7 February 2006

During my trek down to the court before a late practice a week or so ago, I took a glance out of the windows of our arena at an absolutely gorgeous sight. Just as we were about to begin our practice the sun was setting; the afternoon sky melting into a perfect maroon and gold twilight over the part of San Marcos River that winds its way by Strahan Coliseum and I thought "How beautiful is that!"

We've just been on the second longest road trip of the season and faced back-to-back losses. And somewhere after crossing back from the Louisiana border, mixed in with thoughts of man-to-man defense and inbound plays, I thought about that previous sunset; light becoming dark.

What a perfect metaphor for where we are now. After a great start of the season, we've felt some adversity of late - key losses and key injuries. We're literally in the middle of what may be the most competitive that we've seen in years in the conference and we're struggling a bit. I know you all think its cliché or 'coachspeak' when we say it, but truly anybody can beat anybody. The difference is we're the ones who had to walk away with the darker side of the ledger the last two games. The maddening part of the whole thing is the 'process' in which we've come away with those results.

Occasionally, we forget, I forget that I'm dealing with teenagers for the most part. All you parents out there I'm sure can relate. You can plead, tell, yell and scream but sometimes the best lessons are ones that you can warn and teach them about, but ultimately they have to learn and experience on their own. A missed assignment there, miscommunication here, lack attention of details here; it's a compilation of those dreaded 'little things' that you hear everyone talk about that makes a lead evaporate or starts you in a hole to begin a game. It's the 'could ofs and should ofs' that get you beat that you tend to forget after you've had success early.

The question always remains next is what happens when you when the situation isn't so sunny? Will you stay in your 'comfort zone' not venture out and hope things kind of work out themselves? Or will you learn from experiences past and look as it as an opportunity to grow and realize the timeworn fact that a bend in the road isn't the end of the road…unless you refuse to make the turn.

The thing about coaching young people is that were all looking for that 'it' moment. That point in the day by day process where after they've really wrestled and struggled with a concept the light comes on (though I suspect like most coaches, sometimes I wish I had the aid of an electrician to make that light come on a little faster). It's that willingness to step out of a comfort zone that kids have to make before they can get to the realization of "Hey, I can do this" and "This is important" that we all aspire for them to reach. It's the understanding that they matter and everything they do matters; especially those little things (no matter how seemingly small) which are so important. When people realize that, success and the wins will come. But even more importantly, they'll carry that attitude with them for the rest of their lives - the sense that anything I do, no matter how minute carries significance with it, simply because I'm doing it.

Imagine the power of young women equipped with that attitude that ready to take on the world; I get chills just thinking about it.

As I'm writing this I'm reminded that Emerson once said something to the effect that, "Only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars." That is such a great thought for us because now we've faced some darkness. The good news is I like our chances because I truly believe there are stars among us. And in the twilight of the season, that is the final stretch run for postseason and the conference tournament and it's time for those stars and those great teams to shine.

I happen to think we're one of them.

Suzanne Fox
Head Coach, Women's Basketball

October 25, 2005

Everyone is excited to focus more on the basketball aspect rather than heavily on strength and conditioning. However, we have been able to work on basketball as a team this year due to the changes made by the NCAA so it doesn’t feel like we are a track/weightlifting team. Although, we wrapped up a marvelous preseason, we still implement lifting weights and conditioning into season practice. Season is always great to start because everyone is a little stronger and more in shape due to the effort put forth in preseason. I know Coach Gaitan thinks we all think he is evil for making us do all that hard work but in actuality we all love him because now we can all brag about our new weight maxes and increased speed.

The team is usually full of anxiety on the first day of season practice because everyone is anxious to see what is in store for the hours we have to spend in the gym. But no one ever said it was easy being a Student-athlete!!! We usually begin practice with stretching and Ally’s energetic pre-practice speech ending with us saying “Do tha’ thang ‘Cats!” on three. Oh how special our team is. Moving along, our first day of season practice went pretty well but of course we get the post-practice speech from Coach Fox which usually states “ I like what I’m seeing in you guys and we are making improvements but its gotta’ get better!

I’m excited about this year’s team because we have great chemistry! We lost three key seniors (Tori Talbert, Ashley Perkins and Ashley McGruder…man I miss my dawgs), however we have 8 returnees and the 5 newcomers have gelled perfectly with the team. I’m definitely impressed with the attitudes of Ashley Leffingwell a.k.a. Leff, Ryann Ashley Bradford a.k.a AB, and Kia Palmer because they have shown no signs of frustration being overwhelmed with tons of new information as freshmen. Well we still have a lot to learn and improve on but as of now as Tony the Tiger would say “It’s GRRRRRRRREAT!” I guess that’s all for the update! Holla at a Balla!

Joyce Ekworomadu A.K.A J-DU 22