Winter break puts school on hiatus, but that’s not the case for campus sports teams. Both wrestling and basketball continue their season throughout the two weeks as district play picks right back up in January.

For basketball, the boys’ team will play its first district game on Tuesday against Lone Star, and also over the break, compete in the Dallas Coca-Cola Tournament.

UIL requires the team to take at least five days off for the holidays so that means five days without practice.

“I think with conditioning it’s obviously going to hurt us,” head boys basketball coach Danny Melton said. “But everybody’s in the same boat everybody has to do the same thing, and abide by the same rules per UIL.”

The girls’ team has already kicked off district play, winning its first two games against Wakeland and Centennial but they continue playing over break in the Sandra Meadows Classic.

Although the girls’ team will be on the court during the two weeks, they will also take five days off per UIL rules.

“Naturally we’re going to be a little out of shape because we won’t do as much over those five days that we’re off,” head girls’ basketball coach Ross Reedy said. “So it affects us in terms of us getting back into shape, but other than that it benefits us more as a whole because we all need the rest.”

The wrestling team will also take a break to pick back up when school starts.

“We’ll come back that Tuesday after Christmas break,” assistant wrestling coach Justin Koons said. “We have five straight practices to get them conditioned and really for that final push to state.”

The team is ready to work hard even on its break to be ready to get back to practice when school resumes.

“We have a really good team who is dedicated to the plan we have in place and they know the goals of winning district and region and state,” Koons said. “They know what’s on the line and they know how to take care of their bodies because wrestling is kind of a demanding sport.”