Ahh, it’s normally the most wonderful time of the year.

Or at least the busiest.

We should be getting ready for Holiday Tournament Week, right?

They should be bouncing the balls at 8 a.m.at the Belanger Gym at Nashua South today. Eight games on tap, four girls, four boys. The auxiliary gym off the South lobby would likely be used.

They should be taking the ice at Conway Arena, most likely three games, two 20 minute halves (not three periods), probably going to late afternoon.

Yes, and then we’ll do it all again on Tuesday at both venues. And then let’s have finals on Wednesday afternoon, and use Thursday as a snow date (no reason this year, forecast looks good).

Let’s have the Chick-fil-A Cow bee-boppin to the music during timeouts and throwing T-shirts to the crowd at the Belanger. Let’s see which team can emerge as the winner in both the boys and girls tourneys, and see if a Nashua team can win either one for the first time in awhile. But Thornton Academy of Maine has been a tough foe as a boys champion and we’ve seen teams like Alvirne, Goffstown, and Merrimack knock off Nashua teams in the girls finals lately.

Hopefully it wouldn’t be a Keene or another non-local team lining up and hoisting the Conway Cup; Nashua South-Pelham has enjoyed that moment in the past, but Keene had won the last two sandwiched between a year off. Taking those photos of the Blackbirds celebrating has been getting old.

And if you couldn’t make the games, you could catch a few on Nashua ETV. It’s always the busiest week for executive producer Pete Johnson and crew, but at least the events are down the street from each other.

Press delete.

Time to wake up to the COVID reality of 2020.

Instead, none of the above is happening. The Belanger will be dark, and Conway Arena’s calendar indicates a public skate (with lots of limitations), but no school tournament.

It’s the sacrifice that must be made to keep things safe. Teams began practices on Dec. 14, stopped on Dec. 24, agreeing not to continue until Jan. 4, after the holidays and any holiday travel takes place. Travel can cause health issues; the pause would give time for that to sort itself out. We are still in the preseason; actually a preseason pause.

Still, tough to part with a tradition, but it has to be done for the safety of everyone during the pandemic. This is not the time for these events, obviously.

“I think a part of me is going to miss it,” said South girls basketball coach John Bourgeois, who was a boys assistant for years earlier. “I’ve been a part of the school for a long time; that’s been our thing every holiday season, to go play in that holiday tournament.

“So definitely a piece of me will miss it.”

Bourgeois admitted that the tradition will be missed but that the event wasn’t critical to a season. But it was useful.

“It’s just a good opportunity to practice, see different teams and work on our game during that time,” he said.

So, Chick-fil-A Holiday Festival Tournament and Conway Arena Christmas Tournament, hopefully we’ll see you next year. You were sacrificed for the greater, smarter, and safer good.

“We’re just happy,” Bourgeois said, “to have a season in general.”

Yes, instead of the most wonderful time, we need to make it the safest time.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

Newsletter