Jeremy Robinson picked a heck of a year to become the head coach for Yuma High School girls basketball.
“Not a good year for a new program, but it is what it is,” he said Monday prior to the first official practice for the shortened Season B. “The girls have been working hard. It will be nice to have some consistency (with mandatory practice). At least we’ll get some clarity after tonight.”
He said 25 girls showed interest when he had a team meeting last month, but was not sure exactly would show for the start of official practice.
Games begin next week, the regular season will end by the first of March, and a state champion will be crowned by the middle of March.
“They always say basketball is a marathon, not a sprint,” Robinson said, “but this year will be like a 400.”
The Indians open January 28 at Brush, then host Limon on January 30, followed by Holyoke early the next week.
Yuma’s girls got bounced in regional last season, ending a streak of eight straight state tournament appearances — finishing at least in the top three each time, including three state titles.
Robinson was a volunteer assistant coach the past four seasons. He accepted the head position last spring after Bob Rahm retired following last season.
The head coach has his own system to implement, but COVID-19 greatly reduced summer contact, and then the regular basketball season was pushed back to now. At least school officials were able to get the gym open for optional practice later last year, while adhering to local COVID variances.
The Indians also were able to get in some games in a weekly game in Brush, in which spectators were not allowed until the last two weeks when Morgan County went to Orange Level, and then only two per player were allowed.
At least Robinson was able to get his players on the court.
“I was just trying to get them as much playing time as I could,” he said. “They could be really good, they really could be…Now it’s ‘go time.’ We’re a lot further ahead than we would’ve been without the school getting the gym open. That has been great.”
There is still a lot to be accomplished in regards to Robinson installing his system. He said he wants to go uptempo as much as possible, and mix things up.
“We’ll try to keep teams off their toes,” he said, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes the whole season to get where we need to be.”
That would be fine if the Indians could at least finish in the top 24 in 2A by the end of the regular season. The final rankings will be set by a combination of RPI, the CHSAANow.com poll (voted on by coaches), the Packard ratings and MaxPreps.
The top 24 will compete in the “state tournament” over the course of two weeks. (More details about that later) Yuma is ranked No. 11 in the preseason poll released by CHSAANow.com earlier this week.
The Indians have a very difficult schedule on tap, “We don’t have one easy game,” Robinson said.
Then there is the potential of players being lost, or games even canceled, due to COVID cases and quarantines, either with the Indians or an opponent.
The regular season is 14 games (12 for subvarsity teams), and teams must play at least seven to be eligible for the postseason.
“It’s going to be an interesting fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants season,” Robinson said, “or, who knows, it just might go smoothly.”
Everyone hopes for the latter.
