The Aberdeen Christian boys’ basketball team has had a hard time getting in many games so far this season.

While the Knights had three weeks between a Dec. 19 game against Mobridge-Pollock and a Jan. 9 contest against Wolsey-Wessington, it has also had its share of contests postponed in the past nine days due to weather, having three contests that were unable to be played. That can lead to issues later in the season.

“Well, I think what’s been making it a challenge is that when you look at our schedule, it’s more backloaded already,” Knights coach Aaron Moeller said. “We’ve only played five games, but some teams out there have already been in 8, 9, 10 games.”

Moeller said the challenge of trying to reschedule games becomes an issue when the current schedule is already nearly full. It also puts players at risk for burnout when they are forced to play multiple games in a week, including a situation where three games in three days is a real possibility.

“It makes it a significant challenge because when you look at the schedule, hypothetically if we were gonna play on a Thursday night and then on a Saturday, the only days we might have open might be like a Friday,” Moeller said. “So now you end up in a situation where you play three games in three days, and that’s a significant challenge for your body.”

The Knights are working to reschedule those three games that were recently postponed. Those games include a Jan. 6 contest against Sioux Falls Lutheran (which has been rescheduled to Jan. 20), last Friday’s contest against Potter County, and last Saturday’s contest against Sully Buttes, which was originally to be played at the Pheasant Shoot-Out in Redfield.

However, Moeller said there are other factors that must be considered when trying to reschedule contests.

“You have to consider your opponents’ schedule as well,” Moeller said. “Like (Friday) I provided six different dates for Sully Buttes as potential dates for a makeup. Well, maybe only one of those works for them based upon their schedule, so it makes it a challenge, not just for us, but for our opponent.”

With all of the downtime, Moeller has had to find other ways to keep his team uplifted besides going through the normal routine of practice.

“We’re becoming agitated or squirmy, like we need to play a game,” Moeller said. “(Friday) I felt like we just needed a break from kind of beating up on each other in practice, so we decided let’s go bowling and let’s just have some fun together. I felt like it was a needed respite and I think it was a good call just to have a team building day (Friday).”

While the rest is currently good for the team, Moeller said another issue the team will have with a backloaded schedule is not being able to prepare for the upcoming games due to the lack of time.

“The rest is one piece, but the other part is when you’re going into a game, there’s things that you like to do (to prepare),” Moeller said. “You like to watch film and then have a practice to kind of schematically work on the things that you’re preparing for, and in a lot of ways it eliminates those opportunities.”

While he knows winter is not over and the potential for more games being postponed in the coming weeks is a possibility, Moeller is not concerned about the schedule and is looking forward to his team’s opportunities.

“It’s in God’s hands. I don’t have beef about it,” Moeller said. “We’ll make it work and if the games don’t work maybe we end up with 18 games instead of 20. I certainly hope that’s not the case. The boys want to play 20 and hopefully we get 20.”