The cancellation of high school sports seasons was hard on athletes everywhere.
For the Kent City boys basketball team part of the disappointment came from having been just one win from playing in a regional it was scheduled to host.
"What really bothered us is we had a pretty good chance to win that district and then we would have played at home in the regionals," Kent City head coach David Ingles said. "So we would have been able to play at home again which would have been really good so they are down. But we always said the whole year our motto was it's bigger than basketball. Everything we did on the floor effects other things and this fell under the category of bigger than basketball so I think our kids have handled it pretty well."
They have turned it into something good. The Eagles, one of 64 teams still alive in division three, are having shirts made up that read 'co-state champs.'
"When they announced the tournament was canceled my kids mentioned, that means we are state champions and we won our last game," Ingles said. "We had a laugh about it but after thinking about it, I went why not? Let's do a shirt and we were going to do it just for Kent City but I shared it with another coach and he loved it and I went maybe we should offer it to other people."
It has taken off from there. 14 schools are already on board, even a school from Kentucky is having shirts made.
"I thought if it was me and two other schools it's a pretty cool thing," Ingles said. "It has kind of grown so I don't know what to think. I want to get as much as I can because it is going to a great cause."
Ingles said proceeds from the shirt sales will go to a charity to help in the fight against COVID-19.
"We are going to take a portion from all the sales we get from shirts," Ingles said. "I haven't decided if we are going to a hospital or we are going to find a charity that is helping against COVID-19 and we are going to donate the money to that charity is what I think we are going to do."
Shirts can be made up for boys or girls teams that were still alive when the tournament was canceled.
Anyone interested can email David at coach.ingles@yahoo.com for more information.
