Basketball coaches adjust to extended football season

Basketball coaches across South Carolina spent the first week of November gearing up for the start of their season, but this winter comes with some new reservations.

While basketball coaches are used to waiting for a few football players to wrap up their season before hitting the hard court, things are a little different this year. The South Carolina High School League added an extra week to the football season because several programs across the state were sidelined by Hurricane Helene.

One week doesn't seem like a huge deal, but for basketball coaches who traditionally have to wait a few weeks to have large portions of their roster, that extra time is critical.

SMALL SCHOOLS HIT THE HARDEST

While most basketball programs will be affected by the extra time, some get hit harder than others.

Over at Sumter High, Bryan Brown isn't overly concerned. Most of his roster doesn't play football, though he'll be waiting for a handful of players to wrap up on the gridiron. On top of the number of athletes, Brown is used to the football team holding onto his players for a few extra weeks with deep playoff runs, so this isn't exactly a new concern.

"It is definitely something that comes with the territory. It's not something we can stop from happening," Brown said. "We have a really good football team, and every year we expect them to go deep into the playoffs, and it's no different this year. We're expecting it. I told my guys the other day that we hope we don't see them until sometime in the middle of December. We just adjust to it, and it's business as usual."

While Brown is used to waiting for players, the SCHSL 5A Division I state championship won't be played until Dec. 13. If the football team makes a run to the title game, the basketball team wouldn't be at full strength until they're playing in a Christmas tournament. Those players would miss all four county rivalry games against Crestwood and Lakewood, with the final matchup against the Gators slated to be played a day after the state championship game.

"We always look forward to our football guys coming in. They're definitely needed; they bring toughness. It's definitely tough for us knowing we're going to lose that extra week, but we're in a better situation than a lot of other schools," Brown said. "Luckily, we have 10 guys this year (that don't play football), so we're kinda solid. We're going to miss them until they get here, but we're going to root them on as they finish a strong season."

The smaller schools are hit far harder than 5A powers. At schools like Scott's Branch, Manning, East Clarendon and Lee Central, the football team makes up a majority of the basketball roster, so those coaches can be stuck in a waiting period.

Up in Bishopville, head basketball coach Xavier Harry also coaches the quarterbacks and defensive backs on the football team, so he's running double duty throughout November. If the Stallions make a run in the 1A playoffs, those stresses could carry into December.

"I'm trying to prioritize both sports," Harry said. "What helps it out is you've got to have some good assistant coaches, and I have a good group of assistant coaches. I can put out the game plan for the day and trust them to follow through with it, but I also want to be there so the kids can hear instructions from me, as well. I'll get the basketball kids for workouts, and once my staff comes in, we'll go over what needs to be done for the day. Then I'll go out and do my part with football, and once I'm done with football, I come back in and catch the back end of basketball.

"That's what I've been doing in September and October, but it gets a little more tedious during the season."

At Scott's Branch, Kevin Miller previously served as an assistant football coach, but his attention is solely focused on basketball this season. While that's certainly a blessing, he's extremely shorthanded on the basketball court. At a 1A school like Scott's Branch, he only has about four full-time varsity basketball players, one of which is a player new to the Eagles. The rest of his team is out on the gridiron gearing up for the first round of the playoffs.

"I feel like they're taking advantage of us," Miller joked with a hearty laugh. "I understand they still have a season to get in. At Sumter High, they don't share athletes as much as us 1As, but my basketball team is the football team, so putting things a week behind actually puts me a month behind."

TIMING

The timing of the extra week is a bit of a blessing for coaches like Harry. The first week of November was supposed to be the first round of the playoffs. That's also when tryouts start. Because the Stallions didn't have a matchup to prep for in football, it was a bit easier to split his time.

"We wanna make sure our guys are healthy on the football side, so we're not going as hard this week. We're covering fundamentals on the football side," Harry said during the bye week. "That gives me some extra time to focus on basketball and evaluating the players that are trying out for the program. It's beneficial in that aspect."

While the specific timing of the bye week is nice, the timing for the rest of the season is extremely rough for 1A schools. Scott's Branch and Lee Central are both in large regions. Their regions are larger because many of the schools only have a few sports. For football, the region is a little larger than most but not extreme. In basketball, the Stallions are in a nine-team region. Scott's Branch has 10 schools to deal with in Region V.

With that many region games, Lee Central and Scott's Branch can't wait until the calendar turns to 2025 to start region play if they want to play each team twice. In fact, the Stallions will start region play on Dec. 3 against McBee before playing C.A. Johnson on Dec. 6. Even if the LCHS football team doesn't make it all the way to the 1A championship game, Harry needs to give his football players a chance to rest before the season starts, so he could be shorthanded for games that will determine his team's playoff chances.

"We have to come out of the gates playing meaningful games," Harry said. "All games are meaningful, and you want to get something out of them, but the region is different. You want to win the region and play as many playoff games at home as possible. We have a good football team this year, so I'm expecting to not have those guys until the middle of December."

At Scott's Branch, the Eagles can luckily wait until January to start region play. They will instead only play each of their region foes once, the lone exception being Bethune-Bowman, whom they are slated to face twice.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

While the football players handle their business on the gridiron, there will be more opportunities for new players to shine on the court.

At Lee Central, Harry knows what to expect out of football players like JuJu Davis, Chuck Harry, Omari Rampasard, Jadin Price and Demarius Gregg. While they'll need time to recover from a full football season, they're generally known commodities.

"I'm very confident when they come over, there's not going to be a big learning curve," Harry said. "Those guys were committed over the summer. I put the game plan in over the summer, so they have the basics. There will be a couple extra add-ons, but they know what we want to do. They're going to be fine; it's just going to be about getting in basketball shape and shaking off the rust."

The same can be said at Scott's Branch, for the most part. While they're young, star football players like Nyren Bowman, Quintin Jackson and Danny Ragin, to name just a couple, have been a part of the basketball program for the Eagles for a couple of years. That eases the transition quite a bit.

"The good part about it is that last season, we had a very young team, so a lot of those guys got acclimated to our style of play," Miller said. "We'll be real green coming in this season. They had a good summer workout with the younger guys, and they meshed well."

But while they're gone, young players will have a chance to prove they're worth a spot in the rotation. Harry is especially looking forward to seeing freshmen Montavious Holmes and Sinatra Rembert get a chance to compete in scrimmages and early games more than he originally planned. The Stallions will get their first chance to work against other teams in a jamboree at Camden on Nov. 16 before scrimmages the following week. They won't have any football players available for those matchups.

"I've got three seniors, but everyone else is underclassmen, so they're going to get reps, and they're going to see what varsity is like," Harry said. "A lot of kids say, 'Coach, I'm ready to play varsity.' Guess what, this is the year we're going to see if they're ready for varsity like they say they are.

"Some of the guys that were penciled to be JV guys, if they come in and do well in practice and tournaments and jamborees, they might stay up on the varsity level. They have to take advantage of the situation. It's going to make them better players and us better coaches."

Miller doesn't have the same depth of basketball players this fall, so scrimmages and their Thanksgiving tournament will be a struggle. But he doesn't plan to cancel any opportunities to compete.

"I'll take those five guys and play as hard as we can," Miller said. "I'm going to take those boys out there and let them have as much fun as possible.

"It's definitely going to give me a chance to look at somebody who wouldn't be in my scope at first. That's happened at practice already. It's bringing the old coaching thing back out, focusing on fundamentals and skill instead of having someone out there that's a little more polished."

For Miller, the best benefit to being without football players is the chance to be more hands on with JV players. He hopes that can help lay a foundation that can pay off down the road.

"It gives me more time to be hands on with the younger kids, which is helpful for my future later on," the Eagles' coach said.

CARRY OVER SUCCESS

The basketball coaches are also hopeful their football players can carry some momentum onto the court. While the Eagles have been extremely successful on the court under Miller, making four consecutive state championship game appearances before last season, the football team has struggled quite a bit. This fall, things have changed, and they're headed into the postseason with confidence. Miller hopes some of that swagger can carry over to the hardwood.

"I'm glad for them to have some type of success. It's a blessing that they'll come in with that air about themselves," Miller said. "The curse is knocking off that rust. That's the big thing. Nyren was a big part of what we did last year along with Jordan (Kind, who graduated), and it takes a little while to get that stop and go out of them from football to a more continuous flow."