Boys basketball season comes to close

Boys varsity basketball ends its season after an interesting year with COVID-19

The team stands in a huddle during the game against Marshall in Regionals. McLean came on top with the win. (Photos provided by Zaiba Hasan)

Kaan Kocabal, Reporter
February 17, 2021

Despite a crazy year with COVID, resulting in a shortened and delayed season, the boys basketball team played a solid season, ending the year with a 5-9 record.

“Having no school and playing basketball for the school at the same time felt weird,” said Zach Hasan, a junior on the boys varsity basketball team. “Our team did a great job with not letting stuff get into our heads and we played the best basketball we could.”

The boys varsity basketball team’s 5-9 record did not reflect how greatly they improved this year with many younger players on the team and the tremendous amount of work that they put in on and off the court.

“We had many great seniors on the squad that really impacted our team to play our best,” Hasan said. “But some senior players also didn’t play this year because of the virus.”

Because of the ongoing pandemic, some seniors did not want to take the risk of infection or spreading the virus, so they opted not to play. Others were also injured. This gave many sophomores the chance to play on a varsity level.

“This year was a good [time] to let younger players play more and for them to gain experience playing with older opponents,” Hasan said. “We have a lot to improve upon for the upcoming year and I am excited for that.”

The COVID-19 pandemic made the basketball season difficult and added new challenges for the team to overcome. Many new rules, applied one after another, led players to mixed feelings about the season, but most players stayed and persevered regardless.

“It was definitely challenging with all the restrictions, like wearing masks while playing and no fans other than parents, but we played through it,” said Davis Sawyer, a sophomore on the boys varsity basketball team.

Many seniors will be departing from McLean this year making this a whole new team and players to build around. The future of McLean basketball is bright and exciting.

“This season was a great experience,” Sawyer said. “We had great overall team chemistry starting with our seniors that acted as great role models to how I want to lead going forward these next two years.”

With the seniors now departing, is time for the junior class and underclassmen to step up and lead the team together.

“Losing Nate Legg, [one of our leading seniors], means our offense is obviously going to change,” Sawyer said. “We are going to have to adapt next year into being able to create our own shots. It will take a full team effort but it will be fun.”