Traveling with USA Athletes International

I just completed my fourth trip with USA Athletes International. I was fortunate to have been able to coach a team that competed in Aruba. We were scheduled to play 5-games. Three of them were against women and they asked if we would be willing to give some competition to their 16-17 year old boys team that was preparing for the nationals, so we played the boys twice. The skill level was not all that great for either the women or the boys. Our college team, made up of players from various colleges throughout the USA, defeated the women handily and we lost both games to the boys because of their athleticism, speed, and length. It was a good experience for all. Aruba was nice. We had a lot of free time and also had various excursions and cultural opportunities. Aruba is very American, but, thankfully, our Aruban hosts took us off the beaten path for our meals and we ate Aruban food for dinner. I enjoyed the experience, once again and am looking forward to going to Ireland with USAAI next year.

Graduation 2011

When a player arrives in the Fall of her first year of College enthusiasm and boundless energy usually accompany them. So it was that Fall of 2007 when Amanda, Jennifer, and Katie descended on the campus. Now 4-years later--short ones at that-- it is time for their enthusiasm and energy to leave us. They were energy givers for sure. Whenever they were around, good times were to be had by all with each of them leading the way in some manner. Oh, how 4-years passes by so quickly. Thanks to them we are better. We wish all of our seniors the best life has to offer. Your life is ahead of you and it will be what you make of it. Always remember the memories we have shared because we are a part of each of you, too. As we have learned from Reese and the Klauer family--"Celebrate Today"!
Congratulations and well done.

Away from the Gym

This week was an off week for the team, but being the team that they are they wanted to do something together and a little different. So they suggested they come to my house to swim, tye-dye, and eat. Fortunately it was a very warm day, but nobody swam. They were too engrossed in their new project. Some had never done any tye-dying. I spread a couple of canvasses on the patio and they gathered to create. Taylor was clearly in charge. She had purchased the supplies, but everyone else had to bring the article they were going to tye-dye. The dogs, Mattie and Honey, were very interested in what was going on as all these people sat in a circle on their patio. Honey, the yellow lab, still has remnants of dye on her paws. Mattie, the black lab, is too black to see any color. It was quite a creative circle. I am excited to see the end products. I have already seen Taylor's. She used her ODAC Championship shirt and it came out really neat. Next blog may be a team tye-dye photo.

It's Spring!

I do enjoy the spring. I love looking at grass, trees, plants, and flowers that have been dormant through the winter months begin to take on color and explode almost before your eyes. One can truly have an appreciation of God's beauty by paying attention to that new growth. And speaking of growth, Lindsey and Jillian are beginning to grow their hair out now after having almost 10-inches cut from each of them for Locks of Love. They, along with Mrs. Klauer, went this past Sunday to get their long, beautiful hair cut in order for them to give. Reese was present and they all still look great. We are proud of them for this worthwhile contribution. It won't be long before their hair will be grown out again.

Back from Indy

The WBCA convention and Final Four was a little different this year. Indianapolis is a great city to host such an event and you can tell they are used to doing it up big in most areas. The convention center is enormous, probably big enough to hold several conventions at once. It was very cold, rainy, and windy the whole time we were there. Thankfully I was inside learning some new stuff and could use the skywalk to get to the center. The games were exciting and who would have thought anybody but Connecticut, Stanford, or Tennessee would be in it. Good for those teams that surely believed in themselves and fought through lots of adversity. Conseco Fieldhouse was rocking with Notre Dame in the Championship--green everywhere. And, of course, Saturday night the whole city was wild with Butler advancing to the men's championship.

I participated in the 4Kay run/walk on Saturday morning in 30-degree temps. It was at the Indianapolis Speedway. I was elated to get a chance to walk that monster track being the Nascar fan that I am. The 2.5 mile track was impressive.

Coaches Convention

Spring break has come and gone and we are headed into the month of April. One would think the days after the season are over move slowly, but in fact they move faster for me, too fast even. The days are longer and there is yard work to be done, recruits to be found, events to attend, letters to write, on and on, and next thing you know, the school year is over. At least we see the team coming and going as they miss the season now that they have had a break. They are thinking about next year and moving toward what they need to do. These next few days we have a chance to participate in our annual coaches convention, so we are off to Indianapolis and the Final Four. Looking forward to learning more and bringing it back to the team.

Season Over

It's the middle of March already! Hard to believe that our 2010-11 season has ended. Certainly this season was as good as any season the Yellow Jackets have had. Nobody expected us to accomplish what we did after the graduation of our 3-time Player of the Year, Molly Ariail, and Renee Stein. We coaches believed from the beginning that we had the makings of a good team and that if we did certain things, we would accomplish our goals. Well those 11-players did those things and then some! As a result, we won the seventh ODAC Championship for the program and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the ninth time. It goes to show that championships can be won with the right mix of players, work ethic, and attitude. We are very proud of this 2010-11 team.

ODAC CHAMPS

Three games in 4-days isn't as bad as it sounds when you end up victorious. Our championship run was incredible ending with a very dramatic finish. With 6.7 seconds remaining in the regulation game, we were down by 3. The coaching staff can't take total credit for this well-executed play by the team. We did run our press offense to perfection, however. As time was expiring, the screen set by Taylor was well done; and gave Jennifer the time she needed to "heave" (as the newspaper said) a bank shot and score 3-points. Epic is how one person described it. No matter the words used--we were able to gather ourselves after that shot and go on to win our 7th Conference championship. We are off to NCAA play this weekend.

Tournament Time

PINK OUT

I am looking forward to "pinking out" Crenshaw this weekend. This is our WBCA Pink Zone weekend. Tonight we host Roanoke at 7:00 pm and we will wear our pink uniforms and we have asked our fans to "pink out" the gym. We will be raffling off a pink ball and all proceeds will go to the Kay Yow Fund. Tomorrow we host Hollins at 5:00. We will also wear our pink uniforms and again ask our fans to "pink out" the gym. We will be conducting a 50/50 raffle with all proceeds going to the Friends of Jaclyn, which is the foundation that connected our team with a pediatric cancer patient, our beloved Reese Klauer. Sure do hope to see you in your pink outfit...

Back to the Hive

This past weekend we celebrated our 22nd Annual Back to the Hive. We had 32 people return and be recognized at half-time. The whole weekend started out with breakfast on Friday morning to see a former player, Cindy Crabill Szadokierski `81, receive the Distinquished Alumna Award. On Saturday morning we had 20 former players suit up for an Alumnae contest, Odd Years vs Even Years with the Evens prevailing once again. We dedicated the new Wall of Honor and gave thanks to the donors. After a hard fought victory that day, we topped the afternoon off with our post-game social in Alumni Gym. It was a wonderful atmosphere and lots of opportunity to reminisce about previous playing days. Thanks to all who made the day special.

J-Term is in Full Swing

January Term is always an interesting time on the Randolph-Macon College campus. It is a great time to do a travel course--a little more difficult for a basketball player, but our other sports athletes are able to do so. Basketball players usually do their travel courses in the summer, if they have the desire to do such a thing. J-term is also a very good time to do an internship and we have had several players through the years take advantage of this opportunity. Jennifer is currently working with a local firm in their accounting office and is thoroughly enjoying the experience. It is fun to see some of our athletes hustling and bustling to their internships. They have to work a full day of work and then come to their practice or team stuff. It is quite demanding for them, but it sure does prepare them for what's beyond their athletic career. We have only two more weeks of J-term before we start second semester. In talking with some of them, they will be ready to get back to being just a college student.

Cold, Cold, Cold

Not only has our shooting been as cold as it ever has, it has been cold in Ashland. As a matter of fact, it was the 7th coldest December on record according to my oil company. Why even the snow we had before and after Christmas hasn't even melted in some places. That is unusual for Ashland. Hopefully 2011 will be warmer in all aspects. My New Year's wish was for the team/players to have a hot hand as we begin the remainder of our conference schedule. This weekend we'll see how work and wishes go together.

Need Some Warm Weather

We are in exam week. It is very cold here and on Monday we had snow. The forecast calls for more snow and colder temps, but we are hoping we can miss all of that when we head to Daytona Beach on Saturday for the Daytona Beach Shootout. We will be in Florida from Dec. 18-22. The team will be very excited to be back out on the court and done with their finals. It will be a great time for team development and team camaraderie. We will have two very tough games as well, but they will test our fortitude early this season. Finally we hope to have some fun before the semester break.