Local high school basketball teams welcome late in-flux of talent after football season

METAIRIE — As the current year winds down and we transition to a new one, dual-sport athletes are transitioning from one season to the next.

Basketball practice begins in mid-October, the football regular season ends in early November and the football playoffs end in early December.

So football players who double as basketball players are latecomers to the hardwood, making December an adjustment period for basketball teams trying to acclimate everyone in time for district play and ultimately the playoffs.

“This is normal,” Country Day coach Mike McGuire said after his defending state champions lost to Riverside in the championship game of the Country Day Classic last Saturday. “In January we start looking like a team and start playing with more defined roles. I think we’re getting there.”

The Cajuns had won six games in a row before the loss to the undefeated Rebels. Both teams had multiple starters who had recently finished their football seasons, but it was a former football player — Riverside guard Jared Butler — who was named the tournament Most Valuable Player after getting 20 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in the 68-61 title-game victory.

Butler, a former standout wide receiver and quarterback, was used to making the football-to-basketball transition late every fall, but as a senior he decided to focus exclusively on basketball, which is what he’ll play at the University of Alabama.

He said “it was tough in the playoffs,” watching his former team advance to the semifinals, “but I just thought about what I was sacrificing for.”

“Those months not playing football do help you (stay fresh) for sure,” Butler said. “My
shot was better this year when practice started.”

Though skipping football saves wear and tear on the body, there are advantages to playing both sports.

“I think that football helps with being aggressive,” said Christian Becnel, who’s a wide receiver on the Country Day football team and a guard on the basketball team. “That carries over to basketball.”

Country Day started basketball practice Oct. 14, the Cajuns football season ended with a first-round playoff loss to Episcopal on Nov. 10, the football players started basketball practice Nov. 13 and basketball season tipped off Nov. 30.

After the Country Day Classic, the Cajuns, who feature eight football players among their top nine basketball players, headed to San Diego for the Surf and Turf Classic.

“We try to schedule really tough,” McGuire said, “and it makes (the football players) really prepare and really concentrate and that speeds up the process.”

The development of basketball-only players, such as Cajuns sophomore guard Shawn Royal, is speeded up during the football players’ absence as they are forced to take on more responsibility in practice while the team is short-handed.

“It made me a better player for sure,” Royal said.

He added that practices have a different tone and the team’s personality changes once the football players arrive.

“It’s a lot more competitive,” Royal said. “When the football team comes there’s a lot more physicality. They’re coming from blocking and hitting people all day. That makes us tougher and it carries through the rest of the season.”

Royal said that when football practices ended earlier than basketball practices, the basketball players in waiting would come watch the end of basketball practice.

“It’s definitely a partnership,” he said. “We’re all in it together.”

Country Day and Riverside, who met in the state semifinals last season, will meet again as part of the District 11-2A schedule Feb. 1 in Reserve. They also are both participating in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Tournament next week at the Alario Center and could meet there.

“We know them real well, they know us real well, so it’s always a battle,” McGuire said. “We’re looking forward to district and the state playoffs because that’s when it counts.”

And the farther along these teams go the better acclimated the football players will be and better the teams will be.

“They’re strong, they’re tough, they’ve competed and they know how to win,” McGuire said of the football players. “Those kids are winners. We like the fact that they play football as long as they stay healthy and come out for basketball. It’s been a good mix for us.”