Tom Mariano stopped home only long enough to check in with his family through a screen door, then headed for a hotel to begin 10 days of isolation.
An untimely turn of events inside the Major League Lacrosse bubble over the weekend almost derailed the abbreviated season and inspired the Chesapeake Bayhawks head coach to proceed with an increased level of caution. Health protocols were triggered Saturday after a team member reported feeling symptomatic.
“I think at that point, every one of us was convinced that we had it,” Mariano said.
Tests of players and personnel revealed three positive cases on the Bayhawks.
Chesapeake quickly decided to withdraw from the semifinals along with the Connecticut Hammerheads, forcing the MLL to cancel the semifinals. The Boston Cannons also had five players leave ahead of a 13-10 win over the Denver Outlaws in Sunday’s championship game.
It made this blur of a season even more frantic.
“A lot of people have died from this and that was my only concern,” said Mariano, who is also the head men’s lacrosse coach at Pace University. “I supported the players on this. I gave them all of the information we had and they made the decision not to play. We felt we were going to win the whole thing, but this was bigger than lacrosse. I’m proud of these guys. We came in as a team and we left as a team.”
The possibility of collateral damage came up during the Hammerheads team meeting, as well.
“It was a tough conversation,” said backup goalie Kris Alleyne, who’s a former Clarkstown South headliner. “We had guys who had jobs that wouldn’t allow them to quarantine in the hotel for 14 days and quarantine for another 14 days when they got back home. We have a coach who has beaten cancer. You heard the phrase, ‘Bigger than a game,’ so many times all week. I think we just wanted to make sure we were keeping each other safe and keeping our respective communities safe. It didn’t make sense to play. It was rough because we were just hitting our stride, but it was really the best decision.”
The week began with so much promise.
“I was pretty excited,” said Philadelphia Barrage attackman Brendan Sunday, who is a former Arlington standout. “When the pandemic started, I was a little nervous we weren’t going to be able to play for a long time. I was missing the competition, so it was a lot of fun.”
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Training camp lasted all of two days.
“Being able to go out and compete was the opportunity of a lifetime given all that is going on,” said Bayhawks midfielder Nick Mariano, who starred at Yorktown and has played for his older brother since 2014. “It was extremely difficult, though. Staying mentally sharp was difficult. … The level of play was high, honestly. The first three days, we played three very good teams. We only had four hours of practice and you have to understand it’s a hard game when you don’t know what the other players like to do. By the third game, we kind of had our groove down. I’m happy with what happened on the field, but we couldn’t control everything.”
To demonstrate its commitment to ending all forms of social injustice, the MLL had the four African American players in the league stand together at midfield during the national anthem.
“We talked a lot about finding the right way to do that,” Alleyne said. “It was emotional seeing the support we had from the league and having everyone stand behind us during the anthem.”
Players from the MLL’s six teams were housed in single rooms on separate floors of the Westin hotel in Annapolis, Maryland. All of the players and coaches were to be tested at home before travelling. Those awaiting results were retested on site before training camp.
All of the games were played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
“The bubble was tight,” Sunday added. “We had temperature checks. You could only go on shuttles with teammates. During the week, everyone was good. You had to wear your mask until you went out on the field. We didn’t go into a locker room all week. We stayed in a sheltered, open area at halftime. You had a designated time to go and pick up your meals. I tried to stay in my room as much as possible.”
Athletic trainers set up in hotel conference rooms and treatment was by appointment only.
“It was pretty top notch,” Alleyne said. “The Westin was a great hotel. We each had our own rooms. We were able to hang out with each other some and still keep our distance. I don’t know what happened. There are rumors of people leaving the bubble, but I didn’t see that happen. We kind of hung out as a team.”
There was an outdoor hospitality area provided at the hotel.
“We did social distance when we hung out,” said Nick Mariano. “At the end of the day, it’s a team sport, so you want to build up that bond. I walked away from blown away by how they treated us.
"We knew the risks and rewards of everything. I don’t know specifically if some broke the bubble, but some guys showed up ready to play some didn’t."
During the week, there were no practices or pregame shoot-arounds.
“We did most of our meetings on Zoom,” Tom Mariano added. “We even watched game film on Zoom. Everyone is talking about bubble breaches. I don’t know, it felt like a lot of players did the right thing. The problem with this virus is you can’t figure it out. There’s no rhyme or reason. I mean, two of the players were asymptomatic. I don’t think these guys got sick playing lacrosse.”
The championship game was dramatic, too.
John Yozzo-Scaperrotta, a defensive midfielder who played at Dobbs Ferry, did hang around on Sunday, picking up a pair of ground balls in the Boston win before celebrating with the cumbersome trophy.
The postgame routine now includes mandatory quarantines for all of the locals involved.
“I’m taking it very seriously,” Tom Mariano said. “I’m isolating for 10 days and quarantining for the 14 days. I checked into a hotel for a couple of days before my family went to Long Island, so I’ll be home by myself. I’ll take more tests, one later in the week and one early next week. A family member who’s fighting cancer, a grandparent, could die from this. I refuse to take the risk. Honestly, in my opinion, if everybody took this a lot more seriously, we’d be in a better spot.”
Mike Dougherty covers boys lacrosse for The Journal News/lohud.com. He can be reached at mdougher@lohud.com or on Twitter @hoopsmbd and @lohudlacrosse.
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