IHS Basketball holding indoor practices

Athletic activity for local high school students this academic year has been mainly limited to general workouts with limited sport-specific activity. Recently, the Ithaca High School boys basketball team was able to head indoors to safely work on skills on the court.

Due to basketball’s status as a high-risk sport, these on-court sessions are not full practices per se. Scrimmages are not permitted, and there can be no contact whatsoever. However, getting any sort of activity in a high-risk sport is an achievement these days.

“It was very exciting,” Ithaca head coach Lester McNair said. “It kind of gives hope that at least we can give the kids the opportunity to be active again and get into the gym. It was more like skills training, what we were doing, and getting kids back into trying to socialize in-person a little bit and get a little bit of a feel of being indoors again.”

To pull this off safely, the team has to follow specific safety protocols. All players wear masks while in the gym, which they are only allowed to enter after a temperature check. No equipment can be shared, so each student has their own basketball, which is cleaned after practice. As for the size of the sessions, there are two 45-minute practices with a maximum of 12 players on the court at a time.

As one could expect, getting on the court no matter the circumstances has been great for the players. It also gives McNair valuable time to develop a team that he took over midway through last season.

“My coaching style is more of trying to develop and teach kids step-by-step anyway,” McNair said. “Right now, it’s just an excellent chance to build on teaching kids fundamentals and breaking down the little things that you don’t get to do when you have a [full] team together. You can’t work with kids individually in a team setting because it kind of takes away from the entirety of it.”

Of course, full games and socially distant practices are very different. However, with about a month until the season is scheduled to start, things are moving in the right direction.

“It gives me a high level of confidence because I’m always believing the glass is half full,” McNair said. “I’m just always thinking of safety first and hoping that things will be secure in a way that we can do it. I’m very confident that we’ll play some games this year and we will have an opportunity. I have to think that way because that’s something that I want. I want it for the kids more than myself. I don’t know how I would be able to deal with this if I was a teenager right now.”

McNair understands that all student-athletes, and students in general, need support right now, so he gave the best advice he could for his players.

“Take advantage of the opportunity that you have,” he said. “Enjoy the moment that you get when you participate in any activities and stuff like that. Don’t take it for granted because we were just shown that the game that we love and all enjoy, it brings a lot of people together. They weren’t able to do that. It’s gone on for so long that you get used to not having it and you forget, but those who love it and really adore it don’t forget.”

He added that the best thing that happened this summer was the NBA holding its playoffs with no attendance so basketball lovers like him could enjoy the game again, which speaks to the power that sports have in McNair’s mind. He’s able to share that love for the sport with his players currently thanks to support from the Ithaca administration.

“I have to take my hat off to Samantha Little, who’s doing a fantastic job [as] the athletic director,” McNair said. “She works really hard figuring out any possible way she can to get us opportunities to do stuff like this. She works really hard and she’s just real adamant about trying to get the kids support and do things the right way. It’s a beautiful thing right now, during a tough time that we’re going through.”

McNair, who is an IHS alum, has dreamed of coaching his former team and is beyond excited to get a full season under his belt, even in a year as chaotic as this one. His goal, which he has already started building toward, is to build Ithaca basketball into a Section IV powerhouse for years to come.

“I want to build something with this program where the community will be able to be more involved,” he said. “We look for support all the time from alumni that have kids in school and stuff like that to support these young men and young women during their journey. And we’re always welcome to having people who would like to shed some positive light on how the kids can continue to stay motivated.”

Physically getting on the court is helping his team stay motivated as they work toward a season that may or may not happen. What matters for now though, is that they are back in the gym together.