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Next year high school basketball coaches will be limited to 25 contact days with their athletes during the summer time, the result of an overwhelmingly approved vote from the latest Missouri State High School Activities Association questionnaire.

"It doesn’t bother us, maybe as it does some other coaches," Kearney boys basketball coach Gary Belcher said. "For us, our contact is our summer leagues, our camp, and our team camp. We don’t even come close to 25 days. When you’re talking about a five-week window, you’re only talking about 30 to 35 days total anyway."

For some high school programs, offseason activities can be scheduled for throughout the summer. However, for the Bulldogs it’s all about the month of June, when they focus in on various camps and summer leagues.

Once the Fourth of July holiday rolls around, Kearney basketball activity goes on hiatus. In fact, the coaching staff may not even see the players until the start of the school year.

"We’ve gone at it for basically five weeks," Belcher said. "We got enough games in that we’ll accomplish what we need to accomplish. Then they need to be high school teenagers and have some summer themselves, and so do the coaches and families.

"This is an important time for the kids to keep their hands on the basketball and improve, but my philosophy is that they have to have some downtime, too. By the July 4 weekend, that’s enough. We’ve done plenty."

Kearney senior Tyler Funk said, "We definitely keep busy in the summer, but if you love the game and love to compete, it shouldn’t be a thing. We expect a lot of big things around here, and that means we have to work hard in the offseason. When you have high expectations, you have to work to get there."

The Bulldogs deserve some time off after competing in a pair of summer leagues, one hosted in Kearney and another by Rockhurst. Between the two leagues, the Bulldogs have had the opportunity to play several large-class teams including Grandview, Liberty, Park Hill, Park Hill South, Raytown South and the Shawnee Mission (Kan.) schools.

"I want to keep challenging our kids," Belcher said. "I don’t see anything but positives from the aspect that our kids are out there competing against good-caliber basketball teams and programs, and by doing this, it gives us a measuring stick as where we are."

Not only that, it also gives coaches the chance to experiment. For the Bulldogs specifically this year, it meant an opportunity to try out a new offensive system.

"This whole month is just kind of nice for us," Belcher said. "For example, we’ve installed a whole new offense at our camp, and that’s all we’re running this summer. So without this avenue as a testing ground, I’m not sure I would have been brave enough to just walk into the gym in November, and say, ‘OK, this is what we’re going to do.’ This helps us get ahead of the game."

True. And high school basketball season will be here soon enough.

Sports writer Chris Geinosky can be reached at 389-6654 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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