NATCHEZ — With football season finally over for Natchez High, a few players have trickled over to the basketball team.

But the adjustment period for those players to get accustomed to basketball is significant, Bulldogs assistant coach David Haywood said.

“They’re not even able to practice during football season,” Haywood said. “They have to wait until the end, so they come in pretty much having to play catch up.”

Conditioning is a big struggle for players jumping directly from football to basketball, Haywood said.

“In football, you’re going hard for 30 seconds, and then you have a chance to maybe catch your breath,” Haywood said.

“In basketball, you’re constantly going. You have to be able to grind it out in eight-minute quarters, and it’s a big difference.”

Some Cathedral basketball players are also feeling the effects of going from football to basketball.

“Conditioning-wise, they’re already in great shape, it’s just that basketball is a different kind of shape,” Green Wave head coach Peter Arnold said.

“I truly feel it takes about a month for basketball players to get over from being involved with football and getting a feel for basketball.”

But that won’t stop Arnold from letting his multi-sport athletes from seeing playing time, he said.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be playing a lot of football players,” Arnold said.

With basketball being a sport that relies heavily on team chemistry, Haywood said that’s affected by having some players come in later than the other players.

“It hurts the most with your timing and continuity between players,” Haywood said.

Arnold also said substitution patterns are affected by players starting later than others.

“We’ve played three games and are starting to develop patterns and chemistry,” he said. “Then we get six that played football, and three starters, and they’re working their way into starting.

“It will take a little while, but it’s a good problem for us to have, because we have a lot of depth that we haven’t had in the past.”

If some of the better athletes are playing football, it’s often tough to get off to a good start early in the season, Haywood said.

“Right now, it makes a big difference with our team,” he said. “We don’t have a whole lot of experience beyond Trevon Chatman, who’s just coming off the football field

“Beyond that, not many have played varsity basketball, so this year’s going to be a learning experience for them.”

And at the smaller schools like Cathedral, the reality is that sports have to share athletes in order for a school to be competitive in more than one.

“It is what it is,” Arnold said. “We’re glad that the kids are playing other sports, because winning breeds winning. It doesn’t matter what sport, that winning attitude carries over.”