Winter sports teams ready for restart

Eugene Briggs has been a high school boys basketball coach for 23 years, but nothing during that time has prepared him for this season. After all, there is no playbook for a season that gets shut down after one game, then resumes following a three-week layoff and only four practices.
“All the years I’ve been coaching, nothing has been like this. It doesn’t prepare you for something like this. It’s frustrating,” said Briggs, who is in his first season at Fort Cherry after spending the past 10 years at Chartiers-Houston.
The high school winter sports seasons will restart tonight throughout Pennsylvania. The seasons began Dec. 11 but were stopped less than 24 hours later when Gov. Tom Wolf ordered a three-week shutdown in hope of curbing growing COVID-19 numbers in the state.
Teams were allowed to resume practicing Monday and can resume their schedules today. That goes for boys and girls basketball, wrestling, swimming and rifle teams.
With only four practices on the heels of a three-week layoff, Briggs knows basketball teams will not be sharp.
“You’re going to see some odd things,” he said.
The biggest concern for Briggs and other coaches throughout the WPIAL is the conditioning of their players.
“We were in good shape when the season was stopped for three weeks,” Briggs said. “But you can’t get back in shape in only four practices. My emphasis in those practices was working on offense and defense. I didn’t push conditioning because it was only four days of practices. I wasn’t going to run their legs off and then play on Friday. They will have to play their way back into shape.”
And coaches will have to adjust their player rotations and game strategy until players get into game shape.
“We’ll probably have to play more guys and maybe have to call timeouts just to give our guys a rest,” Briggs said. “If I call a timeout in the first half for that reason, it will be something I never do.”
Briggs said coaches who are in their first year at their current job, like he is, will be at a disadvantage early in the season. He added that during the three-week hiatus he and his coaching staff tried to help his players by making offensive and defensive instructional videos – “the kids like those,” he said – and sending daily messages.
“We’re just trying to figure out what the kids need,” Briggs said. “I like this team, but I’m still getting to know the kids.”
Fort Cherry (1-0) had one of the better wins by local squads back on Dec. 11. The Rangers edged Frazier, 55-54, getting 17 points from Dylan Rogers. Fort Cherry will open Class 2A play in Section 2 tonight at Burgettstown.
“We have to dumb it down and go with the basics,” Briggs said of his strategy for the restart. “We can’t put too much on their plate. I think you have to play good defense and score some baskets in transition. If you’re going to slow it down and run half-court offense after not shooting for three weeks … it’s going to be interesting to see what the shooting is like.”
All basketball teams will have time to improve because the WPIAL will hold an open tournament, meaning any team that wants to participate in the postseason, regardless of record, will be included in the playoff field.
“The idea is to get to full strength for the playoffs,” Briggs said. “We have about six weeks to get all the games in before the playoffs.”