When the Arizona Interscholastic Association ruled that the winter sports season would not begin until after the new year, it delayed the start of the season for the high school teams. For junior high teams that had already begun their seasons — like the boys basketball program at Sedona Red Rock Junior High School — it was a pause. For the Scorpions, though, the delay might have come at a good time.
Sedona’s team lost both of the games it played before the season was temporarily halted. The hiatus has given coach Alex Bybee more of a chance to improve the boys’ conditioning.
“I think based on the first couple of games that we have some work to do,” Bybee said. “I’ve said this before and I totally stand by it, conditioning is really the name of the game at this age group. Who’s in the best shape? We do a lot of conditioning stuff. We really focus on that. In the next couple of weeks before we head into that first game, we’re going to focus on more skill-related things.”
It’s also given the Scorpions more of a chance to get to know each other better. That’s essential through the early portion of any season for a high school team and even more so for a middle school team. Not only is there a lot of year-to-year turnover in middle school, but given how much change occurs in middle schoolers, the same physical person can be almost an entirely different player from one year to the next.
The Scorpions are still making those adjustments.
“We need to learn what our shooting range is,” eighth-grader Hunter Hermen said. “Learn our shooting range and each other’s shooting range. Learn what we’re good at and what we’re not good at. Learn what we need to work on and what we don’t need to work on.”
His teammate, seventh-grader Ben Metzger, agreed.
“We shoot out of range a lot. Sometimes we don’t take great shots — but I think we have potential,” Metzger said. “We started a little late. We just need some time to learn how to run some plays. And we need to kind of learn our players — what types of players we are.”
Another change for the junior high Scorpions is the coach. Pedro Ortega, who had coached the junior high team in the past, now coaches the high school boys team. Replacing him is Bybee, who coached the high school volleyball team in the fall.
While Bybee is familiar with basketball, she’s relatively new to the competitive aspect of it.
She has, however, been impressed by the group of players that she’s coaching.
“I think they’re coming together really well,” Bybee said. “We have a pretty good plan of who we’re going to put together in that first game back, as far as our A team and our B team. They play well together. I have most of them in my PE classes so I know them all pretty well.”
Bybee is also impressed with the fact that even though the players are friends, they compete hard with each other in practices.
“They mesh well together — they get along well together,” the coach said. “One thing I like is that even though they’re friends and buddies, they really push each other. They get in here, they yell at each other and really push each other. I think that’s good.”
