Keep a light on

The lights are out, the bleachers are put away, the basketballs are put away, and a voice echoes in the gym.

The season ended too soon for our Dogies and Lady Dogies, and disappointment over not achieving preseason goals may be weighing heavy on our athletes and coaches right now.

As a coach, I remember the feeling of loss that resonated with me when the season ended, regardless of whether that happened at the regional tournament or at state.

When you spend every day for four months eating, breathing and living basketball, you feel it when all of a sudden you don’t have a practice to plan or go to, games to plan for and play, or strategy to implement for your team.

I remember as a player feeling pretty down as well in the days after the season ended for the year. I just loved to play so much that the thought of having to wait for nine more months before I was back in the gym was flat depressing.

While coaches, players and parents need some time to grieve the end of the season, there is a definite silver lining this time of year — you absolutely do not have to quit playing.

Yes, the game schedule is empty, but you don’t have to quit working on the game. In fact, now is exactly the time to be making plans to improve your game for next year.

It’s time to set goals, to take everything that you learned from last season and form a plan to fix mistakes, sharpen your skills, and increase your basketball IQ.

March Madness is quickly approaching, so you can still get your competitive-game fix, and you can also take the opportunity to learn by watching college athletes play. You can reflect on how you and your team played throughout the season by watching game film and objectively compare what you did to what other teams — who ended their season where you wanted to be — did to be successful.

You can get in the gym and put up shots until shooting becomes muscle memory. You can really focus on perfecting your fundamentals until your mechanics are spot on.

You can take advantage of camps in the summer, both individual and team opportunities, to become better. You can hit the weight room to become physically stronger. In order to achieve your goals, you have to commit to walking into the gym in November of next year better than you were when this season ended.

What it comes down to is that you don’t have to turn off the lights. You can keep a light burning while you prepare for next season.