DALEVILLE, Va. – After nearly nine months of no high school basketball, the Lord Botetourt Cavaliers were grateful to be back on the court.
“I just want to take advantage of anything that I’m given this year,” senior Grace Taylor said. “Because I know these are stressful times and they’re out of my control.”
Practice had just gotten underway for the Cavaliers, and head coach Renee Favaro said this is the most time she’s ever spent on a plan.
“Honestly, the practice planning and logistics has been more work than ever before because I’m trying to make sure everyone is safe, but they’re still getting the work they need,” she said.
Favaro has found ways to make her practices work. She’s using cones to space players out, individual basketballs to reduce sharing, and turning a drill that once required another body to pass to, into a solo job.
“So we’re in phase two in Botetourt which means we can’t pass the ball,” she said. “We’ve had to do a lot of different things and be very creative.”
Lord Botetourt just had their games postponed to January, from there, each week of competition is decided every seven days, making game preparation nearly impossible.
“It’s really hard to game prep right now because we can’t do anything five on five, we can’t do anything five on zero, so we can’t pass and put in plays or anything like that,” Favaro said. “Putting in plays, we’re going to have to do classroom sessions, we just kind of had to change up the way we do things because we have to be ready at any moment to get going.”
And for the players, far and wide who have been through so much, one can’t discount their resiliency.
“Whatever I’m given, I’m just looking to play, anything that is, just shooting or doing something with the team, I’m thankful for that,” Taylor finished.