Two weeks ago, KSHSAA had a Board of Directors meeting to discuss how to go through with the basketball season while taking COVID-19 into consideration. There was a possibility that the games for the season were going to get postponed until Jan. 15, 2021. KSHSAA has since decided to allow high schools to play their games as scheduled and not postpone them. The only precaution that they are putting in place, as of right now, is there will be no spectators attending the games until Jan. 28, 2021. These guidelines were put to the test Friday, Dec. 4 when the Conway Springs basketball teams played against Cheney at Conway.

“I hope that the team is ready to go out there and dominate and go home with a victory against Cheney for our first game,” sophomore Russel Chitwood said. “I think not having fans watch us will affect us a bit since we won’t really have anyone to entertain or anyone to motivate us, especially when it comes to family.”

Cheney has proven to be a tough competitor in our league, so having them for our first game of the season is a challenge, but important for the teams to see if their playstyle needs to be improved whether they win or lose.

“I think as long as we play well, we can eliminate the errors we make, as well as sticking to basic gameplans, nothing extra,” junior Izic Billups said. “Things we need to improve on to perform well in this game are closing out and boxing out because Cheney will go for every shot they can take.”

With COVID-19 affecting how sports will function this year, it’s putting some pressure on both players and coaches. There are a lot of freshmen in athletics this year, and the pressure of this virus and getting adjusted to a high school level of sports will give them a different experience compared to how they used to play sports in middle school. However, some of them still look forward to the season.

“My expectations are a little low for the upcoming game because Cheney is a pretty hard team to play for the first game of the season,” freshman Gabrielle Dalbom said. “I’m excited to play this year despite the challenges that come with it because a high school level of playing will bring up more competition.