While basketball is by most definitions a winter sport, that hasn’t stopped basketball from flourishing in the summer, with MAYB and AAU club teams the classic standard.
However, high school teams are getting the chance to work in the summer months too.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association has changed its rules pertaining to all high school sports, allowing any coach to work with their teams during the month of June through the third week of July.
With summer baseball and football conditioning in full force, basketball seems like it might get the least amount of work done, but Pratt High Coach David Swank was happy to get time with his team as he rebuilds from the departure of last year’s senior-laden squad that took third at State.
“We had a good summer,” Swank said. “We had 18 or 20 practices and we played like 10 games.”
Swank said a big part of improving as a team is to get in the weight room, which is why he is happy to have kids that play other sports and are conditioned all year long. Swank also wanted to improve the team’s ball handling, which will help as they play a smaller lineup than last year. Swank wants to use his team’s speed to wreak havoc defensively while emphasizing proper spacing on offense, attacking the rim and creating easy baskets.
“We do have a late start to our season, which will give us more time to practice with our young team,” he said.
Swank said that with only three varsity returnees who played significant minutes, the varsity roster is still wide open. Of course, two spots that are practically locked will go to Swank’s two children, Matt and Micah, who helped turnaround the team last year.
The two Swank boys spent their summer working with the Pratt team in June before hitting the road with their AAU team, the Kansas Select, for the bulk of July.
“Last summer they both played on the 16-U team, with Micah playing up a year,” David Swank said. “This year, Matt played on the 17-U team, and Micah played on the 16-U team again. It’s a great opportunity for the kids to play some highly competitive basketball.”
Both teams found success while traveling across the region playing in high-quality tournaments with some of the region’s top basketball talent.
“We played in a tournament in Lawrence and we played in Tulsa and Kansas City too,” Swank said. “So really, we’re a regional team. We travel, but not on a national scale like some of the bigger teams.”
