Ahearn Week #2

 Savor Every Second

    COVID-19 has had a huge impact on all of us in our own ways, but it specifically changed my appreciation for the game of basketball. I have always been grateful to have supportive and encouraging coaches and teammates and I am thankful for every game that I have been able to play in, but I never realized how much I still took for granted. Last season, our high school basketball team was runner-up in the EPC Tournament and we also won the district championship. Our team broke the record for most 3 pointers in a game, we had the best record in school history (26-4), and we had the furthest run in the state playoffs by making it to the quarter-finals. 

    After all our big wins, we would scream music on the bus rides home with music blaring through the speakers. We’d go out to Red Robin for team dinners. We’d have pasta parties the night before the next upcoming game to fuel our bodies. Not once did we think all of this would come to a halt. We felt like we were unstoppable.  This all changed after our last game. We played Altoona on a Monday night in the second round of the state playoffs. Our team won the game 59-48 and then prepared for the rest of the week to play North Allegheny. On Thursday, the day before the game, our coaches brought us into the gym and explained that we were being required to take two weeks off. We all sat around on the court in shock by what our coaches had just told us. We asked questions that they didn’t have the answer to. On our time off, our team did virtual Zoom workouts to stay in shape for the rest of our season. We continued to get pushed back week by week, so we would have team Zoom calls to keep in touch and we all still worked over Zoom as well. Each and every one of us held onto the idea that we would get to finish. Week after week, that hope slowly went away. Then we received the news from the PIAA that the state playoffs would not be finished for the 2019-2020 season. 

    
    Tears were shed and we were all devastated that we couldn’t play for a state title because it was what we were working for all season long. It was at this moment, we all learned we couldn’t take any practice or any game for granted because we don’t know when it will all be over. We had no clue that our game against Altoona was going to be our last time going through our pregame pep talk, the last time we sang songs at the top of our lungs on the bus, and the last time we got to step on the court. Although we are all extremely upset about how our last season came to an end, we use it to motivate us this season. We don’t know if or when we are going to be told we need to stop playing, so we are putting in the hard work and savoring every moment of it while it lasts. 

Our team after winning the District Championship