Ferd Lewis: COVID-19 hits UH’s coach Laura Beeman close to home in California

When coach Laura Beeman talks to her University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine basketball team about the perils of COVID-19 these days, she isn’t reciting from some generic school or government hand out.

The urgency in her voice is real and the message is heartfelt from someone whose family is confronting the virus.

“It makes you stop and take a deep breath,” said Beeman upon learning her brother, Bob, and sister in law, Gina, in California have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

“I didn’t know anybody that had had it until my mom told me, ‘Your brother and Gina have COVID-19,’” Beeman said. “And, I’m like, ‘What? What?’ ”

Beeman said, “It was scary for a while but, thank goodness, it looks like they are going to be OK now. It makes you say, ‘OK, you’ve really got to wash your hands, don’t touch your face, wear a mask and (social distance) and do all those things because you just don’t know who is gonna get it and how serious it is going to be for someone. You don’t want someone else to go through it or suffer from its long-lasting effects.”

Her brother took over the family pharmacy business from their father and while he runs a string of locations in the Riverside-San Bernardino area, he was on the front lines as a pharmacist while his wife came in to help out due to the heavy demand.

“They were tired but going to work every single day to fill the prescriptions for the people who were sick,” Beeman said.

“We don’t know who got it first and passed it on to who, but thank goodness they were both young and relatively healthy and can get through this.”

While her family’s confrontation with the virus fuels Beeman’s urgency to drive home the importance of following the protocols to help eradicate COVID-19, her message to the team is one heavy on personal accountability and maturity as much as safety.

“It is more about responsibility to themselves as individuals to each other, our program, the university and the state,” Beeman said. “If you turn out to be positive, you don’t want to be the person who gets somebody else sick.”

She said, “When they are out (in the community) they are representatives. Hey, people know who they are and for them to be out ripping and racing and not using good judgment is not being responsible. Someone could put a photo on social media and say, ‘Hey look at Wahine basketball, they are not wearing masks.’ It is just not a good look for our ladies, our team. It is not the way we want to represent the University of Hawaii so, for self respect and the respect for our program we’ve had good, open, hard conversations about what could happen.”

The conversations come as the Rainbow Wahine have begun to assemble in preparation for a season of unknowns. They are tentatively scheduled to open play, if there is an on-time start, the second weekend of November.

But there are no assurances, yet, from the Big West whether it might be a full season or a truncated version of conference games only.

“There are so many scenarios that, right now all we’re concerned about is just getting together to work out and have fun,” Beeman said. “Hopefully, everyone can stay healthy and negative (for the virus). That’s the big thing this year, right.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.