The great blizzard of 2025

BHS winter sports grapple with an in-season pause.
By: Ben Elliott

I have something to admit. It’s all my fault. Growing up and even more so today, I love the cold weather. I despise the warmer side of the weather scale, (to my editor’s dismay). My family tree traces directly back to Massachusetts. Very famously known for their lack of warm weather. My parents used to always tell us that they never got snow days off, which mystified my sister and I. We followed the thought process of, who would ever want to go to school when there’s a healthy amount of snow on the ground? 
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Now today, fully removed from my K-12 education, I must say, I hate snow days. I hate them. 
On our last day for 2024-2025 winter break, a Sunday, we hear ‘round the county, threats of a large snow storm. A snow storm that’d put us out of commission for quite some time. I looked upon the man in the sky to ask him, please don’t give us a week’s worth of snow. Not only am I lazy and don’t want to put the work in to shovel my driveway/sidewalk off, but more importantly, my beloved BHS girls basketball team at the time was 8-1. We sprinted out the gate and I was riding the greatest highs of all highs- team success. 

However, my wishes were for not. That Monday morning, we got a mammoth amount of snow. So much so, that the whole northwestern region of the wonderful original commonwealth of Virginia, (better than the other fake commonwealths, Kentucky and Pennsylvania), was put on injured reserve for the week. For the week, we sat on our couches, dreaming of protecting the rim and grabbing rebounds. A dream that was frozen in time, seemingly unattainable. 

The only solace for us was, every other high school basketball program within our jurisdiction was in the same boat. Frozen within the universe, unable to grab rebounds and protect the paint. 

Psychologically, having to sit in limbo after a hot start is a bizarre place to be mentally. On one hand, you wait all year round to be back on the hardwood that you sprint out of the gate with the pent up excitement you’ve been slowly building over the course of the offseason. You’re excited to see how the new roster comes together, how your new offensive sets work and most importantly, you’re excited to compete against your opponents throughout the Valley District and beyond. Then out of nowhere, snowmiser casts a spell on your hometown. Blanketing the streets with snow, rendering the ability for our town’s brightest mind’s to obtain an education, obsolete. You try to keep in touch with the team, relaying the ever-changing situation to the twenty plus members of your program in hopes that you’ll soon be able to take the court once again. 

Then the impossible happens. You get word from the higher-up’s at central office that you’re finally back after a long hibernation. And although it takes a second to get back to playing speed once again, you finally regain your earlier-season form.

In summary, I do wholeheartedly believe that my lifelong love for cold weather cursed the Shenandoah Valley. I have long gloated about my love for cold weather and hatred for warm weather to anyone who’ll listen. I think it's safe to say that I learned my lesson. And I’ll think twice before I brag about my love for cold weather!

Photo by: Micah Morris