San Marcos basketball battles elements during chaotic week

It’s been a difficult week for both the San Marcos basketball teams as Mother Nature once again threw a wrench into everyone’s plans by forcing Tuesday’s games to be moved to Saturday.

This has led both head coaches Dan Miller and Jermaine Ervin to improvise a little bit when preparing their respective teams against both Cibolo Steele and Schertz Clemens.

“The first thing is making sure that everyone is safe and off the roads,” Miller said. “Now we have to get our minds set having less practice than we normally would like and going into both Steele and Clemens before having to adjust from Clemons to now preparing for Steele. A good silver lining is that we are now the second half of play in district so it’s not new opponents.”

Though Miller isn’t quite concerned about the upcoming games considering the upperclassmen leadership the Rattlers have had this season.

“Having a veteran group of seniors really helps,” Miller said. “They will be prepared for Friday. We might be a little bit rusty shooting the ball since we haven’t been shooting as we normally do this week going into these games but we are going to do our very best to find a way to win these games.”

While Miller and the Rattlers will be on the road, Ervin and the Lady Rattlers will not only be at home but Friday will mark Senior Night for the team as well.

“It’s been crazy,” Ervin said. “Now our senior night is coming up with our players having no practice time and trying to get the event situated to make sure our seniors are going to go out in a proper way with the traditions here at San Marcos. We are still trying to do that at twilight hour.”

Because of the opponent switcheroo causing the Clemens game to be played after the Steele game instead of vice versa, the sudden shift in preparing a game plan is another factor both coaches have been dealing with.

“Clemens and Steele are two very different opponents,” Ervin said. “You have to prepare differently considering what each team brings … now we are having to refocus and switch it up against Steele on Friday which has been our main focal point for right now.”

With the gyms closed and not risking any students’ life trying to drive in dangerous conditions, the majority of both teams’ focus has been watching the game film.

“We flip gears and encourage our athletes to be students of the game,” Miller said. “They were all on Hudl, which we use for film, watching us break down the last game. We were sending them notes and clips on what we are going to be doing so we can stay being students of the game even though we couldn’t stay active in the gym. Sometimes you have to pivot and switch gears to maximize our minutes this week.”

One positive that the Lady Rattlers have been focusing on is the much-needed rest.

With injuries occurring to numerous players this season including Amiya Moore, Saylor Upshaw, Erza Tobias, Azariah Fennell, Ayleceia Pearson, Melayna Perkins, to name a few, Ervin views this period as a positive to allow the team to refocus.

“It gives Amiya some extra time coming off her injury,” Ervin said. “Erza (Tobias) really needed time because her injury happened the day of the game last Friday and only played for a limited amount of time … so I’ve been thinking of it as a positive and trying to change our mindset on what we are doing. We are just thinking that a group of rested girls is better than a group that is stressed and tense. I think the rest is going to be good for us so we are taking it as that to recharge and finish the season off strong.”

The Lady Rattlers will host Cibolo Steele 7 p.m.  on Friday for Senior Night before hosting Schertz Clemons at 2 p.m. on Saturday with both games at the Snake Pit.

The Rattlers will travel to Cibolo Steele on Friday before traveling to Schertz Clemens on Saturday.