An inside look at our playoff preparation
- Check out Ryan Finn's occasional blog for CMSportsNet, where he will post his thoughts and experiences from playing high school sports in Carroll County.
As the winter season winds down, playoffs begin to start for all schools in the Carroll County area. After a win against Hereford, my team -- the Century Knights -- has locked up the No. 2 seed for the Class 2A West region.
On Tuesday, Feb. 28, we take on Southern High School of Anne Arundel County in the first round of the regional playoffs.
You may ask yourself, "How does a team get ready for these types of games?" Well, I am here to give the "inside scoop" of what it's like to get ready for a playoff game.
Game Planning
With getting ready for any opponent, game planning is the first thing that we do. Our team primarily watches a ton of game film during "playoff practice" to really understand how our opponent plays or different tendencies
For example, we specifically study the main players on the other team. We truly focus on the tendencies that players have. All players we will play have talent, but they will also have weaknesses.
Questions such as, "Does he like to go to his left?", "Is he a non-scorer?", and "Can he shoot?", are all evaluated by watching film.
Practicing Hard
Our team can watch all the film we can, but if we're not putting the work in at practice, then we will be upset with the results.
After watching the film and examining everyone's tendencies, we use players on our team to in a sense "mimic" how the opposing players will play.
Doing these types of drills for our starters during practice help us understand how to defend different players different moves/tendencies.
Confidence
I think that the biggest thing that our team will need for this playoff run is confidence. We need to focus on the matter at hand, and that's playing hard and not playing passive.
Playing scared is something we just cannot do, and we need to come out with fire so we can win for ourselves and for our fans. Having such a supportive fan base also builds confidence and a fire to go out and just win.
Keeping our minds right will be a big key to our success. Something that helps build our confidence before any game is our talk before the game. It helps us get into the zone.
The Team
What I have seen about this team is that even when our backs are against the wall, we fight back.
We're going to face adversity, and our main goal in these playoffs is to not let it affect us.
