D6 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13 , 2020
BY KYLE MELNICK
AND RYAN MCFADDENWhen Bethesda-Chev y Chase’s
public address announcer yelled
Camern Greene’s name during the
school’s homecoming court cer-
emony in October 2016, Greene
was flooded by emotions.
Entering his senior year at
B-CC, Greene rarely thought
about homecoming court, believ-
ing it was a p opularity contest. But
seeking equality for transgender
students, Greene pushed for a
gender-neutral homecoming
court, and it was implemented in
September of that year. Instead of
the long-standing tradition of a
boy and girl winning homecom-
ing court, B-CC allowed the win-
ners to be two boys, two girls or
transgender students.
The next month, Greene was
selected as one of two winners at
halftime of the football team’s
game against Poolesville.
“It was just kind of like a middle
finger ,” Greene said, “to everyone
who has unfortunately opposed
just equality.”
When Greene’s name was an-
nounced that October night, most
of the student body and faculty
erupted in cheers — an old tradi-
tion made new. B-CC’s gender-
neutral homecoming court has
continued since, and Greene,
whose last name in high school
was Pinkus, said students still
contact him t hanking him for in-
spiring them to feel proud about
their identities.
Homecoming can be a sacred
tradition at high schools across
the country — a festival of school
spirit and a nostalgic weekend for
alumni in town. Across the D.C.
area, many schools have their own
traditions, some that have oc-
curred for more than 50 years and
others that have begun or
changed recently.
Here are a few special tradi-
tions schools are missing with
normalcy on pause because of the
coronavirus pandemic.tions create banners from cloth or
canvas tarp, but others have used
plywood and battery-operated
lights to stand out.
“I’m de finitely going to miss it,”
Badrinarain said. “It’s a b ig part of
not only what bridges traditions
but a huge part of community as a
whole.”Dunbar’s dinner
When Maurice Vaughn took
over as head coach of the Dunbar
football team, he wanted to estab-
lish a tradition that allowed his
players to strengthen their bond
while embracing the program’s
past.
So for the past three years,
Vaughn assembled the team and
some former Dunbar players in
the school’s auditorium, two days
before the big game, for a home-
coming dinner.
The players sit in their white
dress shirts and Dunbar ties as the
smell of salmon, chicken and veg-
etables fills the room.
“Those dinners made the
homecoming what it is today,” for-
mer Dunbar cornerback Delante
Hood said. “It brought the team
together and made me more
thankful for the position I was in.”
Surrounded by coaches, gradu-
ates and parents, the players hear
stories about past homecomings
while understanding the impor-
tance of developing a winning cul-
ture. Vaughn, who was a former
Crimson Tide quarterback him-
self, believes those stories help
provide confidence while on the
field.
“A big part of rebuilding the
program was letting the kids
know the glory of Dunbar foot-
ball,” Vaughn said, “because a lot
of them are too young to know
how good the program was.”
[email protected]With no competition this fall because
of the coronavirus pandemic, each
week we will explore an element of the
high school football experience that is
missing.When autumn traditions fall by the wayside
From homecoming courts and a bonfire to a neighborhood parade and a team dinner, pandemic has left a mark
basketball games a week, without
a bubble, and prevent the season
from becoming a nightmare of
positive cases and
postponements?
In introducing the bubble
concept, NBA Commissioner
Adam Silver said in June, “My
ultimate conclusion is that we
can’t outrun the virus and that
this is what we’re going to be
living with for the foreseeable
future.” So he created a force field.
And it worked. But it would be
imprudent (if not impossible) to
stage an entire 72-game regular
season and playoffs in that
environment.
Instead, the NBA will do the
exact thing that has left every
other sport and league, well,
troubled. It will ask players,
coaches and team personnel to be
extraordinarily disciplined, and
they will do their best, and the
cases will persist.
Even though we’re used to this
by now, it’s never going to feel
normal. Or right. Or safe and
manageable. It just isn ’t. And
while die-hard sports fans are
relieved to have their games, this
reality does inhibit some of the joy
of watching.
It seems most have
compartmentalized the moral
dilemma. But it’s a q ueasy kind of
fun, isn ’t it? Just not queasy
enough to want it to end.
Everyone is shaken but not
deterred.
Everyone is troubled.
[email protected]For more by Jerry Brewer, visit
washingtonpost.com/brewer.to complete their seasons. Other
enterprises figured out some best
practices, too.
But since then, you have seen
the problems with waiting. The
nation has neither developed a
uniform strategy nor agreed to
adhere to the simplest measures
for people to protect each other.
Now the virus is out of control.
For leagues determined to play,
it seems best not to delay. In
hindsight, the Big Ten and Pac-12
should have tried to stay on
schedule instead of initially
opting to delay until the new year,
only to change their minds to keep
up with their peers. Now the y’re
late to the party and experiencing
the same issues as programs that
started in September. The
difference is they’re at a
competitive disadvantage trying
to cram in their seasons before the
scheduled start of the College
Football Playoff.
Consider what the NBA is
doing, rushing back to play by
Christmas after just finishing a
season that lasted into October.
Why not wait and hold out hope
for a vaccine? The NBA pondered
that approach, but it wasn’t a
television ratings hit to stage a
summer playoff that spilled into
the start of the NFL season. With
the Olympics looming next
summer, the NBA is motivated to
get back to a more traditional
timeline.
And the league would rather be
desperate in the moment than
desperate down the road. Again,
it’s understandable. But if this
period winds up being pandemic
hell, how do you play threedistancing and following health
protocols. Sports have set a decent
example. But as NFL
Commissioner Roger Goodell said
recently, “Ninety percent
[compliance] is not good enough
in this environment.” And it’s a t all
order to ask large groups of people
to grade out better than
90 percent at anything.
It was a worthwhile reset for
most major sports to take a break
from mid-March to late July. They
learned plenty about the virus,
and time helped the NBA, WNBA
and NHL develop bubble conceptsDisease Research and Policy at the
University of Minnesota, during a
CNBC interview. “It is happening.”
We may be en route to hell, but
the International Olympic
Committee expressed confidence
this week that some fans would be
allowed at the rescheduled
Olympics in July. The sports world
remains a utopia of optimism and
tunnel vision.
Of course, hope means nothing
to this coronavirus. It can be
defeated only by science, and for
now, the best defense is diligence
about wearing masks, socialcollege basketball season is
supposed to begin in less than two
weeks, but Miami and Stetson
already called off a game, and two
other programs, Seton Hall and
Minnesota, announced they were
pausing activities. The Ivy League
took the extraordinary — or
sensible — step of calling off all
winter sports Thursday.
“What America has to
understand is that we are about to
enter covid hell,” said Michael T.
Osterholm, an adviser to
President-elect Joe Biden and the
director of the Center of InfectiousDuring normal times, there is
little more inspiring than
watching athletes ratchet up the
determination. Right now,
however, it feels desperate and
dangerous. It’s understandable,
too — and expected. Over the past
few months, there have been just
enough examples of leagues
showing the resolve and creativity
to survive, to complete seasons
and crown champions. In
professional and major college
athletics, significant television
revenue rewards such persistence.
So college football is going to forge
ahead. The NFL is even more of a
freight train.
After canceling the NCAA
tournament in March, college
basketball must manufacture a
full 2020-21 season. Even though
the NBA and NHL found a way to
finish their seasons safely about
five minutes ago, those leagues
will be back soon, hoping to
salvage what they can of their new
seasons rather than bide their
time until a vaccine is available or
simply wait for the current,
petrifying wave to slow down.
Sankey admitted to being
“troubled” by the outbreaks in the
SEC. The pandemic is in a
ferocious groove now, punishing
the country with record numbers
of cases each day and raising the
death total to more than 242,000
Americans. It’s no wonder the SEC
is having trouble, no wonder
Maryland won’t be able to play
Ohio State in the Big Ten, no
wonder California can’t get its
season started in the Pac-12. The
BREWER FROM D1
JERRY BREWER
As pandemic worsens, sports are less a distraction and more a source of unease
MARK HUMPHREY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is “troubled” by outbreaks among his conference’s football programs.DeMatha’s bonfire
For the past 20 years, DeMatha
has begun its homecoming week-
end with a bonfire that brings
together students, faculty mem-
bers and alumni, who eat hot dogs
as piles of wood and concrete pa-
pers go up in a large flame that can
be seen blazing in the night sky
from Route 1.
“It’s not the traditional fall, but
we are going to get through it,”
DeMatha Athletic Director Ed
King said of this year and the
warmth that’s missing.
King ran the bonfire for the
past 15 years, gathering materials
and helping decorate the school.
Often a T-shirt representing the
Stags’ homecoming game oppo-
nent would be placed in the pile of
wood.
The DeMatha community
would gather in front of the schooland watch the flames surge into
the air, sometimes causing people
around the Hyattsville area to
alert the fire department, un-
aware of the ritual.
“There was one year someone
drove by and said there was a fire
at DeMatha,” King said. “The
firetrucks showed up, and we
showed we had the burn permits,
and they just stuck around and
had a couple of hot dogs with us.”Woodbridge’s parade
When she was in middle school,
Anjali Badrinarain would stand
between the intersection of two
roads near the end of October and
watch as Woodbridge students
marched down the street. While
students handed out candy and
greeted youngsters, Badrinarain
felt special. When she would later
attend Woodbridge, she declaredshe would find any way to be a
part of the school’s homecoming
parade.
Badrinarain, now a high school
senior, spent the past three years
in the parade as a member of the
school’s dance team. Last year, she
helped organize the parade.
Woodbridge’s homecoming pa-
rade has been a staple in the com-
munity since 1971. In the after-
noon on the Friday of homecom-
ing week, about 30 clubs in the
school prepare banners and stroll
along Deepford Drive and Anti-
etam Road in Lake Ridge for
about an hour before returning to
the school. State delegates often
partake, while about 150 people
watch from the sides of the streets.
When the parade began, stu-
dents designed wagons, but the
apparatus shifted to banners in
the past decade. Most organiza-TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST
Quince Orchard quarterback Doc Bonner, left, walked with the rest of the homecoming court in 2017.BY SAMANTHA PELLThe Hershey Bears named Em-
ily Engel-Natzke the team’s video
coach Thursday, making her the
first female coach in the Washing-
ton Capitals organization.
The Bears are the Capitals’
American Hockey League affili-
ate in Hershey, Pa.
Engel-Natzke, 29, was previ-
ously at the University of Wiscon-
sin, where she
was the assis-
tant director of
operations/
video coordi-
nator. She
worked with
the men’s and
women’s hock-
ey teams at
Wisconsin
from 2015 to 2017 and with only
the men’s t eam after 2017.
“It’s de finitely a dream come
true,” Engel-Natzke said Thurs-
day in a telephone interview. “It’s
something I’ve really worked to-
wards and wanted to do for a long
time, and everything just kind of
seemed to fall into place. I don’t
know if the right time is the right
word, but with everything else
going on, everything just fell into
place.
“I’m really excited. I’m really
honored that they felt like I would
be a good fit for their organiza-
tion, and it really is just a dream
come true to make that step.”
Engel-Natzke replaces Jared
Elenberger, who is now Washing-
ton’s video coordinator. Elenberg-
er replaces Tim Ohashi, who was
hired to be the Seattle Kraken ’s
head video analyst in October.
“Her experience level working
at Wisconsin and working with
the coaching staff she did there
with Tony Granato gives you a lot
of comfort that she will have an
understanding of what a coach at
the pro level will be looking for,”
Chris Patrick, Washington’s di-
rector of player personnel, said of
Engel-Natzke. “Video coaches at
the AHL level, they are develop-
ing still in their careers.... Her
experience level and technical
acumen were pretty high, espe-
cially for this position where you
can get a broad range of candi-
dates.”
Engel-Natzke picked up hock-
ey in middle school and contin-
ued to play recreationally in col-
lege at the University of Colorado,
where she majored in film stud-
ies. Winding up on a coaching
staff in the NHL was her end goal.
Engel-Natzke and her wife,
Spencer, plan to move to the
Hershey area after the holidays.
The AHL announced in late Octo-
ber that its board of governors
had approved moving the antici-
pated start date of the 2020-21
season to Feb. 5 because of the
coronavirus pandemic.
The NHL is still targ eting a
Jan. 1 start date.
[email protected]
Engel-Natzke
is first female
coach in Caps
organization
Engel-Natzke
season is going to be canceled.’ ”
Iona, a Metro Atlantic Athletic
Conference program prepared
for more attention than normal
after hiring Hall of Fame coach
Rick Pitino, announced Thurs-
day that it was halting men’s
basketball activities because of a
positive test. The school is re-
portedly considering canceling
its first four games, the first of
which is scheduled for Nov. 25.
“Since coming together in Au-
gust, we’ve carefully followed
protocols and have been part of a
strong testing program,” Pitino
said in a statement. “... We will
continue to make decisions out of
an abundance of caution, as we
look forward to resuming activi-
ties as soon as return to play
guidelines deem it safe.”
[email protected]already has proved a major dis-
ruption, with 30 percent of 125
Division I basketball coaches
polled by Stadium saying their
teams have either had to shut
down for two weeks or are in the
process of doing so.
Last month, after ESPN
scrapped a plan to stage eight
nonconference college basketball
tournaments at a b ubble near
Orlando, Seton Hall Coach Kevin
Willard described the uncertain-
ty over the upcoming season as “a
s---show.”
“I wouldn’t even use ‘disaster’
right now; it’s too light a term,”
said Willard, whose Pirates were
set to compete in one of the
tournaments. “I came to practice,
and 12 of my kids were like: ‘Why
are we practicing? The same
thing is going to happen. Themajor conference to announce it
would not hold sports during the
fall semester. The league said
then that a decision regarding
winter and spring sports — and
whether fall spo rts could be held
in the spring — would come at a
later date.
Bethune-Cookman is believed
to be the first Division I school to
cancel sports for the entirety of
the current academic year. The
Division III New England Small
College Athletic Conference can-
celed its winter sports seasons
last month.
In its guidance for basketball
programs, the NCAA made con-
cessions to the coronavirus, in-
cluding moving back the start of
the season to Nov. 25 and prohib-
iting scrimmages and preseason
games. However, the pandemicthe COVID-19 virus and subse-
quent protocols that must be put
in place are impeding our strong
desire to return to intercollegiate
athletics competition in a safe
manner. Student-athletes, their
families and coaches are again
being asked to make enormous
sacrifices for the good of public
health — a nd we do not make this
decision lightly.... We look for-
ward to the day when intercolle-
giate athletics — which are such
an important part of the fabric of
our campus communities — w ill
safely return in a manner and
format we all know and appreci-
ate.”
In March, the Ivy League was
the first Division I conference to
cancel its men’s and women’s
postseason basketball tourna-
ment s. In July, it became the firstswimming and diving, men’s and
women’s indoor track and field,
and wrestling.
Ivy League athletes in fall and
winter sports will not lose a
season of college eligibility, the
conference announced.
“Throughout the last nine
months ,” the Ivy League Council
of Presidents said in a joint
statement, “we have asked our
campus communities to make
extraordinary adjustments in or-
der to do our part in combating
the global pandemic and to safe-
guard the health and wellbeing
of our students, faculty members,
staff and the communities in
which they live and work.
“Regr ettably, the current
trends regarding transmission ofIVY F ROM D1Ivy League cancels w inter seasons amid steep rise in virus cases