It was two weeks ago today at the end of practice, first-year Bridgeport High School softball coach Steve Howard looked at assistant coach Chuck Carr and said, “It looks like the girls are starting to hit a stride. It looks like we are going to be in pretty good shape.”

 

Sometime in the next 24 hours, optimism turned to unbelievability.

 

High school sports was one of the first things to come to a halt in West Virginia because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The girls state basketball tournament was suspended after the completion of the first session of Day 2 on Thursday, March 12 as well as Class AA boys basketball regionals that night.

 

The next day, practice for all springs sports was suspended through at least April 10. The West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission announced that the situation would be re-evaluated the week of April 6.

 

The chance that any high school sports will start back up took another blow on Wednesday when WV Governor Jim Justice said that the statewide school closure would be extended to April 20.

 

“It’s awful. The girls were really starting to gel,” Howard said. They were really starting to work together.  We had a really good practice the night before school closed. Actually, all the practices we had were really good. Next thing you know, you just aren’t there. We went home that Friday after school and that was it.”

 

The Indians were scheduled to open the season this past Monday with a home game against Fairmont Senior and had games scheduled every day through today. In a small slimmer of silver lining, Monday’s game likely wouldn’t have been played because of bad weather but there would have been at least one game played by now.

 

“The only good thing, if there is a good thing is that I don’t have any seniors,” Howard said. “So, they are all going to get another chance to play in high school. I just know if it going to be this year.”

 

While most high school athletes at this point would be happy with just putting the uniform on one more time this year for at least one game, it is now a race against time to see if any sort of abbreviated season can be salvaged.

 

Howard said the biggest issue with that is going to be the number of practices required if and when the schools open back up.

 

WVSSAC rules require 14 practices. His young squad had 10 official practices before things shut down. But several girls weren’t at all 10 because of illness. Two were members of the girls basketball team, so they were busy with that sport. Another was a cheerleader, but was at practice whenever she could so she was on target to get the mandatory five practices in required of athletes going from one sport directly into another.

 

One of the issues the SSAC will need to decide if the season resumes is if schools will be allowed to pick up where they left off with accumulated practices or because of the long layoff, would everybody be required to start at zero.

 

Howard said that if they start back up the week of April 10 and only have four days to finish off getting the 14 practices in, he would only have 11 of his 19 players eligible.

 

The majority of schools across the state would be in a similar situation, so time needed to reach 14 practices would have to be extended into the following week.

 

“If we do that, take the first two weeks for practice, I think you could still have an abbreviated season,” Howard said. “Maybe something like a round-robin tournament with your sectional teams that goes right into sectionals then regionals.

 

“But if we are required to start over and get 14 practices in, I just don’t know what we could do. I think that might pretty much shoots the season.”

 

Howard said he is checking in with his players from time to time to at least maintain contact. He had told them that they could still work on some individual skills at home. For example, pitchers could still pitch at home if they have someone that can catch or if they have a net.

 

“Other than some individual skills, there isn’t a whole lot else we can do except wait,” Howard said.