It’s been a season of stops and starts but mostly stops thus far. The North Sunflower Academy basketball teams have been off the hardwood this past week due to COVID shutdown. This week they are off due to the Thanksgiving break and COVID as well. Lady Rebel Head Coach Jenny McCullough has been busy reworking the schedule and texting her players about workouts.
“We can’t do anything until we go back to school on Monday,” Coach McCullough said. “We can’t do anything at all. We communicate via text regularly. I send them workouts like we did when we were shut down back in March. I give them things to do and they text me what they do. They work on their shooting on their own. There’s still a lot you can do and not be in the gym. They are serious about getting better and working hard and they don’t need me standing over them to do it. They want to do it themselves.”
Once the team hits the practice floor on Monday, they travel to Sharkey Issaquena on Tuesday. Hopefully, a full slate of games will follow.
“We’re going to play about three games a week until the season is over,” she said. “I think pretty much everybody has gone to playing three games a week. We haven’t played since we played Washington School. We had two games in October and one game in November. We’ve missed about six games.”
Over on the boys’ side, Head Coach George Roberson has a varsity team that’s undefeated. But they haven’t played a game and have had very limited practice.
“You can say that. We haven’t played a game,” Roberson said. “We had two full practices. Three all together but one everyone couldn’t come due to COVID. We come back for one day of practice on Monday and then a game at Sharkey on Tuesday.”
Roberson will also be down two players as they will be competing in the MAIS All Star Football game. He won’t have his full squad together with another player missing for COVID reasons.
Rebel opponents won’t see a full detail of Rebel players just yet.
“I don’t want to sneak up on ’em. I’d rather run up on ’em and say, ‘here we are. Do something with it,’” he said.
Another problem with the lack of practice is that there are several new players and those returning after not playing and don’t know Coach Roberson’s systems and communication.
“They haven’t had a chance to learn my coaching language and my assistant coach has been out of town due to his job. We know each other knows what’s going on but the kids, some know me and some don’t have a clue about me,” Roberson said.
The team is still raising money for their new uniforms.
There is a raffle for a Sig Sauer Model-P365 9MM handgun. Chances are two dollars each and can be purchased from team members or by calling the NSA main office at (662) 756-2547. Or you can contact Roberson at (662) 207-8642.
The raffle will be held on December 11. The school is also holding a 15-15-15 Gun raffle where 15 guns will be raffled off for $15 a chance the first 15 days of December. Check with the office for more information as well.
