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Schools solve scheduling woes from storm


A big snow storm always wreaks havoc with scheduling for high school athletic directors.

A huge storm like what we experienced a week ago, especially when it happens later in the season as last week's was, makes it even worse.

For the most part, area teams have worked it out. But there will be some tired players by the end of this week.

Greencastle-Antrim's basketball teams took the biggest hit. From last Thursday - when the school finally re-opened - through this Thursday, both the boys and girls will have played six games in eight days.

That's either good or bad, depending on your perspective.

G-A girls coach Mike Rhine said, "The kids would rather play games and the coaches would rather be able to practice. The good thing was, earlier in the season we had a week with a bye so we got a lot of good practice time in then."

Shippensburg forward Wade Mills said, "Honestly, I think we play better when we play game after game. In the beginning of the season, we were 7-1 because we didn’t have much of a break. We were playing a game every day pretty much, so I think we get in a better groove when we’re playing back-to-back.”

Last Thursday, Greencastle boys coach Gary Martin said, "I haven't even seen my guys since last Thursday. And we'll only have one practice during that eight-day time period. It's hard to prepare for the games - you hope you can bring up some things from your memory banks about the teams you've played before.

"But, on the good side, I'm glad we're able to get the games in."

Blue Devil guard Casey Hoover said, "It’s going to be a lot of games. It’ll definitely be a challenge to go from this break to playing almost every day,"

Shippensburg has a stretch of five games in seven days.

“We only have one makeup game, but we had a full load on the end of the schedule anyhow," Hound coach Ray Staver said. "We’re just taking it one game at a time, particularly to get through our league, and hopefully, when it’s all said and done, we’ll have a spot in the playoffs.”

Some schools made good use of a flexible schedule. Chambersburg and Mifflin County moved their Friday games up to Thursday and got them in before the snow flew. The Trojans had the luxury of playing the boys game in the auxiliary gym, so it didn't disrupt the scheduled wrestling match.

Southern Fulton moved up its boys game against Forbes Road to Thursday.

SF athletic director and coach Kent Hendershot said, "We lost two games earlier, but were able to get them rescheduled. We had to move the (James Buchanan) games to Feb. 10, which means it still counts for us in the district rankings (it won't for JB). That's a good game to get in before the playoffs."

The District 3 cut-off is Thursday, while District 5's cutoff is Feb. 13.

Larry Strawoet, the JB coach and AD, said, "This happens, and we’ve been fortunate up to this point not to have it happen. I don’t think (being an AD) is a challenge, but it’s a busy time for everybody. It happens, and you have to be prepared.”

Rhine's strategy was to play his starters pretty much normally, hope the Blue Devils built up a big lead, and then bring in the bench players, hoping to rest his starters as much as possible.

"We run seven out there normally, and the others we try to sneak in," Rhine said. "For the first few games, we were able to give the girls some rest. The other good thing is, all three games this week are home games."

Sports reporter Lizi Arbogast contributed to this story.