Hoop coaches unhappy with IHSAA change, but they're managing

The predicted temperature today for Putnam County is 82 degrees.

Tomorrow’s is 85.

So what time is it? It’s the first day of girls’ basketball practice.

The problem is that many players can’t make it.

Student-athletes who happen to also participate in volleyball or cross country cannot start until those seasons are completed.

Cross country has been whittled down to a fraction of the total participants who competed in sectionals two weeks ago, but still has many students involved. Volleyball has not yet started its tourney.

Some sectionals have first-round matches on Tuesday, while most have two matches on Thursday followed by the semifinals and finals on Saturday.

That eliminates exactly half of the two allowable weeks of preseason practice for any volleyball players whose teams make it to Saturday.

The IHSAA moved up the girls’ basketball season by one week on its calendar for 2016-17 to eliminate a conflict between having the girls’ basketball state finals on the same weekend as the boys’ basketball sectionals.

Further complicating things this week is that all four Putnam County schools are also on fall break this week, something which doesn’t suit the habits of routine-oriented head coaches like North Putnam’s Jarrod Duff.

“As coaches, we like routines,” said Duff, former head coach at Greencastle who is in his first year in charge of the Cougars. “Anything that takes our teams out of our routine is challenging. We will have some girls missing because their families are going out of town.”

As much as Duff would like to have all of his players as soon as possible, he would be happy to wait longer in one scenario.

“I hope our volleyball team wins its sectional and that I don’t have them for as long as possible at the beginning of the season,” Duff said. “That means they were able to be a part of winning a sectional championship. The success of all of our programs at North Putnam are important to me.”

Obviously, the choice of which week is fall break is a local decision having nothing to do with the IHSAA, and is more driven by the timing of when the academic grading periods fall than by the schedules of the sports teams. Schools taking a full week for fall break is a relatively new concept, and families now plan lengthy vacations at a time of year when previously they might just take a long weekend trip.

Still doesn’t mean it works well.

“Basketball practice starting during fall break is a different challenge,” Duff noted. “It was a challenge when it was during the season when I coached football. Our volleyball and football teams have sectionals this week during fall break, so that is something they have to try to manage.”

“I wish practice wasn’t on the same week as fall break, but we will do what we will always try to do and make the best out of what challenges are put in front of us.”

Second-year South Putnam head coach Brian Gardner feels the girls are the ones who lose out in this situation.

“The overlapping of the girls volleyball and basketball seasons is a hardship for the athletes,” he said. “The girls are unnecessarily divided. It short changes focus at the end of the volleyball season and delays the full start of basketball tryouts and practices.”

Gardner’s pool of potential players is not as large as that of larger schools, and more athletes play multiple sports than at bigger schools where specialization has become increasingly popular.

“The overlap is especially damaging to student-athletes in small schools where more athletes may play both sports,” he said. “Tryouts cannot begin until all potential athletes are available (including volleyball players) and practices cannot be maximized.

“Group drills require a minimum number of athletes to be effective,” Gardner added. “These girls should not be put in a situation where they are excluded every year from the start of the winter sports season in order to play volleyball.”

Greencastle’s Bradley Key, in his eighth year with the Tiger Cubs, is the dean of the county girls’ coaches.

He tries to find positives in a complex situation.

“With the girls’ season moved up a week this year it will make practice plans for the first week a little different,” he said. “The positives would be that we are able to focus on individual players and developing their skills such as breaking down their shot mechanics.”

Key also notes several things which will be negatively affected by the change.

“We will have six or seven players gone during fall break,” he said. “We have five volleyball players and one on out of town part of the week for a family activity.

“Scrimmaging will not be as competitive as we would hope for week one.”

Today’s coaches fortunately have the benefit of working with their players as a group during June, and in individual workouts in several different time periods.

Still, June was a long time ago and Key added that some players will be affected by the lack of practice time.

“This will inevitably put some girls behind the 8 ball when it comes to learning the offense or gelling as a new team,” he said. “However, such is life.... there will always be obstacles and set backs in life and part of participating in high school sports is to teach you those life lessons.

“We are looking forward to starting practices and starting a new journey with a new team.”

What’s the solution?

From reading several online message boards, some basketball coaches blame a lack of communication between the IHSAA and the coaches’ associations of volleyball and girls’ basketball as bring about the unpopular result.

Maybe changes will happen someday. It seems a survey of when schools have fall break would be in order, and if the dominant time period is also the volleyball sectional week then moving the schedule back seems the most logical step.

Are the eight teams in the girls’ state finals that insulted by a lack of attention in the limelight that it’s worth affecting more than 400 other schools? Apparently they are.

North Putnam seems to have taken the best approach to fixing the problem by the means within its control.

The first legal contest date is Monday, Oct. 31 (two weeks from today).

The Cougars, though, won’t open their season until Nov. 8.

Greencastle plays its first game on Nov. 4, giving the Tiger Cubs four extra practice days.

South Putnam and Cloverdale both open their seasons on Nov. 1, the second legal day of game competition.

Such first-game delays may result in playing more games in a week, or necessitate another holiday tournament, but those seem acceptable tradeoffs for more coveted preseason practice time.

Until bigger changes can be legislated, delaying the date of the first game seems the best option.