D3 Practice Start Date

[John Gleich]

I know at Western Connecticut, there were a few people in the gym the first day school started (August 29) and a lot of them held summer jobs at the school, and were in the gym then as well.  Yah, 42 or so days before your first game, that's a little too much.  Even I think 30 is a bit too much, especially since what a few people have mentioned already: the players are already in the gym anyways.  NESCAC (starting November 1) seems like the right amount of time for me to begin actually practices.

There's a big difference between players being in the gym and TEAMS being in the gym.

The player-development doesn't cease when a team plays its last game. In many respects, that's when player-development STARTS.

It's not uncommon in the least for players who have the means in the midwest to stay on campus and work basketball camps, all while honing their skills and sticking around the gym and the weight room.

Like that old quote... Teams are made in the season, players are made in the off-season.


I don't think that ANYONE could really complain about individual improvement.

But I actually think that a different aspect of starting practice earlier would be tough...


I remember both in high school and in college, in the first two weeks of practice (college) before our first scrimmage or the first two weeks of practice (high school) before a game, things often got pretty contentious. Ya sort of got sick of going against the SAME guys every single day. Without an outlet of competing against someone else, it got pretty heated at times.

In one respect, that was a good thing, and it was indicative of the competitive cultures we had in the programs that I played in. We got after it in practices, and we got after it in games. There wasn't any slowdown even if the guys we were teammates instead of opponents. But it got really old going against the SAME guys every single day, day after day, and not having any release against other competition.