Getting ready for the postseason is a new experience for the Wahconah Regional High School volleyball team. Even Warriors' coach Karen West wasn't exactly sure how to handle it.
"It's kind of tough," she said. "We didn't know who or when we were going to play."
West has to keep her team at the competitive level that brought it 13 regular-season wins and a No. 7 seed in the Western Massachusetts Division III tournament. She also knows, however, that there's only so much a team can do when it doesn't know the opponent in question.
With the Warriors' last regular-season match being played last Wednesday, the Wahconah coach gave her team two days off from practice while she planned for this week.
Mount Greylock boys soccer coach Blair Dils is in a similar situation -- in a way.
The 16-1 Mounties, the Berkshire County League's North Division champions, won't know who they'll play in the Western Mass. tournament until later today. However, the postseason is nothing new to them -- the Mounties are the defending MIAA Division II state champions.
Both coaches altered their practice plans this week, choosing to play it safe physically and maintain a competitive playing level.
The end of Greylock's regular season is a lot like the last month of baseball's regular season. A few call-ups get some experience they wouldn't otherwise see.
"One thing I do is I invite more kids to participate in practice,"
If anyone's practicing at full speed over the next couple of weeks, it's them. For the rest of the Mounties, rest, situations and schemes are keys.
What Dils learned from his state championship season will stay in the practice plan in the 2009 postseason.
"What we learned going through the whole thing is just how compressed the tournament is," he said. "On those days between games, we make sure we take care of our bodies. If there is a tactical thing we'll put in, maybe we'll walk through it."
Wahconah's volleyball team looked out for itself in the days following the end of the regular season. West gave the Warriors -- and herself -- two days away from volleyball.
"Everyone needed a break," she said. "I said, ‘Use this time to do homework, finish book reports.'
"I was resting too. Just trying to refocus ... and just making plans to vary up my practices. I knew it was going to be four straight days without a game in sight."
For the first two days after returning from the break, West and the Warriors didn't do a lot with Xs and Os. There were still serving and passing workouts -- but they were worked in around team-building exercises and refocusing drills.
"Once you don't practice for three days, their bodies forget the movements," West said. "On Monday, we all laughed at each other. It took a while to get back into the routine. By Tuesday, we had it."
Wednesday and Thursday's practices were more dialed in, according to the coach. The Warriors -- and especially their coach -- were relieved to learn that Friday's first-round home match against No. 10 seed Easthampton would be held at 5 p.m., rather than the original time of 7 p.m.
"The kids were very serious and put in 100 percent effort," said West of Thursday's practice. "We had people stopping in to talk to them. All of the girls on the team except for two had never been in this situation.
"They didn't seem nervous. Everybody just stressed, ‘Play your game and stay focused.' "
For Dils, the key to postseason preparation is making sure you're ready well before the postseason approaches.
"I think, if you know your opponent and you've done your job scouting, you can look to add in little wrinkles or try to deal with certain situations you're going to confront that you haven't seen in a while or all season," he said.
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