Basketball notebook: Area teams scramble to stay sharp amidst cancellations

The Hall boys basketball team hasn’t played since Jan. 5 and have had their last four games canceled by the weather, including tonight’s home game with Erie-Prophetstown.

They like all the area teams in northern Illinois are trying to stay sharp as they can during idle time. There have been no fewer than 20 cancellations/postponements for Bureau County teams since Tuesday, Jan. 9 and countless of canceled practices with school closings.

The only Bureau County teams to play since Jan. 8 are the Bureau Valley boys, who postponed Saturday’s game with IVC to Monday, and the Princeton boys and the St. Bede girls, who doubled up with two games on Monday after postponing games on Saturday.

“No school, no game (Tuesday),” Hall boys coach Mike Filippini said of the common theme. “We’ve only played once since Christmas break and we’ve had four games in a row canceled. We have practiced several times including (Monday). We scrimmaged our sophs Thursday (Jan. 11) just for a different look. (Monday) we let the kids pick teams and scrimmaged for a half hour just so they’d have some fun and get up and down the court. It’s been brutal.”

It’s been a similar story for the Hall girls. They were able to sneak in a game on Jan. 8, but twice were canceled in the Byron MLK Shootout over the long weekend.

“We played Thursday. Practice canceled Friday. Games canceled Saturday. We did an optional shoot-around Sunday because we thought we were playing today and had about eight girls come in and then (Monday’s) games canceled along with practice (Tuesday),” Hall girls coach TJ Orlandi said. “Sadly, there’s really not a whole lot you can do with this snow and now cold. It’s definitely not ideal, but everyone is pretty much in the same boat.”

Orlandi said he may send out some “film/scout stuff” to the girls to look at for Wednesday’s practice and Thursday’s game.

BV girls coach Matt Wasilewski said the Storm are making the best out of the situation they can.

“We were able to practice Thursday evening (Jan. 11) and then got in for an hour plus (Monday) prior to the boys’ games. It is not ideal not practicing, but I hope we will be fresh (next game),” he said. “We have been struggling a bit with our shooting so have been focused on trying to get better shots. The last two practices were good and the ladies looked sharp. Need to carry that over to games.”

Rolling a 300

* Byron girls coach Eric Yerly, a Hall alum, recently won his 300th career game. Included in the 300 are back-to-back state championships in 2016 and 2017 and a runner-up finish last year.

He thanked all the parents, assistants and players “who make a lot of sacrifices for the success of our program,” as well as his wife.

Yerly has been head coach at Byron since 2011-12, and has won 31-plus games four times and 25-plus seven times.

Mark your calendar

There’s been a lot of games cancelled and postponed as mentioned. Here’s a list of some of the makeups that have been announced:

* Ottawa at Princeton boys basketball from Tuesday, Jan. 9 to Monday, Jan. 22

* LaMoille at Hiawatha boys basketball from Tuesday, Jan. 9 to Tuesday, Jan. 23

* St. Bede at Roanoke-Benson boys basketball from Friday, Jan. 12 to Monday, Jan. 29

* PC vs. Hall boys basketball from Tuesday, Jan. 9 to Monday, Jan. 29

* Kewanee at Hall boys basketball from Friday, Jan. 12 to Tuesday, Jan. 30

* Newman at Princeton girls basketball from Saturday, Jan. 13 to Thursday, Feb. 1

* St. Bede at Lowpoint-Washburn boys basketball from Jan. 9 to Wednesday, Feb. 7

* Rock Falls at Princeton boys basketball from Thursday, Jan. 11 to Thursday, Feb. 15

New additions:

Hall vs. Forreston girls, Tuesday Feb. 2