With Christmas approaching, high school basketball coaches in the Selma-Dallas County area are hoping to find the keys to a state championship tucked away in their stockings.

Now that half of the basketball season is over with, coaches are starting to focus on what their teams could improve at during the second half of the year. But what if they could ask for help from Santa Claus and found a present under the tree that could help their teams win immediately?

Oh, the possibilities.

“If Santa left something for my team under the Christmas tree, I would pray and wish it would be improving on free throws and more conditioning and more rebounding,” Keith girls head coach Cecil Williams said. “That’ll take us where we need to be.”

The Bears have struggled from the free throw line all year and although Williams isn’t likely to find the ability to shoot freebies under his tree Christmas morning, he hopes his team can continue to improve in that area on their mission to make it back to the state championship game.

Southside’s boys’ team made it to the state championship game last season but is off to a rocky start after losing numerous members of last season’s starting lineup to graduation. With youth dominating the roster, Panthers’ head coach Cedric Brown’s answer seemed obvious.

“[I’d ask for] experience,” Brown said. “Experience would help us late in games and down the stretch when we need a basket or need a stop.”

Brown said participating in tournament’s like last weekend’s Dallas County Classic Tournament will get his team the experience it is lacking quickly, just in case Santa isn’t able to add a little age to his players overnight.

Other coaches just wish they had more players.

“A few more players [would be nice], because right now we don’t have enough players to do 5-on-5 drills at practice,” Dallas County head coach Willie Moore said.

Of course, many teams would be jealous of the size the Hornets have in forward William Lee and center Lowell Furlow. Morgan Academy is a team that plays completely different from the Hornets, because the Senators lack in size. Morgan excels at draining the three-point shot, but head coach Bob Taylor wonders how teams would defend the Senators if they had a little more size inside to go with their sharpshooting.

“It would force teams to defend the inside and outside,” Taylor said.

Keith’s Tommy Tisdale feel like the pieces are in place for his team to make a deep run, but something else is running amiss internally.

“If I could get one thing from Santa, I’d ask him for a fisherman’s net so I could bring my boys back together,” Tisdale said.

Tisdale worried after Friday night’s loss to Wilcox Central that his team isn’t on the same page, despite its gaudy 9-4 record, but he was happier with his team’s performance Saturday night against Selma.

The second half of the season will start after a short Christmas break for all of the teams in Selma and Dallas County.

Keith, Dallas County, Morgan Academy and Selma will all be in action in the days following Christmas in tournaments around the state.