It’s a new beginning for the West Central Valley Wildcats boys basketball team. Monday marked the first preseason practice under first-year head coach Justin Keck. Keck spoke with Raccoon Valley Radio Monday about his first week of practice as head boys basketball coach of West Central Valley. He admitted that he couldn’t sleep Sunday night as he mulled over the upcoming week’s training on the hardwood.

“There’s always a lot to get through in the beginning of the season, and trying to come up with a good practice plan for an entire week at least if not the first three weeks of school (is challenging).” Keck said, “Mulling over in my mind if I’ve already planned exactly what the team will need.”

Among the things at the top of the needs list for West Central Valley is to become well conditioned. Keck says a lot of his practices will have some conditioning component involved. “The girls and us share the gym, so we always try to get them in and condition when we are outside of the gym and the girls are using it,” Keck said, “We make them run halls with a basketball or pretty much anything that will get them into shape. We always try to move quickly in between drills so we aren’t wasting a lot of time, and that helps with conditioning as well.”

The 2017-18 West Central Valley boys basketball season tips off November 28, hosting the Woodward-Granger Hawks.