Published Feb 4, 2021
COVID-19 forces premature end to season for Eastern View, Courtland girls
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Devin Payne  •  VirginiaPreps
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The Eastern View girls basketball team already knew it wouldn't be playing in next week's Region 4B tournament, but the rug has been pulled out from under the Cyclones a bit sooner than expected.

Eastern View athletic director Mark Settle announced Wednesday that the squad would be unable to finish its regular season due to potential exposure to COVID-19 after Courtland discovered a contact tracing issue within its program earlier this week.

Since the Cyclones and Cougars played each other on back-to-back nights last Friday and Saturday, all Eastern View players and staff members involved in either of those games have been forced to quarantine themselves for 14 days in accordance with public health guidelines. That makes completing its final two contests—home matchups with Caroline and Spotsylvania on Friday and Monday, respectively—an impossibility.

"[Courtland] notified us of the contact tracing issue as soon as they discovered it on Tuesday," Settle said. "We appreciate them doing their due diligence for everyone involved. It's unfortunate that neither team will be able to finish out its regular season, but we're blessed and fortunate to have been able to play as many games as we did.

"The most important thing, above all else, is the health of the kids and staff," he continued. "We're focused on making sure they're all healthy and can safely move on to their next endeavors."

Settle added that no Cyclone players or staff members have shown signs or symptoms of the coronavirus at this time.

It wasn't the first time COVID-19 has forced a team in the region to shutter operations this winter, or even this week for that matter. Western Albemarle ended its boys hoops campaign Tuesday following a positive test result within the program, and Liberty-Bealeton's boys followed suit on Wednesday.

Eastern View was in the middle of a practice Wednesday afternoon when Settle walked into the gym and broke the bad news.

"One second we're putting in a game plan for Caroline, and the next our season is over," Cyclones head coach Mike McCombs said. "Just like that, it's over."

Like Courtland (2-5 overall, 2-3 Battlefield District), Eastern View (5-5, 4-5) had been mathematically eliminated from qualifying for the region tourney well before this news broke. Due to the pandemic prompting the Virginia High School League to conduct shorter seasons for all sports this school year, the number of regional qualifiers across the state was cut roughly in half from what it would be during a typical year.

Region 4B, which is currently comprised of 14 schools divided into two divisions, would normally permit all of them to participate in regionals. But during a season unlike any other, only the top two in each division will qualify. As of Thursday, the Cyclones were fourth in Region 4B North with a 26.60 power-point rating—well behind Louisa (36.00), King George (33.75) and Chancellor (30.60).

Still, McCombs said the sudden news that the campaign is over has hit he and his squad very hard.

"I'm still struggling with putting my emotions into words," he said. "Every year, you know the season's going to come to an end at some point and you're going to lose seniors. You try and prepare yourself every time you go out there, especially once you get into the playoffs, that it could be the last time that team is together. Even though we weren't going to regionals, we had those two games left for the girls to hang their hats on. And then, in a matter of seconds, we didn't."

Eastern View will graduate just two seniors from this year's team: Terese Greene and Christa Brown. McCombs reflected fondly on what the pair has meant to the Cyclones' program.

"She's one of the best players to ever come through our program, which says a lot about her," he said of Greene, who eclipsed 1,000 career points and finishes as the school's second all-time leading scorer. "But the thing I'm most proud of with her is how much of a leader she became this season. We graduated a lot of seniors that she played with over the last three years, and she stepped up and filled the leadership void that they left behind.

"I got to know Christa when she was in seventh grade," he said of Brown. "I quickly learned that she was smart, dependable and hard-working. Because of those things, I asked her to be a team manager for me that year. The following year she played on our junior varsity team, and then she graduated to varsity as a freshman. She's going to continue her education at Penn State, and I have no doubt she will be a very, very successful young lady."

McCombs underscored that the final message he delivered to his squad is one that he hopes and believes will be everlasting.

"I told them that nothing's guaranteed," he said. "We're not promised tomorrow, or even the next minute. You just never know what could happen at any given time, so don't take things for granted and live like there's no tomorrow."