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With games halted due to COVID-19, the women’s Varsity Blues basketball team has been practising mostly online since Thanksgiving – with interim head coach and two-time Olympian Tamara Tatham. 

, Tatham explained how she's looking out for her players’ mental health while also helping them maintain their fitness.

“It's been a tough time, obviously, not being on the court as much, really trying to make your team essentially become a team – not necessarily on the court. That's been tough,” she said. “But there are a lot of things that you can do off the court, [where] I find there are opportunities to really make themselves better not just as a basketball player, but as a person.”

Tatham recruited her teammate from the Rio Olympic Games and current national team member Miah-Marie Langlois to help coach. With Ontario in the midst of another lockdown, the team is working out over Zoom, sometimes in costume. Past dress codes included a Halloween and ’80s theme.

"Basketball is a team sport. I think girls like [that part of] sports, the whole connection and bonding,” Langlois told the CBC. “So we want to keep that aspect of basketball in it and try to use the same sessions to allow the girls to connect with each other, even if they can't physically."