March Madness is alive and well in the Carabello household.
Avid sports fan and longtime educator Zeb Carabello — who serves as a Teacher Partner at Rangeview High School in Aurora — his daughter, Maggie, and son, Luca, have been keeping alive the NCAA men’s basketball tournament (one of the most deeply-felt losses of cancellation for sports fans due to the coronavirus pandemic) in their own unique way.
Outside their Denver home in the past few weeks, the trio has flipped a coin to decide which teams they will represent in a game of 1-on-2 (kids vs. dad). They started with a 32-team bracket and have been working themselves towards crowning a “national champion.” It’s been part of the ways the family has adapted to the unique times and way of life created by the coronavirus.
“We did a little bracketology, we’ve been throwing the baseball and my daughter (Maggie) has been leading us in yoga every morning,” Carabello said last week.
The mini-March Madness is part of the daily home structure that Carabello (and wife Meaghan) have tried to create in a timeless void that nobody — most especially teachers — has quite experienced before.
Carabello’s kids both attend the Creativity Challenge Community school in the Denver Public Schools system (Maggie is in fourth grade, Luca in second), so he’s got them working on a rotating schedule of schoolwork that includes math, science, social studies and a ton of physical education. Youtube art and music lessons add to the equation.
“We’re still tired at the end of the day,” Carabello said. “We’re lucky in a lot of ways, that this is happening in spring and it’s not December, so you can get outside and it’s not getting dark at 4:30 p.m.”
In between all that, Carabello has helped Rangeview develop its online curriculum that started this week.
Like the other high school schools around Aurora, Rangeview sanitized and handed out hundreds of Chromebook computers for families that don’t have them at home and also provided internet access for as many as possible.
Carabello describes the learning (at least in the APS model) as mostly modular with students working at their own pace until they complete units, while there are also some longer terms projects that have been assigned as well.
Challenges abound, but he’s optimistic at what can come of the effort.
“Every kid is in a different situation with the access they have, either with technology or the internet,” Carabello said. “Some of them are watching their younger siblings during the day and there are some kids where English isn’t their first language…And some teachers have some frustration. You have more questions than answers, but everyone is super supportive. We all know no one could have prepared for this.”
Regardless, Carabello — a former sponsor of Rangeview’s student newspaper, the Raider Review — has been impressed with what he’s seen from the educational community around him.
“I think from what I’ve seen, all the school districts (APS included) have done a really good job, especially when you look at the federal government,” he said. “Look at how quickly we adapted and what has been done. Kids are getting meals and a computer and the internet for those who need it, all within a week or so. I think all told, the local public schools are really doing well.”
Carabello’s personal adaptation has come to the loss of sports, including those within his school.
Like many in the Rangeview community, Carabello was an avid fan of the school’s boys basketball team, which won last season’s Class 5A state championship and made it back to the Final Four before the coronavirus threat shut down the state tournament. The Raiders were 26-0 and were to face Grandview in an all-Aurora semifinal March 13.
Carabello is especially tied to the program given that on top of his hoops junkie status, he used to serve as a lower level coach in coach Shawn Palmer’s Rangeview basketball program. In a missive on Facebook, he examined the Raiders’ recent run of success and made their case as one of the top programs Colorado has ever seen.
“They are just good kids and such a team,” Carabello said.
Besides that, he’s watching NCAA One Shining Moment features, replays of March Madness games and anything else he can find in the current sports vacuum.
“Anything sports right now, I will eat up,” said Carabello, also an avid bocce player who has organized a popular summer tournament for more than a decade. “You really realize what a portion of your life sports takes up when it’s gone.”