Now what? That’s the big question
By JEREMY SELLEW
jsellew@yourmvi.com
With practices halted until at least Jan. 4 due to Gov. Tom Wolf’s shutdown of youth and high school sports, high school coaches are left scrambling on how to keep their teams occupied and involved in preparation for the season.
Thomas Jefferson, Belle Vernon and the Frazier boys and girls were the only local teams able to get one game in, playing Friday hours before the shutdown began.
But regardless if teams were able to get a game in or not, all our local coaches are in the same boat.
Thomas Jefferson boys coach Dom DeCicco was grateful for the chance to watch his team play Friday at Belle Vernon.
“These guys have a lot of pride,” DeCicco said of his players. “There is a lot of pride on this roster and in this program and all they want to do is go out and compete. I’m glad they had the chance to.”
While DeCicco was happy with the opportunity, he’s even more pleased his team was able to come out with the win.
But now what?
“It’s a killer because this was a great game and it really gives us something to build off of. Belle Vernon has a great team and we learned a lot about ourselves tonight,” DeCicco said. “But now we won’t even get the chance to really build off of it because we can’t get in the gym for three weeks. It’s tough.”
DeCicco said as much as his team wants to get back out there, Zoom calls and virtual workouts will become the norm.
“I’m sure we’ll arrange some things a couple times a week. We have some film to look at and we’ll get some kind of workout in.”
Belle Vernon will have plenty of things to watch on film together. That’s what Joe Salvino is planning.
“We’re going to try to get on video and break this game down,” Salvino said. “We’re probably even going to watch some games from last year. There are lessons to be learned from this game, so I’m glad we had the chance to play. I’m hoping with the holidays it won’t be as long as it seems.
“I just really wish (Gov. Wolf) would have made this decision sooner. If he knew this is what he was going to do, he should have done it earlier in the week or two weeks ago. Announcing it the day before the season starts just doesn’t make sense.”
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