I can't believe October 15 came and went and we haven't seen this thread yet, but I'll start it.

 

Yesterday was the first day high school basketball teams in the state could practice. Who started? When is your school starting?

I can't imagine anyone not starting really. If its legal to practice why wouldn't a team practice?

I can't imagine anyone not starting really. If its legal to practice why wouldn't a team practice?

 

GRC is starting practice on Monday.

GRC is starting practice on Monday.

 

Why is it that they would not start Friday? I don't understand it, but maybe they have a good reason.

Why is it that they would not start Friday? I don't understand it, but maybe they have a good reason.

 

At Covington Catholic, Listerman has generally preferred to start a week or two later. His rationale was that the team worked hard during the offseason & could benefit from some time off. The first practices are typically conditioning and, if he was confident that the team was in shape, those practices weren't necessary. Plus, he didn't want the team to peak too early.

 

Not sure if I agree with it or not.

I think a lot of the decision-making in this area depends on if you are returning a veteran team or rebuilding, as well as how many athletes are still in-season in fall sports, as well as each coach's preference.

 

Back in the old NKIAC days we used to be able to start on October 1st, and many of us did. In hindsight that was way too much pre-season, and the kids got tired of seeing and playing against each other for 7 or 8 weeks.

 

In our particular situation, Coach Code uses the first week or two to incorporate some of our freshmen with the JV/Varstiy squad, giving them valuable experience and exposing them to JV/Varsity intensity levels, which we hope carries over when freshmen practice/tryouts are conducted when sufficient players are back from fall sports to start freshmen practices.

I can't imagine anyone not starting really. If its legal to practice why wouldn't a team practice?

 

Let's take a hypothetical but based in reality situation. 3 of 5 starters for V and another 2-3 subs play soccer and are still alive in the postseason. 5-6 players play football and the season is still going on. Another 1-2 run cross country. So, out of a V/JV squad of 15-17 players, you could easily be missing 10-12 of your core players.

 

Plus, you have probably been doing open gyms/conditioning for 3-5 weeks. That gets old.

 

And seriously, is ONE DAY of practice almost 5 months BEFORE district tournament going to damage your chances of winning districts?

I know the guys at Garrard County started last Saturday morning and have been working hard all week. Numbers are a little low right now as they are still waiting on 6-7 kids to come from football. New coach Brad Sizemore has the community pretty excited for basketball season.