New Yorkers limped through the summer as the COVID-19 pandemic ravished through the recruiting hopes of many talented but underexposed student athletes. Unable to show their wears, the usually productive live periods were reduced to virtual visits with college coaches and edited performance tapes instead of real life show and prove.

With the CHSAA and PSAL either delaying or postponing their fall season and making no determination as to what will become of winter sports, hundreds of student-athletes and their parents are left in an indefinite holding pattern. For many who cannot afford to pay for college or are unable to secure academic scholarships, an athletic scholarship was the only way out and up the latter of success. It was the only way to keep the dream alive.

Let’s be honest. The vast majority of kids have the realistic or unrealistic dream of playing in the NBA or at least earning a living by playing professional basketball outside the United States. There are others who get a reality check while in college or before college and go after the more realistic and practical goal of earning a college degree for free. Either way, keeping hope alive relies on playing high school basketball and obtaining a scholarship.

COVID-19 has thrown the proverbial monkey wrench into the system. It has ruined plan A, which in many cases is also plan B. If there are no winter sports, what then? Will parents start weighing the pros and cons of different high school leagues. What are the risks/rewards, financially and academically?

This pandemic has already caused those in the 2020 class who were fortunate to have offers to pull the trigger early. It left others with fewer options to settle for JUCO or post graduate schools in hopes that the grass will be greener on the other side.

Now the spotlight is on the class of . Labor day weekend has past and now it’s the fall of COVID-19 with no end or vaccine in sight. In more normal times, pre-season tournaments like the iS8, Tru-Ballaz and Beacon 158 would be getting ready to be on and poppin’ as a way to get early college exposure but without an NBA-like bubble or proper protective equipment and protocols, playing in tournaments, especially indoor tournaments is like playing Russian Roulette with one’s health or even life. The pandemic has tragically claimed its first life in college football with Jamain Stephens

Seeing basketball as the only way out has prompted many kids to take that chance, condoned and oftentimes facilitated by the grown-ups in the room. Packed local events and scrimmages are surfacing all over the state in lieu of sanctioned events with little if any adherence to social distancing, temperature taking or face masks. Unfortunately, the consequences may be faced later as the result of community spread.

Until the high school leagues figure out viable solutions the Fall of basketball as a result of COVID-19 will continue..