Play to the bell, play hard. Use your teammates, score points. Shoot as much as you can, go for a layup. Remember your plays, win for your team. 

Now, for the City High Boys Basketball teams, many things have changed. Only play to the bell if the starting bell chimes. Use your teammates from far away. Shoot the ball, but wash your hands afterward. For Cedric Dunnwald ‘21 and many others, this year has been one to remember.

“My favorite moment this year was definitely the first game of the season when we played at West high school and beat them in overtime. Not only was the win a great moment, but being in the moment in the atmosphere that was presented was unbelievable especially for these times,” Dunnwald said.

One of the biggest challenges, for basketball as well as the other sports teams, is COVID-19. This means breaks for quarantines, distances during drills, and fewer crowds at games. 

“I think the season is going pretty good. It’s been tough having to Covid cases on our team making it that we have to quarantine for a total of four weeks of the season,” said Dunnwald. “[This] makes it really tough for us as players and as a team to get in a groove in the rhythm to be successful on the court.”

Seniors in 2021 have lost many elements of their senior year. Recruitment has changed dramatically, with an increased focus on video footage as recruiters are not as able to watch games in person. Students that have been in basketball all throughout high school have been faced with choosing which risks they want to take.

“Knowing the risk of the virus, what kept me [playing] was to finish my four years at City High the right way. I didn’t wanna be a quitter and I had already tested positive two weeks prior to the season starting. So going into it, I knew that I would be pretty safe,” Dunnwald said.

The ICCSD decided that even for indoor sports, masks are not mandatory during games for athletes that are actively in the game but mandatory for athletes that are on the bench. While playing, athletes can decide whether they want to wear a mask or not, with many choosing not to.

“The reason the majority of us don’t wear them while we play games is [that] when we play they tend to fall down and become useless,” Dunnwald said. “If you’re too busy messing with your mask that ends up distracting you from focusing on what you have to do on the court. When your mask is falling down every time you run up and down the court at that point it’s just better to take it off because the mask isn’t doing you any good.”

Despite the challenges, the team is still hopeful heading into the remaining part of the season and the postseason.

“I think our team comes every single day and competes at 100%. The thing I love about our team is that no one takes stuff personally. Everyone is out there having fun and trying to make everybody better, and that’s what great teams do,” Dunnwald said. “Looking into the future I think that we just need to continue playing as a team and playing for one another and I think that will give us success down the road.”