Jonathan Kinder, Orrick’s new varsity girls basketball coach, needed to find a way to get his Bearcats some game-like reps this summer.

Thanks to Hardin-Central, he found one.

On June 22, the Bearcats and Hardin-Central staged a combined practice at Hardin-Central. The afternoon included ballhandling and shooting drills, with the Bearcats and Bulldogs playing a short scrimmage for the finale.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had an experience like this,” said Orrick assistant coach Chase Sims, a Hardin-Central graduate, who also assists with Orrick varsity 8-man football. “I know the girls probably haven’t. I think it went really well.”

Indeed, the Bearcats hadn’t ever done something like combined practice, according to point guard Addison Chapman. Chapman, a soon-to-be sophomore, considered it worthwhile.

“It was good to see … the drills that they do – something we can take back to our school and our practices,” she said.

Isabel Wheeler, a soon-to-be junior, said the session “went really well.”

“I …