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With the suspension of the University Interscholastic League boys basketball state tournament amid concerns about the coronavirus, the members of the 1995 Lincoln High School team will have to wait a little bit longer before the high school activity governing body can honor the 25th anniversary of its state championship win.

The team under coach Andre Boutte won it all after defeating Austin Anderson 57-56 in overtime. Members of the team were going to be commemorated during this year’s state finals in Austin.

Dominique Hardie, who was a senior starter on the 1995 team, said he hopes if the games resume the UIL will also take time to honor the Lincoln team.

“Of course we’re disappointed because we wanted to celebrate with our families and our former coaches, but we also want to be safe, too,” Hardie said. “If it’s a public health issue and it could potentially spread to other people, then I think that’s probably the best decision. Hopefully they’ll reschedule and we’ll get to celebrate, but we haven’t had any word yet.”

Hardie was just about to pack in order to travel to Austin when he was alerted to the suspension of the tournament.

“One of my college coaches that coaches high school now sent me a link with word from the UIL,” he said. “Then coach Boutte sent it to me and I sent it to the rest of the team in a group text. Of course everybody was sad, but we still feel like we’re going to get together.”

Hardie said plans had already been made for a reunion, but until then he and the other team members will be waiting to see what the UIL will decide to do going forward.

“It was my birthday this weekend, too, so we were definitely going to celebrate,” he said. “We’re going to let this unfold and let this blow over, then we’re going to go from there.”

Hardie said approval was recently given to reserve a spot of land at Lincoln Middle School that will hold a memorial to the 1995 team.

“I think we were approved for some land to put it, and now we just have to buy the memorial,” he said. “It’s a monument. They already have several, but for some reason the 1995 team didn’t have one yet. They granted us some land, so we’re doing some pricing to see what monument we’re going to get.”