[JRutledge]

Our season runs from the week before Thanksgiving for Girls basketball and the Boys start the week of Thanksgiving.

The Class A Girls (small schools) regional starts about the second week of February. The Class AA Girls (Big Schools) Regionals starts the following week. Then the Class A Boys Regionals starts the week after that. And finally the Class AA Boys Regionals start the week after that.

Our playoff system goes in this order (all-sports except Football use this format), Regional, Sectional, Super-Sectional, Finals. The Regional is one week, then the next week is the Sectional. The Super-Sectional is one game and the champion of Sectionals compete for the right to play in Bloomington (Girls) or Peoria (Boys) for the State Title. The final 8 teams play at the State Tournament Site.

When our season ends, there are many off-season basketball availible all over the state. If you live closer to Chicagoland area, you can attend several camps if you have the money or the time to participate. And many of the camps are both HS and college evaluation camps. And if you do not want to attend camps, there are several AAU, YBOA or any other kind of league to officiate from when the season ends, to when the next one starts. So if you like there is really no "off-season." And to top that, there are many High School Leagues that go on with teams all over the area playing with their HS teams with the monitoring of the actual head coaches and assistants during the games. Many of these HS leagues may not have the regular varsity players, but there might be some of the Freshman or Sophmores that might get a chance to step up to the next level.

So around here it never stops. The only time it might slow down is during the early fall when football season is going on. Many of the players play both football and basketball and I think that is why that is the case. But for the most part, basketball never stops.

Peace