When a sports team plays 30 games and only loses two, that’s something to be celebrated.  That was the case last year for the Vance Charter School Lady Knights basketball team.  But the celebration must end when the next season begins, and for the Lady Knights and Head Coach Brian Howard, that time has come.

With the first game of the season right after the start of the new year, and with needing to overcome the mental and physical effects covid has had so far on everyone, a week’s worth of preparation and mindset will have to do.

Coach Howard joined SportsTalk host Trey Snide (click below to listen) on WIZS Tuesday at 1 p.m., along with co-host Ron Noel, and Howard said for the first game “I just want to see a lot of hunger. I think at times they still harking back to going 28-2 last year and not realizing, ok, we’re 0-0 again.  We have to do this whole process over.  And so I just want to see a lot of aggression and a lot of hunger from my team.  That’s all I can ask for for the first game.”

That’s how the season starts, but if you want to get to the end and have it be a banner season, then goals, mindset and more plays a factor.

Howard said, “It’s just the fact that I didn’t know how everybody was going to adjust to wearing the mask during practice. And so before practice started I just went ahead and I told them…This is what is expected of us this year, and I’ve seen it can be done because I’ve seen other schools do it.  And I said and those other schools I’ve seen do it, they don’t have the caliber athletes that we have in his gym right now. So we’ll make the best of the situation, and we’re going to go out here and we’re going to perform to the best of our abilities because at the end of the season whoever wins the conference is still going to get a trophy. And I want the trophy. And so just adjust your mindset now to…this is a covid season or whatever you want to call it. Just get rid of that mindset and just understand that at the end of the day, we still have to go out and perform at the best of our abilities. Everybody else is in the same boat. Everybody’s doing the same things that we have to do, so there’s no room for complaining or any excuses that need to be made.“