High School Girls Basketball

BY ADAM RONIS

If you don't notice some of the Nassau coaches this season, it's not your eye sight going bad. The coaches may have more gray hair, bags under the eyes and started the aging process early and rapidly.

That's what happens when you have to coach stressful games each night. Expect that to be the norm this season with ability-based grouping.

It will be rare to empty the bench or coast to victory in the fourth quarter. The vocal cords of coaches will get extra mileage, too.

Several coaches told me about Roosevelt as a team to watch out for. Roosevelt was seeded 10th in the ABC grouping, but would have likely been higher had the seedings been done prior to the season; they were done before the summer.

Roosevelt won its first two games and I felt good about touting it as a sleeper. Then I see Roosevelt lost to Roslyn, a young and talented team that could be dangerous, 49-27 and scored just 11 second-half points! Then I started to think I was getting bad information.

But it turned out to be an off night because Roosevelt defeated Wantagh, seeded third, 49-39, in the final of the Wantagh Club Booster Tournament yesterday. It wasn't a league game, but the teams will play a league game this season.

Expect that type of scenario this season. A team may look real good on one night, and then average the next game. Every game will be a challenge and there will be no coasting. It's basically playing a playoff schedule the entire the season.