Winter sports are finally back in full swing and players couldn’t be more happy about it. When asked if he was excited to actually be playing basketball again, Sophomore Dawson Perron, who plays on the Lake Region boys JV team, replied, “Yes. It’s a lot better than just sitting at home playing video games, so definitely.”

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, guidelines were set on how teams can play this year, some of them making it harder for teams to practice. When asked about which guideline was the most hated, all of the boys Varsity team had the same answer: the original six feet rule, which is no longer in effect. “We couldn’t even be near each other at one point,” replied Junior Wyatt Gile, one of the players on the boys Varsity team.

“The first couple weeks where there was no contact, that was hard,” answered Travis Terrell, coach for the boys JV team. Terrell spoke about how the no contact guidelines made drills harder to learn for the team because they couldn’t practice how to get around a defender and the boys agreed that ever since they’ve been allowed contact, drills have been much easier on them.

Both the boys teams agreed that wearing masks was hard for them at times, since it restricted their breathing, however, the two teams disagreed on which masks were the best for them. The Varsity team thought the sports brand masks, like Nike and Adidas, were the best, while the JV team thought the surgical masks were the easiest for them to be protected, but still be able to breathe in.

Coaches, knowing how hard this year has been for the teams, are trying to make some aspects of practice fun for the boys. According to Terrell who was talking to his team at the end of practice, “This year has been hard on all of us and while I want us to do well this season, it’s important that you all still have fun because that’s the point of basketball.”

Terrell is working hard to make sure that even though the boys are still practicing different aspects of basketball including lay-ups, dribbling, passing, ect, he’s still making it fun for the kids. He could tell that his boys moods were down one day, so what did he do the next practice? He made it a “fun day”, where the boys were practicing all of their different skills, but in the form of games.

When asked which game was his favorite, Sophomore Logan Curtis replied, “King of the Court definitely.” For those of you who don’t know what King of the Court is, it’s a one on one type game, where the defender rolls the ball to the offender who then tries to get to the basket and score. If they succeed, they stay as the offender and the defender get’s back in line to try again. If the offender gets the ball taken from him by the defender or if they don’t make the basket, the defender becomes the offender and the original offender gets back in line as a defender and waits his turn to try again.

Now, when this interview was done, the basketball teams had not yet been allowed to have games against other teams and according to Curtis, he was “bored.” He and his teammates like the competition between themselves and an opposing team during games and they get a different rush of adrenaline while in games that practices just don’t give them.

When he was asked if he thought his boy’s were ready for games, Terrell responded, “I think nobodies ready, none of the teams.” He continued saying, “We’re all just behind and that’s how it is across the state and I think we’re all just going to roll with it and do the best we can.” For his boy’s personally, he thinks that “they are prepared as we can be”.

In the most recent change in regulations for the winter sports, which happened on Friday, February 5th, games are now allowed to proceed and the Lake Region teams are all hopeful for a good season this year. Good luck Rangers!