NATCHEZ — Several area teams have had their road to the state championship cut short last week in either the district tournament or state playoffs.

Teams like Natchez High School boys, Ferriday High School girls are just a few teams moving on with their minds already on next season.

With playoff games still being played, coaches are telling their players not to dwell on what could have been, but instead focus on being in that position next year.

Natchez assistant coach David Haywood said his players still have physical education slated for first period of school for the rest of the semester, and he plans to get his players in the gym nearly every day to work on fundamentals and keeping their skills sharp.

“We just have to start building our team for next year,” Haywood said. “We have to start getting guys stronger and faster and working on individual skills.”

Haywood said his Bulldogs (13-9) had a hard time beating bigger teams like Wingfield High School, who they lost to in the first round of the district tournament.

“We’re starting to focus a lot on implementing a true weight program and getting the guys working toward their set weight,” he said. “I want their weight on the bench and the squat to go up. That’s my whole focus is to get stronger. We’re not the tallest, but we’ll be strong and hold our base. That hurt our team this year around the goal.”

In the meantime, Haywood said is his top priority is getting his four seniors, De’Arius Griffin, Keylan Wimley, Gary Woods and Lorenzo Smith ready for collegiate basketball once they finish high school.

“I think they have the ability to play college basketball,” Haywood said about his seniors. “I can’t see them not playing somewhere after this, and my main goal is to make sure they are playing on the next level.”

The Ferriday High School girls are coming off an inconsistent season, which ended with a 10-12 record though starting district 5-2.

Ferriday head coach Lisa Abron said her players must take the right attitude about their early exit after not making it to the playoffs.

“We’re not going to sit back and cry over it,” Abron said. “We’re going to get back in the gym right away. I’ll give them a couple of weeks off before we start again. Some (players) will be running track (in the spring), and I want to encourage them to run track. It makes them faster and stronger.”

Abron will lose three seniors in ShaKeria Kelly, Jasz Davis and Kellisha Griffin, but with eight players returning, she said she expects them to come back matured and experienced in the fall.

“I hope (this season) was a learning experience for my younger players,” she said. “Hopefully, they’ll take in what happened to them and make adjustments.”

More than anything, Abron said she’s looking to add more players to her roster next year.

“We have to get more girls interested in playing basketball,” Abron said. “We didn’t have much depth (this year), and a lot of teams we played had 15 players and I only had 10, so that hurt us.”

For many coaches like Abron and Haywood, there is no such things as spring, summer and winter, but nine months of preparation until basketball season kicks off again.