NORTH SUTTON — Nate Camp’s phone bill might be a little higher than normal this month.
The Kearsarge High boys basketball coach and Lebanon High graduate has been stuck in COVID-19 quarantine for almost three weeks, stripping him of all interpersonal communication with his team.
A constant stream of phone calls and text messages have kept him in touch with coaches and players, but he’s learned that it’s no substitute for talking with players during a practice or timeout.
Thanks to a newly installed camera in the Cougars’ gymnasium, Camp has watched every game and practice during his absence from his couch. He just turns on his smart TV and heads over to the NFHS Network channel.
He’s caught himself yelling at the screen a few times during games or saying things to himself, which his two daughters and wife find hilarious. Through it all, he keeps a legal pad handy for notetaking and holds a call with his staff after games.
“I’m feel really fortunate to be able to watch,” said Camp, who is also a Colby Sawyer College alumnus and science teacher at Kearsarge Middle School. “If I was just sitting at home, I’d be going crazy. It’s been fun to see the highs and lows of how the game is going, and then see the adjustments that the kids are making.
“I get pretty amped up. I’ll yell ‘C’mon, we need better defense!’ Something like that, just random outbursts. I’m into it.”
Camp’s path to get out of quarantine has taken longer than the 10-day requirement. His youngest daughter, Caroline, a junior at Kearsarge, tested positive for COVID-19 early in the month of January.
Camp and his other daughter, Ellie, a senior at Kearsarge, both tested negative after the positive case in their household. Due to Kearsarge School District protocols, however, the two were not allowed to officially start their quarantine until Caroline returned to school.
Ellie has sat home with her dad the entire time, missing a portion of her final season of girls basketball, which has been hard for Camp to watch. Caroline scored 24 points on Jan. 24 to lead Kearsarge to a 59-28 victory over Hillsboro-Deering; after the game, the entire team held posters at midcourt for Ellie to see from home.
“It’s all perspective,” said Camp, who will be able to return to team activities Sunday and coach his first game on Monday. “Obviously I’m bummed out, but we all probably know people who have got COVID or even someone who has died. I’m only missing four games, which is nothing in the big scheme of things.”
The experience has tested him as a coach, too. He’s tried to find the happy medium between letting his assistants have their chance to run the program while still letting the players know he is watching.
After every game, Camp tries to text each player one positive play they made and one skill that could be improved.
Camp normally calls Spencer Coronis — the Cougars’ jayvee coach who has stepped into the interim head coaching role for varsity games — a couple times a day to talk about the practice plan or starting lineup for that night’s game.
Practices are more of a joint effort, as longtime assistant assistant Greg Tedeschi knows what the expectations are. It also helps that Kearsarge is a veteran-laden team; the Cougars have opened the season with three consecutive wins.
“It’s definitely faster, going from varsity to JV,” said Coronis, who is only 23 years old and a Newport High alum. “I’ve never would have thought this would be my first time coaching varsity, with the circumstances we are in. Obviously it’s great for me to experience it now, definitely something I want to do later on.”
Camp celebrated his 45th birthday on Sunday, and the only wish he had was for a Google Meet so he could see some players.
Team captain Chris Stanchfield told his coach not to worry; he and his teammates had it under control. When Sunday afternoon came around, Camp’s two daughters asked him to go shoot hoop in the driveway.
He was greeted with a 17-car parade, filled with assistant coaches, players and parents who helped him ring in his birthday.
“It’s been a bit different, not having coach around,” Stanchfield said. “But we’re still trying to win games and work hard in practice just like he was there. I feel like Spencer might not yell at us as much. It was like all of a sudden it came, we had to push through it, and we did.
“Practices is where we miss him the most. It wasn’t that hard of a transition; we know all the plays and we know what it takes to win. But of course we want him back.”
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.