CHAMOIS — As Chamois High School’s new athletic director and second-year boys’ basketball coach, Parker Jett knows small rosters create unique challenges, from scheduling games to surviving injuries. Yet after his first full summer leading the basketball program, he believes the foundation being built now will pay dividends in the years ahead.

“I’m optimistic about this year,” Jett said. “I’m definitely confident with who we’re going forward with. The elementary has good numbers, and of course we won’t really see the fruits of that for a little bit. But it’s definitely on a positive track, even though right now the numbers are low.”

Jett officially stepped into the athletic director’s role after expressing interest if the position ever became available. He said Superintendent Lyle Best later approached him about taking over the duties.

“I put my name in for it if it ever came to be,” Jett explained. “Mr. Best called me into his office and asked me if it was something I wanted to do. I told him I was willing to do that.”

Although the added responsibilities bring more work, Jett embraces the opportunity. “I’ve got enough energy to go around,” he joked.

His enthusiasm extends beyond basketball to the overall health of Chamois athletics as he prepares for volleyball, cross country, and the remainder of the school year.

The biggest challenge facing the district continues to be participation; the girls basketball program, for example, is not expected to field a varsity team this winter after attracting too few players to make a season feasible.

“I’ve kind of been planning on not having it,” Jett said. “I think we’re at maybe three or four that said they would play, but that’s just going to be tough to justify.”

The same enrollment realities affect every sport. “If one person gets hurt and you only have enough to play, it causes logistics problems,” Jett said. “We’re 30 minutes from the closest other high school, so it’s not the easiest thing logistically in the first place.”

Despite having only seven boys participating in summer basketball, Jett considered the offseason a success.

Rather than traveling to team camps, Chamois kept its workouts at home because of scheduling conflicts with summer jobs, farm responsibilities, and vacations. Alumni players occasionally returned to help create scrimmage opportunities for the Pirates.

“I really wanted to get them in the gym, put a ball in their hands and be together,” Jett said. “Thankfully, some of the alumni have been coming in, and we’ve been doing some scrimmages because if you don’t have 10, you literally can’t scrimmage.”

The extra time together also addressed something Jett wished he’d had a year ago.

After arriving shortly before last season began, he had only two weeks to prepare the team before opening night. “I kept wishing I had been here before those two weeks,” Jett said. “We’re definitely going to be a lot more prepared than we were last year because they’ve been getting a lot of learning and progression.”

Jett said the returning players have continued to impress him with their work ethic and willingness to improve.

“Summer is really an opportunity to get better,” he said. “I thought our best opportunity was just to get them in the gym and be together.”

One of the program’s biggest strengths is the bond shared by many of the players, several of whom have competed together since elementary school.

“You can definitely tell they’ve played together for a long time,” Jett said. “They’ll do things during a scrimmage where I’ll wonder how they knew what the other guy was going to do. That’s just what you get with kids who grow up together.”

That chemistry extends off the court as well. “They’re pretty tight,” he said. “I appreciate that a lot because it makes it a lot harder when they don’t like each other.”

While the current varsity roster is small, Jett sees reasons for encouragement in the junior high program.

The Pirates have six junior high players, including four sixth-graders, and recently welcomed another student back into the district.

Although those athletes are still several years away from contributing at the varsity level, Jett likes both their enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

“They seem to like it,” he said. “That’s always good for me.”

The long-term outlook remains tied to enrollment, but Jett believes building a positive culture is more important than simply filling uniforms.

“I’m not going to go out there and beg people to play,” he said. “You’ve got to let kids be kids. I’d rather have five kids that want to play than 10 with five of them who don’t even want to be there.”

For now, that’s the philosophy guiding both of his roles.

Whether he’s organizing schedules as athletic director or preparing the Pirates for another basketball season, Jett believes steady progress—not roster size alone—will determine the future of Chamois athletics. “I’m pretty optimistic in almost all aspects,” he said. “I like the way that it’s going.”