ST. LOUIS — Dreams were crushed across the state of Missouri on Monday when the Missouri State High School Activities Association announced that the state basketball tournament would be canceled.
Most students were in school when the news was released, but the Incarnate Word Academy girls basketball team was hard at work practicing on the court. With 15 minutes left in Monday's practice, Incarnate Word head coach Dan Rolfes received the alert that the tournament had indeed been canceled.
"I totally understand the whole process and why," Rolfes said. "It's just hard to tell your kids that we don't have the opportunity to go down there."
Jaws dropped, and tears flowed from nearly every player.
"You tell your kids that, 'hey you gotta do this over the course of the season," Rolfes said. "'We gotta do this to be successful to get to a state championship.' And they did that. And they did everything that I asked. For them to not to be able to go is, understandable, but it's disappointing for them that they don't have that experience."
For most of the girls on the team, this is just a road bump as they'll have the chance to compete again for Incarnate Word next season.
"We're a really, really young team," Rolfes said. "So I'm not even sure some of those younger players really even know what they're missing out on. For our seniors, they had been there before."
But for the seniors on the team, this is the end to their high school careers.
Incarnate Word has won three straight state championship game with the opportunity to defend their title this year. Had they won their fourth straight title this year, they would have made school program history.
For Incarnate Word senior guard Kate Rolfes, this was the most devastating part.
"It sucks," Kate Rolfes, daughter of head coach Dan Rolfes, said. "I've worked so hard for this, and, not just me but the team as well. It's just...me and my dad still have a special bond too. No one throughout history here has won four straight state championships, and I just thought it would be the coolest thing ever if I walk in and win all four. I had that the opportunity, but now with this virus I never thought that it would never happen."
"To not be able to end her career at the state tournament is tough," Dan Rolfes said. "But we always talk our girls about things that are out of our control, and we only worry about the things that we can control. And this is something that we can't."
Kate and Dan Rolfes embraced at center court following the announcement in pure sadness of the missed opportunity.
"On Saturday I didn't even think twice that it would be the last time that my dad would ever coach me," Kate Rolfes said. "It's just sad because he's coached me my entire life. It will just be different that he will be on the sidelines, and will not actually be my coach."
Regardless of the situation, Dan Rolfes wanted to make sure every player left the court with the most positive mindset possible surrounding the situation.
"The positive is we won our last game and we had the chance to go," Rolfes said. "That they did everything that I asked them to do, and you know we won our last game and not everybody can say that."
"In the end through my four years here, I've won on a win," Kate Rolfes said. "I've not ended on a loss. So I'm grateful for that. And I'm just grateful that we actually got to play that game on Saturday, rather than beating Warrenton by 30. That's not as fun. And the game Saturday was a lot more fun to end on."
At the end of the day, there's always the bigger picture perspective.
"Honestly I was surprised we played on Saturday," Dan Rolfes said. "When the rest of the world is shutting down their athletics, it was hard for me to believe that we were still gonna play high school sports. As much as I wanna play, believe me I want to play all the time. There are more important things."