There are over 380,000 student-athletes that participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. All of these young men and women, whether participating in basketball or golf, Division I sports or Division III sports, or whether they have an undefeated season or don’t win a single game, are doing something very commendable. It is not easy to start a new life away from home and do well in school, never mind making the incredibly time-consuming commitment of playing a varsity sport in college. It is both mentally and physically draining.
This concept of the student-athlete is why I have not had much of an update about our season over the past week. At Vassar, there is no leniency for athletes in terms of their academics, nor should there be. We are receiving an incredible liberal arts education and it is our own decision to participate in a varsity sport; we are not bound to it by a scholarship or a contract. But that does not make it any easier to juggle our intense academic load with our respective sports.
We have not practiced since our game last Tuesday, a tough loss to an extremely impressive Western Connecticut team in which we held a lead for a lot of the first half, but were unable to sustain our efforts in the second half due to lack of numbers and foul trouble. Instead of practicing, athletes all over campus have become strictly students with long papers to turn in and cumulative finals to take over the last ten days. I have written three lengthy papers and taken four finals in this time period. A teammate of mine has written four papers and taken two finals, while another just refuses to add up all the work she has done over the last two weeks. Is the work undoable? Absolutely not. But this time of year in particular is a time where at Vassar, the ‘student’ in student-athlete must be the dominant force.
This is not to say we haven’t done anything physical over the last ten days -- we’ve been playing pickup with some of our male friends around campus as well as getting into the gym to shoot or lift (it works as a great study break). Now, as we all return home until we come back for practice on January 2nd and then have a two-week period of basketball without classes. We will be able to get the rest we need and then focus more on the ‘athlete’ part of student-athlete for a while.
What I’ve realized by playing basketball here is that at Vassar, I really do get the best of both worlds.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The Cat Is Out of the Bag
December 8
After four heartbreaking losses to open up the season, any one of which could have been a win, we decided not to let Saturday’s game against John Jay go down to the wire. Instead, we took control early, going up 27-11 at halftime before closing the deal for a 30-point win, 60-30. Our junior captain Emily Haeuser led us to victory with 22 points and nine boards, followed by freshman Brittany Parks with 15 points and my own season-high of 13. We also relied heavily on the defensive ability of Jenica Law and Sarah Warner to shut down John Jay’s top player and we received a great effort from freshman Kristyn Tempora on the boards (she had 10). Seven of the eight players who played were able to score, with Emilie Haft calmly sinking a pair of free throws midway through the second half for her first points of the season.
Apparently at some point during the game, after a nifty pass from Kristyn to House (Haeuser), Coach Ruppel, impressed with the assist, screamed, “It’s out of the bag!” This prompted Sarah ‘Swarner’ Warner to whisper to Kristyn during a foul shot “Hey! The cat’s out of the bag!” The phrase caught on in the locker room after the game, since not only was it a good joke during the game, but it symbolized our efforts on Saturday afternoon. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I walked into the locker room today to see that one of teammates had drawn a cat and a paper bag on the whiteboard, with our new favorite slogan written above. The cat IS out of the bag, our first win is on the board, and it was a good one. But more importantly, we were able to really enjoy each other. Something as simple and silly as the phrase ‘the cat’s out of the bag’ was able to make us all laugh and start practice off on a good note, players and coaches alike.
We began practice watching film and scouting a very solid Western Connecticut State team, and acknowledged the fact that tomorrow’s game will be a challenge, but not one that we aren’t up for. The most any team can ask of themselves is to come and play as hard as they can for 40 minutes, and that is what our coaches want us to focus on heading into tomorrow night’s game. If we do that, we can really make a statement tomorrow night. After all, the cat IS out of the bag, right?
After four heartbreaking losses to open up the season, any one of which could have been a win, we decided not to let Saturday’s game against John Jay go down to the wire. Instead, we took control early, going up 27-11 at halftime before closing the deal for a 30-point win, 60-30. Our junior captain Emily Haeuser led us to victory with 22 points and nine boards, followed by freshman Brittany Parks with 15 points and my own season-high of 13. We also relied heavily on the defensive ability of Jenica Law and Sarah Warner to shut down John Jay’s top player and we received a great effort from freshman Kristyn Tempora on the boards (she had 10). Seven of the eight players who played were able to score, with Emilie Haft calmly sinking a pair of free throws midway through the second half for her first points of the season.
Apparently at some point during the game, after a nifty pass from Kristyn to House (Haeuser), Coach Ruppel, impressed with the assist, screamed, “It’s out of the bag!” This prompted Sarah ‘Swarner’ Warner to whisper to Kristyn during a foul shot “Hey! The cat’s out of the bag!” The phrase caught on in the locker room after the game, since not only was it a good joke during the game, but it symbolized our efforts on Saturday afternoon. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I walked into the locker room today to see that one of teammates had drawn a cat and a paper bag on the whiteboard, with our new favorite slogan written above. The cat IS out of the bag, our first win is on the board, and it was a good one. But more importantly, we were able to really enjoy each other. Something as simple and silly as the phrase ‘the cat’s out of the bag’ was able to make us all laugh and start practice off on a good note, players and coaches alike.
We began practice watching film and scouting a very solid Western Connecticut State team, and acknowledged the fact that tomorrow’s game will be a challenge, but not one that we aren’t up for. The most any team can ask of themselves is to come and play as hard as they can for 40 minutes, and that is what our coaches want us to focus on heading into tomorrow night’s game. If we do that, we can really make a statement tomorrow night. After all, the cat IS out of the bag, right?
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Inspiration From A Teammate
December 2
For the third time in our four games, we lost by four or less points, this time by a score of 51-47 at Keystone College in Scranton, Pennsylvania. There were many positives; we stayed even with them on the boards and only turned the ball over 14 times, yet we again had trouble getting the ball in the net, shooting just 28 percent on the evening, 20 percent from behind the arc.
Although frustrated with another close loss that could have been a win, the play of one of my teammates kept my spirits up after the game. Sarah Warner is a fellow sophomore on the team who joined our program just this year. Incredibly athletic, Sarah (“Swarner”, as we call her”) is a star on Vassar’s women’s lacrosse team, starting every game her freshman year and scoring the second-most goals on the team. I’ve always admired Swarner for coming into an environment where she is no longer the best player and isn’t playing a lot, but still comes everyday with a great attitude and ready to work hard.
Tonight, with starting small forward Brianna Brazell out with a sprained ankle and various players in foul trouble early, Swarner was one of a few who really stepped up to keep us in the game. Matched up against someone about five inches taller than her, she never gave up; her opponent had to work for every single shot or rebound she got. Swarner’s five points tonight were a career high, but her intensity and toughness were what really stood out.
The reason I focus on Swarner’s play tonight isn’t because the rest of the team didn’t play well. It’s because she did what most wouldn’t expect of her. She came into the game, with probably less than 10 minutes of college basketball under her belt, confident and willing to do whatever it took. She didn’t take one single second of the time she had on the court for granted, and I think that’s something my teammates and I can learn from.
Losing close games is tough. When you lose three games by a combined ten points, you often think, what exactly are we doing so wrong? But as a team, we have learned from these games and are ready to come out on the other end on Saturday when we host John Jay College. Personally, I think I’ll be focusing on the energy and effort that Swarner brought to the game tonight and no matter what, I’ll be sure not to take any of the time that I’m on the court for granted.
For the third time in our four games, we lost by four or less points, this time by a score of 51-47 at Keystone College in Scranton, Pennsylvania. There were many positives; we stayed even with them on the boards and only turned the ball over 14 times, yet we again had trouble getting the ball in the net, shooting just 28 percent on the evening, 20 percent from behind the arc.
Although frustrated with another close loss that could have been a win, the play of one of my teammates kept my spirits up after the game. Sarah Warner is a fellow sophomore on the team who joined our program just this year. Incredibly athletic, Sarah (“Swarner”, as we call her”) is a star on Vassar’s women’s lacrosse team, starting every game her freshman year and scoring the second-most goals on the team. I’ve always admired Swarner for coming into an environment where she is no longer the best player and isn’t playing a lot, but still comes everyday with a great attitude and ready to work hard.
Tonight, with starting small forward Brianna Brazell out with a sprained ankle and various players in foul trouble early, Swarner was one of a few who really stepped up to keep us in the game. Matched up against someone about five inches taller than her, she never gave up; her opponent had to work for every single shot or rebound she got. Swarner’s five points tonight were a career high, but her intensity and toughness were what really stood out.
The reason I focus on Swarner’s play tonight isn’t because the rest of the team didn’t play well. It’s because she did what most wouldn’t expect of her. She came into the game, with probably less than 10 minutes of college basketball under her belt, confident and willing to do whatever it took. She didn’t take one single second of the time she had on the court for granted, and I think that’s something my teammates and I can learn from.
Losing close games is tough. When you lose three games by a combined ten points, you often think, what exactly are we doing so wrong? But as a team, we have learned from these games and are ready to come out on the other end on Saturday when we host John Jay College. Personally, I think I’ll be focusing on the energy and effort that Swarner brought to the game tonight and no matter what, I’ll be sure not to take any of the time that I’m on the court for granted.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Back on Track
November 30
Heading into a four-day break after our frustrating loss last Sunday is not the ideal situation by any means. Having the ‘we should have’ and ‘we could have’ thoughts staying with you for four days in which you can’t get back on the court is tough.
But when we came back to practice on Friday night, it was clear that the time we had taken to be with our families or friends to celebrate the holiday did us a lot of good. Sometimes being able to step away from the game for a couple days helps clear your head and that is definitely what happened for us this past week. We needed to re-focus, and I think taking a few personal days definitely helped us to do that. We knew Friday’s practice was going to be tough, and we were right. We ran a lot, and then some. We struggled at times, especially at the end of the sprint workouts when we all had to make a timed sprint, but we were able to help each other push through it and get through the hardest part of practice.
Exhausted, we moved into drills in areas we needed to improve in, particularly rebounding. Through the end of practice and in both Saturday and Sunday’s practice, we focused on rebounding on both sides of the floor. We went through a lot of the technicality of boxing out, but also talked a lot about awareness. It is crucial for us to push through fatigue and maintain our awareness of our own role in rebounding. Defensively, we each need to find a body, box out, and grab the ball. Offensively, we need to have the mindset of always attacking the glass once our shot goes up. On Sunday, our ‘word of the day’ was relentless. We need to relentlessly attack the boards and pursue the ball, no matter what. The more we drill this into our minds, the more successful we will be. It was clear in today’s practice that over the past couple days we have already improved in this area. When we scrimmaged, the defensive team was always finding someone to box out, while the offensive team was consistently crashing the boards. Even when we were running through plays without defense, we maintained our relentlessness and continued to crash the boards hard, while still making sure we had someone back on defense.
Our legs were definitely weary in today’s practice after a couple days of hard workouts. But our desire to improve helped us through the weariness. Last weekend forced us to recognize our need for improvement on the boards. While it may have cost us games, the positive side is that we were able to learn from that weakness and work on it these past three days so that in the future we won’t lose games due to rebounding. Every team has its weak spots, but the important thing is to understand those weaknesses, re-focus, and work on them until they no longer exist. The combination of a short re-energizing break and our team’s desire to improve in weak areas led to a successful practice environment over the past few days; this can only help us when we get back in action on Tuesday night at Keystone College.
Heading into a four-day break after our frustrating loss last Sunday is not the ideal situation by any means. Having the ‘we should have’ and ‘we could have’ thoughts staying with you for four days in which you can’t get back on the court is tough.
But when we came back to practice on Friday night, it was clear that the time we had taken to be with our families or friends to celebrate the holiday did us a lot of good. Sometimes being able to step away from the game for a couple days helps clear your head and that is definitely what happened for us this past week. We needed to re-focus, and I think taking a few personal days definitely helped us to do that. We knew Friday’s practice was going to be tough, and we were right. We ran a lot, and then some. We struggled at times, especially at the end of the sprint workouts when we all had to make a timed sprint, but we were able to help each other push through it and get through the hardest part of practice.
Exhausted, we moved into drills in areas we needed to improve in, particularly rebounding. Through the end of practice and in both Saturday and Sunday’s practice, we focused on rebounding on both sides of the floor. We went through a lot of the technicality of boxing out, but also talked a lot about awareness. It is crucial for us to push through fatigue and maintain our awareness of our own role in rebounding. Defensively, we each need to find a body, box out, and grab the ball. Offensively, we need to have the mindset of always attacking the glass once our shot goes up. On Sunday, our ‘word of the day’ was relentless. We need to relentlessly attack the boards and pursue the ball, no matter what. The more we drill this into our minds, the more successful we will be. It was clear in today’s practice that over the past couple days we have already improved in this area. When we scrimmaged, the defensive team was always finding someone to box out, while the offensive team was consistently crashing the boards. Even when we were running through plays without defense, we maintained our relentlessness and continued to crash the boards hard, while still making sure we had someone back on defense.
Our legs were definitely weary in today’s practice after a couple days of hard workouts. But our desire to improve helped us through the weariness. Last weekend forced us to recognize our need for improvement on the boards. While it may have cost us games, the positive side is that we were able to learn from that weakness and work on it these past three days so that in the future we won’t lose games due to rebounding. Every team has its weak spots, but the important thing is to understand those weaknesses, re-focus, and work on them until they no longer exist. The combination of a short re-energizing break and our team’s desire to improve in weak areas led to a successful practice environment over the past few days; this can only help us when we get back in action on Tuesday night at Keystone College.
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