LJ b BB: 6 a.m. practice

Jacob Ohara puts in a layup on a weave drill

at 6:07 a.m. in Vikings basketball practice at

Muirlands Middle School on the outside

courts. (Photo by Ed Piper)

 

 

By Ed Piper

 

In the gloaming...

 

I had never been to a 6 a.m. practice for a sports team in all my years, whether playing or observing. Title IX, which mandates equal opportunities for boys and girls, wasn't instituted until 1972, the year after I graduated from high school. So my (boys) basketball team never had to vie for court time with girls' teams, because the girls didn't have official CIF sports and teams at that time.

 

Teams at La Jolla High, and other high schools, have been holding 6 a.m. practices before school for years. It's commonplace for them.

 

So, they have made the sacrifice: the water polo teams, and others.

 

A month ago or so I noticed on Paul Baranowski's summer schedule that he was holding boys varsity basketball practices at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, where he is employed, and on the outdoor courts at Muirlands Middle School. (The LJHS gym is being repaired--new roof.) I previously visited a practice at JCC.

 

So, Thursday morning, July 7, I braved the early morning hour and made it to the Vikings practice at Muirlands. It was 6:05 a.m. when I pulled up. I was five minutes late.

 

As I walked in the gate, shoes and socks in hand, rolling my camera case, Baranowski good-naturedly ribbed me: "Oh, we come all dressed and ready. We can't be having that." Something like that. He chuckled, I chuckled. I said, "At least, I got dressed." He said, "I'm glad for that."

 

The players looked loose and ready to run. I was surprised. My iPhone data enabled me to get the approximate temperature for La Jolla at that hour, a pleasant 65 degrees. It was overcast and gray, as the above photo shows at 6:07 a.m.

 

Most of the 90-minute practice consisted of Baranowski's directing the 11 players (5 on 5, with one sitting, at the end 5 on 6, with mostly younger players making up the 6 against older players on the 5) in weaves and offensive sets full-court, up and down the court.

 

He kept up a repartee of remarks, "Call out what play you're running" (to Behzad Hashemi and other playmakers), "That was the best play today" (after a maneuver by Daniel McColl). The coach's humor, which he is known for, was in check and expressed subtly.

 

Hashemi had the most interaction verbally with Baranowski the first part of practice, the two discussing offensive options to run, at one point the coach putting his arm around his player while they confabbed.

 

Garrett Brown, who is making his comeback in basketball after taking last year off while he concentrated on baseball, was later the player with the most to say in practice, often with a smile. He's carved out his niche as the Vikings' starting catcher in baseball, so his position seemingly secure, he seemed relaxed in his role on the basketball team, which certainly will be as a backup to McColl and Charlie Gal in the front court.

 

Brown and McColl banged bodies during drills, McColl grinning as he holds a considerable girth advantage in his football regimen over the slimmer catcher.

 

The close of practice came with five-minute timed drills (Baranowski using his smartphone timer) of, first, 75 layups right-handed, then 75 left-handed, finally 55 medium-range jump shots and 35 three-pointers--team-building, skill-reinforcing, and the timer lending some urgency, I suppose, to the drills. Players had to pass to midcourt, the drills going counter-clockwise for the right-handed layups, then clockwise around the court for left-handed layups.

 

McColl, Hashemi, Nick Hammel, Quinn Rawdin, and Jacob Ohara made up the black-jersey unit, with Brown, though an upperclassman, running with the five younger players on the red squad.

 

The Vikings had played a summer league game two nights earlier, in the Hoover High league. They have team camp games coming up Friday and Saturday at Point Loma Nazarene University this weekend. So, in the scheme of things, these offseason workouts enhance skills, reinforce players' court I.Q. as far as offensive plays and the like, and help with conditioning.

 

Preseason practice doesn't begin until Nov. 15, with holiday tournaments beginning Dec. 1. Hammel and Brown get the Cub Scout awards for showing up after taking part in a baseball clinic the afternoon before on the Muirlands field adjacent to the courts.

 

Then Hammel and McColl venture forth into the South County Passing Tournament with the football team Friday and Saturday at Southwestern College. It's called "Schedule: Sports today, tomorrow, and... This is your life."

 

Hammel is a total sucker for punishment, with three school sports filling his school-year schedule: football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring. McColl is right behind him, though volleyball seems to take a big back seat for him. Brown is a two-sport guy, with baseball standing way out front of his number-two sport, basketball.

Hammel is a starter in all three of his sports, so that is really saying something.

 

More power to them. Sigh. It makes me think of my days practicing basketball and baseball. We were spoiled--we didn't have to juggle team practice schedules with the girls teams, which didn't exist yet.

 

Anyone who knows me probably knows I fully support girls and women forging forth in sports, as well as all other fields they choose to participate in.