Max Campodall’Orto is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Raymond S Kellis High School for AzPreps365.com

High school basketball looks very different than it has in the past. Changes due to COVID-19 have led to a season like never before.

 

With the new restrictions in place, the Kellis program was unable to participate in many of the pre-season team building activities it had in years past including pre-season games, summer and fall leagues, Christmas and Thanksgiving tournaments, and more.

 

“Without these preseason activities, we’re forced to work out the kinks on the fly, and it’s showing our youth and inexperience,” head coach De’Rahn Stinson says. “Mistakes we should’ve worked through in the summer are being worked through mid-season.”

 

“The pandemic got of us to a bad start,” junior guard Amare Arbizu says. “The season came so quickly with no preseason to see where we were. We had to play catch up to start the season.”

 

Despite the setbacks, the team understands that these restrictions are necessary to keep the players and the community safe. “My team is always super open to whatever the AIA is saying,” Stinson says. “My players weren’t too happy with the delays, but they understood why it needed to happen and we knew we could only control what we can control.”

 

Everyone inside the gym, including the athletes, must wear facial coverings at all times. Only a very limited number of spectators are allowed to attend games and their attendance must be scheduled ahead of time with the program.

 

The entire program has been affected from freshman up to varsity. Stinson has been forced to separate the teams and keep them apart to limit the risk of transmission between the players at the three levels. In a normal school year, Stinson would have “swing kids” practicing with both JV and varsity so they could work on their skills in varsity-level practices, but not this year.

 

Learning to play while wearing a mask was something the team had to adjust to. “We had to learn how to play with something on our face and that also slows down your breathing so it’s been a lot of conditioning and just trying to get used to having these on.” says Arbizu.

 

Stinson has seen the players adjust and push through the discomfort. “Once the players get into the game and get going, they don’t even notice they have the masks on. They play hard just like every other game.” Stinson says.

 

Throughout all the hardship, the Kellis administration has done everything to help the basketball program. “My school and administration have done a great job navigating us through COVID,” Stinson says. “Our athletic director Carly Bourland and our athletic training staff have been huge assets to me as a young coach and I can’t thank them enough.”