The Southside High School Panthers basketball team is continuing to work through the summer in preparation for the 2012 season.

The Panthers boys basketball team will welcome others from around the Black Belt for a play day Thursday, June 14 starting at 9 a.m. and going until 5 p.m. at Southside.

Selma, Keith, Francis Marion, Linden, and Demopolis high schools will be the other participants, as each team will play three games with two, 16-minute running halves.

Admission is $2.

Cedric Brown, head boys basketball coach at Southside High School, said the play day will give the Panthers a chance to come together as a team during the summer break, and give a lot of the younger players some game experience.

“It’s important because your team gets a chance to play together over the summer,” Brown said. “It’s also important because – a team like mine – we have some young guys moving up. They get a lot of chances to play during the summer, so we’ll know the situations they can play in. I have guys that are injured who won’t be able to play in the summer, but will play a big role in the regular season, so the backups get a lot playing time and it gets them better and used to playing with the other guys on the court.”

As the Panthers will have some players moving up from junior varsity to the varsity squad, Brown said it’s crucial to get those young players some experience and increase the depth of the bench.

“We have some guys that moved up from JV that are having to fill some roles,” Brown said. “And like I said, we’re kind of going deep in the bench. Sometimes foul trouble and things of that nature play a big role and you have to go deeper than expected. With this, you’ll know which guys you can put in which position and how they’ll be able to handle it.”