Is there Pelham High School basketball in the summer?

Most people think high school basketball is easy.

They think we have a couple of tough weeks and then no more summer practice. However, basketball is a full speed contact sport that requires year round training. We have to be ready for being tripped while running full speed in the open court to make a breakaway layup.

At Pelham High School, Coach Floyd has the players buying into “being the change.”

We are working harder than ever to become a state championship team.

We run, weight lift, and work on basketball skills five days a week the whole summer during our off-season.

In the month of June, we have mandatory team practice while we prepare for team camps. Our team camps consist of a couple of days of games getting the team ready for the upcoming season.

We go to colleges like Samford and Birmingham Southern to play teams from around the area. In July, we also have what are called play dates with other teams. We go to their schools and we have games consisting of 20-minute halves.

Even when mandatory practices are over, we have optional open gym three times a week as we strive to get better on strength and shooting skills as well as agility.

In July, Coach Floyd opens the gym on Sundays for pickup games to maintain our team chemistry.

As the school year approaches, we head to the track to work on speed and stamina.

Then we start after school practice as we enter the hunt to win our games. Our practices can last anywhere from two to three hours per day. During our season we play about 20 games and a few tournaments. We wrap up the school year with tryouts and summer practices start over again.

Basketball is a year round sport and Pelham High School’s team is working hard to “be the change” that Head Varsity Basketball Coach Joel Floyd believes we can be.

Ray Foshee is a sophomore at Pelham High School and a member of the junior varsity basketball team.