Scheduled start moved up for hoops season
Dec. 4—The PIAA has long struggled with the transition from football to basketball with the gridiron playoffs extending into December. Traditionally, the winter season starts the second Friday of the month.
However, the PIAA moved the start date up a week and coaches are mixed on the move.
Danville coach Gary Grozier knew his school's football team had a chance to make a long run in the playoffs, and didn't schedule a game in the first week of the season.
However, he is surprised the PIAA decided to start the season with 12 football teams still left in the playoffs, and 12 other teams just finishing their season.
"It doesn't affect everybody, but when they push the season to start this weekend, a lot of teams are playing behind," Grozier said. "We only had a chance to have one scrimmage, and it was just seven guys. Our football guys had finished the season the night before, and they're still beat to heck."
However, if Danville had won its quarterfinal game, Grozier and the Ironmen, which open their season this weekend at First Columbia Tip-Off Tournament at Bloomsburg University, the Danville coach was prepared to open the season with just seven players.
"We did think we had a legitimate chance at the state finals, but I also know other teams want to get on the court and play," Grozier said. "The teams that are done with football want to get on the court as quick as possible."
Shamokin coach Chris Zimmerman is the Division I favorite but also has a very young squad. From a coaching perspective, he'd love to have that extra week to fine-tune everything, because once the season starts, there isn't a lot of time for practice. However, after working hard all summer and fall, his team just wants to get on the court.
"Our guys are ready," Zimmerman, whose Indians opened the season in their own tournament, said. "They might be the happiest, they don't have to practice another week. They just want to play."
Ian Elliot is in his first year at Mifflinburg and has to figure out a replacement for graduated point guard Cannon Griffith. He's still not sure who it's going to be. Freshman Jackson Griffith — Cannon's younger brother — played on a football team that made it to the district semifinals, and wrapped its season on Nov. 12.
The other competitor for the job — Aaron Bolick — suffered a minor injury, and just returned as well. Rather than having another week to figure it out, he will have to decide his point guard position on the fly, and in-game.
"Cannon did so much for this team a year ago, that it's not going to be one guy that possibly replaces that production on both ends of the floor," Elliot said. "It (the competition) just started, and we have to be ready for Milton (on Tuesday)."
The Heartland Athletic Conference also decided to return to three divisions for basketball after two years with two divisions. Most of the coaches are ambivalent about the switch, saying the pluses out way the minuses — trying to figure out a larger nonleague schedule.
"It did allow us to get Southern Columbia and Hughesville along with Loyalsock back on the schedule — which are teams that we had lots of battles within the (Central Susquehanna Conference)," Lewisburg coach John Vaji said.
While Zimmerman, who played when Shamokin was still in the Schuylkill League, likes it because he'd rather play SCL teams, and bigger schools out of the area. He says he always enjoyed it when playoff games were against teams who didn't play before during the season.
"There is just something about playing a division team in districts for the third time," Zimmerman said. "I like to play different schools, but this also allows us to keep some of our natural rivalries as well."
