Low player turnout has Lincoln High basketball season up in the air

This year's Lincoln Lynx basketball season, which was already delayed due to COVID-19, is hanging on the rim as Lincoln school athletic director and boys basketball coach Shane Brown works to get a handle on the number of students who will turn out to play this season.

Brown and girls basketball coach Curtiss Janzen began practices Saturday in an effort to get enough of them in to start the season Jan. 8, but he said the numbers are extremely low.

"(For the) girls, we're looking at five participants right now. At practice I had five boys, but two of them were eight graders," Brown said. A third eighth grader has committed to play and he said there are rumors two other high schoolers may opt to play, but they haven't let him know yet.

"We're at bare bones," he said. "With the girls I don't even know what to do. They're sitting at five. We've asked all the potential players who could be there. This is what they got.

Brown said students are choosing not to come out due in part to concerns about COVID-19 and in part to uncertainty about whether school will resume in person Jan. 4.

It's new territory for Brown and could have impacts beyond just this season.

"I've had low numbers before but you're usually talking eight high school kids and you're not talking about bringing up junior high to have a team," he said.

A boys team made up of just three high schoolers and three 8th graders is a precarious one. According to Brown, Montana High School Association rules stipulate that he has to have more high schoolers that junior high. If one of the high school students can't play, he has to balance the team by also taking an 8th grader out of the mix. But that leaves them with just four players, too few to take the court..

"If I've got high schoolers on the roster and they're practicing, I can start those eighth graders, but If I don't have them on the team, that will end us," he said. "The girls are in the same boat. They lose one player and they can't compete."

In the long term, if the Lynx teams aren't able to play the majority of their season this year, they'll be forced into a Junior Varsity schedule next year.

"Between getting enough practices, eligibility, injuries, we're going to be going day-by-day as far as playing games or cancelling them," he said.

Both the boys and girls teams are set to face off against Darby Jan. 8, with the boys playing a home game while the girls travel to Darby.

Though the high school basketball schedule is pretty much set, Brown said the requirement to host the boys and girls games at separate locations has affected the Junior High school schedule, which he's still working on.

Regardless of any changes to the current COVID-19 guidelines at the state level, following the inauguration of Greg Gianforte as governor, the new emergency guidelines adopted by Lewis and Clark Public Health last week will keep the number of fans at home games capped at 25, with no fans allowed for visiting teams.