Well, the ugly reality has set in. Schools and non-essential businesses are closed, everyone has been advised to cover up when going out and remain physically distanced, and state athletic officials have canceled spring sports for the remainder of the school year.
On Friday, April 3, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) commissioners, not seeing “an avenue for the spring sports season to continue,” announced it has decided to cancel spring Section, Regional and State Championship events.
This is in response to recent statements issued by Governor Gavin Newsom and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond regarding schools turning to distance learning for the remainder of the school year.
At that same time, Riverbank schools have followed the lead of state and county education officials to finish out the year at home.
What that means to RHS senior athletes is that basically their high school careers are over.
As a response to the unprecedented situation, The Riverbank News is endeavoring to highlight activity from this year’s senior student athletes by “spotlighting” their on court/on field activity this year in story and photos. Many of them are multi-sport athletes.
Kicking off this week, we feature RHS senior Bruin Ty Luu.
Varsity Basketball
Luu, wearing jersey number (lucky) 13, plays power forward, center, and point guard, depending on the offense set up by Bruin coach Jeff Jennings.
The Luu family has a long basketball tradition at Riverbank High, with sisters Janelle and Olivia, as well as brother Theo preceding Ty on the Bruin hardwoods.
Boys Volleyball
Despite the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Luu was able to get in about four early matches in the 2020 season, with the last one played at home on Thursday, March 12, the final sports held on campus as the season began to be shut down.
Also wearing jersey number 13 for volleyball, a relatively new sport for boys in the area, Luu plays as a server as well as setter, and was also instrumental in putting away a number of spikes in the curtailed Bruin volleyball season.
In addition to the volleyball, Luu was to be participating in a few events on the track and field team this spring. That was expected to occasionally conflict with volleyball games on the same days, but he was working it out.
Next week, we plan to feature senior Mikayla Macias.
