Thanks to COVID-19, there won’t be any regular-season tournaments during the upcoming high school basketball year, as mandated by the Arkansas Activities Association.
The 90th Dual State Tournament was to be played in Junction City this season.
“I believe the weather cancelled the tournament in the past once,” said Junction City boys coach Kendall Hutcheson. “We are disappointed in the cancellation of the tournament, of course. It is a tradition and you hate to lose a home tournament. We understand that the safety of the kids and our community comes first and with the times being what they are, we are just happy to be able to compete.”
Some of the other basketball guidelines include social distancing in the stands, masks for the coaches and the scorer’s table workers and social distancing on the benches.
“I think the changes will be tough to get used to, but we will do whatever we need to do to play basketball,” said Hutcheson. “The kids are excited that there is a plan in place to play this season. We are disappointed that we will miss our tournaments this year because we depend on them on them to get in shape and get into the groove before conference play starts. We will have to try to find some non-conference games to fill the void. All in all, we are just excited at the opportunity to be playing.”