Throughout his coaching career Dave Marshall has asked his players to treat every practice like it’s the last one they will ever get.

 

Those words have taken on a whole new level of meaning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The thoughts are at least there in the back of most people’s minds — specifically athletes and coaches — things could shut down again or things that haven’t even restarted could remain on pause.

 

The Bridgeport boys basketball team is doing its best to proceed with a business as usual approach during the three-week summer practice period.

 

“Participation has been great,” Marshall said. “We don’t have everybody but a lot of them are being pulled in a lot of different directions which is what you expect during this three-week period.

 

“It was nice to just get back together with them. We actually started back in June in Phase 1 and we only went a couple of days a week. We did it a lot for the kids’ sanity but also the coaches’ sanity. We wanted to get back around the kids. The kids wanted to be back around each other.

 

“It hasn’t been just showing up. They’re enthusiastic about things. You can tell with some of them, they realize how quickly they can lose this now.”

 

Back on March 12, the Indians were set to play Lewis County in a Class AA Region II co-championship game with a spot in the state tournament on the line.

 

That game of course was never played and was one of the first casualties of the coronavirus which then wiped out the state tournament completely, all spring prep sports, the rest of the school year and is threatening to still be a hinderance for the 2020-2021 school year.

 

A core group of seniors, including second-team all-stater Nick Stalnaker, saw their season and career come to a premature end leaving the Indians with just one returnee with much experience, Jack Bifano. The Indians will also be facing a change in classification as well, moving up to Class AAAA.

 

“We’ve had right around 19 or 20 every day,” Marshall said. “A lot of freshmen coming in and that’s good. Hopefully the majority, if not all of them, end on the freshman team and this gives me a chance to get to know them and vice versa. Hopefully this time gives them a chance to see how we do things. It also allows the other guys to figure out where they are at.

 

“We are bringing back Jack and he’s really the only starter. Everybody else graduated and moved on. We have a couple of other guys that got some minutes. We’ve got a lot of open spots and that’s not the major thing right now, but I think that explains a lot of the consistency in showing up because guys want to see how they can fit into the mix.”

 

Marshall said he is already impressed with what Bifano is bringing to the table as his most experienced player.

 

“This does not shock me but at the same time, Jack, about three minutes into the first day we were out on the floor and it was very obvious Jack has been working his butt off,” Marshall said.

 

“From a weight room standpoint to working on his game. He was always pretty good but you can see definite extension of what he’s been doing. Jack is a quiet guy and we would like for him to be a more vocal leader but some of us are not wired that way. His example leadership has been tremendous and he seems to be thriving in that position. That’s good for us and that’s good for the younger guys because they are going to be a lot of guys get into a position this year that they have never been in before and we need a guy that has been there, done that like Jack.”

 

The three-week period did come with some different guidelines this year thanks to COVID-19. An emphasis on social distancing and wearing of masks being the two biggest ones.

 

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well it has worked,” Marshall said. “Now, we haven’t been going through like a November practice where we are constantly up and down the court. But we have been working pretty hard.

 

“We give them a few more breaks. For what we are doing, the intensity is still there. I talked to some of the older guys who have been around me and said, ‘Guys, you got to let me know. I’ve never practiced with a mask so if it gets to be too much, I’ll back off.”

 

Marshall, well-known for his advocacy and coaching of intense man-to-man defense, said that level of defensive intensity he likes is something he hasn’t worked on much this summer where if things were different in relation to COVID-19 restrictions, he might implement a little more.

 

He added that if it was November and they weren’t working on defense as much as he would like then that might be an issue. But for the middle of the summer, he’s OK with it.

 

Biggest thing right now, everybody is working hard, happy to be at practice and moving forward to the start of the season.

 

“This is uncharted territory and I hope we never have to chart it again,” Marshall said. “I think kids are extremely resilient. I think this has made them even more resilient. Every day, I tell them at practice, do it like it’s your last one. My job as a coach and their job as a player is to look how to get past the next obstacle.”