Tough practices make games seem easy for Flora boys

Joshua Staley believes in the old phrase, "You play like you practice."

That’s why the A.C. Flora coach puts his teams through intense practices during the season and continued in the postseason.

Staley uses the phrase "Practice hell, games heaven" to his team, and the Falcons have bought into that philosophy. He has led the Falcons to their second consecutive title game and third straight overall.

A.C. Flora will take on Midland Valley for the Class 3A championship in the final game at the Colonial Life Arena on Saturday. The game is a rematch of last year, won by Midland Valley 62-56.

"You have to get after it," Staley said. "If you are wasting time in practice, you are not going to give yourself an opportunity to be successful in the game. Practice is an hour and half to two hours. Game is only 32 minutes so you got to get as much as you can out of practice for that short period in the game."

While the Falcons’ practices have the normal things such as working on shooting and fundamentals, it also includes intense 5-on-5 games between the red and white teams. The matchups aren’t just first and second team but a mix of both starters and reserves, making for better teaching competition.

Staley started mixing in starters and reserves against each other when he was girls coach at Orangeburg-Wilkinson. The Bruinettes played for three state title appearances during his tenure there.

"You want to make it as competitive as possible. I like to put James Reese against Kendale Hampton and Brandon Davis against Matthew Jamison, and I put Christian Brown against Deshawn Thomas day in and day out," Staley said. "It is very competitive and it works for us. They get after it daily."

Davis says there are times when frustration boils over a little against each other. but it is done in a constructive way for the sake of improvement.

"I’m on the red team and if the white team isn’t playing defense I will yell that them," said Davis, the team’s point guard. "It is good competition."

Reese says the competition not only makes it better for the older guys but the strong underclassman group coming up. Flora has just four seniors on the team, which enters the championship game on a 14-game winning streak.

"It is basically getting the underclassman ready for the next year coming up," the junior guard said.

Reese said the practices last year helped him get ready for his expanded role this year. The Falcons lost four starters from last year’s team but guys such as Hampton, Reese, Davis, Deshawn Thomas, Thomas Hollingsworth and Christian Brown and others have filled the void.

Reese had the game-saving block in the third round game against Berea and hit the game-winning shot against Seneca in the upper state final.

Midland Valley also lost a few key members from last year’s title-winning team but returned star guard Daniel Carr. The Mustangs were without Carr early in the season because he was a key player for the football team which made a run to the state championship game.

Since Carr’s return Midland Valley has lost only once since the team has been at full strength.

"We feel like now we are hitting our stride," Midland Valley coach Mark Snelgrovc said.

This story was originally published March 2, 2016 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Tough practices make games seem easy for Flora boys."