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PROVO — For thousands of high school senior athletes, the culmination of their athletic career comes on senior night, a chance to honor the outgoing class — and their parents — for their contributions to the program.
Provo senior outside hitter Brooklyn Biorge and her classmates had a slightly different experience.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions that moved the Provo-Orem area back into "orange" status, the Bulldogs' senior night last week was scheduled to be played without spectators. After a proposed move to have Provo "host" Payson on the Lions' home court (similar to the football team's initial plan), the Bulldogs moved back to their 3-year-old gym on Lakeshore Drive in Provo for a fan-free match.
But that’s just the end of this story.
After Biogre lined up with the other seniors on the end line and heard her name called, she began walking toward center court to receive a traditional senior sendoff gift from head coach Josie Havea and her staff. But she wasn’t alone, either.
Joining Biogre was one younger teammate — referred to as her "little sister" in a mentorship program installed by first-year head coach Havea — and another "sister" on the team. And while everyone in the gym wore face coverings in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines, these two "sisters" also wore additional paper masks — featuring the faces of Biogre’s parents.
After their sendoff moment, all three volleyball players turned to the livestreaming camera on Facebook Live, waved, and blew a kiss.
It wasn’t a normal senior night. But in the age of the novel coronavirus, what is normal?
This Thursday evening was even better, in a lot of ways.
"It shows that there are other people out there who support you, too, besides your parents," Biogre said. "It was definitely different, because for a lot of us, our parents support us through volleyball. It was different to not have them there to recognize them. So it was definitely kind of a little weird."
Ditto for Biogre’s fellow team captain, senior setter Kamia Masuda, who was equally ushered across the court by her own teammates, wearing similar masks representing her parents — or stand-in parents, as it were.
"I felt even closer to my team," Masuda said, "because they offered to be like stand-in parents, and to walk me down."
It’s just another challenge of playing high school sports during a pandemic, and as COVID-19 case counts continue to spike across the state. Nothing is perfect, and everyone is just doing the best they can.
Sports are often a way for youth to learn life lessons. What the Class of 2021 is learning through sports goes well beyond the volleyball court.
"It’s taught us to be fluid, with our plans and our future," Masuda said. "We need to plan out different possibilities."
Provo had three plans for last week's senior night, and finally carried out one of them. If nothing else, the Bulldogs are learning how to make lemonade out of lemons — and there have been plenty of lemons in 2020.
"We make way better lemonade than Chick-fil-A," Havea joked. "We’re so good at it by now, that we’re going to put Chick-fil-A out of business."
Havea added the night wouldn’t have been possible without Payson and head coach Kim Mott, who first broached the idea of having a senior night before the team's final home game. The Bulldogs are still scheduled to host Springville, Park City and Spanish Fork in Region 8 home contests — but due to the shifting nature of the pandemic, no one in high school sports knows how long the season will last.
That attitude proves double for the Bulldogs, who had to postpone their home opener against Park City after the team was put on two-week quarantine due to contact tracing for the virus.
So the Lions held their senior night early, and they spread the idea to Provo. Both teams cheered loudly in honor of the Bulldogs' six seniors, and even the referees made the moment special with fun, laughter and a clean match, which Provo won 3-1 to improve to 4-4 on the season.
"There was no one we'd rather have a game like that than Payson," Havea said. "What a wonderful program and a great group of girls. … We just planned for the unexpected."
Another help has been the parents, especially the parents of Havea’s seniors from the Class of 2020. No one complained, no one muttered; they all realize that 2020 is not a normal year, and they’ll do whatever needs to be done to allow their teenagers to play the game they love — whether they can be in the gym, or watching their senior night on a cell phone.
"The kids have been through so much this year, and it makes me emotional to just see their faces and how they wanted their moms and dads there that night," Havea said. "But I’m so grateful to my parents. Nobody complained, and that’s just been the motto.
"You can either be sad about everything, or just create joy."
