The day of ultimate judgment came Monday for winter sport athletes. While their peers were sleeping and spending the free teacher work days at leisure, basketball players, swimmers, divers, wrestlers, runners, and gymnasts poured out their blood, sweat and tears, hoping that their years of hard work would pay off. Winter sports try-outs were a week earlier than last year, but a new VHSL ruling made sure that the players would still be prepared.
In August, VHSL decided that teams could meet to practice out of season. Fairfax County placed further restrictions, giving programs 12 “green days” a season to practice skills and fundamentals, but not full team drills.
Boys and girls basketball, wrestling, and swim and dive have all met for conditioning which, in the past, was the only VHSL sanctioned meet with coaches. Girls Varsity Basketball Coach Priester said “nobody wants to come to practice just to condition. I don’t want to watch them run either.”
Girls basketball has taken advantage of these new practices and has had over 40 girls come out. “In season we never have enough time to practice fundamentals. This is all fundamentals all practice,” said Priester. “This is an opportunity for kids trying out to get ahead of the game and become familiar with the team.”
Wrestling has also used the practices to help build their program. Coach Gibbons said “I hope in this early season we have a lot of freshmen come out… and the veterans on the team will take charge and lead the program to where it needs to be.”
Boys Basketball starts off the winter season against Lee High School on the 29th. Girls Basketball and Gymnastics follow on the 30th, Indoor Track and Swim and Dive both have meets on the 1st. So while the early try-outs don’t give extra time to practice in season before games, the extra practices should.
“All any coach wants is a kid who wants to work to get better,” said Priester. “And that’s what we’re here for.”
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