Complaining about when practice is seems to be a universal constant for Skyline student athletes. Many get frustrated about inconsistencies about their practice or game schedules, and that has been evident this basketball season with near-constant last-minute schedule changes.
The way everything is scheduled at first seems simple. The overall management of all team schedules is set by the school’s Athletic Director and SLC Principal Delsie Sissoko. Sissoko tries to make both the Boys and Girls Basketball teams fit in the gym as well as all of the other sports.
“I send a weekly email with the school’s events and schedule to all the head coaches for all sports,” says Sissoko. “For scheduling practices, the coaches for all winter sports have a document sheet that we share for creating a schedule.”
All Basketball coaches, along with coaches for other winter sports, have access to this document. They are responsible for figuring out when they plan to use each facility, such as the main or auxiliary gym and the weights room.
However, this seemingly simple system seems to have a lot of issues. “When school is off it’s just up in the air,” says Boys’ Basketball Head Coach, Jon-Lamar Hamilton. “It just depends on who wants the gyms that day.”
Only the head coach gets a message from the district when school is off. This means they have to communicate with all of the other coaches, including JV and Freshman staff. Even after the communication begins, it can be hard for everyone to schedule times that coincide.
“I work at the middle school, so sometimes my time [doesn’t] line up,” says Hamilton. “So it’s hard, like Freshman Coach Jackson [is] not a teacher, so his normal job sometimes won’t let him be here.”
Not only coaches have this issue. When Skyline has a half day or school cancellations, practices often have to be formed or adjusted around students who play for Skyline but go to an alternative school like WiHi or Community, and might have a different schedule. “[On] a half day, we practice earlier,” Hamilton said. “The JV team has a kid that goes to Wi-Hi so trying to have practice when they can be here can be complicated.”
Not only do the coaches have to communicate with players and the athletic director, but they must communicate with other coaches and, if needed, the weight room trainer.
“We talk to our Strength and Conditioning coach Jeremy here at Skyline to schedule practices in the weight room,” says Girls’ basketball Head Coach Mike Lovelace. “All the coaches that have teams who use the weight room ask for a time when they want to lift, and Jeremy will try to schedule everything as best he can.”
Note: Sage O’Lor (‘28) is a member of the Skyline Boys Basketball Team.
