Winter season begins on rare day
Don Williams is entering his 35th season as the Carmichaels boys basketball coach, but the veteran has never experienced what he will this afternoon – opening the winter sports season on a Friday. “Open gyms” and “conditioning” give way to the official start of practice today for boys and girls basketball, boys and girls swimming, wrestling and rifle. The first date of competition is Friday, Dec. 11.
The practice schedule always begins on a Monday, but the extended district and state football playoff season led to the unusual start.
“This is the first time I’ve started on a Friday,” said Williams, “but we have to start sometime.”
Tommy Dolde is entering his 20th season on the Connellsville wrestling coaching staff, and didn’t seem to mind the different starting day.
“We’ve never had one on Friday,” said Dolde. “It doesn’t bother me. A positive is the kids have an extra weekend (to prepare for the season).”
Belle Vernon swimming coach Rob Reda is ready to get going, but would’ve rather got practice moving at the beginning of the week.
“It’s hard to get into a flow (with practice opening on Friday). It’s horrible. I don’t know why,” Reda wondered aloud. “The holidays are tough enough, and we need the time to get ready for the season.”
All three coaches agree they’re ready for official practices to begin.
“Knowing the season actually starts and we get more down to business. I’ve been ready. It’s a whole other level,” explained Reda. “We’ve been conditioning for about three weeks. A lot of drills, running, weight training, not much work in the pool. We do things we don’t have time to do during the season.”
Belle Vernon opens the season on Dec. 15 against Canon-McMillan.
Dolde will use part of today’s practice to take care of administrative duties, and set the base for the 2009-10 season.
“Kids do something on their own. The season is five months long. The season is long enough,” Dolde said of the days before the official start of practice. “We’ll prepare for the season today. One of the first things we do is have the kids prepare a mission statement for the season.”
Connellsville jumps right into things on opening day when the Falcons host Latrobe. They’re right back at it on Saturday, then, with a home match against Ringgold.
“Latrobe is either No. 1 or 2, and, depending where you look, we’re either No. 1 or 2,” said Dolde. “We’ll know right away what we have to do. If we do well, we’ll know where we are, or, if we lose, we’ll know where we need to improve.”
Williams still gets excited for the opening day.
“I’m still looking forward to it. When I don’t, I’ll get out of it,” said Williams. “It’s for real now. Now we can do anything we want to do. We have about 16 boys. That’s a good number for us.”
The Mikes open the season on Dec. 11 with a non-section road game at Frazier.