Every November, a five-month sports season begins: girls and boys basketball. In a bigger school, these seasons being at the same time would not have a big effect, but when there is only one gym big enough for the teams to practice, things get complicated.
There is a lot on the plates of most high school students. Homework is one of the leading causes of stress for in-season athletes. If you ask any teacher, they say you are a student before you are an athlete; because of this, they do not see the hard work athletes put in every day.
Madi Weber, a senior on the girls basketball team and three-sport varsity athlete, states that having to share the court with the boys is hard because, “I’m getting home later after a night practice. It affects my sleep and homework schedule. I prioritize sleep over homework, so that does not help.” For Madi, late practices can affect her performance in school: “Because I am taking harder classes, I have less time to do work on time, with countless games per week. I would go to a local store to do work and take notes, but I still do not get them done because there is just not enough time available.” There are only a couple of girls on the team who have a drive time of over ten minutes from school to home: Madi and Elle Pierce. The rest of the co-op team is given transportation through Cassville’s school.
Elle’s response to living out of the district is quite different from Madi’s. She explained that she usually goes home every day after school, but with softball open gyms, she has been staying later to pitch. Elle is also a varsity three-sport athlete, so she does not have a lot of time to get all of her assignments done. She made it known how much time management is important. “I squeeze homework on the day of school, and I do it early so I don’t have to stress about it. I am pretty good at time management; I am not doing anything right now because I did everything yesterday.”
Overall, these two students have found ways to get around the struggle of sharing the court. However, the boys' team has very different views on sharing the court. Potosi senior Ryan Stoney made it clear that having early practice is what they prefer. “I like early practice because we can go home sooner.” During this question, senior Isaiah Groom agreed. They prefer early practice because they can get home at an earlier time of the day, instead of getting home at seven or eight PM.
Boys basketball coach Michael Uppena answered a lot of questions the players could not answer. The biggest question was how he manages the schedule with both teams. Uppena answered, “We start by putting all middle school and high school games on a Word calendar, then add other conflicting events to the calendar. Then we look at each date of the season and determine who needs to have practice and the time that practice can happen. Having one gym makes this very difficult.” Earlier, the boys mentioned that they like early practice on Wednesdays, but they cannot have that all of the time. Uppena mentioned, “They do practice at 1:45 sometimes. It depends on my availability from being a principal.”
The biggest concern about sharing the court is practice time for both teams. With the new referendum coming up, the teams should be able to each have a gym. The new additions will include a new game-scale middle school gym, which will allow the boys and girls to practice at the same time. “Then the middle school games will be played in that gym. Right now, when there is a home middle school basketball game, the main gym is not available for high school practice until after the middle school game is over, which means we usually can't start practice until 6:45 or 7:00 pm.” Uppena gave these details about the referendum and how it would be beneficial to both teams.
The high school gym has been shared by both teams for years, and neither enjoys having to share the court. Both teams would prefer if they could have the earlier practice times. Having two gyms will allow both teams to practice earlier, have more time available for the school world, and more stability with practice times. This will not only benefit our athletics department but also keep our athletes soaring in the academic department as well.