With the Omicron variant of COVID-19 surging in the middle of basketball season, the girls and boys basketball teams have had to overcome more than just tough opponents on the court to be successful.

The girls and boys varsity basketball teams have struggled to keep their starting lineups fit to play because of COVID-19 infections or required quarantining because of close contacts with others who tested positive. In some cases, the teams added players from junior varsity and even freshmen level teams to play varsity games when they didn’t have enough players from the original team.

Girls Varsity Basketball Coach Erika Routt said that the spread of COVID has had some major negative effects on her team.

“I feel like with COVID not allowing some of the players to be present for practice, it didn’t allow us to work on as many things we needed to do as a team,” Routt said.

AISD’s Return to Play Protocol for athletes who tested positive prevented players from participating in games for two weeks in some cases, hindering teams from developing and improving during the middle of the season with so many players out. Players had to do a physical health check and get cleared by the campus’ athletic trainer before returning to play.

Coach Ben Grayczk said the boys basketball team was basically shut down for two weeks in the middle of the season because of COVID cases. He said he is impressed with how hard the Akins basketball teams have kept fighting despite the set backs.

“It’s hard to keep everybody focused in perfect conditions when you’re playing against some of the better teams in the state to not lose that fight,” he said. “It’s just another hurdle that we’re having to jump over.

And it’s disheartening to see y’all struggle with something like this, but I am extremely proud that y’all are still pushing and still trying to salvage the rest of the season, even with all the hurdles that we’ve had.”