Let’s go back to Thanksgiving break. Your basketball season has started; you have been playing games since the beginning of the month. You are excited that the season is finally here, but classes are getting more difficult and finals season is rolling in.
After a few days at home, you come back to campus for the final two weeks of class. Everything is in a constant state of crunch time, and it feels like something has plugged campus into an electrical outlet. Everything is buzzing. It’s do or die in the classroom and on the court, not to mention you have to travel for a few games in those last weeks of class. A break will come, right?
Thankfully for Samford basketball, Christmas break does come. Non-athlete students go home just after finals week for the holidays; however, the men’s and women’s basketball teams stay in Birmingham to continue practicing and playing games throughout the majority of December and early January. Now on campus, everything is suddenly quiet.
“At first, when I was a freshman, it was just a weird thing to see, and it made me miss being home more,” senior guard Alyssa Tarpley said. “But when we get to winter break, we are truly the only people on campus. It’s nice, being the only ones there, a good change of pace, and parking front row in front of our dorms is always a plus.”
For both basketball teams, the coaches understand the transition between finals season and a break from class is quick.
“We tried to do different meals. We change up the food we bring for them, or they come over to the house with the family for dinner, or we take them to do an activity off campus, so that it’s not just a bunch of coaches telling them what they’ve done wrong,” Coach Matt Wise, head women’s basketball coach, said. “It’s trying to enjoy each other’s company and keep the excitement throughout the break.”
Whether they are playing Christmas music during warm-ups or spending an evening at a coach’s house for dinner, the basketball players feel that they are on break despite the season continuing its course.
“The coaches do a great job of trying to help us feel as at home as possible,” Tarpley said. “It really is hard being on an empty campus, then going home for only a couple of days right around Christmas. They usually try to plan different team bonding activities, and every year we also have a Christmas party and dinner at one of a coach’s house where we do a secret Santa exchange, play games and spend time with one another.”
Corey Brown, junior guard, feels that being in Birmingham during the majority of the break is made easier, despite not being in his hometown.
“We all went to Coach Acuff’s house one day; his wife had food for all of us,” Brown said. “Also, we have a few teammates in Birmingham. Their parents have always told us that if we ever want to feel at home, we can come over to their house too. So that’s always nice; it makes it a lot easier.”
During the break, players stay in their dorms on campus or their typical housing off campus. When Samford is closed and there are no dining options on campus, they cater meals or get a stipend to pay for each meal that is not catered.
For the players, when class is taken out of the equation, all they have to do is play the game they love. For Brown, playing basketball is a break in itself.
“When you’re on break, it’s just basketball, so you can just go back to loving the game that you’ve always grown up playing because that’s all you really have to do,” he said.
Depending on the schedule, many players who are not from the Birmingham area can travel home for five to seven days for Christmas. However, players are required to be back on campus soon, often the day after Christmas, to practice before gameplay starts again.
Brown says that his mom usually works his family’s schedule for breaks and trips around his basketball schedule because break time is often limited.
Despite the obligation to stay in Birmingham for extended time over the break, Coach Wise says that this time with his team is crucial and fun.
“It’s just a chance for us to sacrifice for each other and to go through hard times together and go through successful times together,” he said. “And when you go through those ups and downs with a group, you’re in it together, that’s kind of what makes college athletics so much fun.”
He also says that the break was a chance to grow in their love for each other, because this team is especially close this season.
“This particular group that we had this year is such a joy to be around,” he said. “They’re good people. They make extended time together really enjoyable.”
Staff Reporter
