High school basketball is a winter sport, and the previous season (Jan/Feb & early March2020) wrapped up before there were any Covid shutdowns. Colton went to watch many of the games and looked forward to trying out his upcoming freshman year. After Covid came, most tournaments were canceled, rules were changed (limited spectators, masks, etc) and everyone was on pins and needles wondering if the boys would even get a season at all.
November started up, and it was almost time for tryouts. The night before ... the Governor required a two-week shut-down. That was definitely a let down. But the moment it was allowed (two weeks later) a truncated tryouts happened (just two days instead of a week) and the season started. Colton made the team(s). Technically, all four. He was listed on the freshman team, but didn't play with them often, as freshman games were usually at the same time as the JV games. He was a starter on the sophomore team, and the JV team, and got a little bit of Varsity playing time ... he even started one game (see HERE). Each age had separate uniforms for home/away, and varsity had two away, blue and black. Colton had NINE different jersey sets! He got #5 for freshman, sophomore and JV, and #4 for Varsity (as a senior had already claimed #5).
... alas, the Christmas Tournament games didn't happen, at least not for West Jordan. Covid hit the team. A couple of Colton's teammates had it earlier in the year, most (all?) of the Varsity players tested positive over the holiday break. Several sophomores were out here and there. I often wondered if perhaps Colton was immune? He'd surely been exposed and around it a lot, but he stayed healthy. All the players seemed to recover quickly and completely.
I didn't make it to every game, but I went to most of them. I'd come to Sophomore and JV in person, and then I'd usually head home and watch the live stream of the Varsity game while I walked on the treadmill.
I'd try to make highlight reels, and #mycoltonclips (featuring just Colton's points, whereas the highlights got everyone's points, assists ... but I did miss much of the defense). It would be easy to get behind with so many games, so I would tend to focus on the wins, or ones where Colton had highlights, and then some of the video footage just ended up falling by the wayside.
I don't think I ended up making ANY videos of the few freshman games I had video for. I also didn't make any for Varsity. Here's a link to the SOPHOMORE PLAYLIST (7 games) and the JV PLAYLIST (5 games). Then I made a couple Colton Compilations ...
Colton's (Freshman) Sophomore Season Highlights
Colton's (Freshman) JV Season Highlights
Freshman Followup...
Colton (and Ethan and Carter) DID go play with the freshman in a President's Day tournament to wrap up the season. It was held at West High, and NO spectators were allowed (that is out of my drive zone, so I wouldn't have gone regardless). The games were streamed though (usually they weren't, as they were played in Aux gyms and on off days), and I was able to capture them. The first game against West (Freshman Game 1) was an easy win, then WJ had to face Bingham (Freshman Game 2)... the last game against them had been a loss, but here, WJ got the win and moved on to the championship game! Another rematch, against Mountain Ridge (Championship Game). In the previous three matchups, Mountain Ridge had walked away with the win. But not this one! It was super close and stressful until the buzzer beater end. Congrats to the Freshman team! A great way to finish up the season.
The West Jordan Varsity team had to face the #1 seeded team in the second round, and they got eliminated there. Westlake made it to the championship game as expected, but then there was an upset as Davis managed to get the win and take the title. West Jordan only had two seniors graduating, so here's hoping for a strong season next year with returning players. The Region boundaries are shifting again for next year as well (WJ had been shifted to pool with schools to the North/West, but next year will again face the tough competition to the South... back to Bingham, CHHS, etc).
