Thinking back to my time as a player and coach, it always seemed to me that basketball season ramped up once we had snow in the air.  I know, it makes little sense but in my mind that first snowfall meant the season that I so enjoyed was on.  With the white stuff blanketing our area overnight it means it’s on indeed.

High school teams move into the second phase of their basketball year over the next few days when they take the floor for scrimmages.

As player I used to love scrimmages as they gave you opportunity to go against teams and players from others leagues.  At the Valley back in the day we’d travel to Hudson Falls, Glens Falls, Lansingburgh and always cross the river for a run with the Red Raiders of Mechanicville in their old gym which was a great venue.

Unlike now-a-days, those scrimmages were closed to fans with the only sounds heard being whistles, coaches voices, and sneakers on the hardwood.

To that point I can remember my sophomore year we traveled to Hudson Falls for a scrimmage with the Tigers and three Hoosic Valley classmates showed up to watch.  Coach Wilsey wasted little time in letting the girls know they wouldn’t be taking in the festivities on this day and sent them packing.  Just the way it was.

Now scrimmages are typically open events that can see sizeable crowds show up.  I hope there’s still a few teams that scrimmage behind closed doors with that special atmosphere.  Where play is stopped for coaches to coach.  Set up situations.  Ask the other squad to play man, zone, press us.  Let’s work side outs, or out of bounds play under the basket.  It is after all a practice and while I get it, that parents and fans in general want access, 20 scheduled games for all schools loom on the horizon.

Tomorrow many schools scrimmage with the Hoosic Valley girls headed to Troy, the Mechanicville girls playing host to Cohoes, the Stillwater boys entertaining Argyle, and the Greenwich boys traveling to Fort Ann while the Lady Witches welcome in Argyle to name a few.

There’s a small window for teams to scrimmage with the regular season starting as soon as next week for some.  Here’s hoping that all squads have productive, practice runs over the coming days as they prime for opening night which, with snow on the ground, I know can’t be too far away.