WAUSA — Sometimes when a team is struggling, it benefits to abscond from playing games and get work done in practice.
For the Wausa basketball teams, that is a mixed blessing as northeast Nebraska has been hit by a relentless series of winter storms that have kept them from playing a number of games — two weeks of cancellations and postponements — and forced them to go to the lab in their own gym to hopefully make a push toward the end of the 2023-24 campaign.
Lady Vikings head coach Shane Anderson admitted the weather has made him a non-fan of Mother Nature’s crankier side, because the recent blustery blizzard conditions kept his team’s practice sessions limited, as well.
“We have barely been able to practice,” Anderson said. “It’s been frustrating for everyone; the kids want to play, especially our seniors as they know their careers are winding down. We have not played a JV game since December 18, so the young kids have really been affected by it even more.
“The Elkhorn Valley and Tri County Northeast games will not be made up,” he said. “The rest we have found dates for, but we are stacking at least three if not four games a week now.”
Wausa took on rival Bloomfield on Jan. 23 and this week’s slate also includes Summerland on Jan. 25 and the Lewis and Clark Conference Basketball Tournament, which is set to tip off Jan. 27 for the girls.
“The following week, we will play Tuesday/ Friday for conference and then the last week of the season we have put the Osmond/Randolph and Neligh-Oakdale games along with the regular Hartington-Newcastle games,” Anderson said. “Any more weather-related games won’t be made up as I don’t see any other available dates to put them.”
It’s not the ideal time to have weather make things difficult for a basketball season, and without being able to practice regularly in lieu of the cancellations, it will be an interesting watch to see what the Vikings and Lady Vikings do in response to these challenges.
“The whole thing has been unfortunate and frustrating, but the whole area is going through it so nobody has an advantage over somebody else,” Anderson said. “We just have to try to keep the girls mentally sharp and in shape the best we can.”
