In early November, Skeen sets out as the basketball coach at Sissonville. Not just the boys coach or the girls coach, mind you, but both. At the same time.

The 44-year-old Skeen has been coaching the Indians boys for seven seasons, and in 2010 took the program to the Class AA state tournament for the first time in 28 years. But he upped the challenge last month with his own sort of "and one'' move.

He's agreed to replace Rick Wallace as coach of the school's girls basketball team, and will thus coach both squads this winter - a rare form of double duty among state schools.

Earlier this summer, Greenbrier County icon Jim Justice - who has coached the girls team at Greenbrier East for 11 seasons - also took over as the Spartans boys coach. Also, Paden City's Fred King coached both squads in that Wetzel County town from 2005-07.

Clark also performed the feat at Capital for one season (1995-96). He actually coached both squads the previous year, too, but girls basketball in West Virginia was competing in its final fall season in 1994, then switched to a winter sport the following school year. That's when Clark found himself doing a double dribble.

"It's hard,'' Clark said of what awaits Skeen. "It's not going to be an easy job. For four, five months, it's nonstop. I went from one practice to the other and then game days - you would have a game just about every day.''

Skeen got a taste of that during the approved three-week summer practice period that wrapped up July 2.

His girls team played 29 games in that period and the boys 23. Skeen traveled with each squad to a team camp

on different weeks, getting help from assistant coaches for the other team while he was out of town.

"We had a pretty good June,'' Skeen said. "I know the summer's not anywhere near as intense as the regular season, but I think I know what it will be like this year. One night, I had five games.''

Skeen said he's received nothing but support from the players on both squads, as well as the Sissonville community.

"We had a meeting in the auditorium back in March for all the players and parents,'' Skeen said. "We told them how we thought it would work and we said we know they would have some concerns, and then we opened it up for questions. They didn't have any questions. They all said it sounds like it'll work. If there have been any negatives [voiced], I haven't heard it. The kids haven't expressed any.''

Skeen hasn't shied away from talk about potential problems that could arise with his dual position. He figures that winter weather is about the only worry that could snowball into a major issue. Every Kanawha County school seemingly trudged through a handful of postponements last season.

"I really think that's the only problem, I really do,'' Skeen said. "As of right now, with the schedule we have, I have to leave practice early one time to go to another game. And I think we'll overlap practices just a little to help things out.

"I know things will come up during the season, but we've got everything planned out to make it as smooth as possible. We've thought everything through before we did this. Twelve of our games are girls-boys doubleheaders, and every one of the [opposing] coaches agreed to it. Without them, we couldn't have done it. They know they can outcoach me anyway, so they probably knew it would be that much easier.''

Clark winces a bit when he recalls his one season of coaching both teams simultaneously at Capital. The Cougars girls went 9-13 and the boys just 6-15.

At that point, Clark had already coached Stonewall Jackson (a predecessor of Capital) to back-to-back girls Class AAA state championships in 1983-84 and was five years away from leading Capital's boys to consecutive AAA titles in 2000-01.

"I thought at the time that I was doing a good job,'' Clark said, "but when you look back, you feel like you couldn't give each [team] the type of time that you should. Then you start to think maybe you didn't do as good a job as you thought you would.

"I don't think you're giving your best to either one because it took so much time, and I don't know if you can legitimately do it and give what you need to both teams. It happens that you cut some things short or level some things off because of time.''

Burnout will be a topic Skeen must address this winter, especially since he also expects to assist new athletic director Lisa Johnson. Skeen had been serving as Sissonville's AD the past few years.

"I can see one day where maybe we have a two-hour practice followed by a two-hour practice the same night,'' Skeen said. "That could be a little tiresome, but I don't think that will happen very often, I really don't.

"You know how intense I am, but I think coaching girls may actually help me. If I'm coaching two games a night, I think I won't get as worked up because I'll tell myself, 'Hey, I've got another game.' I won't have time to dwell on it.''

Clark did offer Skeen a bit of good news about the prospect of coaching two teams at once. Clark, now 64, said his energy level and stamina posed no problem to him that season.

"I don't think the energy part of it was in question,'' Clark said. "I know Rich is a lot younger than I was when I did that and, of course, he may have a lot more energy than I did. Energy wasn't a problem. It was just hard to dedicate the time you needed to dedicate to each individual. You had to cut some things out, and that's where you may fall a little bit short.''

Reach Rick Ryan at 304-348-5175 or rickr...@wvgazette.com.