Helias dealing with cancellation of trip to Class 4 Final Four

Helias coach Joe Rothweiler (center) celebrates with his team on the court after the Crusaders defeated Webb City 63-54 in the Class 4 quarterfinals Saturday at Southwest Baptist in Bolivar.
Helias coach Joe Rothweiler (center) celebrates with his team on the court after the Crusaders defeated Webb City 63-54 in the Class 4 quarterfinals Saturday at Southwest Baptist in Bolivar.

The Helias Crusaders did what they sought to do from the beginning of the 2019-20 basketball season. They won their final game.

They just wish it would have come in the Class 4 championship game, not the quarterfinals.

.

Shortly after 10:30 a.m. Monday, the Missouri State High School Activities Association announced in a press release it had canceled the Class 4 and 5 Final Four basketball games that were scheduled for this weekend in Springfield, "due to continuing concerns regarding the spread of COVID-19."

"The decision was made in consultation with local and state officials, as well as the member schools," MSHSAA said in the press release. "The most recent (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommendations of limiting gatherings played a large part in the making of this decision."

Helias was scheduled to play Vashon in the semifinals Friday night. Instead, the Crusaders will end their season with a 23-6 record after qualifying for the Final Four for the seventh time in program history.

"We were just praying that we were going to get that game in," Helias coach Joe Rothweiler said. "We understand why we can't. It's tough to swallow right now. We had a great year and our guys built some great memories together."

Last weekend in the Class 1-3 Final Four, each school was limited to 150 fans per game. At Helias' 63-54 quarterfinal win Saturday against Webb City at Southwest Baptist in Bolivar, each school was limited to 60 people deemed "essential personnel," a total that included the basketball players, coaches and staff.

Sunday night, the CDC recommended the cancellation of all events of 50 or more people. Monday night, the White House recommended to avoid social gatherings of 10 or more people for the next 15 days.

During the weekend, Rothweiler was looking at the possibility of hurrying up the Final Four before games were scheduled to start Friday.

"I had been on the phone with some other coaches that are in Class 5 and Class 4 that were supposed to participate," he said. "We were trying to rack our brains together and figure out if there were any suggestions we could put forward to MSHSAA, because we were all worried about the chance of canceling, just by looking at Twitter and watching the news.

"We thought maybe we could convince them to move it up to Monday or Tuesday, and maybe just meet midway between the two schools and find a place to play."

But that talk was halted when Helias activities director Tom Guinn broke the news of the Final Four cancellation to Rothweiler.

The next step was to alert the Helias basketball players directly from either Guinn or Rothweiler. But that wouldn't go all according to plan.

"Right after the phone call from MSHSAA, they released it on social media," Rothweiler said. "One or two of our guys caught it and put it on a text thread.

"But we gathered them all together right after that. At about 11:15 a.m., we met in the blue and gold room and told them in person."

It was a tough, emotional gathering for the Crusaders.

"There were a lot of different emotions," Rothweiler said. "You're frustrated, you cry a little bit, then you laugh. That's kind of how our group is, though. We're a real close-knit group."

Saturday's win was the final time Helias' six seniors - Marcus Anthony, Tate Heislen, Isaac Johnson, Caleb Justice, Colby LeCuru and Cole Sappenfield - would dress for a high school basketball game.

"When I started talking to them, I couldn't control my emotions," Rothweiler said. "The whole team was in a big circle, hugging and crying, just being there for each other."

The Final Four games will not be rescheduled. Rothweiler said there was some hope the games would be postponed instead of canceled, but with many states across the country opting for cancellation of state basketball games, MSHSAA following their lead eventually wasn't a surprise.

"You wish you could do something about it, but there's just not anything you can do," Rothweiler said.

For each team that advances to the Final Four, MSHSAA awards the team with a state plaque and the players and coaches with medals.

Rothweiler said Helias will receive a plaque and medals from MSHSAA, but he's not sure what will be written on them.

"They're not going to announce somebody as a state champion," Rothweiler said. "It's just going to be a plaque and medals that will say maybe 'state finalist' or something like that, and all four teams from each division will get that."

Rothweiler added Helias will recognize the basketball team for its accomplishment sometime in the future.

"At Helias, the tradition is pretty rich, and we only hang state championship banners," he said. "There's already some talk of maybe doing something like that, because of the way things were out of our control. I know Vashon is pushing to do that for their school, and they said they thought that all the qualifiers should do something similar to that."

Given this week's cancellation of the Final Four, Rothweiler said he is more grateful Helias had the opportunity to play Saturday, to have the chance to win one more game.

"We thank MSHSAA a great deal for giving us that chance," he said. "Not every state got that chance. We felt that MSHSAA fought hard to give us every chance to even play this coming weekend, but we understand the pressure they were getting from outside sources to not let us play. We understand how serious this coronavirus is."

The Crusaders met again after school Monday. However, Rothweiler said that won't be the final time they meet as a team this school year.

"We had our banquet scheduled for March 30, and we know we're going to have to push that back," Rothweiler said, as Helias announced Monday school would be canceled from Wednesday through April 3 due to coronavirus concerns. "Hopefully, we get to get that in at some point in the near future.

"All of those things that we typically do at the end of the season to wrap it up, they'll be pushed back until whenever we can do them."

Monday's team meeting gave Helias players a chance to reflect on their season, one in which the Crusaders were unranked in every regular-season state poll but were one of the last four teams remaining in Class 4.

Vashon was ranked No. 1, while the other two Final Four teams, Raytown South and Cape Girardeau: Notre Dame, were ranked Nos. 2 and 6, respectively.

"It's an experience that we're always going to remember," Rothweiler said.