Justin Bennett can’t help but exude positivity in almost any situation. You could tell him that a piano is about to fall from the sky and land on him, and the Greenwood girls basketball coach would likely respond by telling you what song he’s going to play.
But this winter has tested the bounds of his optimism like no other.
His Woodmen have spent a pair of stints in quarantine, with stretches of 23 and 25 days between games. And even when they’ve been able to play, they haven’t been at full strength — starting with the season opener, when senior Jenna Sawyer was scratched just hours before tipoff, at least one starter has been out of the lineup because of contact tracing for each of Greenwood’s 10 games thus far.
Even the eternally optimistic Bennett has admitted to getting worn down by it all.
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"I won’t lie — it’s been frustrating," he said. "Because I felt like when we had our scrimmage, and up to that point with practices and things we had done, that we were playing well. … We found out right before the game, we found out that Jenna wouldn’t be able to play, and that took us out of what we wanted to do. …
"Since then, we’ve just never really recovered."
Sawyer, Greenwood’s leading scorer at 13.8 points per contest, missed the first five games before the whole team went on quarantine following a county tournament loss at Franklin. When the Woodmen came back, senior Kiersten Powell was out for losses to Martinsville and Mooresville. Then, as soon as Powell was able to return, junior center Quinn Kelly — the team’s No. 2 scorer and leading rebounder — got pulled out.
After a Dec. 22 loss at Indian Creek, the team’s eighth in a row, the 1-9 Woodmen went into team quarantine for the second time. They are slated to return to action Saturday at Eastern Greene.
Greenwood isn’t the only girls team that has regularly dealt with pandemic-related interruptions. Edinburgh is currently on hiatus for the third time after several Lancers touched the same ball as an infected Speedway player during the closing minutes of their Jan. 6 game.
Each quarantine becomes more and more demoralizing for the players.
"This time was really tough on them, and I could tell by their faces in the meeting," Edinburgh coach Amy Schilling said. "When (athletic director David) Walden pulled them in to tell them, they kept saying, ‘How about if we do this? How about if we go get tested?’ And it’s not in his control, and we don’t make the rules, but I could tell this time it was really hard for them to take."
Which is why Bennett, like many other coaches, has been so focused on his players’ mental well-being this winter. Since the start of the season, players have been looking over their shoulder waiting for the next bad news to come. If someone isn’t at practice, fears of an impending quarantine announcement arise.
Not surprisingly, it’s been particularly deflating for the seniors who came into their season harboring big dreams.
"It almost seems like every time I do get quarantined, I get less and less shocked from it happening, because it’s just been so terrible," said Sawyer, who has only played in half of Greenwood’s 10 games. "It just makes me sad, because I want (my teammates) to have this good season and remember this year for the right reasons, and not being quarantined constantly."
Edinburgh senior Annelise Lollar had a list of lofty goals for her last high school season, including scoring her 1,000th career point. Lollar has gotten her career total up to 815 and would likely be on track to hit the coveted milestone had the Lancers been able to play a full schedule.
Instead, the team didn’t begin its season until the county tournament in mid-November, went two weeks without a game in early December and are now on the shelf again until next Thursday. The Lancers will play three days in a row next week and six times in 10 days, but there simply won’t be enough time to get more than 18 total games played before sectionals start.
"We all love to play basketball and we love to get as many games in as we can," Lollar said. "It’s just been heartbreaking for all of us."
Greenwood’s closing stretch was also packed, with seven games scheduled in the final 14 days. But with Southport and Decatur Central both going into quarantine themselves this week, there are questions about how many games the Woodmen will actually get under their belts before the tournament begins.
The players had actually been looking forward to having a mad dash to the finish line.
"Most of us play AAU or travel basketball," Kelly said, "so I think it’s going to be like that kind of momentum, where it’s game after game after game. I think we’re all excited to just — it’s kind of like improvisation, where we’re just thrown out there and see what we can do, and then the next day improve on it and play again. We’re excited to be able to run with it."
With all of the depressing turns that this season has taken for the Woodmen and Lancers, the hope is that the teams will at least be able to go the rest of the way without having anything else taken away. Being able to enjoy the final two or three weeks and finish the season the way they were supposed to isn’t too much to ask, they figure.
But given how rough the ride has been to this point, Bennett says he’s putting the focus on just enjoying the rest of the ride rather than getting caught up in wins and losses.
The players have faced enough stress.
"We want to try to have the rest of this season be as fun as possible, man," Bennett said. "It’s already taxing on all of the kids with having to go hybrid and having been in quarantine three times — some people four times. So what we want to do is just try to have fun. We’re going to go out and just try to work hard, compete and go have fun."
At this point, just being able to do that will feel like a win.
