Making a clean start: League opens with restrictions
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It kind of looked like your normal summer league basketball game from a first glance at Lakemont Park Monday night.
There were the familiar faces of local high school kids, coaches and referees scattered over four courts. The familiar colors of scholastic teams from Tyrone, Altoona, Westmont Hilltop and Johnstown. A few fans sitting here and there. The sounds of sneakers, stopping and starting, whistles blowing and parents and friends, catching up, chatting with each other in the surrounding areas.
"It feels great. It just feels great," said Nate Cornelius, a senior-to-be at Altoona Area High School who played in one of the opening night games of the 2020 Central Blair Rec Commission Lakemont Park Summer Basketball League.
It felt great because a little more than a month ago, because of the global pandemic, there was no way of knowing if anybody would be playing basketball at Lakemont Park on June 15. But they were, playing 12 games total over four courts in one evening, and there will be plenty more played through Aug. 10.
"That fact that we have 60-plus teams is amazing with all the restrictions that everyone has to go through," said Andrew Smithmyer of Lakemont Park's Business Development/Community Relations department. "I think people will come out to watch some good basketball."
At each scorer's table, a dispenser of hand sanitizer was available for players and officials to use. Before the game, Clark Adelman, a long-time official with the summer league, was cleaning off the basketballs to be used in the game. Plastic tubs containing cleaning supplies were behind the table, too.
"We got everything we need here," said Skip Dry, the summer league director. "We will use caution, but it is an outdoors sport so we are a little better off than those with indoor courts."
Altoona coach Jarrod Klausman was instructing his team during warmups, which didn't really look like warmups, but then again …
"We just had a players' meeting this afternoon to get ready for this," he said, noting this was the first time any of them had played together since the high school season ended.
At one point during the game, Klausman turned to his 6-year-old son, Carter, who was nestled next to the bench in his beach chair, taking in the game, and asked him "We look a little rusty, don't we Carter?"
Carter probably had to agree with dad.
In the first five minutes of the game, Westmont led Altoona, 3-1. Over on Court 2, Tyrone led Johnstown, 10-0, after five minutes.
"It was tough getting into the flow of the game and just shooting," Cornelius said. "Getting back into the pace of the game was tough. We're just trying to get in shape."
Several area coaches were on hand to take in the scenery of fans sitting in the stands, or on picnic tables, park benches or just the grassy areas adjacent to the courts. Claysburg-Kimmel's Mike Harris, new Philipsburg-Osceola coach T.J. Anderson and Bishop Guilfoyle's Chris Drenning were talking off to the side of one of the courts.
"Just to be out on a beautiful night like this, we can't thank Skip enough for getting the high school division together so quickly," said Klausman, noting several high school teams did not have a league to play in when the Blair Regional YMCA dropped its summer league for 2020. "If you look around at this atmosphere, it's just great."
Some parts of the game, though, were different. For instance, the teams were informed before tipoff that if you spit during the game, a technical foul would be assessed. No warning would be given.
"You can't spit. You can't even spit off to the side in the grass," Dry said.
A few fans had masks, but a majority of the fans did not. But enough fans were spread out that there were no overtly-large groupings that would cause concern.
"We are just asking people to practice social distancing as far as the fans are concerned," Smithmyer said, noting that guidelines were posted throughout the park.
And as the horn sounded ending the first slate of games that began at 5:30 p.m., Dry, who worked the Altoona-Westmont game, shouted out to the teams "Good game fellas. Shake hands." To which the other officials and players shouted back, with amusement, "No. No. No!"
Dry apologized. There was laughter, and a host of players simply elbow bumped as they said good game to each other.
"I think everybody was just sick and fired of sitting indoors and they are happy to be out," Dry said.
"This was a godsend," Klausman said. "The opportunity to play in June, after what was going on around here a month or a month and a half ago is just great. It felt like a normal basketball game."