High school basketball in Missouri had a different look to it Thursday through Saturday in the state playoffs.
The game itself didn't change, just the number of people watching it.
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Shortly after noon Thursday, roughly three hours from the start of the first semifinal game in the Class 1-3 Final Four in Springfield, the Missouri State High School Activities Association issued a press release, stating, "Upon the recommendation from the Greene County Director of Public Health and in consultation with Missouri State University, the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) will be making adjustments to the access allowed at this weekend's Show-Me Showdown."
The press release added, "with a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the state and concern for the safety of all who will be working and attending" the Final Four, each school would receive 150 wristbands in place of tickets for its games at the Final Four. Only those fans would be allowed into the arena, and the distribution of the wristbands would be each school's responsibility.
"It's gone as smoothly as it can," MSHSAA communications director Jason West said. "In fact, I would say probably even smoother, given what we had to do (Thursday)."
In a short period of time, MSHSAA had to alert each of the 24 Final Four teams of its decision.
"Thanks to modern technology and social media, it has certainly helped," West said. "Sometimes it's a pain. Even in this scenario, we wanted to inform the teams first before they got any information, or any bad information.
"Unfortunately, we were in a situation where we had the first wave of teams called, but by the time we got to the next set of teams, the first teams had already released it out on social media. By the time we got to the final team, they already knew everything before (we could talk to them)."
St. Elizabeth was one of the eight teams playing in the semifinals Thursday. Hornets coach Dillon Tenholder said the school learned of the news less than an hour before the team was scheduled to depart for Springfield.
"First of all, I want to credit MSHSAA," St. Elizabeth athletic director Sheila Heckemeyer said. "When Greene County called them, they we weren't playing at all. There was nobody coming in. (Executive director) Kerwin Urhahn and (assistant executive director) Kevin Garner, they fought and got us the 150 (spectators)."
After that, it was a matter of how to narrow down which 150 people would make the trip to watch the team at the Final Four. For St. Elizabeth, the school left the decision up to the families of the players.
"Every player that has been on the roster - on our basketball varsity and JV - got a certain number of tickets," Heckemeyer said.
There were still leftover tickets following that process, and Heckemeyer said school staff and board members were asked if they wanted to attend. After that, there were still leftover tickets, so the families of the players were asked again.
"And then we came back to a few extras, and we went to our seniors and asked their parents if they wanted additional tickets," Heckemeyer said. "We felt that it was up to them, because putting them out into the community would be a tough decision for us."
Blair Oaks didn't play until Friday night in the Final Four. The Falcons also decided to issue tickets to the players' families first, but they used a slightly different method.
"We said we have 150 tickets, and if we took that by the number of players and coaches and divided it out, it comes out to seven tickets per person," Blair Oaks athletic director Corey Felten said. "So we got the kids together and we said, 'We're giving you seven tickets. That's the max you get. If you can't use them, don't use them. We'll get someone else there.' We had some kids who took two, or three, or seven."
Next were the cheerleaders, who were offered tickets for their parents. After that, there were still 21 tickets remaining.
"So we just put a big list and did a lottery drawing and brought 21 kids here, so we could have a student fan base too," Felten said.
West said part of MSHSAA's discussion Thursday morning was settling on the number of 150 fans per team.
"We were trying to come up with a number that everyone could be comfortable with, both on the health and safety side, and allow the most spectator access for the teams, but still keep enough room where people can spread out and they're not on top of each other," he said. "The 150 number seemed to be one that kept coming back up, that is comfortable. That's 300 spectators, then you include all the other personnel, the teams and the people helping with the tournament, it's almost 700 people during a game total."
The number was even smaller for Helias, which played its Class 4 quarterfinal game Saturday afternoon at Southwest Baptist in Bolivar.
On Thursday evening, the athletic directors of teams participating in the Class 4 and 5 quarterfinals had a conference call with MSHSAA. During that call, it was decided each team could bring 60 people referred to as "essential personnel" to its game.
However, that number included the players, coaches and any additional members, such as managers, for each team. For the most part, that only left enough spots for players' parents to attend the game. None of the boys or girls teams at the Class 4 quarterfinals in Bolivar brought cheerleaders to the games.
"I mean, who's going to want to see the kids play the most? That's definitely their immediate family," Helias activities director Tom Guinn said. " We wanted to bring a trainer, but we ended up not.
"We just did the best we could to get people here."
Heckemeyer, Felten and Guinn were all appreciative of MSHSAA doing everything in its power to ensure the games were played and seasons weren't ended abruptly, as several state basketball tournaments across the country were postponed or even canceled.
"For what MSHSAA had to do, and fight for us to even get us here, I think it worked out the best that it could," Felten said. "This absolutely isn't what MSHSAA wants to do. They're losing revenue off of this as well."
"Just getting to play here is such an honor," Heckemeyer said. "The fact that we're here is such a big deal. The fans have been amazing, and it's still a good atmosphere to be in."
"The energy from the kids was phenomenal," Guinn said. "For them to bring that, even though we didn't have our student body here, I thought they had a good experience. I know they'll be looking forward to the Final Four."
The Tipton Lady Cardinals also played on Saturday afternoon in the Class 2 title game.
As of now, the Class 4 and 5 Final Four is still on schedule, though it's possible that could change anytime before Thursday's first semifinal game.
Class and district assignments for high school spring sports in Missouri were posted online Friday morning by MSHSAA. The first day for spring competition is this Friday.
MSHSAA put out a press release Friday, saying there have been "no changes to the Spring Activity/Sports Season at this Time." West said that decision is "day by day" in what he described as a "fluid situation."
"As of right now, the plan is to progress just like we do every other year," he said.