Almost time for the conference season to begin

It was a little tough to return to practice on Wednesday after four days off, but the players made it through and made it through the next two days before getting two more days off.

The nonconference part of the season for the Corvallis High girls basketball team would have to be deemed a success, not only in the record books, but by the improvements made during games and during practices.

The team is boxing out way better than it did when they took to the court for the first few weeks of practice. The players have learned a number of new offenses and defenses and you can see things start to click each day.

The Spartans are less than 48 hours away from opening the Mid-Willamette Conference season when they host Woodburn at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Spartan Gym.

The goals are much higher now than they may have been at the start of practice. A 7-3 record that easily could be 9-1 will do that. But that won’t make the MWC season any easier. In fact, it could make it tougher as you can bet no team in the conference will be looking past the Spartans this year.

Last year was last year and most, if not all, of the player have put a 4-10 record behind them. So that’s all that will be said about last year.

The feeling and belief is this team can challenge for the conference title. It certainly won’t be easy as night-in and night-out every team in the conference will be forced to play at the top of their game if they hope to come away with a win.

Some would say that Woodburn is a gimme win. The Bulldogs have struggled at 0-9, but anything can happen. The Spartans know that all too well from last year (oops, sorry no more of that).

The important thing is to play the best they can so they know what they are capable of. Prepare for the next game at the same time, but never look past an opponent.

There are seven more weeks of the regular season, with two conference games each week. The goal is simple — go 2-0 each week. If that happens, the Spartans will be right where they want to be as MWC champions and a win away from the state tournament.

It’s a long road and the players know they can’t look too far ahead. After what they have been through so far this season, and where they have come from the past few years, they understand that concept well.

TJNTD

Let the MWC season begin.