We Can Do This
Recently, I spent a couple of hours in a gymnasium watching a high school basketball game for the first time since February 2020, shortly before COVID-19 sent most of us into isolation. Ironically, my most recent venture inside a facility with 50 people or more was at the same gymnasium where I watched that last basketball game in February – Flower Mound High School in Flower Mound, Texas.
In a previous life, I spent a lot of time watching high school basketball games. After all, I was the daughter, niece and wife of basketball coaches. That pretty much changed when my husband retired from coaching; after that my basketball consumption has been concentrated on attending Dallas Mavericks’ home games interspersed with a few Oklahoma Sooners’ games. Only occasionally will I catch a high school game – mostly to watch our friends’ granddaughter who plays for the Binger-Oney Bobcats or the Flower Mound Jaguars who are coached by our friend, Eric Littleton.
I’ve been exceptionally careful since March about limiting exposure to others. I’ve spent almost 40 years in a public health career, so I believe and adhere to evolving public health guidelines, whether it is upstream approaches such as seat belt and child passenger safety laws and tobacco-free ordinances, or policies to mitigate risk such as TSA screening before boarding an airplane. So, I wear my mask religiously when I’m outside my home, even during my morning run. I do occasionally eat at restaurants, but only at ones that have outdoor patios and places where I can be safely distanced from others. As I contemplated whether to go to the recent Flower Mound game, I was apprehensive. The thought of being in a room, even a large gymnasium, with more than 10 people was daunting. However, my husband assured me that everyone would have on masks and that we could easily be at least 6 feet away from others. So, I went.
Now, I’m going to say something that my husband swears rarely passes through my lips. He was correct. Someone please tell him I said that since he doesn’t read my blog.
When we arrived at Flower Mound High School prior to the start of the game, there was only a small crowd in the gym; probably less than 50 people. Every other row in the bleachers had been taped off to keep people from sitting too close to each other. I looked around. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, was wearing a mask. All of the fans in the bleachers had on masks – students, parents, grandparents, even toddlers – they all wore masks during the entire game. Flower Mound was hosting a Dallas Independent School District team. All of the players from both teams wore masks during warm-ups. The only time the players didn’t wear masks was if they were playing during the game. All of the players on both benches wore masks. All of the coaches from both teams, scorekeepers, officials, and team managers wore masks.
Every time a player left the game, one of the coaches sprayed the player’s hands with hand sanitizer. During every time out, one of the officials handed the basketball that had been in play to the team manager. The manager gave the official a clean ball, then wiped the ball that had just been in play with sanitizer. After witnessing all of this, I turned to Marci, Eric’s wife, and said, “It just isn’t that hard to follow the guidelines laid out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and infectious disease experts on safely limiting exposure to COVID-19.”
I’m glad that I went to the game. It was fun to spend the day with my husband doing something he enjoys. It was nice to visit with Eric and Marci, two people that I admire. The Jaguars won, which is always a plus. But the best part of the day was when Eric’s and Marci’s daughter, Carolina Grace, who is a sophomore at Flower Mound High School, stepped to the microphone, removed her mask and began to sing the national anthem. The tears welled in my eyes. It wasn’t because I could feel Eric’s and Marci’s pride – although, I could. It wasn’t because Carolina Grace has a beautiful voice – although, she does. But for one brief moment in a high school gymnasium in Texas, I felt like there is more right, than is wrong with our country.