GRACEVILLE, Fla. (WMBB) – The 13th annual Poplar Springs Summer Shootout began this week with over a dozen girls basketball teams competing.
The three-day round-robin style event got underway on Monday and will run till Wednesday.
12 teams from around the Panhandle and even south Alabama were competing on Tuesday, beginning play at 9:00 a.m. and wrapping up after the finals game at 7:00 p.m.
Poplar Springs head girls basketball coach, Kate Carroll said basketball never stops in their two gymnasiums.
“I think to be good, you have to have that year round no matter what sport you’re in,’ what sport we’re in,” Carroll said. “And we’re just lucky enough that basketball, we don’t have to focus on everything else, especially here, we don’t have volleyball to compete with. We don’t have other sports to compete with, and so, when we come back in August, we pick up in August and we’ll put it down for a little bit to kind of clear our minds, and then May rolls around and we pick up back up.”
Many of the teams competing are from the local area and will play each other in the regular season, but some are in higher classifications.
Carroll said it’s a good chance to see new competition but also scout opposing teams more than six months in advance.
“It’s good for everybody because I feel sometimes we get complacent with just seeing the same teams over and over,” Carroll said. “And so seeing everybody in the summer kind of also puts us in a mindset of, you know, we’ve got to watch for this team because even if maybe they had a bad day, you can still see the talent and where they can be when February rolls around. And that’s when it all really matters, is when February rolls around.”
The Poplar Springs Summer Shootout will wrap up for the girls on Wednesday and start for boys teams next week.
