COVID-19 delayed its season 7 weeks. But Boise High basketball won’t make excuses.
When the final buzzer rang Tuesday night, the Boise High boys basketball team had every reason to storm the court like it had just won a state championship.
After yo-yoing between a delayed season, finally starting practices and then a two-week, COVID-19 quarantine, Boise was the last public school in Idaho to play its first game. (Only the private Sun Valley Community School has yet to start.)
As if that wasn’t dramatic enough, Boise also made two defensive stops and a key free throw in the final 10 seconds to ice a 39-37 victory at Mountain View.
But the Brave didn’t rush the floor. They didn’t spray water all over anyone. Instead, they calmly returned to their bench and packed up their gear, treating the long-delayed season opener like any other game.
The global coronavirus pandemic has made this high school basketball season one unlike any other. So Boise knows its plight won’t gain it any sympathy from opponents or count anywhere in the conference standings.
“Overcoming adversity is just digging deep and not looking at it in a negative way,” Boise senior guard Whitt Miller said. “It’s thinking, ‘OK, what can I control? What can I do better? What can I do to help others get better?’ And then, overcoming it all together.
“It’s just simple as that.”
COVID-19 DELAYS START OF SEASON
Opponents around the state started the season on time, hosting their first practices Nov. 13 and their first games Nov. 28. But Boise at least entered the year in the same boat as everyone in its league when the 5A and 4A Southern Idaho Conferences delayed their seasons two weeks as coronavirus cases soared in November.
Then, slowly but surely, the Brave fell behind.
West Ada and Kuna teams started playing games Dec. 11 and 12. Skyview in the Nampa School District followed Dec. 19.
Meanwhile, teams in the Boise School District couldn’t host tryouts until Dec. 22, and the first boys basketball games couldn’t start until Jan. 8 under the district’s return-to-play plan.
Boise entered the season with state tournament expectations, finishing third in the 5A SIC’s preseason coaches’ poll. It kept pace with its city rivals until it learned a member of the varsity program tested positive for the coronavirus Jan. 4, forcing the team into a two-week quarantine and delaying the season opener again.
“That was a heartbreaking conversation,” Boise coach Manny Varela said. “They are excited. It’s game week. And you just have to go in and tell them.
“Now, they are flexible kids and resilient. But they are looking forward to the end of the week. We’ve been practicing hard, and then it’s no questions asked. We’ve got to go home.”
BACK TO QUARANTINE
The two-week quarantine forced Boise to get creative. Varela hosted virtual practices in Google Classroom, breaking down previous game films and introducing four sophomores to his program’s terminology.
He also designed individual home workouts, but those came with limitations. Not every player owned a hoop at home, so he could only assign ball-handling drills and conditioning workouts.
“We’re supposed to be in quarantine, so it’s stay away from other people,” Varela said. “We were strongly discouraged to stay away from parks. I couldn’t make a workout to have them do anything besides what they can do at their house.”
But Miller and Boise junior forward Jack Payne said the team took the setback in stride. The players have spent most of the past year at home under COVID-19 restrictions. So they just returned to their previous workout routines and used text messages to hold each other accountable.
“Our whole team is really close,” Payne said. “… In prior years, we haven’t had the best chemistry. But this year, we would hang out even if we weren’t on the basketball team.”
RETURNING TO THE COURT
The Brave exited their quarantine Jan. 15, allowing them three practices before their first game Tuesday. Boise jumped out to an early lead before its legs wore down and allowed Mountain View, playing its ninth game, to mount a rally.
Boise then fell the next night to Borah, 58-49. The Brave will still play a full 10-game league schedule — if the virus allows it — like everyone else in the Boise School District. But to make up for lost time, it opens with four games in six days.
Teams in the West Ada, Kuna and Nampa school districts will play a longer schedule before the district tournament. They’ll get more game experience. And they don’t have multiple back-to-back games on their schedules.
But Boise isn’t making any excuses. And it’s saving any celebrations for a bigger victory.
“We can’t really take it as a negative, having to be shut down,” Miller said. “We looked at it as, ‘Listen, it happened. We can’t change it. So what can we do to be better? What can we take as a positive from it?’
“Alright, it’s time to work.”
