Getting to the other side of Coronavirus

We’ve gotten so many messages from so many sources the past two weeks, it makes the head spin.

One of the more practical ones came Monday evening from Las Cruces City Councilor Gill Sorg: “Notice from Utilities: paper products like paper towels are not flushable – they will clog up the system.”

The last thing you want during all this uncertainty is an overflowing, dirty toilet.

If you’re one of the many people desperately seeking TP, you may feel like you have no options. But while creativity is a great asset, you should always run your brilliant ideas through your common-sense filter. If you lack that gene, please consult a household member.

We continue to encourage you to check updates from the New Mexico Department of Health at http://cv.nmhealth.org/, and for federal updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html.

We will also to continue to update our website, www.lascrucesbulletin.com, and send email newsletters via our eBulletin. If you’re not already on our email list, send me a request: richard@lascrucesbulletin.com.

I’m writing this about 64 hours before you’re reading it, and there’s almost certainly things that have changed locally and nationally in that time difference. We’re drifting through uncharted territory here, but we will get through it one way or another.

Coronavirus will have a giant impact on our population, our healthcare system and our economic system. Yet, there will be a point in the future – hopefully not more than a few months, but possibly so – where we will look back and remember this time, and we’ll remember how we got through it.

A unique championship

One way we’ll get through it is by celebrating our successes, big and small. One of our community’s recent successes is the Las Cruces Bulldawgs’ 5A state championship title.

Their victory was probably one of the last team championships in America for a while, because so many other basketball tournaments were canceled.

If a team wins a basketball championship and there’s no one there to see it, did it really happen?

In the case of the Bulldawgs, that’s a big yes.

The last three rounds of the state playoffs were at the Pit in Albuquerque, which holds 15,411. But due to Coronavirus precautions, the New Mexico Activities Association limited attendance to players, coaches, officials and arena personnel. Media was prohibited, as well.

The 29-3 Bulldawgs won the title game 65-53 over Santa Fe Capital. March 12, LCHS defeated Volcano Vista 47-31 in the semifinal, and in the quarterfinal March 11, beat Clovis 51-46. The Bulldawgs made the trip to Albuquerque for the state tournament by defeating Gadsden 86-62 March 7 during its first-round game at home in Las Cruces.

A stifling matchup zone defense helped LCHS win the final two games by relatively comfortable margins, 16 and 12 points.

“That defense helped us dictate the tempo, get steals, limit their shot attempts and force them into shots they wouldn’t normally take,” said Coach William Benjamin, adding he was inspired to use the defense by Neil McCarthy, his college coach from his playing days at New Mexico State University.

McCarthy said the hardest part of a tournament is preparation, and if you can throw your opponents a surprise, it can give you an edge when there is only a short time between games.

“We practiced that defense the whole year, but never ran it,” Benjamin said. “And I got to thinking about (Coach McCarthy) and about that defense, and realized we had the personnel, we had enough length to go along with our speed to pose problems with smaller teams with smaller guards.”

To steal an analogy from another sport, the Bulldawgs threw a curve, and it worked.

And that’s what we’re going to have to do with Coronavirus. We’re going to have to do things differently from the norm. We can’t get stuck doing things the old way trying to combat something new and different.

So be prepared to change up what you do. But keep washing your hands.