W.F. West Boys Basketball Practices for First Time in Months With No-Contact Drills

On Monday the W.F. West boys basketball team did something they hadn’t done together as a unit in nearly two and a half months: play ball.

The novel coronavirus put a temporary halt to recreation in mid March, among many other day-to-day activities. At the time, the excitement of March Madness about to start had brought big numbers to the open gyms the team was having a couple times a week. It was March 11, the day the NBA shut down, that the team realized it may be their last open gym for a while. Sure enough, two days later schools across the state shut down for the remainder of the academic year.

Since then, the team has kept in contact through Zoom meetings online and recently began a fitness challenge brought on by the Bearcats’ coaches where the players track their shots, lifting reps and so forth. It’s a class competition where each kid can earn up to 70 points a week for the 10-week competition. Whichever class has the most points at the end wins T-shirts. Last week was the first week of kids reporting their scores. The team had 24 kids participate. 

But Monday was the day the kids had been waiting for. Outdoor recreation is allowed now that Lewis County is in phase two, and 27 players converged at sunny Westside Park at 6:30 p.m.

Spread throughout three sessions, groups of four players paired with one coach to work on zero-contact drills. Each player had their own ball and hand sanitizer was onsite. 

“I’m amped up to be around my guys for the first time in so long,” W.F. West varsity boys basketball coach Chris White said. “We’re just itching to do something. We were happy to get the green light to do something. We’re super nervous about not breaking any rules.”

Players were spread out so there was a delay between reps to keep safe distancing as they worked on ballhandling sequences and footwork pivots, then shifted to finishes at the rim with crossovers, eurosteps and floaters. They followed that up with form shooting, wing pick-and-rolls to help players decide if they will use the screen or deny the screen. Each group went for about 30 minutes.

“It was really upbeat,” White said. “Coaches had great energy, kids had great energy. Everybody was enthusiastic and positive. It was good to see everybody. You could tell everybody was happy to be there.”

In a normal year, the Bearcats would be competing in the Rochester and Tumwater summer leagues by now and preparing to attend team camps around the region. The team typically plays 40-50 games each spring and summer.

Last year, the team traveled to the University of Portland, Seaside, Oregon and Bend, Oregon for team camps, taking along a barbecue to cook breakfast sandwiches in the morning. It’s a crucial time for team bonding and White is hoping they can squeeze in at least one team camp by late July.

“There’s a lot of bonds that go on, a lot of fun times not on the court but the stuff that happens off the court,” White said. “All of the fun memories. It really sucks these kids aren’t getting to experience that yet.

White sees having less games as possibly a blessing in disguise, however. Sometimes teams can overdo it with the games and get burnt out, and it can be an opportunity to work on fundamentals and the foundation. 

He’s also contacted the boys basketball coaches at Napavine, Toledo and Adna to set up scrimmage games when Lewis County moves to phase three, which allows team sports and gatherings of 50 or fewer people. For now, he plans to keep the outdoor team workouts going a couple nights a week.

“I’d love to go every day but I don’t want to overbook,” White said.

W.F. West loses just three seniors from 2019-20’s team that went 16-7 overall and 8-2 in league play, advancing to the District 4 Tournament and falling two wins shy of a regional berth. Now the Bearcats have a solid group of incoming seniors that could see up to eight making the varsity squad this winter. 

“Hopefully that’s not too many chiefs in the tribe,” White said. “It’s nice to have seniors as long as everybody knows their role. We’re really hoping we can feed their leadership and help them continue this culture we’ve been building on.”