Langara Falcons basketball teams to go 48 days without a game
According to head coach, Virginia Watson, the break is a much-needed period for the players to get some rest
By Ray Chopping
The inter-semester break is fast approaching, and that means the men’s and women’s basketball teams are about to have their most prolonged stretch of non-competitive action.
Following the men’s and women’s games against Columbia Bible College on Nov. 23, a 48-day stretch without another game will begin. It’s within that time period that players are expected to continue training and remain academically eligible to play, which the director of athletics at Langara, Jake McCallum, said can be hard to sustain.
“Teams are rarely the same after the break, you lose people academically,” McCallum said.
Conversely, McCallum added, that a slow start to the season isn’t always indicative of the teams’ final standing because most games are played after the inter-semester break.
“The fall is one-third of the season,” McCallum said. “It’s almost like two different seasons. If you have no wins or only a few, this break is a time to reboot, revamp and look at where the roster needs work.”
Falcons take a break
For the Falcons women’s team, head coach Virginia Watson will keep the practice as usual, even with no games on the horizon. The Falcons will play a couple of exhibition games in that time to stay in game-shape and continue to work on their man-to-man and zone marking systems.
“From the end of November to the beginning of January we’re going to be on the court a ton,” Watson said.
According to Steph Von Riedemann, the team’s only returning veteran player because of the training regimen, fitness won’t be an issue come Jan. 10, when both the men and women restart their seasons.
“It’s important to be diligent with workouts. Doing our own training program, to maintain fitness is really important before those exhibition games,” Von Riedemann said.
It’s not all work and no play, however. The players get ten days off over the Christmas period, and Watson wants them to use it to get some rest.
“They work super hard for eight months a year, it’s important they take time off,” Watson said.
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