If it has become more common for high school, college and professional hockey teams to play games outdoors, and ESPN can televise live college basketball games that begin before dawn, then playing a high school basketball game during early afternoon as part of the school day is just the most recent innovation.

And it's one that all who are taking part in are seemingly looking forward to.

Oliver will play host to Seneca Valley at 1 p.m. today in front of what figures to be much of the Oliver student body as part of what is one of the more unusual games of the local high school basketball season.

"I know the school is excited about it and the players are very excited about it," Bears coach Carey White said. "We're treating it sort of like a reward for the kids who made the honor roll, the high honors, had no absences or no suspensions, good behavior, things like that. We're hoping being able to go to a basketball game instead of class just for one day works out."

While for the rest of the student body, being able to cheer on the school's basketball team is a welcome diversion, the team itself is relishing the chance to show what figures to be a packed crowd of their peers what they can do.

The Bears are having a strong season at 11-4 overall and 8-2, good for second place in the nine-team City League. Oliver had won six in a row heading into Wednesday's game against Peabody and has won its past three against teams from outside the City League, including a 54-44 win Sunday at the Pittsburgh Basketball Club Classic against Gateway, a ranked WPIAL Class AAAA team.

"Usually when we play a WPIAL team, we always go out to their place; we've never played a WPIAL team at Oliver since I've been here," Oliver's leading scorer, senior Evan Schell, said. "When I heard we were playing Seneca Valley at Oliver in the middle of the afternoon, I was pretty excited. We don't get all that many fans for some games.

"Our first playoff game is always a night game, and that's usually a bigger deal. But for 3:15 in the afternoon, you've got after-school extracurricular activities so it's hard to get a crowd together."

How the contest came together came out of a weather postponement of a Jan. 8 game that was to be played at Seneca Valley.

White and Raiders coach Victor Giannotta are friends, and while the two were discussing trying to find an alternate date to play a rescheduled game, Giannotta recalled that a few years back, Seneca Valley had played a junior varsity game during school hours.

"We always play Oliver but we never go to Oliver," Giannotta said. "I just kind of said, 'Why not play at your place during the day in front of the school?'"

Both coaches, of course, had to clear the idea with school administrators, who were on board.

"It was simple, easy all the way around," Giannotta said. "It should be exciting, a fun atmosphere."

White likes to pride himself and his team on playing any team, anywhere. Just this past weekend, for example, White received a call from John Giammarco, who needed a last-minute fill-in for the PBC tournament he was running the next day at Robert Morris University when Bishop O'Connell, a school in Virginia (suburban Washington), got snowed in and couldn't make the trip.

That means Oliver will play three games in five days.

Both coaches said that, seeing as how they have been grateful for the support of school administrators, the toughest part of scheduling the early-afternoon game was merely finding an appropriate date.

"I was talking to Victor, and he said, 'How about an assembly game?'" White said. "I'm like, 'Assembly game?' He said, 'Yeah, we'll play it in the afternoon, have all the kids come down, have some fun.' I said, 'That's a different idea.'

"The key was both administrations and both principals had to OK everything. Once that OK came, we went ahead and scheduled the game. [Today] should be pretty fun. It should be different."

Although Giannotta's team has yet to play a game that began before 7:30 this season, neither he nor White believes the early start will be much of an issue for the players, who are used to being up early and often practice on Saturdays and during the offseason at much earlier times. It's not uncommon for Saturday or holiday games to be played at 1 p.m. or earlier.

Once the ball tips off -- with the exception of the larger-than-usual crowd at Oliver -- both coaches expect the game to proceed as it normally would.

"It's drawing a lot of interest," White said. "If everything's successful, then hopefully we can do it again, throughout the season next year -- pick two or three games, once a month or something like that. It can be a nice reward for the kids."

Oliver High School's Tawayne Steele, right, drives to the basket against Perry's Devin Gharfoor in a City League game earlier this season.

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