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Head inside the Strafford Sports Center these days, and you’ll probably feel normal.
“I like all these sounds, you can hear the crowd in the background. You can hear the crowd, you can hear the sneakers,” said Drury Women’s Basketball Coach Amy Eagan.
Those sounds are a far cry from the quiet emptiness at the complex last summer.
“Drury’s out here, [Baptist Bible College], Missouri Southern, Evangel,” said Strafford Sports Center General Manager & Director of Officiating Courtney Donohue. “We’re trying to pick up everybody in the area to play. I think the kids are just as excited as we are to watch them.”
This year, the complex is hosting area teams for the annual College/Pro-Am League.
The complex was supposed to host the league last year for the first time before the pandemic wiped out those plans.
“One didn’t have one open gym all [last] summer, so it’s good to have the gym open to be able to come out here and play in front of crowds and play other college teams,” said Baptist Bible College Men’s Coach Darin Meinders.
For teams like Baptist Bible College, it’s a chance to play up in competition, sometimes facing Division II Drury.
“It’s going to help us, we hope we can help them a little bit this summer, but any time we can face teams that are a higher level than us, we look forward to that challenge.,” Meinders said.
For the Drury Panthers and Lady Panthers, it may not be the chance to play up in competition, but it is the chance to compete. That’s something they welcome back after last summer.
“Our kids didn’t get to play all [last] summer, period,” Eagan said. “They came back in July but we weren’t able to play 5-on-5 and do those things because of COVID so this summer is feeling I think a lot more normal for [the players]. I think they’re really, really enjoying it.”
The DU fans will enjoy it too as they get the chance to see some of their favorite players in person again.
“They haven’t had the opportunity to see us very much and you add in a lot of new kids and they’re going to come out,” Eagan said.
Overall, it’s a great chance for basketball fans in the Ozarks to gather at some games.
“It’s going to be amazing here. Probably a little loud, but it’ll be amazing,” Donohue said.
Especially now that we all know just how much we were missing.
