From the Hot Tub to the Cold Whirlpool

October is one of the best times in the college basketball season. When “First Friday” arrives and you finally get all the players on the floor, you start to get a clearer picture of how the team is really going to fit together. At the same time the first two weeks of October can be tough. With recruiting weekends, and a full compliment of workouts it can be exhausting for players and coaches alike. Most of the team will head home this weekend and recuperate before we get back to work on Monday.

The girls have certainly been working hard since our last blog, when we were enjoying some time together swimming, eating, and card-playing for a Labor Day picnic. The fire that accompanies the beginning of each school year, normally leads to aches and pains that land a few players in the training room. The bravest of them will spend some time in an icy whirlpool which certainly helps with recovery. Luckily the team is healthy thanks to a lot of hard work from our strength and conditioning staff headed by Coach Houser and the efforts of our training room staff and new athletic trainer Julie Blowers.

As a group, we’re all very excited for the start of the season as we hope to avenge a couple of road losses from last season to get us rolling. With a tremendous returning core group of players and the addition of some talented freshman we are expecting this season to be one of the best in the programs history. Keep an eye out for our full schedule and as always, we hope to see you out there.

Coach Sullivan

Welcome Back!!!!

There is always a great sense of anticipation from the coach’s and student-athletes as the school year gets under way. We wasted no time getting started this year. We started pre-season workouts on the first day of classes and haven’t looked back. I was overall pretty happy with the conditioning level of the team and very happy with their eagerness to work hard and get better. There is certainly a sense of hunger stemming from last year’s disappointing end of the season.

We also jumped right into some community service. On Saturday, our team helped clean up campus for an hour in the morning. Our goal is to create an awareness of the need for students to have pride in their living environment and be responsible and respectful of the space they live in. I was proud of the kid’s attitude because it’s not easy to clean up someone else’s trash! But we know that if everyone does a little more, it will go a long way.

We finished up Labor Day weekend with a picnic over at my house on Monday. Half the team braved the cold water and took a dip in the pool. It certainly didn’t hurt to have the water in the hot tub warmer for them to sit in afterwards! At one point, one of our freshmen, Nikkia Smith had 3 kids hanging on her neck (my son Holden, and Coach Mik’s kids Briana and Drew). Mary and Jenna braved the cold water and gave them boat rides in the pool. Coach Sullivan worked the grill as we offered many healthy choices of food: grilled chicken, pasta salad, fruit and more. Coach Mik’s wife, Sarah made her famous “Death by Chocolate” for us to enjoy which was complimented by Amanda Weaver’s Butterfinger dessert. Both delicious! And we did have some card sharks in the house. Coach Price and Kacey kicked some butt in spades against Coach Witt and Ilicia (who did nothing but complain about how bad their cards were!) All in all, it was a nice time and an appreciated weekday off from working out!