes you need to talk to your teachers in Stinger or in class to make sure that you're getting the support you need. With basketball or athletics you just need to communicate with your coaches, and life gets in the way sometimes and as long as its early and clear things can be worked out.”
The month-long season provided a vision for the future of going about school athletics. We are taking little steps in the right direction on a path back to normality.