With enforced practice layoffs because of countywide rules, there could be some overweight wrestlers and some sloppy basketball this week as high schools return to class, to practice and to games.
Hamilton and surrounding counties’ schools missed all of last week because of snow and icy traveling conditions and were out again Monday for Martin Luther King Day.
“When you take that many days off, the shooting eyes are gone and the eye-hand coordination is off,” Central basketball coach Rick Rogers said. “There’s going to be some ugly basketball for a couple of days.”
There also is a concern that many of the winter athletes have been homebound and therefore sleeping till noon and then stretched out on the couch playing video games or watching TV.
“Kids are out of shape, and as a coach the last thing you want is for one of them to pull a hamstring or something,” Red Bank coach John Cherne said. “Then you start looking at makeup games and wind up playing several nights per week, and all of a sudden you’re worrying about the kids not getting their homework done or sleeping in class or oversleeping and not getting to school on time.”
In the past Cherne has scheduled lightly in late November and early December because of the football program’s playoff history. The last thing he wants is to start missing games in January, but snow days still are something of an enigma to him.
“We missed 19 days of school over two years in Missouri before I moved here, and in that time we didn’t miss a game and only two practices,” he said. “Of course you’re talking about farm kids that would have wound up doing extra chores if they didn’t come to practice. A lot of them literally drove tractors to practice.
“I understand the rule [in Hamilton County]. It’s for kids’ safety and it’s necessary because this area doesn’t have that much snow or have the proper snow-removal equipment.”
Few adjustments had been made to schedules as of Monday afternoon, but Leon Rash — who assigns referees for basketball games in Hamilton, Grundy, Marion, Bledsoe and Sequatchie counties plus the Cleveland city schools — was figuring on rescheduling requests to pour in once schools resumed this morning and coaches were able to talk more with their administrations and each other.
“I expect my e-mail will be hot and heavy tomorrow,” he said.
He isn’t worried about a shortage of officials, saying that the Southeast Tennessee basketball officials association has 125 members and that 65 of those are on the varsity list. The heaviest high school basketball days are Tuesdays and Fridays.
“When they reschedule, it will probably be on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays,” he said.
Mike Parker, head of the Chattanooga wrestling officials association, said most coaches are still trying to work out dates on key district or region makeups.
“The problem for wrestling coaches is that there isn’t nearly as much time [as basketball] to make up dates,” he said. “I think a lot of the coaches are probably going to have to scratch some matches.”
(All coaches are asked to send updated schedules or rescheduled games to the Times Free Press at sports@timesfreepress.com.)
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765.
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