STLCC Men’s basketball team works through challenges during the season in a pandemic.
BY: ASHLEY BIUNDO
Editor-In-Chief
Basketball season has started off later than usual due to the pandemic. The Men’s Archers began their season in January instead of November, like past seasons. Men’s basketball assistant head coach, Evan Pedersen said that this season has been different from before.
“It’s been a very unusual season, one unlike any we’ve ever had before,” he said. “We were shut down last summer and we were shut down in the fall, [but] we managed to practice a little bit.”
There is difficulty when it comes to coaching and playing sports during a pandemic. There is uncertainty that comes with it, said Pedersen.
“Trying to keep the players focused on what’s important now and to get them engaged with everything they need to do in spite of,” he said. “They may show up someday and not have class or they may show up someday, and somebody’s not here or so; it’s just the uncertainty of things.”
Although COVID-19 has affected the basketball season, that doesn’t stop the men’s basketball team from playing and fostering teamwork.
“Our strengths are teamwork and our camaraderie. We’ve got a great group of guys, and they’re all playing hard together,” Pedersen said.
“They’ve all been through adversity, but we really sacrifice for each other. We just really have a lot of confidence in what we were doing and knock down shots.”
But the pandemic has affected their ability to have more than enough players and having to learn a new position, according to Pedersen.
“We like to have some more size. And we’ve got some players that are playing out of position quite honest,” he said. “So players that we recruited out of high school to play a certain position and just based on the way the roster came up, they’re playing a different position, so we’re still immature and learning.”
On Feb. 6, STLCC played against John Wood Community College, and won 74-52. Pedersen said that he is hopeful they will be paired up to go to Nationals. “John Wood Community College is in the southern Illinois Region 24 and that was a huge win for us,” he said. “So we just take it one game at a time and try to get better every game.”
There are many more games that the team is excited to play, said Pedersen. Metropolitan Community College is one team they consider as rivals and will play against them on March 13. North Central Missouri College is another team they play on March 20. Pedersen said that they are hopeful to win those.
As the season progresses, there are many games that the team is looking forward to playing.
“We look forward to the next game, every single one and we’re trying to build one game at a time, Pedersen said. “We’ve got a tough region.”
