By: Ella Fowler, Kelsey Bruzek, Tyler Elzholz, and Jaiden Basinger
January 5, 2021
With the Brooklyn City School District going remote this past December, winter sports were put on hold. The teams were not allowed to participate in any type of competition, including practice.
As of now, Brooklyn sports are back and ready for action. Each team has set its goals for the year and is ready to compete.
Scott Urig, girls’ basketball coach, stated that his plan is to control the controllables and get better one day at a time.
“Just like any other year, we play the games on our schedule. We control the controllables,” said Urig.
The girls’ basketball philosophy is E+R=O. “We cannot control the events that happen. We can control our response to the event. Our response to the event helps to shape the outcome. We control the controllables.”
Switching to wrestling, home workouts, running, and staying in shape are the things that Coach Ray Mass is doing to keep his wrestlers in shape.
“{A} shortened season is not good for the wrestlers, so trying to keep in shape is important because with going into no tournaments where you can wrestle up to five matches a day keeps you in shape, and right now, that’s not happening,” stated Mass.
The first wrestling match is at Beachwood High School at 6:00 on Thursday, January 7. This is a quad meet, and as of now, there will be no spectators allowed.
Coach Jerrod Karl of the boys’ basketball team plans to help his players succeed by focusing on conditioning and their team’s strengths.
“The pause took away a lot of instructional time for learning the plays. We are focusing on our athleticism and length to create turnovers and fast break points early in the season. As we continue to practice, we are trying to catch up on development of the playbook and work on timing of the plays,” an optimistic Karl stated.
Although the season that is going to be played is different than usual due to COVID-19 protocols, it is necessary to keep everyone as safe as possible.
“The shortened season is unfortunate, but given the circumstances, we should be happy to play at all. We were eager to face some of the non-conference teams we scheduled this year, but we have unfinished business within the conference. At this point, the players seem excited just to see another team and compete,” said Karl.
With all of the uncertainty and pushed-back start time, Karl is optimistic about what is to come.
He said that “The players have done an excellent job with all the adversity they have faced. The pause has set us back, but our goals stay the same.”
Finally, the hockey team will continue to practice and play intra-squad games in order to stay sharp until the time comes for them play an opponent from another school.
The Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League disbanded the conference format, and teams are on their own to schedule games throughout the year.
While this greatly limits the amount of opponents, it does allow for Coach Mike Wrost to pick and choose opponents and game times. This will help in managing pandemic-related issues for the remainder of the season.
“Even if we only get to play a limited number of games, we hope to play in order to salvage a season for the seniors. Morale on the team has been great, and the senior class has remained positive,” stated Wrost.
We wish our Winter sports teams good luck as they begin their new seasons. The Hurricane family is excited to watch each team succeed and bring home some wins.
Go Canes!
THE RETURN OF THE EYE 