Thousands of high school athletes’ sports careers prematurely came to an end because of the coronavirus outbreak.

They were on buses, in locker rooms, in class and even at work when the news came.

They all knew it was a possibility but hoped, even prayed, it wouldn’t happen.

But just like that, with a phone call, text, tweet or a few words from their coach, they learned that their seasons had abruptly come to an end because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Along with the end came gnawing questions:

What could have been? What now?

But time has brought perspective.

And in a world seemingly changing by the minute, a few extra days have brought acceptance, understanding and growth.

Here are two of many of those stories, a glimpse into the Class of 2020 and a season none of them will ever forget.

FOUR YEARS AGO, when Jenni Holbrook took the job as coach of the girls’ basketball team at Jones High School in Oklahoma, she gave her team a simple goal: Make the wall.

“The wall” sits at the north end of the Longhorns’ gymnasium, up above the basketball hoop, where nearly 30 green banners hang honoring every Jones team ever to make the state tournament.

To the right side of the Longhorns scoreboard sit the boys’ banners, 26 in all, including ones for the 2016 football and 2018 baseball Class 3A Oklahoma state champions.

And to the left of the scoreboard sit the girls’ banners. Three of them. All for cheerleading.

“In other words, no girls’ team in softball or basketball had ever made the state tournament,” Holbrook said.

In Holbrook’s first year at the school, the girls’ basketball team, led by eight freshmen, fell one game short of making state.

The next year, the team lost in area play.

Then last year, with her core now juniors, the team lost both games with a state bid on the line.

This year, that group of seniors, which includes Holbrook’s daughter Joeli, knew it was their last chance.

The team went 23-1 during the regular season, winning district and regional titles.

Then on March 6, in the Class 3A Area III finals, the Longhorns defeated Kingston 51-39 to earn the longawaited ticket to state.

“It was a great feeling, but we knew there was more we wanted to accomplish,” she said.

The goal of making the wall achieved, the team aimed to make the water tower, where Jones honors its state championship teams.

The first game for the second-seeded Longhorns would be against Eufaula at the 8,000-seat “Big House,” the arena that holds wrestling and basketball state championships at the state fairgrounds.

Holbrook pumped music into her practices and took her team to another large gym to prepare her players for the big time.

On game day, March 12, administrators closed school to give the team a proper send-off.

There was a pep rally and a police escort.

The girls were all given certificates commemorating what had already been a season to remember.

Coach Holbrook addressed the crowd at the pep rally: “This day couldn’t be any more perfect,” she said.

But the night before, Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz had tested positive for the coronavirus before a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

State health officials were concerned about the virus spreading through any sort of mass gathering.

With the team bus 10 minutes outside the fairgrounds, Holbrook’s phone buzzed.

There was a text from the trainer, who was already at the arena.

The state had postponed the games.

The bus pressed on and found Eufaula waiting outside the locked building.

Tears began to fall. Officials told the team to turn around and go home.

But Holbrook wouldn’t have it.

“It was gut-wrenching. Like you had just been sucker-punched,” Holbrook said.

“I told the team, ‘We are here. We are going to get out. Dry your tears because we are going to get a picture.’”

After the bus eventually returned to the high school and everyone left, Holbrook sat in her office in silence and stared at the wall.

“For two hours,” she said. “I just kept thinking, in 54 years of the state tournament at the Big House, the one year we happen to make it, 10 minutes before we get there ... seriously?

This is what it comes down to?

Some ... pandemic?”

Since then, her team has waited in limbo.

This week is spring break. When her players return, there is practice scheduled for Sunday night, just in case the tournament resumes.

“I would practice for three months if it meant we got to play in the state tournament,” Holbrook said.

“Whatever it takes, an empty gym with just parents, we’d do that.

I just hope they don’t let it be this huge question mark of what could have been.”

BILLY DURKIN HAD no reason to believe his senior season at Hinsdale South (Illinois) High School would be all that different from senior seasons of the past.

In the school’s 55-year history, no Hinsdale South basketball team had ever won a sectional game, let alone a sectional or supersectional championship and a bid to the state tournament.

The best record in school history was 21-8.

And Durkin’s senior-year squad was largely the same as the group that finished 14-16 his junior year.

“I guess I thought we’d be OK,” Durkin said. “I never expected this.” This would become a 30-3 season. A conference title.

And earning the right to host a sectional, with realistic dreams of a trip to the state tournament.

“We have a team full of guys who care about each other,” Durkin said.

“I love these guys to death. On any given night, we had five guys who could score 20.

The next night they might score four. And nobody cared. It was a special season.”

One of those guys was Durkin’s younger brother Bobby, a sophomore who also started for the Hornets.

But on the night of Thursday, March 12, as the Durkin brothers and the rest of the players stretched in preparation for their sectional semifinal against Benet Academy, Hornets coach Brett Moore gathered his players.

“There is no easy way to explain this,” Moore began.

Everyone knew. The game had been canceled. The season was over.

Durkin said most of the players froze for a good 30 seconds. Then the tears began. The anger. And the disappointment.

“A sinking feeling in my chest,” Durkin said.

“I couldn’t process that this was how it’s really ending.

But then you realize how lucky we were that the virus didn’t come in November, that we were able to play these 33 games and break the record, have this amazing season. You try to find some positivity.”

Later that night, before he left school, Durkin asked Coach Moore if it would be OK if he went into the gym for a few minutes by himself.

He walked to center court, took a seat and let the memories flow through him.

His first start sophomore year. The countless jump balls. Playing alongside his brother. The gym rocking with fans this year. The lifelong friends he had made.

A livestream scheduled to broadcast the game captured the image of Durkin sitting alone at center court.

Moore screen-grabbed the image and shared it on social media.

The image went viral, a heartbreaking visual of what high school seniors all over the country were feeling.

Since the image posted, Durkin said he has received more than 1,000 messages and texts -- many from strangers -- thanking him and his teammates for a season they will never forget.

Finishing his high school career 24 points shy of 1,000, he plans to play college basketball at Lewis University next season.

“As an athlete, you sign up for the heartbreak of losing -- that there was a team that was better than you on that night,” Durkin said.

“But to never know, to never have that ending, it will be one of the biggest what-ifs of my life. I’ll always wonder what would have happened.

“But I will get to play again. I think about so many of my teammates -- this was their last chance.”

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