At this time of year, it is always stressful for both basketball coaches and for basketball players who played (or are still playing) a fall sport as to when they should start practice if the seasons overlap. Even when the fall sport ends on a Friday or Saturday and then basketball practice starts on Monday, it is a tough call. I would like to express my opinion and encourage high school and middle school coaches that have to deal with this issue to give it a lot of thought. I do not believe my way is the only way or even the right way, it is just what has worked best when I have had to deal with it. My belief is that each situation should be handled on an individual basis and that there is no way to have a blanket policy as to when a fall athlete should be required to start practice. A reasonable agreement can be worked out between the coaches and the athletes who fall into this category with a little communication.
There are several reasons that I feel that each case should be handled differently. One is that each fall sport is different and affects different positions differently. I ran cross country in high school, so this is not a slam on cross country runners, but it makes sense that they do not get as beat up as a running back in football who carries 20 times a game for nine or ten games. On the other hand, a cross country runner who competes in the state meet on say a Saturday, might have a tough time being at a 6:00 am practice on that next Monday.
Even within a particular sport, the physical toll is different. A setter in volleyball does not have as many landings and as much strain on the legs as a hitter. I have very little specific experience with specific wear and tear on all of the fall sports, so I am not going to go into more examples. I just believe that it is something that should be discussed with your assistant coaches in order to have a plan in place ahead of time that is the best you can do for each individual who is affected.
One factor that complicates things is that I feel that it is not right to talk to the fall athletes about basketball as they are entering their playoffs and state tournament series. I believe that there focus should be allowed to be on that sport, just like I hope that the spring coaches extend us the same courtesy in late February and March. I do believe that if a fall sport ended over a week before basketball starts that the player should be at the first practice unless there is an injury involved. Then they should be at practice to watch unless they have doctor visits and or rehab.
I always like to take the late practice time slot the first day of practice if that works for the other programs that we share the gym with. That gives us a little more time to talk with the fall athletes whose seasons may have ended over the weekend. I have never liked to run to them to start the school day to see what they want to do. I want to give them a little space after their previous season ends. If you can’t practice late, you might have the assistants start practice while the head coach talks with the fall athletes.
It is difficult to get the season going as you are wondering when your players will be out for practice, in some cases needing to make cuts, stay withing state guidelines for the number of pre-season practices required, having a short time to prepare for the opening game, having to take care of the administrative items of passing out equipment, pictures, parent meetings, etc… And, to top it all off, basketball is the only sport that has the added difficulty of sharing facilities and having to either change practice locations, practice times or both.
I do not believe that it shows that a player is not eager for basketball who asks for a few days to recover from fall sports. There will be some that want to start as soon as possible, and those are easy to deal with. I believe that for the big picture of the well being of both the athletes and the program, if they ask for a couple of days off before starting practice, you will be better of in the long run for granting them. Basketball is a long season and the coach is not giving up much by allowing a little rest and recovery. I do think it is important that you communicate to the other players when that player will be joining the team and why they want or need the days off.
I wish you the best as you try to sort through these types of situations.
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This is a very relevant article from the coaches standpoint, but there is another aspect that I would like to get your opinion on. That is the fall sport athlete playing in fall basketball league. Typical at our school and most schools in the area the girls play in one of several fall leagues in prepartaion for the basketball season. These leagues are relatively infomal and typically involve perhaps on game a week on a Sunday for about 8 weeks. There is rarely a conflict with the fall School sport, but there are two concerns from a coaches standpoint. There is the risk of injury and there is question of whether playing the second sport, even casually, effects the play in the primary sport. A good example of this might be a setter in volleyball. At our school the volleyball coach is the basketball coach and his philosophy is you concentrate solely on volleyball until the season is over. Then you start getting ready for basketball. As you noted, however, there is very little down time in between the two. I tend to agree with this philosophy and my daughter is soley focused on volleyball right now.
I agree with you Tom. I believe that the fall sport athletes should not play in a non school basketball league for the very reasons that you enumerated–injury and fatigue. I do not believe that either the athlete or the fall sports teams benefit by being in a Sunday league.
I do think that it is tough to enforce from a school coaches standpoint because you really don’t know what the athletes do on Sundays. I am sure that I have had boys basketball players throw a baseball or go to a batting cage on Sundays without knowing that they were doing that. I really did not feel that I had the right to tell them that they couldn’t do that in their free time on Sundays other than to counsel them to use common sense and that if they were getting run down or injured in other activities they were not only hurting themselves, but the team too.
In our state there a lots of sports that begin the next Monday after the weekend. It is tough but those athletes must be at that practice. Our state association requires 7 sport specific practices for an athletic that comes directly from another sport. If they miss a day or 2 after the other sport ends they are required 14 days of sport specific practices. Rule also states you can only count one a day. Thus in order to participate in your first scrimmage they need to be there for the first practice.