Last Saturday was the first day Trinity Lutheran hosted home basketball games since Jackson County went code red for the coronavirus, making for mostly empty stands. By Lew Freedman | The Tribune

By the time Trinity Lutheran High School Athletic Director Ryan Cremeans leaned against a gym wall inside the Bollinger Athletic Complex on Saturday afternoon to root for the girls junior varsity team against Jeffersonville, he was weary enough to need artificial support.

A flurry of phone calls, an avalanche of emails, ripping up old schedules and writing new ones where the ink dried, produced four home basketball games where Wednesday none had existed.

“We are very happy we are playing games,” Cremeans said.

He needed unlimited minutes on his cell phone and was stuck with limited attendance capacity in his gym, but basketball played before his very eyes.

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Cremeans didn’t even care who the visiting teams were, or what Indiana classifications they played in as long as they showed up.

“Let’s just get a game,” he said was the outlook. “It’s OK if it happens to be the Lakers.”

The Los Angeles Lakers are preparing for the start of the NBA season, so they were unavailable as a coronavirus game fill-in.

The worldwide pandemic, which had afflicted more than 66 million people by Saturday’s game times and killed more than 1.5 million, including over 287,000 people in the United States, has wreaked havoc on modern society.

Sports, along with every other activity, has been disrupted, at every level. Following guidance from Gov. Eric Holcomb, the Indiana High School Athletic Association and county health departments, high schools are trying to play on. Yet there are a constant stream of interruptions, game on, game off, play on, can’t play. The virus has sent basketball teams into a tizzy and left ADs dizzy.

Cremeans’ adventure in scheduling revved up Thursday. The Trinity girls were supposed to play Edinburgh at 7:30 p.m. Then the jump ball was switched to 6:30. Then the game was called off because of the virus.

Saturday, the Trinity girls were going to play South Central and the boys were going to play later. Then the South Central boys went into quarantine. Then the schools agreed not to play the girls game.

Cremeans and long-time Trinity sports aide Aaron Ginsberg, went game-shopping and came up with 4A Jeffersonville for the girls and 3A Greenburg for the boys, both steps up for the 1A Cougars.

“Things changed every second,” Ginsberg said.

It felt like it to Trinity girls coach Mike Lang.

“I was talking to (Ginsberg) 10 times a day,” he said.

Lang said he was not going to be scared off playing against a team “just because they had a higher number in front of the letter A.”

That worked out fine for the Cougars when they beat Jeffersonville, 62-57. The players just wanted a game.

“Oh, it’s great we were able to get in here with all that’s going on,” said Trinity junior guard Kaliene Cockerham. “We just want to be kids.”

Front-court star Sydney Jaynes said it is actually good motivation for Trinity to face schools in bigger enrollment divisions.

“I always feel it’s super cool when we play larger schools,” she said.

This week the Trinity girls have three games scheduled. Maybe.

“It’s fluid,” Lang said. “I’ve had two scouting reports that went to the wayside.”

All schedules may as well be written in invisible ink.

Given the atmosphere, no wonder Greenburg seized this game. The Pirates had two games called, so they were 0-0 coming in.

“I thank Trinity for getting this together,” said Stacy Meyer, Greenburg’s coach and athletic director. “We’re very thankful. We only had four practices.”

If not this contest, Greensburg would not have opened until Dec. 12.

An 89-51 loss will not be a season highlights, but Trinity’s boys were pleased Saturday did not turn into an open date.

“I’m glad we were able to play,” said guard Evan Hunt. “We’re just thankful we’re able to play.”

That is the theme of the season. No one takes it for granted anymore that games will happen.

Cremeans knows he could be in the same situation all over again in another week. But he knows other schools will be seeking opponents, too.

“Everybody is understanding,” he said, “and everybody is flexible.”

Your house or mine?