BUFFALO, N.Y. — It's been almost 11 months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic ended the playoff run for Health Sciences basketball.

Players are still hurt by how their season ended, which came just one round shy of the New York state tournament.

"It was just shocking to me. I thought they were going to let us play, so I was just trying to have some faith," says Isaiah Jean-Pierre, a senior forward. "It was really shocking, just taking the season away, and we didn’t know why. I never even heard of corona."

"It was hard for me knowing my season was ended while my team was going good," says Ja'Vaughn Jones, a senior guard. "It was more hard for the seniors on my team. I knew I had another year to prove myself."

Jones saw those games as an opportunity to impress Division-I coaches, an offer failed to materialize, in part because of the lost playoff games. 

"It was really tough, trying to get an offer," he says. 

"When you’re playing at the Far West Regionals, or playing at the state level, you’re playing against high-quality competition," says Ty Parker, Health Sciences head coach. "That’s good evaluation for the college coaches to be able to evaluate you against good talent. There’s some good talent here in Western New York, but they want to see you play against some of the best in the state."

For Parker, nothing could take the sting out of how last year ended, so he focused on the offseason. Most gyms around Western New York were closed during quarantine, so Parker made sure his players stayed in shape at home.

"You can work on your ball handling, you can work on your calisthenics, push-ups, dips, sit-ups, jumping jacks," he says. "Things of that nature."

"I have the best coach in town to get me right," says Jean-Pierre. "He was going to get us to a point where we wanted to be."

Jean-Pierre was ecstatic to learn that he could resume practicing with his teammates this week.

"First day back? I couldn’t even sleep!" he says. "I was just ready to work. I just want to live up to expectations that everybody has for us, because we’re a winning program."

And his coach was thrilled to know that he could keep his players busy.

"It’s bigger than basketball," he says. "With all that idle time, and being at home, not in school, not participating in athletics, they can get into a lot of other things. There’s a lot of temptation, a lot of negativity out there in our community, where we come from. I was just blessed, and I was happy to be able to be around them, because when they’re here in the gym with me, I know they’re not out in the streets doing something negative."

Practices haven’t been altered too much because of COVID-19 protocols. As long as the gym is sanitized before and after they go, Parker and his players pretty much have free reign to run drills as they see fit.