Junior Jada Jacobs has Medford Tech back on the court for good

GLASSBORO — On, again.

The Medford Tech Jaguars played their fourth basketball game of the high school season on Sunday. Hopefully, it’s their last first of 2022 after too many stops and starts on the season.

After the school opted out the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19, the Jags returned in December for three games before the program was suspended for two weeks because of positive COVID tests. The game against Kingsway was their first since Dec. 30, also against the Dragons.

The stop, start nature of the season has been, to put if gently, frustrating.

“It was devastating, really, because it was stopping our growth,” junior Jada Jacobs said. “We're going, stopping, going, stop and going, stopping. It's just hard to keep going, you know.”

The Jaguars were rusty, to say the least.

MedTech has lost its four games, twice against Kingsway and once to Clearview. Those teams are Group 4 Tri-County Conference schools. The Jags only game against a Burlington County League opponent was a two-point loss to Bordentown. It’s no exaggeration to say they’re looking forward to finally starting their BCSL schedule.

“It's going to be extremely important,” Jacobs said. “I'm hoping that everyone stays safe. Where are the masks? I'm hoping that we can slow this. Stop the spread of COVID, especially for our teachers and children. We want to keep having our practices and keep having games.”

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Medford Tech has spent the better part of two basketball seasons waiting to take the court. Pausing for half of January was just the latest delay.

“We’re definitely frustrated,” Jags coach Demetrius Briggs said. “I can't tell you how many how many nights we sat around and talked about just being on the court. We were pleased to get back on the court this year, but then we were hit with adversity this year. To begin the season, we had a few kids in quarantine protocols. We were going into games for like five and six players. Then we got hit with a two-week delay.

“It's been a rough patch was in a season where we're already behind. From what happened last year, we're behind in season two because these teams have been consistently playing.”

Medford Tech couldn’t play last year but the team didn’t really disband. The players had to find new ways to keep things going.

“Our coach gave us workouts to do,” Jacobs said. “I also invited my team to a clinic that I usually go to. We would show up to workout but really it was just personal workouts. It really is because it's not the same. It's not the same being by yourself. You need to work on your personal growth, but we need to gel as a team and it's like, we hadn't been together for so long.”

That’s why this year’s false start was so frustrating.

“We were hitting the stride,” Briggs said. “We put up 56 points a couple games. We just need to really start focusing on our defense and our timing and things like that. To have that two weeks off, it definitely hurt. Definitely.”

Barring further complications, the Jaguars can finally lean into the season. With plenty of games to reschedule, MedTech should be very busy over the next six weeks.

“I'm excited for our Tuesday game,” Jacobs said. “We're looking at coming out strong. We're going to watch this film. We're going to see your mistakes and we're just going to get better. I mean, that's all we can do.”

Tom Rimback, sports reporter

Tom Rimback grew up reading the Burlington County Times and Courier Post sports sections and began writing for the BCT in 1996. He has covered everything from Super Bowls and Final Fours to Tri-County Swimming but he’s happiest on a sideline interviewing South Jersey scholastic athletes for the Burlington County Times, the Courier Post and The Daily Journal. Follow him on twitter @RimbackBCT. Email him with story ideas at trimback@thebct.com and, most importantly, support local journalism with a subscription.

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This article originally appeared on Burlington County Times: Junior Jada Jacobs navigating off-again, on-again Medford Tech season