Local action will actually kick off Saturday afternoon when the Effingham Flaming Hearts open at home against Vandalia. The junior varsity contest will tip-off at 3 p.m., with the varsity game to follow at approximately 4:30 p.m.

The Teutopolis Wooden Shoes and St. Anthony Bulldogs will play their season openers at home next week. T-Town will host Mt. Zion Tuesday night and the Bulldogs will welcome Neoga to Goff Gymnasium Friday night.

Currently, St. Anthony has 13 games scheduled, the Hearts 15 and the Shoes 19. All of the schedules are tentative at this point and there is a possibility another game or two might be added. The season will conclude on March 13 and there will not be a postseason this year.

“Our schedule is packed. It’s going to be more like an NBA schedule,” Reeder noted. “It’s going to really challenge me. Our practices are generally really hard, but with this many games in six weeks, I’m going to have to adjust. We won’t be able to go as hard in practice as we normally do.”

The coaches are raring to go, but also realize that in the pandemic world we live in right now, everything could change instantly.

“I’m extremely concerned. I deal with COVID scenarios every single day,” said Rincker, who became principal at St. Anthony Grade School this year. “I know at any moment, a player can test positive and that everything could change. I just pray our community numbers stay low and that the kids remain unscathed.”

All three squads have reasons to be excited about the season ahead.

The Hearts have a trio of three-year starters returning in Parker Wolfe, Nate Thompson and Jacob Stoneburner. They helped EHS to an 18-13 record a season ago. They will probably be joined in the starting lineup by junior Braydon Pals and sophomore Garrett Wolfe.

“We’ve got a very talented nucleus coming back, but we also have some good kids coming up,” Farmer noted. “We’re starting to see our system be able to reload rather than rebuild.

“Our goal every year is win our conference, but we’re just taking everything one game at a time,” Farmer added. “In the limited time we have, we’re just trying to put the best product on the floor we can. Our focus is on coaching and developing the kids.”

The Apollo Conference figures to be loaded this year and got only tougher with the addition of Teutopolis. Due to the pandemic, the Wooden Shoes will compete in the conference for this year only.

“There are some pretty elite teams in the Apollo, so it’s going to be challenging every night,” Reeder said. “But winning the conference will be our goal. We know we have to be ready to play every game, but we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

The Shoes were 22-11 a year ago and won the Paris Regional. Seniors Evan Wermert, Evan Addis and Matthew Deters return, as do juniors Max Niebrugge and Sam Bushur.

“Not being around the kids, talking and joking with them sitting in the locker room after practice. These are the things I’ve missed the most,” Reeder said. “I think we understand now just how all these little things can make a difference in your team. It’s great to be back together and playing ball.”

The Bulldogs will return only one starter – senior Logan Antrim – from a very talented senior-laden squad that finished 29-4 before falling to Central A&M in the championship game of the Casey-Westfield Sectional. Kennan Walsh, also a senior, started a few games late in the season when Antrim was injured.

“We’ve still got a lot of seniors. We just don’t have a lot of experience,” Rincker pointed out. “But we’ve got some talent on this team and I have high hopes for them.”

All three schools will be playing primarily conference opponents.

The Hearts only non-Apollo foe will be Vandalia, while T-Town has non-conference contests scheduled against Meridian, St. Anthony, St. Joe-Ogden, Olney and Newton. In addition to the National Trail Conference teams, St. Anthony will face Robinson, Newton, Flora and Teutopolis

The Bulldogs will conclude their season March 12 at the NTC Shootout. Final details for that event will be released at a later date.

The big hope now is that the players can remain virus-free during this six-week season. Unlike the college and pros, the high school kids won’t live in a protected bubble, which means they not only need to be careful, but they will rely on everyone around them to do the simple things like wear a mask and maintain the proper distancing.

And it will be different for every team playing in gyms with only 50 people in attendance.

“When we play at home, the gym is packed almost every night,” Reeder noted. “But everybody will have to deal with that and we can’t use that as an excuse. We have to bring our energy every night.”

“But who knows how many people might be watching online,” Farmer added. “I guess it all depends on how you look at it. But whether we’re playing in front of 50 or 50,000, we have to prepare like we would for any game. We have to be ready to play and ready to play our game.”

“The most important thing is our kids are getting the chance to play,” Reeder said.

“To have these moments back is really exciting,” Rincker emphasized. “And I’m glad to see these boys have the opportunity to enjoy these moments.”

So let’s put on our masks and play ball!