WEST CANAAN — Free throws, layups, passing and lots of running.
That’s what Monday night consisted of for the Mascoma High girls basketball team as it began the “skills and drills” segment of the NHIAA winter sports season inside Edward P. Kehoe Gymnasium. If anything, the two hours felt like an open gym with coach Walt Hammond serving as moderator.
The NHIAA is allowing teams to go through skills and drills through Dec. 14 as part of the association’s rollout of winter sports, delaying the start of practice to mid-December and competition to Jan. 11 in hopes of learning more about how COVID-19 could spread during indoor sports.
The Royals have more than a month until their first game, a Jan. 12 trip to Hanover, and they aren’t allowed to start scrimmaging or running plays for another two weeks, so the plan for now is to get back to the basics of basketball while staying in shape.
“It’s difficult,” Hammond said. “They’re allowed to play and be close together, but in practice we’re apart. It will define itself eventually. I think for all us basketball coaches and all the programs, we’ll see as things get going if things are working, and if they aren’t we will have to make changes before it’s too late. I felt like all the kids were responsible tonight, but we’re in a gym; we’re not outside.”
This portion of training is supposed to align with the state of New Hampshire’s amateur and youth sports guidelines and phases I and II of the NHIAA’s reopening guidance, which is sparse on details.
The NHIAA guidelines state that the sessions should be non-contact with a focus on skills and drills that can be developed while maintaining physical distancing.
Coaches are allowed to hold practice for as long and whenever they wish; however, weight training is allowed only in small groups. Other than that, coaches, such as Hammond, haven’t been given much direction.
Before Monday, Hammond and coaches at the school brainstormed how to fill up the time allotted to them. He also reached out to some of his coaching peers to see what they planned for the two-week period of work outs.
All coaches have more responsibilities during these times, too. Hammond couldn’t start practice until he screened players as they entered through the front door of Mascoma High. Before any drills began, he talked with them about wearing a mask at all times, and during practice he walked around with hand spray during water breaks.
That’s the reality the fourth-year coach must face this season.
“The beginning of the night was a challenge because of the extra work you’re not used to doing as a coach,” Hammond said. “I think we’ll get used to that. Hopefully that doesn’t become the norm; hopefully we can shed all this and go back to the normal. After we got going I felt normal, but I did have to remind myself to keep them spread out.”
Similar to this fall, schools have developed their own regional schedules for the winter to reduce student-athletes’ possible exposure to COVID-19. The postseason will be conducted in an open format again, too.
Teams will face each other twice in the same week for contact tracing purposes, and Mascoma will play 14 games against the same pool of schools from the fall: Hanover, Lebanon, Newport, Stevens, Fall Mountain, Sunapee and Newfound.
The Royals finished last season 9-12 overall and exited the Division III tournament in the first round, a 32-19 loss at White Mountains.
They return forward Liberti LaCasse (6.6 ppg) and guard Emily Moulton (7.5 ppg).
“The fact that we’re even being able to get a season right now, I’m pretty psyched,” Moulton said. “Knowing we do have a schedule does give us something to look forward to. Even if it’s just practices, I’m OK with that, and I know my teammates are OK with that because we really just want to be on the court.”
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.