It’s been 18 days since the Emporia High boys basketball team played its last game — a 74-64 loss at Topeka High on Dec. 12 — and junior guard Caydrick Bloomquist thinks that is too long.
“We’ve had like three weeks of practice now,” Bloomquist said. “I really don’t think it should have been this long. We could have had a game last week, but extra practice is always good if you think about it.”
The EHS boys aren’t the only Spartan squad that has had a lengthy period of time off. Thanks to the holiday break, the Lady Spartans basketball team, along with the EHS wrestling and boys swimming and diving teams have all had a few weeks of downtime since their last action.
The Lady Spartans, like their counterparts, also lost at Topeka High on Dec. 12, suffering a 63-58 setback. The Spartan wrestling team has not been on the mats since Dec. 16 when it played host to the Winter Classic tournament, where the Spartans took third out of 15 teams. The EHS swim and dive squad was last in the pool on Dec. 12, which saw the Spartans take third at their home invitational.
This weekend marks the final few days before the Spartans sports squad get into the meat of their respective schedules, starting with games on Tuesday and Wednesday for the Lady Spartans in the girls’ part of the Paul Terry Classic.
The Classic was supposed to be played on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, but a snow and ice storm that hit the area forced the tournament’s postponement.
Prior to their layoff, coach Bill Nienstedt said the Lady Spartans (0-2) had shown improvement from Game 1 to Game 2, and said that much of his team’s focus over the break would be on rebounding and continuing to execute better offensively.
“We showed a great deal of improvement,” Nienstedt said following the loss to Topeka High, “but the bottom line is it still wasn’t quite enough.
“We’ve got some things to work on as far as rebounding and our offensive sets go.”
Coach Bob Yevak and the EHS swim and dive team will have had the longest layoff of all the sports squads, as Yevak’s troops will have been off for 19 days before they play host to the Emporia Invitational on Jan. 11.
However, following the Dec. 12 home invitational, Yevak vowed that the time away from school would not mean time away from the pool for his swimmers and divers.
“The next five weeks, they’re in for total punishment,” Yevak said. “We don’t have a meet until (Jan.) 11th, so this is when we really have to get after endurance. They won’t be real happy with me for the next month or so, but they know what it takes to get ready for the League meet.”
The EHS wrestlers will next take to the mats next Friday and Saturday when the Spartans travel to Derby for a two-day meet. The last time out, two Spartans — Justin Rose and Sal Tovar — earned first-place finishes in their respective weight classes in the EHS Winter Classic to help Emporia finish third as a team behind champion Goddard and second-place Eudora.
Though he has somewhat of a youth-laden team this season, EHS coach Greg Buckbee said he saw continued improvement from his athletes following the Winter Classic.
“I’m seeing them do what they’re supposed to do, and I’m seeing them working the things that we’ve been working on in practice,” Buckbee said. “If they continue to do that and continue to improve, we’ll make strides every week.”
As for the EHS boys basketball team, the last few weeks of practice have been all about teamwork, sophomore guard Taylor Euler said.
“Team chemistry — we’ve got to be able to trust each other,” Euler said. “Instead of all of us running to the ball and not trusting each other, we’ve got to spread it out and let the play develop and get easy shots instead of just running to the ball and making it crowded.”
That’s not to say the Spartans (2-2) haven’t been working on the X’s and O’s in the weeks since their last game.
“We’ve been able to work on some of our weaknesses,” coach Rick Bloomquist. “We’ve been horribly unbalanced offensively. ...I think this team is capable of putting 70 points a game up on the board, but right now, we’re just not clicking on all cylinders offensively. Rebounding, we’ve haven’t done real well in two games, and defensively, I think we’ve been fine.”
The first game back for the EHS boys will be another road test, this time at Topeka West on Friday.
Caydrick Bloomquist, though, said he and the rest of his teammates are ready now.
“Everybody is eager to get back out there,” he said. “I think after this break, we’ll be ready to go and we’ll be a new team.”