When the Adams County Christian School basketball team met for the first time last month, the players were cautiously optimistic. Both of them.

The majority of the team – now only eight strong – was still on the football field, as was their coach, Rebels’ defensive coordinator and head basketball coach Paul Hayles.

The small Rebels squad is only 1-6, struggling through a lack of numbers and a lack of practice as a team.

&uot;When you’re in a situation like this in a small school, you have the same kids play sports one right after the other,&uot; Hayles said.

&uot;Football, basketball, baseball and then track. Unfortunately, some kids take a break and skip basketball, and that hurts our program.&uot;

But similar problems are faced by coaches at any small school, Hayles said.

&uot;The part (of coaching) that I find most challenging is finding the exact buttons to push to get the most out of a child,&uot; he said. &uot;But that’s, again, something that every coach has to do.&uot;

Working with children more than makes up for the hardships involved with coaching, Hayles added.

&uot;When I first started coaching, I didn’t have kids of my own,&uot; he said. &uot;Now I have two, and it just reinforces the enjoyment I get out of bettering a kid through athletics – teaching discipline, time management – that you get out what you put into something.&uot;

His current basketball team is learning just that, he added.

&uot;It would have been easy for them to just fold in their tents and quit, but they didn’t. I respect that,&uot; Hayles said. &uot;I try to tell them that if they stick it out and play the way you’re capable of playing, you’ll always be a winner.&uot;

With head football coach Bo Swilley’s recent resignation, Hayles would like to continue giving his coaching advice in that capacity.

&uot;That’s a decision for the school to make,&uot; he said. &uot;We’ll wait and see.&uot;

Football was his first love, Hayles said, as he played the sport for ACCS, Copiah-Lincoln Community College and Delta State University before becoming an assistant coach with the Statesmen as a graduate student.

Hayles can’t say with authority which sport he enjoys more.

&uot;I’d have to lean toward football, I guess, but I enjoy basketball thoroughly,&uot; he said.