The pandemic and winter weather have altered the scope of the boys varsity basketball season this school year; and a team of new players poses an additional challenge. “It’s been an awkward season so far … but the team is trying to make the best of it,” said Coach Tim Skaggs, who has taken a leave of absence this year due to COVID-19-related health risks.
Jimmy Kapsimalis, the former JV coach, has taken over coaching varsity for the year. Kapsimalis told the Press the team has been disadvantaged by lost practice time, but is working to make up for that. One of the athletes tested positive for COVID-19 toward the beginning of the season, so the team had to quarantine for two weeks, missing practices and games, and inclement weather this week delayed the game schedule further.
The boys lost their first two games against Tahanto Regional High School. They were defeated 68-37 in the first and 54-47 in the second. In addition to lost time, Kapsimalis ascribes the losses to a team dynamic that is still developing. He said, however, that the players are on the right track. “In the first game, we didn’t have much chemistry or much flow, but the second game against Tahanto was a pretty even match,” he said. “Normally a team would feel down when losing by double digits … but they were still encouraging their teammates to do well.”
Junior co-captain Nick Russo expressed a similar assessment. “During our second game, we were struggling in the first half and behind until the fourth quarter, but we had a really good fourth quarter,” he said. “We kept trying and wanted to get back in the game and win.” Russo agreed that building the team’s chemistry has been difficult with a new coach and several new players, but he sees the team working well together and improving overall.
Senior co-captain Dallas Briggs-Adams spoke about the further challenges the team is facing. Altered game rules, such as a coin
flip replacing the jump ball, and players having to inbound the ball from the side as opposed to under the net have changed the dynamics of the game. But the bigger challenge, Briggs-Adams explained, is that the team relies more on its defensive players than it typically would. Multiple varsity offensive players graduated last year, leaving the team with a weakened attack. “We’re working a lot more defensively and trying to do the best we can on offense,” he said.
With just eight games left in the season, Briggs-Adams hopes winter weather and the pandemic won’t cause any more cancellations, especially since a typical season would have entailed a total of 18 games. Bromfield is scheduled to play two games each against Ayer Shirley, Montachusett Tech, West Boylston, and Trivium. This week, the boys will compete against Ayer Shirley and Monty Tech.
Looking forward to the remainder of the season, Russo said he hopes the team will be able to achieve its goal of a 6-4 record. “It might be hard because we had to quarantine for two weeks … but I’m hoping to reach this goal. The whole team has been doing a good job this year, and I’m looking forward to more practices with the team and coach.”
