January 16
I had never been to Chicago before our team visited last week, and one of the many things I learned from the six-day trip to the Windy City was that it is indeed one of the country’s greatest cities and also one of the coldest.
More importantly I learned a lot about my teammates. The trip allowed us to leave everything else behind and focus on each other and on basketball. The first few days there we prepared for our two games. We rested most of Sunday before an afternoon workout and then worked out Monday morning in the hotel before practicing Monday night. Despite our focus and hard work over the first couple of days in Chicago, it was obvious that the break had affected our level of play. Our game against an impressive Elmhurst team was a tough loss in which we seemed out of sync and frazzled. The following night against North Park we were more in sync, but we again struggled from the field and ended up losing, although the lead changed hands throughout the entire game.
We were all frustrated - we came to Chicago to come away with at least one win and felt that we definitely could have done that. We used Wednesday night to talk to each other about what we felt went wrong in both games and what we needed to do to get out of our funk. It was clear that everyone felt better after talking and we woke up Thursday ready to leave the games behind us and enjoy our day in the city.
We started off at the aquarium in downtown Chicago before walking around the infamous Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs). Afterwards, we met up with five Vassar alumni who were kind enough to treat us to dinner at Giordano’s, home of the best stuffed-crust pizza in Chicago. Talking to the alumni was enjoyable and helpful - it was amazing to hear about all the differences and similarities between their experiences at Vassar and ours. One of the alumni, Bill, even had one of the same professors as I did, twenty years earlier. Bill also offered to help out those of us interested in law school (he’s written several books in the field of law). Each of the alumni had an interesting story to tell about their experience both at Vassar and after, and they all urged us to contact them next time we were in Chicago. Two were nice enough to be our tour guides down the Magnificent Mile, where we walked up Michigan Ave and did some shopping at the various stores on the street before going up to the top of the Hancock Building, where we were awed by the striking view of Chicago we had from NINETY-SIX stories up!
Despite the weather, we managed to make it out of Chicago on Friday afternoon and were back on campus at about 11:30 p.m. While we enjoyed our trip, we had not forgot about our struggles on the court and went right back to practicing on Saturday morning. Although we had Sunday off, captain Emily Haeuser led us in a shoot-around that night. We all wanted to be at our best for our game on Wednesday and for the beginning of league play the following weekend. We worked hard at practice on Monday and Tuesday. Our focus was on box out drills, running our transition offenses, and practicing our denial defense.
Our effort undoubtedly paid off Wednesday night as we fought our way to a much-needed victory at Hunter College, 79-71. Freshman Kristyn Tempora posted her second career double-double with a remarkable 22 points and 12 rebounds while Emily Haeuser again proved to be a force with 20 points and 16 boards. Also contributing was freshman Brittany Parks with 15 points and a career-high eight assists. The win was definitely a team effort as sophomore Jenica Law contributed 10 points and seven boards and classmate Eleanor Albert had two key “and-1” layups. The defensive play of sophomore Brianna Brazell also proved to be clutch down the stretch. Our ability to hold onto a lead in a hostile atmosphere was very promising and particularly impressive considering our youth and inexperience. This is exactly the way we want to be playing as we head into league play.
It has been great spending the last few weeks bonding as a team, but we’ve also been working hard and with Liberty League play starting up today, we are ready to focus on basketball and getting wins. On Wednesday night, we told each other we were not leaving the gym without a win, and we plan on bringing that same attitude to Hamilton tonight and to William Smith on Saturday.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Back Together Again
January 3, 2009
After a two week break for the holidays, our team reunited on Friday night for a 6 o’clock practice. While we all admitted that we weren’t exactly eager to come back so quickly, leaving behind family, friends, and the holidays, as soon as we saw one another and got to talking we were all thrilled to be back together. Almost all of us are living on the same floor in the intersession housing dorm and to make the reunion even sweeter, we will spend six days in Chicago to play two games and have some fun while we’re at it.
On Friday night Coach eased us back into our normal practice routine, but we went hard in our nine a.m. practice today. As expected, we definitely had to shake off the cobwebs and get used to playing with one another again, but the energy and positivity was there through the entirety of both practices. We sprinted at the beginning and end of practice and did a lot of full court drills to get our legs back in shape. We went through plays to refresh our memories and scrimmaged for a little bit before finishing practice with a few sprints and heading into the locker room to discuss the specifics of our trip.
Right now it is 11 o’clock on Saturday night and most of us are finishing up packing and resting a bit since we have to meet up at the gym at 1:30 to drive to the airport. While our travel schedule is a little crazy, we are all just anxious and excited to get going. Chicago may not be the warmest place at this time of year, but it’s a chance for us to see a beautiful city (at least that’s what I’m told, I guess I’ll find out!) and enjoy each other’s company. Sometimes during the season we are so busy between practice and academics and other activities that we don’t all get a chance to really appreciate one another as anything but basketball players. Although we are going to Chicago to win two basketball games, the trip will give us a chance to appreciate our teammates and coaches not just as part of our team, but also as our friends and as the kind and fun people they are.
It was great to see family and friends and get some rest over the winter break, but being back with my teammates has proved to be just as good a feeling.
After a two week break for the holidays, our team reunited on Friday night for a 6 o’clock practice. While we all admitted that we weren’t exactly eager to come back so quickly, leaving behind family, friends, and the holidays, as soon as we saw one another and got to talking we were all thrilled to be back together. Almost all of us are living on the same floor in the intersession housing dorm and to make the reunion even sweeter, we will spend six days in Chicago to play two games and have some fun while we’re at it.
On Friday night Coach eased us back into our normal practice routine, but we went hard in our nine a.m. practice today. As expected, we definitely had to shake off the cobwebs and get used to playing with one another again, but the energy and positivity was there through the entirety of both practices. We sprinted at the beginning and end of practice and did a lot of full court drills to get our legs back in shape. We went through plays to refresh our memories and scrimmaged for a little bit before finishing practice with a few sprints and heading into the locker room to discuss the specifics of our trip.
Right now it is 11 o’clock on Saturday night and most of us are finishing up packing and resting a bit since we have to meet up at the gym at 1:30 to drive to the airport. While our travel schedule is a little crazy, we are all just anxious and excited to get going. Chicago may not be the warmest place at this time of year, but it’s a chance for us to see a beautiful city (at least that’s what I’m told, I guess I’ll find out!) and enjoy each other’s company. Sometimes during the season we are so busy between practice and academics and other activities that we don’t all get a chance to really appreciate one another as anything but basketball players. Although we are going to Chicago to win two basketball games, the trip will give us a chance to appreciate our teammates and coaches not just as part of our team, but also as our friends and as the kind and fun people they are.
It was great to see family and friends and get some rest over the winter break, but being back with my teammates has proved to be just as good a feeling.
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