Starting a new season
Starting a new season
With Hicks Gym gone, the basketball program seeks a new home before 2021 play begins.
When senior basketball player Andrew Laczkowski first heard that Hicks Gym had been destroyed by a tornado the night of October 20, he couldn’t believe that he would never play there again.
That the building where he had made countless memories would never be the same.
That the entire 2019-20 basketball season would be completely, irreversibly different.
“You don’t really realize how important those memories are — how special they are — until you realize it’s gone,” Laczkowski said. “It’s just a crazy feeling.”
In the days following the tornado, the basketball program received an outflow of support from other schools and members of the community. Varsity basketball coach Greg Guiler’s office, located in Hicks, was destroyed, so cross country coach John Turek offered to share his office with Guiler.
Additionally, Highland Park High School allowed the Lions to use three of their gyms for preseason practices.
“It’s just really good to know that there are a lot of people in the community, no matter how much of a rivalry there is or a pseudo-rivalry there is.” Laczkowski said. “It’s great to know that we’re all a Dallas community.”
For the rest of the season, all three basketball teams — freshmen, junior varsity and varsity — will all practice in Spencer Gym. In previous years, the freshmen practiced in Spencer, varsity practiced in Hicks and JV switched off between the two, but now Spencer Gym will be filled to its max capacity.
In some ways, there will be a greater camaraderie in the Upper School just by virtue of the younger guys get to see the older guys play, and every once in a while they see Collin Smith dunking on someone,” Guiler said. “There might be some drill integration like never before, and so there’d be just a greater sense of ownership and pride amongst the guys.”
Without Hicks Gym available, the number of home games might shrink slightly, but Guiler still wants to hold games in Spencer, as he feels it is such an intimate atmosphere.
Originally, the Lions were scheduled to host the basketball SPC championship, but now Greenhill could be taking on that responsibility; however, no official decision has been made yet on the location of the SPC Basketball Championship.
At the end of the day, Guiler feels blessed for the community to not have lost any lives, acknowledging that other things are more important than a single basketball season.
“I just continue to give thanks for how fortunate the community is to have not lost lives.” Guiler said. “It just felt like people were protected in a special way, and for that I’m beyond grateful.”