Contributed
Jade Thomas, left , a Centennial High senior who will play basketball at UNLV, and her younger brother, Shane, practice dribbling drills outside their home. The two are among a legion of local prep athletes that are continuing to hone their skills and stay in shape during the corornavirus pandemic.
Saturday, May 9, 2020 | 2 a.m.
In the garage, sandwiched between the family car and some storage boxes, the Thomas siblings are working on their basketball game.
Jade Thomas, a Centennial High senior who will play basketball at UNLV, and her younger brother, Shane, have worked up a sweat on this afternoon doing a dribbling-and-passing routine. Earlier, they had completed a 2-mile run.
On any normal spring weekend, practice would be conducted with their club team inside an air-conditioned gym. But with outdoor courts and gyms shuttered over most of the past six weeks out of coronavirus concerns, this imperfect setting will make do, especially if it means helping limit the spread of the virus.
It’s a simple mindset: If you want to compete, no barrier will stand in the way.
Games on multiple levels around the world have been paused because of the virus, but the siblings and other local athletes have proved sports in some form are a constant.
Games are the most visible and rewarding because they are where a winner is determined, but it’s important to remember that sports are more than 32 minutes of basketball or seven innings of baseball — it’s a year-round lifestyle, regardless of the game.
It’s refreshing to see the many social media posts from Las Vegas athletes documenting their training, from running around the neighborhood, to catching footballs thrown by dad in the backyard, and endless living room exercise sessions.
One Las Vegas prep football team conducted a virtual workout last weekend, with many players posting the training onto social media. In the background, you could see the kitchen, or a younger sibling’s toys. But, more important, you saw a team in a unified effort working together to get better.
Yes, sports are paused, but they are far from stopped. Getting through a pandemic is certainly easier when doing it with liked-minded teammates.
High school athletics will only return when schools also go back to in-person learning. That means football games under the Friday night lights, a rite of passage for high-schoolers starting in late August, could run into the same outcome of the recently canceled spring sports season.
Baseball, softball, track and other spring sports had a season of about three weeks. There were no playoffs, no championships, no seniors getting to be part of the pageantry of a final home game.
“Our hearts are broken for the sudden end to the high school sports careers of all of our seniors across the nation who would be finishing up their final year of competition,” said Bart Thompson, the executive director of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, in a statement.
Unlike the NCAA, which is allowing collegiate seniors from spring sports an extra season of eligibility in most cases, a prep athlete won’t be as fortunate. High school sports has a quick, four-year window — something magnified by the loss of games because of coronavirus.
The association April 23 launched a social media campaign, #WeWillPlayAgain.
“The lessons they have learned through high school sports such as teamwork, perseverance, overcoming adversity, sacrifice for the good of the team, etc., are being seriously tested in the real world rather than the world of controlled competition,” Thompson said.
How about this for the hashtag — #StillPlaying?
Regardless of when practices and games return, athletes aren’t slowing down in their social-distancing approved training. They are still playing, finding new ways to best enjoy sports.
Some Las Vegas-area high school football programs are conducting spring practices over video conference, installing the playbook and analyzing film of potential opponents so players can hit the ground running when they return to on-campus training. Some teams have given players a list of daily drills to perform. Some players are finding drills on their own on YouTube.
It shows that even though there might be no coach pushing them to get better — and no weight room or field to train on — that sports never stop. Soon there will be another game to play, and the athletes who are most creative in continuing to train could be at an advantage.
If anything, the virus-related shutdowns have ignited a newfound passion with high school athletes. They’ll have a greater appreciation for the grind in preparation, and cherish every moment of competition. Bring on the wind sprints at the end of a two-hour practice in temperatures of more than 100 degrees!
Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21
