The path to Christmas break

With Thanksgiving (and Black Friday!) now past, we begin to set our sights toward Christmas. It's hard to believe that our regular season is already a quarter of the way done. By Christmas, it will be halfway over. That means we have five games in the next three weeks - a slow stretch when considering we will play ten games in January alone. So, what will the next few weeks bring us? Tough competition and a variety of playing styles, that's for sure. And, oh yes, they are all on the road...

First, a very difficult game at South Side. It's a loud place to play - weird acoustics - and South is determined each year to make us look as bad as possible. It annoys them when we actually win, like we did two years ago at their place. They got their revenge last year, beating us soundly. Our passing and catching was unbelievably bad. If we play that way this year, it will be another long night. They will press and attack all over the floor with great athleticism.

Saturday, we are at Wawasee. They have a terrific individual player named Knafel. After that, they lack experience and depth. They will play their trademark 3-2 defense everywhere. They press in it, drop back into it, and play it on out-of-bounds plays. It's what they do and we'll need to be able to find the seams and convert when we get the chance. It's our last scheduled game with them as they have indicated that they would like to look elsewhere for a game. That's disappointing, but not unprecedented. Since we've had some success the past few years, more and more teams are coming up with reasons to not play us. Whatever.

Next, we will continue our odyssey as we make the half-hour drive to Huntington. That's a new pickup on our schedule (thanks to Fremont dropping us...see above) and one we're excited about playing. They are an extremely physical team and are tough at home. They will try to beat us up and beat us down, so we'll need to be strong physically and mentally. I scouted them last week against Homestead and they had their opponents in complete disarray due to their style of play. It won't be easy, but that's the only way to get better!

After that, we coast into the break with weekend games with Bethany Christian and Blackhawk Christian. Bethany always plays us tough up there in Waterford Mills, so we need to guard against a letdown. They play a decent schedule, so they won't be intimidated just because it's Canterbury. Blackhawk is rebuilding with a new coach and a vastly different lineup. That game will be part of a boy-girl doubleheader, so that should be fun. They are our closest rivals. I hope we play well and head to the holiday break healthy and with some good performances under our belts. I'll talk a little bit more about each of these games moving forward.