With the start of winter sports in the Keystone State on the horizon, local basketball teams in the Intermediate Unit 9 bubble are eager to tip-off the season.

Following a three-week delay on K-12 winter sports, which were part of Governor Tom Wolf’s COVID-19 mitigation guidelines announced on Dec. 10, local basketball teams made their way back to the court this week for practices.

Teams now need at least 10 total practices to be able to play games and since teams were on a three-week delay, they must have four consecutive practices before they can play games. Contests throughout the state are set to get underway on Friday.

Basketball teams in the IU9 bubble are at different places when it comes to the number of practices they have under their belts, but one thing’s for sure is that the players and coaches are ecstatic to be back in action.

“They are very happy to be back playing basketball,” Coudersport head boys basketball coach Scott Easton said. “They’re very energetic, they’re ready to work hard, they’re following all the rules of wearing a mask in practices. They’re following all the expectations that we have of them.

“We’re asking a lot from them to do this stuff, but they want to play basketball as well, so they’re going to do it so they can play basketball.”

While teams are happy to be back on the court, they also face the challenge of getting fully prepared for the season in a short amount of time, especially if they had few practices prior to the three-week delay.

Easton said the team had five practices prior to the delay. He also said they have two big challenges, which are installations such as their offensive sets, inbounds plays, presses and defense and the second thing is getting in game shape before their first game against Otto-Eldred next Tuesday.

“I think the biggest thing that you notice right now is we’re trying to get everything in in such a short period of time and it’s just really hard to do in a two-hour practice,” Easton said. “(Getting in game shape’s) a whole different level now that we’re wearing masks, running up and down the floor, so there’s a pretty high expectation for the kids to be able to try to get all this in and the coaching staff, but we’ll manage, like all the coaches will.”

In Port Allegany, girls basketball head coach Jamie Evens said the team was fortunate to have got the number of required practices in before the delay, which allowed the team plenty of time for installation.

“Obviously, it’s tough to throw a three-week break in the middle of things,” Evens said. “We’ve been lucky enough to install everything and we had quite a few returning players. We didn’t have a whole lot of young players to get up to speed. I felt pretty good before the break, really this week is trying to get their legs back under them.”

The Otto-Eldred girls basketball team practiced all the way up to the delay and was about to be shut down for a couple of weeks right before the Wolf’s mitigation efforts were announced due to a positive case in the program.

Coaches gave the teams ways to safely stay busy during the three-week delay such as workout options and watching game film on Hudl.

O-E head coach Shawn Gray said he mostly left it up to the team as far as what they wanted to do during the delay and about a couple days before it was announced that Wolf wouldn’t extend his mitigation efforts, he began sending small quizzes to the team via a group chat about their plays and defensive styles.

“I think they really enjoyed that and that got them back into the mindset of getting ready to play basketball again,” Gray said. “We just kind of let them do their own thing…I just thought they’d been through enough that I didn’t want to put any unnecessary pressure (on them).”

Teams obviously have their own goals as well as the expectation to win every game, but with the ongoing circumstances with the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been some extra emphasis from coaches to their players, especially seniors, to enjoy every practice and every game they get in case their seasons were to get shut down at any moment.

“I certainly think a lot of the pressure of having to win has been lifted because I feel like right now we’re on borrowed time,” Easton said. “We’re just hoping to get games…I would say our message to the kids is this stinks, but man, we got to make the best of it.”

There’s been some frustration across the board within the teams, especially for those who played during the fall with some restrictions, but players and coaches feel fortunate to be back on the court and won’t need any motivation when it comes to finally playing against another team.

“We knew coming in we’d have to be flexible, we knew there were going to be changes as we went and we’ve really tried to mentally prepare for that as much as physically because I think the season’s really going to be more a mental drain more than anything on everybody,” Evens said.

“We try to put forth a full effort every day hoping it’s not our last day and being prepared for whatever it brings us.”