NICEVILLE — It was five minutes before 6 on Monday night, and the Lewis Middle School gym was barely half full.
There should have been around 10 high school juniors flipping shots, lazing through layups or stretching at midcourt.
Instead, there were five — six if you count D.J. Thomas from Choctaw, who was in boat shoes and basketball shorts; there because he wanted to be, not because he could actually practice.
Mitch Morken, a point guard on the Florida Dream, the same team that was supposed to begin practice in five minutes, was at work.
Rusty Moorer — Crestview’s star shooting guard and the Northwest Florida Daily News Large School Player of the Year — was at work.
Another was at a family reunion.
One had school assignments to attend to.
“It’s tough, man,” Chris Bell, the Dream’s founder and coach, said. “But that’s the way it is with summer ball.”
This issue is not exclusively reserved for Bell and the Florida Dream. Anyone who oversees a summer team, from beach volleyball to Amateur Athletic Union basketball to football 7-on-7, is well aware that a full practice, with all members present for the entirety of the scheduled time, is a rare day indeed.
“Sometimes I hate that I miss practice; then other times I have a good workout and do stuff, it won’t bother me that much,” Moorer said. “But it’ll bother me that I miss practice because I’m a leader; leaders don’t miss practice.”
When it comes to summer, it’s not often leaders have much choice in the matter. Moorer works at McDonald’s. Throughout Monday’s practice, he was shooting texts back and forth to Bell, unable to see the reps his teammates — what few there were, anyway — were putting into their 2-3 zone defense.
In a sport like basketball, with intricate offenses where players must know exactly where to be at all times on the court, this presents a problem.
If the whole team is almost never practicing as a full unit, it’s impossible to know come game time which players will be able to run which offense with whom.
For Bell, it’s an easy fix: Let them run.
“Sometimes it’s hard, but other times it’s like we find matchups during the game. I’ll finally be like, 'You kill him or we’ll do two-man games, you screen and roll, you spot up for a 3 or you drive,'” Moorer said. “'You go and take your man and me and him will do a two-man game.'”
Judging from the Dream’s success, it’s working.
They have won or made the finals in nearly every tournament they have played, including the state championship earlier this month, and they have earned a bid for nationals in Orlando this upcoming weekend.
Moorer might have to request an off day for that one.
Travis Mewhirter is a columnist with the Northwest Florida Daily News. Send him an email, tweet, or call 315-4432.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Summertime schedule conflicts don't mess with basketball success