By Jeff Faraudo
#WCChoops columnist | ARCHIVES
 
Imagine if you could walk through your neighborhood park without a mask. That you could enjoy dinner with friends in a restaurant. Or work out at your local gym.
 
Imagine COVID-19 didn’t exist in your corner of the world.
 
This is the 2020 experience Sam Simons chose. And still it wasn’t an easy decision.
 
“Really hard . . . really, really hard,” the Saint Mary’s College junior said when asked about deciding to opt out of this season and remain at home with her family in Adelaide, Australia.
 
For Simons, a first-team All-West Coast Conference selection last season, the decision came with a pricetag.
 
“I miss my team so much, just being able to hang out with them. I miss practice. It’s something you just take for granted,” she said. “It’s hard watching the games on live stream. That’s probably the hardest part — watching the girls play and not being able to be there.” 
 
But after watching from 8,000 miles away as the coronavirus began to gain steam again this fall in the U.S., Simons and her parents spent a week in conversation about what she should do.
 
They dissected every angle of a complex situation, including the potential closure of borders and travel restrictions, and the concern that her parents might not be able to get here if she contracted COVID.
 
“If it was just basketball, I’d be over there in a heartbeat,” Simons explained. “In the end we thought it was best to stay in a place where it’s COVID-free. I’m safe, I’m with my family. It was a very family-based decision and something I thought was best for me in a really uncertain year.”
 
The positive test numbers in the U.S. are almost more than Simons can wrap her head around. “It’s crazy,” she said. “I can’t believe how many cases you guys get every single day.”
 
The U.S. reports more than 18 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. In Australia, the total is just over 28,000. Strict early use of home confinement and nightly curfews led to success Down Under.
 
The state of South Australia, whose capital city is Adelaide, has a population of just under 1.8 million. South Australia has reported just four total COVID-19 deaths and currently has no active cases. Zero.
 
A month ago or so there was a report of 10 potential cases.
 
“When that happened, we actually went into state lockdown. So we couldn’t leave our houses or anything like that over 10 cases. For six days,” Simons said. 
 
Borders were shut so no one could enter or leave South Australia with the hope it would halt the spread.
 
“It worked,” she said.
 
And in the meantime, few complained about the impositions on their life. “I don’t think we’ve had much if any of that kind of, `We need our freedom’ and stuff like that. People here are like, `Yep, we understand what we’ve got to do. And if we do it we’ll be COVID-free.’ So I think we’ve been a real sensible country.”
 
As a result, life is generally quite normal in South Australia. Simons said she has never had to wear a mask.
 
Back here, the Gaels have won their last two games after dropping their first four contests. The scenario likely would be somewhat different if the Gaels had Simons, a 6-foot-2 forward who averaged 16.3 points and 5.4 rebounds last season and shot 40 percent from the 3-point arc. But coach Paul Thomas said he and the team are entirely supportive of the choice Simons made.
 
“This is Division I basketball and I’m hired to win games,” Thomas said. “But winning is such a minor factor when it comes to the overall health and well-being of everybody.
 
“Would it be great to be 6-0? Sure, but in the big picture it means more to know Sam is happy with her decision and her family is happy with her decision.”
 
This week, Simons will enjoy the holidays with her family for the first time since going off to college. “We’re having a normal Christmas,” she said. “We’ll go to church on Christmas eve and have a Christmas family lunch.”
 
Even so, she misses her other life. She talks regularly with teammates, peppering them with questions about practice and games. She cannot wait to rejoin them next season. In the meantime, she has a message for her teammates.
 
“Stay safe, enjoy Christmas with your loved ones. Hopefully you can get over this COVID soon and we can all go back to what we knew as normal life.”
 
MEET IN SLO: The Gaels’ men traveled to San Luis Obispo for a neutral-site test vs. San Diego State on Tuesday night. The Aztecs were ranked 18th nationally and unbeaten a week ago before BYU handed them a 72-62 defeat.
 
SDSU fared better against the next WCC team it faced, posting a 74-49 victory over the Gaels. Saint Mary’s played without starting small forward Alex Ducas, who is nursing a sprained ankle, and his backup Leemet Böckler, out with a foot injury. It added up to the most lopsided non-conference defeat of coach Randy Bennett’s 20 seasons.
 
The loss also snapped the Gaels’ seven-game win streak against teams from the Mountain West Conference.
 
SEEING DOUBLE: No. 1 Gonzaga, in an effort to play more games after having five canceled, scheduled the same team on back-to-back nights this week. It wasn’t your imagination that the Zags played Northwestern State of Louisiana on both Monday and Tuesday.
 
Gonzaga (6-0) won 95-57 in the first game and 95-78 a day later. 
 
“We looked at some other options and couldn’t quite get it done,” coach Mark Few said of scheduling the back-to-back. “We’re kind of running out of days to get in more games, and this team needs more games.”
 
After Tuesday’s game, Few again thanked Northwestern State for adding the second game, which meant playing five times in a span of six days. “They competed for 40 minutes each night. They got down big both nights, they didn’t quit and they kept coming and coming. I tip my hat to them.”
 
THE GIVING SPIRIT: USF’s women set a program record for points in a game with its 108-82 win at Sacramento State on Tuesday night. The Dons shot 63 percent from the field, and got a career-best 22 points from Abby Rathbun. 
 
They also shared the ball, dishing out 36 assists, including 11 by Ioanna Krimili and nine by Lucija Kostic. The 36 assists broke the program record of 34, set 40 seasons ago.
 
Said coach Molly Goodenbour, whose team has won four in a row, “It was a fun game because everyone was scoring points. It was a good way to end before Christmas."
 
THE END