Final morning run for basketball open gym season

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — If you want to make the most of your day, you often have to get up early in the morning.

If you want to get a good basketball run in, you might have to get up a little earlier.

“A lot of the kids are taking driver’s ed in the morning … they had baseball practices,” Charles City head boys basketball coach Ben Klapperich said. “That’s why the best time to hold these were usually at 7 a.m.”

These would be “open gym” skill and scrimmage sessions every Tuesday and Thursday morning in the Comet Gym.

“A lot of people like to talk about being a good basketball player, but not as many are willing to do the work necessary to be one,” Klapperich said. “Sometimes that means getting up in the morning … early in the morning … to come down here.”

Thursday was the final open gym session of the summer as next week practices for fall sports — including volleyball which will now occupy the Comet Gym during the morning hours — will begin in earnest.

“During the school year, we can still roll out the basketballs and let them shoot around and scrimmage,” Klapperich said, “but if it’s not during the basketball season, coaches can’t give instruction.”

Though the last open gym of the summer had a lighter turnout than usual due to family vacations and other obligations, for the most part, Klapperich said participation has been strong and consistent, and he has already seen physical and mental growth from the returning letter-winners.

One player Klapperich says has made great strides from his sophomore season is incoming junior Bradley Andrews.

“He’s gotten bigger and stronger from last season,” Klapperich said of Andrews, who was listed at 6-foot-6 last season when he was the Comets’ leading shot blocker.

“He now can wind-mill dunk,” Klapperich said of Andrews. “With Cade (Hemesath) gone, he knows he’s going have to take up more of the scoring in the paint.”

And then there is returning two-time all-state guard Jackson Molstead, who Klapperich says had set the tone during the summer’s open gym sessions.

“Jackson is by far the hardest working kid that I’ve been around,” Klapperich said.”(He) leads by example for everyone in the program.  It’s easy for our younger kids in Charles City to go hard during summer skills when they see our two-time all-state kid going 100 percent.”