Bears take time off
The second day of the end-of-the-year break for the Central Valley boys high school basketball team called for a little something special – the final day of practice before the holidays officially begin.
“We give the kids five days off over Christmas,” coach Rick Sloan said. “We have a stretch there where we don’t play a single game, so we like to do something to keep things interesting.”
Tuesday’s special spend-off was an intra-squad game.
“We chose captains and held a draft,” Sloan said, watching his Blue and White squads race up and down the court. “It’s fun for the guys.”
One notable exception to the spirited scrimmage: Brad Johnson sat on the white bench throughout the contest – sidelined by a sprained left ankle.
“I went up for a shot in the first quarter against Coeur d’Alene and came down on some guy’s foot,” Johnson said. “I’m trying to stay off of it and do a lot of physical therapy every day so I can be ready to go when we start league play.”
Johnson missed a good portion of summer league play with a badly sprained right ankle.
“I’ve never really had that much trouble with ankle sprains,” he said. “I’ll take precautions and try to strengthen my ankles so it doesn’t happen again.”
Johnson and teammate Brad Dieter provide the Bears with a strong senior presence on a young squad.
“We are really young,” Johnson admitted. “But I think, once we work out a few kinks, it will be hard for teams to keep up with us. This is a fun group to play with. We all get along, we all come in and work hard.”
“I couldn’t ask for a better team to play on for my senior season,” Dieter added. “Our seniors are working hard to set a good example and a good work ethic. There’s a tradition of good senior leadership at CV and we’re going to carry that on.”
The Bears boast a 5-1 record heading into the break, losing only at Coeur d’Alene.
“We played with them the first three quarters,” Dieter said. “Then in the fourth quarter we had trouble putting the ball in the hole. We were a little shorthanded that game with Brad out, so we weren’t all that deep coming off the bench.
“I think that game showed us that we have to come out and play hard every game and keep from getting into foul trouble. We start losing guys and we’re in trouble.”
Central Valley has an array of strong, quick athletes. What it doesn’t have is height.
“We don’t have a lot of size, so we really have to concentrate on getting the rebound,” Johnson said. “That’s a real key for us.”
Dieter agreed.
“What it comes down to is we each have to be in the habit of boxing out our opponent every time a shot goes up,” he said. “We have to be committed to doing that every time.”
In the short term, Central Valley will focus on getting through the holiday.
In general, the holiday break comes just as most teams are beginning to fall in to a rhythmic balance between practices and games.
Both senior leaders say they’ve counseled their teammates on how to stay in shape during their time off.
“You can’t just sit around for five days and then try to come back on Monday,” Johnson said. “You have to get out and run at least once over the time off. In my case, I need to ride the stationary bike and try to get in some shooting practice.”
“I plan to get out and run a couple miles at least once,” Dieter agreed. “That’s what the coach suggests. And I’ll try to get in a gym and get in some shooting practice. When we get back, we have four days of practice before we play Lake City. After that, we get into the Greater Spokane League season for real.”