Craig Haase: Battling Teams For Gym Time

Craig Haase,Boys Basketball

With dozens of athletic programs competing at Arrowhead year round, finding adequate gym time for practices and workouts can be a challenge.

Boys basketball coach Craig Haase says a lot has changed over the years. The school has three different spaces teams use to practice. While that sounds like a lot, Arrowhead has more sports programs than most schools, and space also is occasionally reserved for other organizations like choir.

Haase admits it’s frustrating, but his philosophy is to make the best of a tricky situation. He also hopes the school one day is able to build a new field house.

“We’ll get knocked out of the gym if there is orientation, and we’ll get knocked out of the gym for choir or power lifting, so it’s a constant battle,” Haase says. “I shouldn’t say battle, but there’s a constant dealing with gym issues, but it’s way better than it was. So for someone that’s been here for 25 years of his life, I’ve seen it evolve. I know when people complain I can tell them, ‘I hate to tell you this, but 20 years ago it was way worse.’”

Part of making the best of the situation is improving the facilities you do have. Haase says when he took over the basketball program 12 years ago, the east gym still had old wood bleachers and metal backboards. The program was able to raise money to purchase glass backboards and replace the floor and bleachers.

Haase’s advice to those in similar situations is to do what you can to improve the resources in front of you.

“It’s been a long process to get to the point where it’s at, but we’ve maximized that point,” he says. “I think you have to do the best you can with what you have instead of just complaining that we don’t have a field house. That only goes so far. You might as well find a way to make it better, and I think we’ve done that and I really feel good about the way our program helped make those things

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