The basketball season has started and all of PHU’s basketball teams have played their first games. The coaches and players have had to make adjustments for this season with the disadvantage of not having a home gym.

After tryouts were held at the beginning of Nov, teams were chosen and both the boys and girls teams have played their first games. The boys varsity and junior varsity teams started off the season strong by winning their first away games against Osceola Fundamental High School on Nov 26 but lost their second set of games to Clearwater High School on Nov 28. The girls varsity and junior varsity teams played their first away games on Nov 27 and lost to Indian Rocks Christian High School.

While the school gym is under construction, the teams have held practices at various school gyms such as Carwise Middle School and recreational centers such as the Long Center.

Many players are having to make special arrangements to get to and from practice since practice is no longer held at the PHU gym. Angela Hu (20’), a player for the varsity girls team said, “Sometimes parents don’t have time to drive us and we have to carpool more. We usually practice at the Long Center or Palm Harbor Middle School. It’s a further drive and the Long Center is 30 minutes away from here.”

Hu also said that not having a home gym has been “less convenient because with the school gym we had the whole gym to work with and we had more time to practice.”

The game schedule had to be rearranged so that the home games are at the end of the season, rather than being spread throughout the season as usual. All four teams will continue to work around not having a home gym and keep practicing to make sure they have a successful season.