Midway through the practice season, Moffat County High School boys basketball coach Steve Maneotis wants to see how his team has progressed.

Are they in shape?

Can they defend?

What rotation will prove most effective?

It’s time to settle it on the hardwood.

The Bulldogs host Meeker, Hayden and Rangely in a four-team scrimmage beginning at 9 a.m. today in the MCHS gymnasium.

“Basically, you get to this mid-point where we’ve had 10 practices, or nine practices, or whatever it is right now, and it’s a good check point halfway through,” Maneotis said. “One, it let’s them get into a game-type atmosphere, and two, it breaks up the monotony and the grind of everyday practices.

“It gives me a chance to look at some of the young guys and obviously gives us a chance to look at our varsity and kind of evaluate what we’re putting in this year and how we feel it’s working.”

Maneotis may resolve any questions he has about his players today.

“It’s just a preseason, don’t keep score, scrimmage, pretty informal work-out,” Maneotis said. “We want (the team) to get some reps out there and do something besides listen to the coaches yell at them for another practice.”

The Cowboys, Tigers and Panthers are 2A schools visiting the 4A Bulldogs, but Maneotis said his team can’t necessarily overlook the visitors because of their classification.

“They all say they are pretty loaded this year and that they have pretty good teams,” he said. “Meeker really brings back everybody that they had last year, and for the most part last year, they were really young. Rangely is supposed to be tough in their conference, and the Hayden coach called me and said that he felt that they could run with us this year.

“So, that kind of narrowed it down right?”

Nobody will be keeping score, but Maneotis said everything else about the games will remain the same.

“You know, you can’t keep score, but you’ll know how you did,” he said, “and I’m going to be serious about that. We will approach this like we are preparing for a game, and we’re going to treat it like a game.

“I want us to work hard.”

The scrimmage kicks off at 9 a.m. with a freshman game. Junior varsity teams will play two games at 11 a.m., while the varsity teams will match up at 10 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.

Pairings were unavailable at press time.