In the face of team’s covid outbreak, Duquesne’s Keith Dambrot sends players home for Christmas
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The basketball coach who has lived inside Keith Dambrot for the better part of four decades says his team needs to practice.
But the human side of Duquesne’s coach seized control during what has been a turbulent, covid-ravaged month of December.
With all but three of 18 players testing positive at different times for covid-19, Duquesne canceled every full-team practice since Dec. 3 and three nonconference games before postponing the Atlantic 10 opener last Saturday at Richmond. Dambrot believes the team was exposed at the multi-team event it attended in Louisville where the Dukes played two of three scheduled games.
So, what else could the coach do, but what he did?
“I made the conscious decision to send the guys home for Christmas because I just think their mental health is more important than anything,” he said.
“There’s nothing I can do, but I have to do the right thing. I have to make sure we keep these guys safe and that their mental health is right.
“I felt it was the right thing to send them home, even though it’s not the right thing for the basketball team. We need to practice to have a chance to win.”
And that’s the most difficult part for Dambrot, who’s in his fourth season at Duquesne. The Dukes are a veteran group, with seven players who averaged at least 21 minutes for a team that won 21 games last season.
But the Dukes (1-1) have played only two games while seven A-10 opponents have played seven or eight. (Fordham, another A-10 team, hasn’t played its first game.)
Dambrot believes his team will recover. He knows it won’t be easy, but he doesn’t want to use the situation as an excuse.
“Nobody’s going to care at the end of the day,” he said. “You still have to win games. We still get paid to win games.”
School officials waited until everyone tested negative two days in a row — tests are conducted daily — before allowing players in the gym for individual workouts. Dambrot was encouraged when eight were available Sunday, but he knows it’s far from what’s necessary.
“Better than nothing,” he said.
“It’s been a slow deal for us. Instead of getting 10 (positive tests) at once, we get one guy, two days later another guy, two days later another guy. It’s like torture, almost.”
Players will return from holiday break late in the day Saturday, practice two days at home before leaving Dec. 29 for the new A-10 opener Dec. 30 at Saint Louis (6-1).
Even when a player tests negative and returns to practice, it takes time for him to return to form.
“For a guy like me, it’s really difficult because I’m such a neurotic perfectionist,” Dambrot said.
“We had a kid who didn’t shoot the ball well after being out for 14 days. I said, ‘What did you expect? You think you’re just going to come back and immediately be good?’
“Normally, I would be upset for a guy not shooting the ball well, but I’m not upset because I understand it.
“That’s the other part of it, trying to get them back ready to play is hard.”
The immediate effect has been Dambrot and his staff working as often as counselors as basketball coaches.
“Between anxiety from not wanting to get it and the anxiety of not playing any games, it’s been frustrating for them. They live for the game. They don’t live for practices,” he said.
“They have to trust you that you are going to do the best for them. We’re all in it together. We understand we’re all at risk.”
From a personal standpoint, the situation hasn’t been easy on the 62-year-old coach.
He has been one of the few people in the program — players and staff — who has not tested positive. But while he’s at risk, he sent his wife, Donna, back to their native Ohio to keep her safe.
He said he hasn’t seen her in three weeks, but she’ll return for Christmas.
“The thing for me is I am by myself at the house. The hardest thing for me is psychologically,” he said.
Dambrot still believes there’s plenty of time for Duquesne to have a good season.
“We’ll be fine once we can get some games in.”
But he admits, “This will be the ultimate coaching test, another test for the old-timer.”