It's 111 days until the start the boys basketball season and to the surprise of noone, Jackson County Central coach Alex Hein can't wait.
The Huskies wrapped up their summer activities last week with a three-on-three tournament at Dumont Park.
After last year's restrictions, a return to summer basketball was welcome.
"Just to have a normal summer was great," Hein said. "Really, the first sense of normalcy our kids have had was at the start of the summer. We were still wearing masks at the end of school and there were still restrictions, but the start of summer brought back a sense of normalcy. For me, it was the start of our practices and having our league so it was fun to be back and do all that stuff."
The school season ended in March, but Hein said his team was able to retain a lot of things from this past season once it got back together.
"We had experience coming back and that was nice right away to have guys that have played a lot of varsity minutes so it was easier getting back in the routine as they remembered a lot of stuff we did, he said."
But, summer basketball can be difficult at times as student-athletes are drawn in different directions.
"We were kind of up and down in June," Hein said. "Summer's tough. Guys have a lot of stuff going on. But right away in July we hit our stride and played our best ball of the summer. Our guys came back with a lot more defensive aggressiveness which was really fun to see. Offensively, we started to really move the ball at a high level. Another factor was that after a month of getting shots up and playing they started to get their legs underneath them."
JCC played in two tournaments at the end of the summer and went 3-0 in two separate tournaments, at Northwestern College and Augustana University.
"We had a couple of close games," commented Hein. "We got to see some different defenses and some different styles. Some teams played more zone. Some played really up-tempo. We also had some blowouts where we really took it to the other team.
"I hope we're able to pick it up in November. I think the coolest thing is that it showed the guys how we want to play this upcoming year and it also got them excited to get going in November. I'm excited to see them in their fall sports and activities, but man, I'm raring to go. I can't wait for November."