Taking advantage of a new rule for all NJCAA sports, Allen County Community College’s basketball coaches had their players ready for the first official day of practice — Oct. 1.
“It is going better than we expected at this point,” said Anwar Perry, ACCC head men’s basketball coach. “We haven’t had a scrimmage yet but we’re pleased with this first week of practice.”
Perry said the eight-hour rule — which means coaches can work with their teams on basketball-related activities for eight hours a week in the offseason — was a big boost to having his players ready for practices. Perry is in his second season as head coach after three years as ACCC assistant coach.
Mark James is the new man in charge of the ACCC women’s basketball program. James was an assistant coach at Independence Community College for several years and a year at Pittsburg State University.
“We had our first scrimmage two days ago and we actually looked pretty good. Now, we’ll see how much we’ve improved between that scrimmage and our second one on Sunday,” James said.
With 11 freshmen and two returning sophomores, James used the eight-hour rule to implement his system.
Allen County’s women scrimmaged Tuesday and are headed to the Heartland Jamboree in Warrensburg, Mo, on Sunday. The Red Devil men scrimmage today in Salina is hosted by Brown Mackie.
The ACCC teams open the 2011-2012 season Nov. 1 at Pratt Community College. The first home games are in the second week of November — the men host Hutchinson on Nov. 8, then it’s the Red Devil Classic on Nov. 11 and 12.
Allen County’s women have sophomores Rackell Goldson and Kandace Shields back from last year. James said the two sophomores have bought into what he and assistant coach Aubrey Jones are bringing to the team.
“Rackell and Kandace have led by example and the freshmen are eager to do more than just the conditioning. The girls have brought a good energy to practices and they are giving us maximum effort,” James said.
For the Red Devil men, even though there are five returning sophomores, there’s a learning curve for all the players. Perry and new assistant coach Andy Shaw have changed it up a bit.
“Our sophomores were expecting to do the same things we did last year but this year we have the personnel to do what I wanted to do last year. That’s what was so nice about the change in offseason work so we could begin learning then,” Perry said.
Back for the Red Devil men are Thomas Daniel, Terrell Shears, Rickey Hollis, Tyler Myrick and Jordan McDowell.
