Basketball at Chatham High School ran for 50 consecutive weeks each year. Once one season ended, the next one practically began. It just became our lifestyle and we loved it. When the Varsity season ended in early March you had two weeks to rest your body and recover mentally and physically for the following season. Coaches were prohibited from scheduling formal workouts and workouts until Nov. 1, when the season officially began. However, as of the last week of March, that group of guys you just went to war with for 50 straight weeks are back together. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and every other Saturday were training and agility days, alternating Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday were practice days. Those days of training were when the team bonded and we all learned each other's playing style and how one player's role on the team integrated seamlessly with the roles of all the other players. For example, I played the power forward position (Chatham was a very small school), which meant I would spend a lot of time down low in the paint, running pick-and-rolls with the point and pulling guards. The guards and frontcourt worked together in every practice to define every possible way the guard could pass the ball. Playing with the same group of kids day after day allowed each player to memorize all the other players' moves. Our point guard was Mike Flemming. He stood 5'11, taller than many opposing guards, and easily dueled them in nearly every aspect of the game. I remember seeing Mike dribble across the court in the middle of the game, and just by the way he dribbled the ball, or the pattern he ran in, it told me what play he was trying to run and also... middle of paper.. .if our players, Vince Cipkowski, had become very irritated with Sam Mackerer, who was our starting small forward, for forcing bad shots that rarely landed. Sam had made huge improvements over the offseason, and was now taking away a lot of minutes from Vince. Sam heard what Vince was saying and confronted him. Some of what Vince was saying was true, but it should have been directed at Sam, not expressed to people outside of the team. Ever since all of this happened, the friendship Sam and Vince had has never been the same. This drama ultimately set the team back in its progress to reach the playoffs and play better together. Sam was now more aware of the shots he was taking and this led him to overthink things on the pitch. As any basketball coach will tell you, you just have to play, think that the game is what will force you to make mistakes.