Sam Brand watched his players file onto the bus — 45 minutes to College Park and a chance to put an exclamation point on all the work they’d done together.
Brand had spent a decade building Poly basketball into a titan, competitive on the national stage and dominant on the local. The nine seniors on his team had grown into leading men. Point guard Rahim Ali Jr. aimed to start in his fourth consecutive state title game. Eight more quarters, four more bus rides and their climb would be complete.
The day that sports stopped began with trepidation for athletes and coaches at all levels of the Baltimore athletic scene.