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3-8-10
"I really love this team and all the players and coaches."
The regular season is over. Wow! Seems like just yesterday I walked into the DeLaSalle gym for my first practice. I was in 6th grade and I was playing for the DeLaSalle AAU team. It was when I first met the girls I would play a lot of my High School years with. Anna Kovalchuk, Aaryn Booker, Meme and Keke, Francis Wehrwein and many others. I have been practicing at DeLaSalle for about 7 years now and I have enjoyed each and every minute of it. Of all the girls I played with that first AAU year I am the only one left. I am the only one left that played on the AAU teams that Carol (Thelen) started to improve our program. It has been such an honor to be associated with DeLaSalle for such a long time and nobody can be prouder than me to call themselves an Islander. I feel lucky to have been a part of this wonderful program and to have seen it grow and improve over the years. We have had great times and we have had times when we had to really reach deep down inside to be the best we could be. We always want to represent this school with the honor it deserves. All along the way I have learned great lessons from basketball and my coaches. I have said it before and I will always believe that I have been so blessed over the years with coaches that really care. They always have tried to teach me to grow as a person and as a player. I love basketball so much for what I have learned about myself and for all the people I have met because of it.
I am writing this just after our semi-final win over St Anthony. It was a game that I looked forward to every year in the regular season. This game however was different. Several of the girls I went to grade school with ended up at St Anthony and over the year some have stopped playing basketball. Two remained on the roster for the 4 years and so we faced each other for the last time in high school. The game is not really what I want to write about. I really just wanted to share how things went after the game. We ended up winning the game and then we lined up to shake to hands. It was nice to win but I knew the two girls I had spent so much time with in grade school had just played their last game. I looked over and saw them and as we approached each other I could see the tears in their there eyes. They were so sad and we just hugged and exchanged some words. I could see how hurt they were and I knew that nothing I could say would help them. They would be fine but the finality was hitting them and so all I did was just hugged them. It’s funny how you get so competitive over the years. We have seen each other around but never really hung out during High School, but when the game was over we found each other and all the years of competing and lack of time we spent together these few years seemed to disappear. It was like we were those kids that were wide eyed and dreaming about playing high school basketball. It was really kind of weird to be in that moment because the clock rewound and we were back in grade school playing together for the 6th grade MCYO championship. It really reminds me that many relationships seem to get put on hold when we have something change in our lives. Maybe we move away or maybe we pick a different high school but at the end of the day your true friends are your friends. So Casey and Rosie I just want to say you can hold your heads high! You played tough and I am so proud to say you are my friends.
As for our team we are getting ready for our section finals with Totino Grace. They always have a good team and so we will have to be on the top of our game to be able to punch our ticket to the State Tournament. I am sure they want it bad and so do we. We watched them play in the game after our game and they have a lot of weapons we will have to defend. Our coaching staff will have us prepared to play for sure. I believe we are still improving as a team and I hope that will continue. We have a long week to prepare for the section finals on Friday and I know we will use that time to do whatever we can to improve as a team. I think our teamwork has really been the thing that I am the most proud of. Something we have worked so hard and passionately on this entire season. I really love this team and all the players and coaches. I figure that’s the case with a lot of teams. Maybe I’m wrong about that but when you spend a lot of time together it’s hard to believe you would not be close. I am so much about team and these girls are my family. I care about each and every one of them like they were my sister. We spend so much time together that we are in many ways closer than some of the relationships we have with our real family. Then it hits me that I am getting to another one of those moments. A moment like the one I talked about with my grade school friends. I am a senior and when I graduate and go to college I will not see some of these girls that much anymore. I will not see the coaching staff I have grown to love so much. I will not have the daily contact with Coach Johnson I have come to love. In some cases we might not see each other for many years but I bet one day we will and I know how it will go. We will see each other and we will just hug!
1-31-10
"Coach Johnson has done a great job preparing us all season."
I think I said last blog that I try to go see the games of my friends from AAU but that it’s really hard to find a game to go to. I’m either practicing or playing at the same time they have games. Luckily it worked out for me to watch Megan Stuart play a couple of weeks ago. It was really nice to see her since I haven't seen her since the High School season started. Bruce Borowicz, who I played last AAU season with, was also at the game with his kids. We all sat with Megan’s parents and watched the game together. I really enjoyed it a lot. Then a few days later she was able to get to my game against Marshall which was so nice. Well my dad had told me earlier that week that he saw AnnMarie Brown was playing at Target Center. I played with her this summer on the Minnesota Stars along with Megan. We decided to try and go to see her play and Laura Melquist from Rochester Lourdes decided to join us. You really do get close to your teammates after living together for the summer and playing together on the court. The time I spent playing with the Minnesota Stars was the most awesome time in AAU I have had. I can't tell you how great it was to play for them and for Coach B. The atmosphere on the team was really great and I think it’s why I enjoyed the experience so much. So we went to the game and I was shocked to hear that the admission was $15. That’s a lot for a high school game for sure but I was more shocked and concerned because I figured I might not have enough money to get nachos to eat. It was a lot of fun for us to get together and watch her play. Every other time we were together at a basketball court we were playing. This time we just got to sit and talk while we watched the game. It was fun but I prefer to be on the court playing. AnnMarie did a great job and led her team to victory. The game was close for the first half but St. Peter pulled away in the second half. St. Peter played Mahtomedi in the game and they are in our section so I did a little scouting on the side. After the game we talked to AnnMarie's parent and friends. While we were talking Tom Brown (AnnMarie's Father) kept saying he reads my blog and that I didn't write one in a little while. Well since I now know at least 3 people (Mom, Dad, and Tom Brown) read my blog I better make sure to keep posting. It’s hard to find time to write the blog with school, school work, practice, and games taking up most of all my days. I’m not complaining just telling you how it is. This was a huge week for our team. We had a really big game on Thursday with Benilde St Margret. They are a really good team and highly rated in the state. The atmosphere at school was high all day and the JV game before our game was the loudest I have heard a JV game. People were cheering and screaming as the game got close to the final buzzer. Then one of our players Brianna Jacox fell to the floor. The coaches and her parents ran out onto the floor to see what was wrong. It turns out she was hit in the head a second or two before by one of our players when they ran by each other or should I say into each other. She was knocked out and the Fire department was called along with the Ambulance. It was so scary as she just lay on the floor for such a long time. Our JV and varsity teams were just hoping and praying that she would be ok. They took her out on a stretcher and she had on a neck brace. The JV coach came back after going to the hospital and said the CT scan looked good. Well it did not turn out great for her to come home however. She was in the hospital for two days but she finally did come home. She is getting better and better and I am so glad. All of our classes said a prayer for her before each period and they even had a prayer for her during the pep fest. When they took her to the hospital the JV game had just 1 minute to play. Well you can just guess that the mood was a little different than before she got hurt. During the warm-up we knew we had to keep focused on the game. We knew we had to play the game and we could worry about Brea after the game. We had to fight through the emotion of seeing a fellow player taken out on a stretcher. I have never had to do that before and we were just minutes away from a huge game. I think we responded pretty well and I think we found out a little bit about ourselves that we might not have known. The game was really fun and both teams played very well. We ended up winning the game and it felt great. We had a tough game against a really good team with an emotional distraction before the game and we played well. I was so proud of my teammates. Everyone stuck together and worked so hard on both ends of the floor. To me it’s what makes sports so addicting. You work together getting ready for games. You spend so much time together during the season. You become like a family. These girls are like family to me and when we have success it makes me very proud of each and everyone of them. We have a number of tough games remaining on our schedule and I think this experience will help us in those games. Since we are no longer in the same section as Benilde the only way we will see them again this year is if we are both lucky enough to make it to the state tournament. I know we will need to continue to improve and work hard the rest of the season to have that chance. We have a number of good teams in our section and so we just need to stay focused and take one game at a time and improve each game. Coach Johnson has done a great job preparing us all season and I’m sure that will continue. It’s all seem so very important but when a teammate goes down and spends two days in the hospital you are just so happy when they come home. I got a chance to go to see Brianna at home with Coach Johnson. She is doing a lot better and it helped me see her feeling better. The last time I saw her she was carried out of the gym on a stretcher. She won’t be back to school yet but they expect her to make a full recovery. She hopes to be back ASAP. Let’s all hope she can make it back real soon and please say a little prayer for Brea!
1-11-10
"The entire coaching staff is very experienced and that can only help us in the future."
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas like I did. Got to spend time with my relatives and had some time to relax a little with no school for a couple of weeks. I slept in a few days. Ahhh that felt great! I just never get to do that to much so it was really nice. The basketball team had practice during the break and several of the practices went pretty long. The long practices were not just running but we talked a lot about how we can get better as a team and what we each need to do to help our team get there. I think it will make a big difference when we get to the end of the season and the playoffs. We played in the Monticello tournament and we ended up winning it over Watertown Mayer. It was pretty good game and I think we learned a lot from it. We have talked about the game and how we could have played better. What we could have done as a team and as players to contribute just a little more to the team success. Coach Johnson has given us all a chance to speak up about games and I really like it because we can talk about things and get better, but even more important grow closer as a team. I find myself coming out of some of the meetings thinking a little differently about one player or another. It has given me the chance to really get to know the other players and gain a lot of respect for each and everyone of them. Now maybe you don’t know but Coach Johnson is married to our asst. coach. They make a great team but Coach Johnson talks most of the time. Coach Patterson does talks some of the time and he always has good things to say. He always seems so happy and it really rubs off on us. We know he cares a lot about us and trying to help us be the best team we can. We really are very lucky to have them as coaches. The entire coaching staff is very experienced and that can only help us in the future. We know we have a lot of tough games coming up in the next few weeks and being together and working as a team might just make the difference in some of those games. DeLaSalle had an open house for incoming freshman yesterday and so we had to have an early practice. I had some of my evening free and ended up going to the DeLaSalle Boys game at Blake. I have always tried to get to see my friends play when I can and so I checked for their games. I’d really like to see them play but it never seems to work out. Yesterday I could have gone to a couple games but they were not close to the city and the streets were pretty slippery so I stayed close to home. I really wanted to see the boys play because I have not been able to get to a game this year and I lift weights all fall with them and got to know them a lot better. A few weeks ago Jalen Jaspers (also # 14) from the boy’s team came to our game. I think he lifted everyday with me and was always very supportive. During the game every time I would pull a loose ball from someone or came down with a rebound I would hear him in the background yelling “weight room”. That sure was nice and I will remember it. The game was very helpful for me and the thing that most impressed me was how well they play together as a team. I know we strive to do that and maybe from the stands the game is a little different but I think we have room for improvement. At first I was thinking we have not playing as well as we could but then I realized that means that we can get better. We have room to grow as a team and we have the rest of the season to do it. I am really glad I went to the game because it helped me understand even more how important it is to play team basketball. After our game today we don’t play for a week and that’s good because we have finals next week. I’m going to take most of the weekend to study and get ready for the finals. I’m not sure about practice on Saturday but most of my weekend will be spent in my room making sure I get the best grades I can. It is always a struggle to find time for everything but while its basketball season I mostly just study, go to school, practice, and sleep. We make a commitment to our coaches, teammates, and ourselves when we decide to play. I am very lucky because when the season starts I really don’t have much free time for anything else. I have really good friends that understand and when the season is over we go back to hanging out, going to movies, and going to the mall. It’s always fun and we really enjoy ourselves but for now all of our attention is on playing the best basketball we can and playing basketball for as long as we can.
12-23-09
"I am encouraged by the progress we have made as a team."
It seems like not long ago it was summer and I was thinking about starting my senior year. A lot has happened in the time since I last wrote a blog. The fall has been a big blur but I keep thinking it’s just how senior seasons go. Never been a senior so don’t have anything to judge it by but I know I don’t want to miss anything. I don’t even like to say this but in not that many months I will be getting ready for college. That just seems so weird to me that I am going to be in college next year. I guess that brings me to one of the big things that has happened since I last wrote. I have signed my National Letter of Intent to attend Concordia St Paul. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be so blessed with this type of opportunity. I know a lot of people have helped me during the years and I really want them to know I appreciate it. I want them to know, that I know how much they have helped me to be in this position and have this wonderful opportunity. So Thank You so much to every coach I have had for helping me learn to play the game and teaching me a lot of valuable lessons along the way. I really will remember them! A number of weeks ago Concordia had some of us recruits come in and watch a football game and volleyball match. We went to eat and got a chance to meet each other. It was a little weird for me to meet Rachael Hanson from Minnehaha Academy. They are the team we have battled the last few years and I really didn’t know how it would go when we met. I was so happy to find that Rachel is a really nice person and I enjoyed talking to her. All the other players were also very nice so that makes thinking about next year a lot easier. I am really excited about next year but for right now my DeLaSalle team has me most excited. We have played pretty well to start the season but we have so much to learn and such a long way to go to get to our goals. As a captain and a senior I feel like we can have a great season but to be our best we need to stick together and play the best team ball we can. Our team is very talented and that can take us a long way, but to be a great team you have to be a team, and we are working hard everyday to get there. My feeling is that I will be the most fulfilled if we win, and play each and every game as a team. My responsibility to my team is to try to lead them by example and encourage them to do what it takes to win. To push themselves a little more than they think they can in practice and in games. To make the extra pass that gives someone that super easy basket. To keep us focused with our eyes on our goal. To care more about us that we do about me. I am encouraged by the progress we have made as a team in our first few games. I think we have some work to do but that just means we can get better and better. We have one of the best, if not the best coach in the state of Minnesota. I love to go to practice! It’s so much fun! I can’t believe I just said that considering we had to run 28 killers to start one practice because a player was 28 minutes late. Before we ran them I didn’t think I could do it. When I was done I couldn’t believe I was able to do it and now when I hear 10 or 15 killers it really doesn’t seem too bad. Coach Johnson is so funny and I feel really lucky to be able to play for her. She makes things most teams hate kind of fun by putting a little humor in and explaining how it will help in games later in the season. One thing I really love to do is our conditioning. Sarge is our conditioning coach and he really is a sergeant. He was in Iraq several times and I think I respect him so much for serving our country. I just work a little hard when he put us though our drills just because of who he is. It’s funny but drills is a good word because some of the time we do our exercises in cadence. I actually really like it and it takes the boring part of exercise and makes me look forward to it. The coaching staff is always willing to help whenever we have questions about improving our game or our team game. It couldn’t have worked out better for my team. We were wondering how it would be after Coach Frye left after last season. We didn’t have a coach for most of the summer and I started to wonder if they would be able to find a good coach for us. I have only one year left so I really wanted a good coach that had been there before and understood what it took to win. How the school did it I don’t know but it happened. It seems to me you just can’t get that lucky. I think they worked hard but I’d say someone upstairs is looking out for us. This is a great blessing and I am going to learn as much as I can from the entire coaching staff. Some of the practices have just been spent getting to know our coaches, getting to know each other and understanding how Coach expects us to play and contribute. I am really looking forward to the Christmas tournament and spending a lot of time with the team. We really have a lot of girls coming together from a lot of different places and we are starting to really get to know each other on and off the court. I think we can be really good and I think we will be ready for every game. I just know this is going to be a fun year.
I am also really looking forward to Christmas and having all my relatives together for the holidays. My aunt comes in for Christmas from Milwaukee with her 4 kids and Husband. I just love to spend time with my little cousins. We will celebrate Christmas like we have for as long as I can remember. We have a big polish dinner with all the ethnic food. Pierogi and Golabki and polish sausage. My grama used to make all the food but after she died everybody makes a part of the meal and we go to my Uncle Don’s house for dinner. It is a very special time for me and it brings back so many wonderful memories. One polish tradition is to break the Oplatek. It’s a wafer sheet and each person breaks off a piece. Then we go over to one another and break a little piece off of theirs and they take a piece of ours. During this time we wish them good luck and blessing for the next year. We repeat this with all of the family and it’s really something I look forward to. After we eat we clear the living room and dining room of tables and chairs and start to sing Christmas songs. This is one of the things Grama really loved and so I would never want to change it. We sing for maybe and hour and then we pass out Christmas gifts and open them one at a time. This takes a long time but it is really fun to see the looks and reactions of people when they open a gift. I am very lucky to be part of a wonderful family and to keep many of the old traditions alive. I look back and think about all the past Christmas celebrations we have had with each other and how much I miss the people that are no longer with us. They have a special place in my heart. I hope you have great traditions in your own families and I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
8-9-09
"I can tell you that the girls I played with are great people."
August brings the end of the AAU season and about a month to relax before the start of school. Last time I wrote I talked about DeLaSalle getting a new coach. Faith Johnson Patterson is our new coach and I think I referred to her as Faith. It’s all I ever heard her called before she became our coach. I was gone at a tournament when she had her first meeting with the players. I made sure to meet her as soon as I could after returning. I was very impressed as we talked and I am so excited to learn from her. I called her Faith a couple times and she reminded me that I will have to work on a new name, “Coach Johnson”. I have heard stories about lots of running in practice if someone calls her the F word. (Faith) So from now on it’s “Yes Coach Johnson!!” The last few weeks seem to blur together. I guess it’s more like the month of July blurring together. I will start to tell somebody about something and have to stop and think about what city I was in so I can tell the story correctly. It was an awesome time of traveling around with my teammates, parents, and my coach. You really get to know someone when you spend so much with them over a period of weeks like we did. You get to see what kind of people these players are. I can tell you that the girls I played with are great people. They will succeed in life as much as they have on the basketball court because of the way they are. Positive, Strong, Intelligent, Leader, are words that fit them and will allow them to be who they will become. The years to come will be very interesting to see how each of them grows and succeeds. This AAU season has been a great experience for me and I am so happy I got to play with the Minnesota Stars. They have treated us so well and made things work so great during our trips. I know a lot of planning takes place that we all don’t see. I am really blessed to have been able to be part of it. Coach “B” (Bruce Boroticz) has been a great coach to play for and I thanked him for his time and energy. He took time to work with me personally to improve my game along the way. He is dedicated to the players and just wants to see all of us succeed. I have been lucky to have wonderful coaches along the way in AAU, High School, and Traveling. You have to work really hard along the way but with good coaches it makes it a lot easier. As for the next couple of weeks I plan on trying to relax and enjoy the rest of the summer. It seems like just yesterday I was finishing up finals at DeLaSalle and now we are starting school soon. I am so excited to see people again but I feel bad I didn’t have more time to get together more during the summer. I did find some time in June to get together with friends and I got the next few weeks now to do the same. I will try to get together with some of last years seniors before they leave for college. Meme I will miss you more than you know! July was a total loss for friend time but I had a great time and feel it really improved my game. I think I might take the next couple weeks and not do much basketball at all. I think I will just sleep till noon and watch movies all night long. Go over to my friend’s house all the time and not even think about basketball. I’m going to stop dreaming about basketball stuff and perhaps not even pick up a ball for weeks. Yea Right, Who am I kidding! Like that’s going to happen. I will relax a little but I love the game so much I can’t ever imagine not playing. Basketball is relaxing to me and it’s what I love. See ya in the gym!
7-21-09
"I am excited to finally have a coach."
I thought I would write a blog now since I have so much to say. A lot has happened since the last time I wrote and it was just like two weeks ago. Well you might have seen in my last blog we almost missed our flight with the team to Orlando. My dad had looked at the flight and looked at the landing time not the take off time. So when he realized his mistake we only had one hour before the flight to get our stuff together and get to the airport, check in, get through security, and get to the gate. We made it with just a couple minutes to spare. It was a lot of running, speeding, and praying that’s for sure. In Orlando the Minnesota Stars suggested we get the Villa’s instead of hotels. They had 4 bedrooms and a kitchen and living room. It was perfect because we all got to hang out together and watch movies. Good team bonding for sure and the parents also got to sit around a chat. The weather was hot and humid but the Disney Wide World of Sports buildings were really nice. We started a little slow the first day but quickly started to play really well. We played Boo Williams on the third day and had a 10 point lead most of the first half. We made a few mistakes late in the half and were down by 2. The Boo Williams team has players from all over the country. Most of them will be playing in major D1 programs in a year. In the second half we played them close the entire way but they seemed to stay about 4 points in front. With just a minute or so to play they got a couple rebounds on our missed shots and finished the game with about an 8 point lead. We had lost and it’s always hard to lose but we felt we had played really well and came away knowing we had played some awesome defense and were playing good team ball. We’re hoping to continue it the rest of July. You should have seen the college coaches at the games. One parent counted 70 coaches at one game and these are not small time programs. All the big names you can think of were there. The next day we went to Universal Studios and that was a lot of fun while we were on the rides. Waiting for the rides took forever and it was so hot. I got a bad headache and finally just had my dad come and pick me up. We flew from Florida to Indiana for the Hoosier Hardwood Championships. We pickup up playing just like we were in Orlando and ended up winning the whole thing. Winning a championship on the floor of Assembly Hall was great. It was such a good time being together and winning it. I really love this team! Every one of them are such good people and players. It’s such an honor to be part of this team. Our coach Bruce does a good job of setting the tone for the game but still allowing us to play like we can. This has been a great experience so far and I really can’t wait to get back to playing in Kansas later this week. Hard work pays off but good team chemistry is also very important. I think we all get along very well. To be honest I don’t know how it would work if we didn’t since we have spent so much time together in the last few weeks. Only a couple weeks left for the AAU season and we hope to make the best of it. I kept in contact during the trip with Darcy our AD at DeLaSalle and part of the way through the trip she told me they were close to hiring a coach. I ask if she could tell me who it was. She said that they could not share the information at that time. When I got home I had a letter waiting for me from DeLaSalle and it was from the new coach. It was not signed with a name but said she/he was excited to be the new coach and that we would have a chance to meet the following Wednesday. I have seen reports on the internet and the paper that says our new coach is Faith from North. I know that she has been very successful over the years. I know DeLaSalle really looks hard at who they hire so I think this will be very good. I am excited to finally have a coach. I wish it could have happened earlier so we could have done workouts during the summer as a team. It would have really helped us during the season but some things just can’t be controlled. I feel I have put in the work with the Boys team so I know I did what I could to improve my game during the summer. Playing with the Minnesota Stars has also allowed me to improve since I get to practice against such good players all the time. I am feeling a little bit bad because I’m going to be gone during the meeting with the new coach. When I get back I’m going to try to set something up so I can meet her and get to know her. The boys coach Dave Thorson was part of the group that was looking for a coach and he told me they worked to hard to build the girls program over the years and that they were not going backwards now. Seems like they did a good job in getting a really good coach. I’m excited to meet Faith and get to know her! I’m also excited for the season! However at this moment I am most excited to get to Kansas and play some more basketball with my Minnesota Stars teammates!
6-8-09
"We still don’t have a basketball coach at DeLaSalle."
I thought I would write a new blog before I leave for our July tournament trips. We get on the plane July 8th at 3pm and head to Florida. I am really looking forward to playing at The Walt Disney World Sports Complex. On Thursday we play our first games at 2:30 and 5:30 and on Friday we play at 8:30 am. After that we move to bracket play and we don’t know what time we play until pool play is finished. The other teams in our pool are the Memphis Elite, Gauchos Black, and Essence Black. It will be nice to play against some different team and to be back on the basketball court. We have been off for a few weeks but it was nice for our team to get some nagging injuries healed and it gave me a chance to get out and see some of my friends play. I like to go to tournaments with my dad when I’m not playing. I watch other players and try to learn from others how to improve my game. After we won the state championship we took a week off and then went back to practicing. We have been working hard in practice to get ready for the upcoming tournaments. We practice in Bloomington or Jordan most of the time. Jordan is a long drive but it’s worth the time to be ready to play. I like summer because it gives me time to work with my team but also a chance to improve my game. Workouts with great coaches give me a lot of stuff to work on when I go to the gym with my dad. Early in the summer I was really worried because we still don’t have a basketball coach at DeLaSalle. At first the school said they hoped to hire a coach before the end of school. When school was out I talked to Darcy our Athletic Director about getting some workouts going for the girls. She said that we would be able use the gym if we wanted to get something organized. I sent messages to all the girls and several showed up the next day for workouts. The boys were in the big gym with Coach Dave Thorson. He invited us to just join the boys and he ran the drills. I loved it!! I really like his drills and I feel it has really helped me. The number of girls coming to the workouts has dropped to just me many days and I’m really not sure why. Working with the boys has been a real advantage for me and I think it would be the same for the other girls. I’m sure they would be coming if they could. I wouldn’t want to miss it because I feel I have learned a lot in a short period of time. It seems like not having a coach might be a blessing since it gave me the chance to work with Coach Thorson and workout with his boy’s team. My game has improved because of the chance I got. Coach Thorson invited me to work at the girls camp and also both of the boys camps. Mondays get really long with camp for 3 hours followed by 1.5 – 2 hours of workout and then I would go to open gym at Basketball-plus with Jimmy Rogers. I like the open gym because the players that show up are really good and it gives me a chance to improve. Putting in the time makes the difference and working with the best coaches and players allows you to improve. All these things don’t leave a lot of extra time but I make sure I find a little to do things with my friends. Going to a movie or just hanging out at some house is a nice way to relax and have a good time. Friends are really important to me and July will make it difficult to spend much time with them at all. The only other thing I have done in the last month has been to go to take some trips to look at schools. It’s a lot of fun but also takes a lot of time depending on where the school is. I know I have to make the visits but it just reminds me that I will be graduating and not at DeLaSalle after next year. In some ways that’s exciting and I look forward to it but it’s also a little scary. I am sure it’s going to be fine and I look forward to the challenges of the future just don’t want to think about it everyday now ****UPDATE Our flight was to land at 3 but my dad made a mistake. He got a call from Megan Stuart’s dad asking what airport we were leaving from. So the call was the first time we knew we were leaving at 11:20 and it was 10:05. We had just an hour or so to get to the airport and checked in. I wasn’t home but at my friend Maranda’s house. They picked me up and we raced to the airport and just made it. Wow I am happy we did but I forgot a couple things. At least I got my shoes and uniform.
5-10-09
Got a lot I can talk about over the last couple weeks. We finished up in Vegas but we didn’t come home until Monday. So Sunday afternoon my Dad, Sister, and I drive to Hover Dam. The road was backed up and it took a while to get there but wow was it was worth it. We had such a great time walking around and taking pictures. My sister and I both laughed at my dad because he wouldn’t go close to the edge to get a good picture of the dam. He even got nervous when we got close to the walls along the edge. It was very hot there and we took a picture of a thermometer that showed it was 100! I wasn’t used to that kind of heat. Everybody always laughs at me because I never have much of a tan. This year I might get the jump on everyone. Probably not but I can hope. We had a few of practices after we got back from Vegas and before the State qualifier. At the last minutes we had our schedule changed and moved to a Friday game. That messed up my plans to go see a movie with my friends Friday night but on the bright side I got to play basketball. We played pretty well over the weekend but we still have a lot we can to do to be a better team. We lost in the championship game to North Tartan. They’re a really good team and the game was close most of the way. It seems like they got a little lead with about 5 or 6 minutes to play and won it. We hope to play better in the State Tournament coming up in a week. I personally struggled a little bit with my shot during the tournament but I tried to not let it bother me. I kept my head up and worked hard on defense and contributing in any way I could. Then it was getting into the gym during the week and shooting a lot. I kept reminding myself as I shot. Bend the knees, elbow in, arm straight, snap the wrist, hold it…… Feels good when it all works. Another thing I did during the week was go to the Minnesota Stars individual skills night. They have several of them during the year. I think it’s a really nice idea to help us work on our skills and have coaches on hand to help you improve. It was kind of funny when I first got there I looked around and all I saw was little girls. I was thinking this was the wrong place. I don’t think anyone was older than 12! I guess younger kids come early and older kids wait till the last minute. The older girls came just before it started. I apparently have a lot of younger kid traits or at least the one about coming early. While all this is going on I am starting to dread the day not to far away when the seniors will have their last day at school. I’m going to miss them so much. I have a lot of close friends that are seniors and I just can’t imagine school without them there. I also can’t imagine being a senior next year. It seems like just yesterday I was walking into the school and looking at all the old kids in the halls and feeling so little. It really doesn’t take long and before you know it, you’re starting to look at what college you might want to go to. So you 7th and 8th graders don’t think you have forever because it comes so fast. Boom Boom Pow and you’re going to be a senior.
Last thing I wanted to talk about in this blog is of course my Mom. Since I am putting this up on mother’s day I want to let my mom know how I feel about her. My mom means everything to me. She has given me so much over the years I don’t know how I could ever give her back what she has given me. I love to go up and sit with her and watch a movie or a TV show we both like. We cuddle together and eat some popcorn and just have a good time. She loves me so much and I know it because she tells me all the time. She wouldn’t have to tell me at all because I know it and I feel it all the time. I am so lucky to have the parents I have because I know some people are not so lucky. My mom is a special person that knows exactly what to say to me when things are not going just the way I want. She helps me look at things in a positive way instead of getting down. You just can’t beat the love of a mom! I love my mom. Happy Mothers Day Mommy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4-19-09
"We are all excited to play but also to go see Las Vegas."
It’s been a few weeks since I wrote but I was holding off writing for a while for the State tournament to be over. I wrote parts of this blog over a couple of weeks so if it seems a little disconnected you will know why. I was hoping to be writing a blog about our team making it back to the tournament again this year but we lost to Minneapolis North. I am going to be honest and tell you it was a really hard lose and as with any other team its hard to say goodbye to your seniors. I have been playing ball with these girls for a lot of years here at DeLaSalle. Walking out of the locker room after the game, knowing I wouldn’t be playing with them next year really hit me. As I think about it now it is really motivating me to work hard so as a senior next year we will be back at the State Tournament. The week of the State Tournament we had Wednesday – Friday off for conferences. On Tuesday my family went to Milwaukee to see my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins. We followed the state games on the internet and were surprised by a couple of the outcomes. I didn’t expect Jordan to get beat and STMA was better than I knew. We came home in time to go down to Target Center and see a number of games. It was hard to watch the Minneapolis North team play for the Championship. Both teams played well and it turned out to be a good game. I really enjoyed several games but the AAAA championship game was really good. It was close the entire way which made it a great game to watch. I had not met the Centennial girls on my AAU team yet but I was pulling for them anyway.
The next day I had my first AAU practice and I was really excited to get going. I know it was hard for Kayla and Megan to be back on the court after losing in the State tournament finals the night before. It was exactly what happened to me the year before when we lost in the finals. I think they did a good job and we got a lot of work done that first day. Our shoes and uniforms came in but the Stars coaches who was handling that stuff just got back from vacation. He didn’t have time to get everything ready so we had to wait until our second practice to get our stuff. We got these nice backpacks for our shoes and to keep our other things in. We also got our shoes, uniforms, and warm-ups. I really like the shoes but they look small to me. I hope I don’t regret getting a larger size in a couple weeks. I’m playing for the Minnesota Stars this season and our first tournament in Las Vegas. We are all excited to play but also to go see Las Vegas. I don’t know about everyone else but I have never been to Las Vegas and you always hear so much about the light and the shows that I am looking forward to seeing the place.
Since that first practice we have had a many practices now. I think we are making good progress as a team. This past weekend we had a three hour practice on both Saturday and Sunday. When the Saturday practice was over I started to feel a little sore. The next day I was definitely feeling it. I was thinking to myself “Am I this out of shape already?” I told my dad that was going to run with the track team at school the next week because I was sore after the practice and I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again. I got to practice on Sunday and the first thing the girls asked me was if I was sore. I don’t know why but it made me feel good that it wasn’t just me that was sore. We worked hard for three hours so it wasn’t that bad to be sore but it was just about a week since I last played. It was shocking how quick I felt I was not in as good of shape as I figured I was. Running with the track team will help me for the practices and the games. I feel really good about this team as basketball players but also as people I like spending time with. I’m sure we are going to have a blast this summer. It’s what makes AAU so fun! Making new friends and learning more about the game we all love. Can’t think of anything I’d rather do!
Oh before I forget to say something I went to see “Knowing” the movie with some of my friends and it was one of the best movies I had seen in a while. Going out with my friends reminded me of how much I miss the girls from my high school team. I told them all that once the April tournaments are out of the way, we are going to have a party so we can hang out together again for a little while. The spring seemed to be going pretty good until coach Frye saw me at lunch on Thursday and asked me if we could talk for a minute. I said sure and sat down at one of the tables in the lunchroom away from everybody else. He told me that we should go to his office. That was not a good sign and it turned out to be a pretty bad day. He wanted to tell me he was NOT going to be the coach at DeLaSalle next year. What? You’re what? He told me about what his plans were and I was just thinking. What? You’re what? I‘ve learned so much from him and not just about basketball. You don’t know how much I will miss having him as my coach. You don’t know how much I will miss him as a person. You don’t know how much I will miss him as a mentor. I know he will always be there if I need to talk to him and he will always support me. The bad side is know it will have to be a different than it was in the past. As hard as it is I have to remember how luck I have been to have him as my coach for the last few years. When I start to get down and wonder about the future I remind myself that without him, and the other coaches I have had along the way I wouldn’t be where I am now. Next year is going to be very different and at this point I don’t even know how different until we have a new coach. I hope it happens soon so we can get to know the new coach and start our summer workouts on time.
It had been over a year since I was on a plane and so I was really scared as the trip to Las Vegas got closer. I just had to tell myself that it was going to be ok and I did fine. I had a window seat and when we hit turbulence for the first time I grabbed my dad’s arm. He just laughed and told me it was no big deal. After just a little while I was having a good time and loving the flight. The landing was fun and now I can’t wait for the trip home. We got to our hotel at about 8:00pm and since that is 10:00pm in Minneapolis I figured it would be good to get ready for bed. The next day we played two games and did really well. We won both games by more than 20 points and it was a lot of fun to be playing again. After the games we went down to New York New York as a team. We all went on the roller coaster at the casino and it was a lot of fun. Not sure I would pay $14 for one ride again but it was fun to do together. I am trying to get my dad to let me go on the Power Tower ride on top of this building here in Vegas. I’ll let you know later how that ends up. After the ride we all went to eat with the parents at ESPN Sports Zone. I got Chicken strips like I always do. I bet it won’t be long before the girls laugh at me for ordering the same thing every time. Just like they did on other teams I was on. Today we got up and went down to play in our first game of the day. The team we played had a player that was fast, and passed well and never missed a shot. When I say she never missed a shot I mean she NEVER missed. I think she had like 20+ points and shot 100 % with many of the 3’s. We ended up losing that game but I think we learned as a team that we need to be tougher. Losing is only bad if you don’t learn from it. It’s another thing Coach Frye stressed to us. Winning all the time is fun but you don’t get better as a team. If you don’t challenge yourselves how will you know what you can do? We will be a better team because of this game and I hope we see that team again later in the year. I know if we do we will play a better game. I think I will blog again after I get home from the tournament and let you know how the flight home was. I am confident it will be good but I got my fingers crossed for a smooth flight just in case.
2-26-09
"It’s a different game for sure but it really helps me see what hard work can accomplish."
The regular season is very close to over. It means we are going to have senior night soon and that is one of the days I hate the most. In my situation I have played with all our seniors for the last three year but with several of them it has been longer than that. I started playing on the DeLaSalle AAU team with Ashley before her freshman year at DeLaSalle and I played with Meme before her 8th grade year. Michelle Harris went to the same grade school as I did and so it brings back a lot of those memories. We have known each other for so many years. It will be very weird not having these people around next year. This time of the year always makes me look back and remember different things from my basketball past. I bet I’m not alone thinking this way. I bet everyone does it when they realize the seniors will be leaving soon. It makes me think back to when I first watched a DeLaSalle basketball game and saw Patricia Hall and Talicia Jackson running up and down the court. My eyes must have been huge watching that game. Those girls became my heroes and I wanted to be just like them. It also makes me think back to when I played with Michelle Harris, Nikki Carlson, Nicole Dooher, Capriece Ogris, and Christine Hanks on the Cooper 8th Grade State Championship Team. All those girls are graduating from high school this year. Wow! It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating at a water park together. You never forget your teammates because you spend so much time together working for a common goal. It will be so different next year that I would rather not even think about it now. You try to keep track of the girls that have gone on to play college basketball. A couple of them are up at Saint Cloud State. Aaryn Booker and Rachel Booth both play there and they are in town to play Concordia this week. A number of us are going to cheer on our former teammates. It should be a really good time. I have not seen them since around Christmas when they came to one of our games. You go from playing in grade school to High School and if you’re lucky enough you get to play in college. This past week I went back to my grade school and watched the little girl’s team play. When I was at the school the 8th grades had “buddies” in kindergarten and my buddy was Kaily. Well she is old enough now to start playing basketball and I finally found a day when I could go watch her and her classmates play. It’s a different game for sure but it really helps me see what hard work can accomplish. It was not that long ago that I played the game just like these girls do. The game was really fun and I enjoyed it a lot. After the game I went over to the team and a lot of them came running up to me and gave me a big hug. Kaily just gave me the biggest hug and it made me feel great knowing we still had a little bond from all that time we spent together a few years ago. She really is pretty good and I will be watching her career as she gets older. Her team came to watch us play a few weeks ago and I can’t help but wonder if any of them had the same huge eyes I had when I was that age watching DeLaSalle Play.
The past week has had a number of events in our house. The dog we have been watching for my Aunt finally went to join them on an island off the coast of France called Jersey States. The first time we tried to send him the cage was to small so my dad built a bigger cage. We will miss him a lot but we know his family missed him while he lived with us. My AAU team will be playing in Las Vegas in April and so in the last week we purchased the airline tickets and made reservations for the hotel. I am looking forward to the trip but I am putting it out of my mind for now. We still have a number of games to play with the high school team so I want to stay as focused as possible. I think we are playing pretty well right now but you can always improve and be a better team. Chelsea Jacox is finally back from the injury she suffered during the pre season tournament at Park Cottage Grove. She will make us a better team for sure. The season will be over this week and then we enter the playoffs. We want to play as hard as we can so that we can play with the seniors as long as possible. I am really looking forward to the games and the challenge we face. We will see what we are made of and see the rewards of all the hard work we put in during the season. I know the road ahead is not going to be easy because our section has a number of quality teams. The one thing we know for sure is that our section will have a strong team in the state tournament. It’s really going to be a very interesting few weeks.
2-2-09
"Coach Frye has all the juniors working with someone to make sure we are ready to take the ACT."
It’s been quite a while since I last wrote anything. So much has happened in that time but it seems like just yesterday that we were getting ready to start practice in November. I feel like I should have written a few times about how things were going but somehow I always ran out of time. I’m going to try to write something every week or two from now on. I think it could be interesting to hear about how things go on a team from the start of the season till the end. I hope to at least let you see how things go as the regular season winds down. Playing basketball is a lot of work. We practice many hours a week and give up a lot of our free time to do something we all love. This year is a little different since it is my junior year. It is an important year to make sure I keep my grades high and to prepare for the ACT. Coach Frye has all the juniors working with someone to make sure we are ready to take the ACT. I am so happy he makes the time for us to do this and for getting the classes setup for us. I know for me it has made a huge difference. I am confident going in that I will do well. If we didn’t work with MaryAnne I would probably be scared or nervous. I wouldn’t know what to expect but I feel very ready. We are very lucky to play basketball for Coach Frye and DeLaSalle High School.
So now let me tell you about the season so far. Early in the season we were learning to play together. Since we lost 4 starters from last year’s team it has taken some time to get to know how each of us plays and how we can play best together. I think we have been a bit inconsistent in the way we play from game to game. I am sure this is for the same reason but we are improving as we come together as a team. We work hard each day in practice to be the best team that we can be. The coaches have done a great job preparing us and have us ready for each game with scouting reports that are right on. I am always impressed with how accurate they are each game. We unfortunately have not always done a good job of following the scouting report. It is frustrating to me when we don’t play well and when we watch film and see how we made mistakes. Mistakes that we should not have made knowing what the coaches had told us. I imagine it must be even more frustrating for them. Things really do seem to be coming together a little more each game. I believe our best basketball is still ahead of us. It will have to be because we have a very difficult section. Our section is full of good teams from top to bottom. Almost any team could win the section. We know we have a lot of work to do between now and the end of the season. I have faith in our team and coaches. We lost a couple more games this year than we have in the last few years but I think we are a stronger team because of it. The losses show us that we have work to do to get to where we want to be. It forces us to look in the mirror and ask what we can do to help the team win. Coach Frye talks about a shared joy, when the joy comes from being a team and working toward a goal as a group. If we really are a “Team” then the team success will give us joy and not how we as a player perform. It’s much easier to say than it is to do. A lot of times people only look at points and don’t see the little things players contribute to a team. Little things are a lot of times more important to a win but most of the time they are not even noticed by the average fan. We need to keep focused on our shared joy for the rest of the season.I have watched games where the a team looks like a bunch of stars trying to shine. Most of the time those teams don’t win as many games as they should. We have just a few weeks left before the playoffs start. I think its going to be really fun! Our Section should produce a really good team for the state tournament. We hope we can be that team.
Looking at the rest of the regular season we have a number of conference games and one non-conference game against Grand Rapids. . None of the games will be bigger than the game against Minnehaha on Feb 14th at DeLaSalle. They beat us in the first game this year and so we have to win the next game if we want to win the conference. They are really good and rated one of the best teams in the state for AAA. We have several games to play before the 14th and I have to admit it will be difficult not to think about the Minnehaha game. I know the coaches will keep us really focused on who we are playing but that game will mean a lot and both teams will really want it. It will be a great game to watch. See ya there?
12-6-09
"We are so proud to play for DeLaSalle and Coach Frye."
I’m just sitting around before our first game of the season and thought I would update you all on how things have been going. First thing that seems kind of weird is that we are playing our first game today. Today is December 5th and many teams had a first game a while ago. My dad told me that Hopkins and some other teams have already played 4 games. We all play about the same number of games by the end of the season and I think we will be catching up quick. We have 5 games over the next 8 days. That seems more like AAU than High School Basketball. We had a scrimmage at Park Cottage Grove and also against New Life Academy. During one of the Park Cottage Grove scrimmages Chelsey Jacox hurt her knee. She will be out for a while so we’ll have to find a way to get it done without her. We have a couple other small injuries but for the most part we are fine. Since we did not have any games over the weekend I went to watch some games. My dad and I messed up and came after the Centennial vs St Paul Central game. I really wanted to see that game since some girls I know played. I did see Minneapolis North beat Andover in the first game and then I watched Hopkins and Minneapolis South. It was very interesting to see the way that game went. Hopkins is so deep that they play like 13 girls each game. I don’t think we will be going that deep on the bench. I really am so excited about the beginning of the season. We have been working really hard to be a good team. I have to say that this team does really work together very hard and I stress the word together. Everyone seems to have the same goal of being the best team we can and to play as long as we can in the spring. I am so impressed with the attitudes of the girls on the team. This is a very positive group of girls we have and I think it will help us in the end. The other thing that is really exciting is that we have new uniforms this season. Coach Frye told us that the Athletic Director, Darcy, did a lot of fighting for us to get them. So Darcy if you read this another big THANK YOU from all of us. We got some really awesome shoes and basketball bags this year also. I think the coaches and the school really do take care of us well. We are so proud to play for DeLaSalle and Coach Frye. Tonight we are going to play Hibbing at DeLaSalle. Last year we went up to Hibbing and had to stay an extra night because of the weather. It was this huge snow storm and the bus driver couldn’t see anything. It was a lot of fun to hang out together so I think that turned out better anyway. I heard we are suppose to get snow tonight. I think it would be funny if we did and they had to stay an extra day also. After Hibbing we play Kennedy at the breakdown in Becker. We played them in St Cloud in August at the Sweet 16. They beat us but it was a very close game. I hope we can win this time but I’m sure they have the same ideas. We then play Blaine, Concordia Academy and Marshall. I am just really so excited about the game tonight and the upcoming season. I will be updating you next after we finish up with our 5 games in 8 days.
11-16-08
"It’s awesome to work together toward a goal that we are all shooting for."
Well it’s here and I am so excited. Tomorrow we start the 2008-2009 basketball season. I got a little bit of that feeling over the weekend when I helped out at the freshman tryouts. I remember just a couple of years ago I was one of those freshman. Scared and worried about every little thing. I have learned you need to be consistent. One play here or one play there doesn’t make that much of a difference unless you keep thinking about them. You need to learn to put them out of your head as soon as they happen. If you worry about them more bad things are sure to follow. If I only knew then what I know now what an advantage I would have. I guess that is the advantage juniors and seniors have over the younger players. They call it experience and it is very important. It’s so hard to believe that I am a junior already. It sure doesn’t take long. The only thing that is the same is how excited I am the night before tryouts. The truth is that I look forward to this day more than almost any other day of the year. It’s awesome to work together toward a goal that we are all shooting for. I really enjoy spending time with my teammates, trying to improve our team so we can play as long into the year as possible. I really think we have good coaches and I try to learn everything I can from them. I know how hard they work and how much they care about us. Tomorrow is the first day and it looks like were going to have tryouts in the evening and then again on Tuesday morning. In the afternoon we find out what team we have made or didn’t make. Once we find out we have our first practice that same evening. I bet coach wished we could have started sooner. We don’t have much time to prepare since we have a number of scrimmages on the 22nd at Park Cottage Grove. We will play a lot of really good teams that day and it will give a good idea what we need to work on. We lost 4 out of 5 starts last year and so I think we will get better and better as the year goes on and we learn to play together. The teams we will be playing will be, Saint Paul Central, Lakeville South, Minneapolis South, Eden Prairie, and Apple Valley. What a quality bunch of teams! It will be a huge test but we are looking forward to it because you have to play these kind of teams to improve.
This evening I had a few of the players over to the house and we played video games, watched TV, and ate a bunch of food. I thought it would be nice to get together one more time before we have tryouts and make sure everyone is relaxed and having fun. I think about this stuff a lot more than I used to. I feel I have always been a team player but this year I am thinking a lot more about “the Team” and what I can do to help us be the best we can. Maybe it’s because I’m a junior or maybe it’s because I’m a captain. I really don’t know but I do know that I feel so much more able to think about other things like this. When I was a freshman I did everything I could to make sure I was doing exactly what the coaching staff wanted from us. I was always thinking about what I should be doing in what situation. It comes much more natural now. I guess they call that Maturity and I guess I’m getting a little bit of it. This is going to be such a great year. I am so excited to get going.
11-2-08
"One of the things I love to do with my dad is to go to the gym and work on my game."
So the season is just around the corner and I am getting so excited. We lost 5 seniors last year and 4 of those seniors started. One thing we can say for sure is that things will be very different here. We don’t play in any of the fall leagues but most of us have started lifting weights and participating in workouts for speed, agility, and just getting in shape for the start of the season. The season is long and since it will start in a couple weeks I decided to try to take some time to relax and do stuff I know I won’t have time to do in the next several months. During the season we have about 3 hours of practice / weights / classroom each day. Add to that 1 – 3 hours of homework and studying each night and you can see how little time we have during the week. I really don’t want to sound like I don’t like it because as a said before I love basketball, and my teammates are nearly as close to me as my family. It’s a reality that comes along with all the stuff I love so much. Basketball gives me a lot but requires a lot also. If you want to be good and you want to win it takes a big commitment. The rewards for sure outweigh the hours of hard work it takes. In a typical day I get to school between 7:30 and 8:00 am and get out at 3:00pm. I try to get to bed between 10:00 and 11:00pm and that leaves about 7 – 8 hours from the time school lets out until I go to bed. So if I have 3 hours of basketball and 2 hours of study and homework, that only leaves 2 hours for eating, driving to and from school, waiting for practice to start at 3:30, and doing my chores around the house. As you can imagine, the weekends give me the best chance to do things with my family and friends, but many times we have a game or a practice on Saturday so even the weekend is cut short. As we get closer to the start of the season, I am making sure to I do the stuff I know will be hard to do during the season. Like last weekend, many of my uncles and aunts decided to visit my aunt in Wisconsin. Since my parents could not go, I asked if I could go with them so I would be able to see my cousins before the season starts. It also gave me a good chance to hang around with all my uncles and aunts. My parents are talking about going back another time before the season starts, which would really be nice. I have made it a priority to spend as much time as I can with my friends that do not play basketball. Once the season starts I will see them in school and once in a while on the weekends, but mostly I will not be able to hang out with them as much. Another thing I have been doing is going over to my Aunt Gina’s house. She records some shows like “America’s Next Top Model” and then we spend a good half day watching them, eating snacks, and just having fun. My family is really important to me, so I have tried to find things to do with them also. I kind of pushed my parents to try to have dinners each day where we can all eat together since that will not be possible during the season very often. I also asked if we could get some pizza or something like that once a week and all sit around and talk on Sunday evenings. This has really been a good time, and I think it has made us closer, but we also have a better idea of what each person is up to. My brother loves playing video games, and so I spend some time with him playing rock band or some other game he likes to play. My sister Brittany is in college and so our schedules don’t allow us to spend much time together, but we have been doing more over the last few weeks and we will continue it at least until the season starts. As for my mom, we like to cuddle up and watch movies together, and we have done that a number of times over the last few weeks. One of the things I love to do with my dad is to go to the gym and work on my game. We work hard but we also have fun. I know I decided to do things away from the game for a few weeks but I never said I was going to stop working on my game. My dad and I have gone to the gym most days over the past few weeks and we will continue to until the season starts. I am so excited about the upcoming season that I just can’t wait for it to get going. As funny as it might sound to some of you I am looking forward to practice. I am looking forward to killers or lines or whatever your coach calls them. They are what help us win that close game. The game we need to win the conference or the game that we need to continue in the state tournament. I am looking forward to box out and rebounding drills and early morning practice. I understand because of those things I can also looking forward to playing on a good team. I am looking forward to winning games and hitting big shots. Look forward to spending tons of time with my teammates and coaches. I am looking forward to it all. I’m just EXCITED!
9-14-08
"Basketball has given me a good lesson in priorities."
I was wondering what I would write about in this blog entry. I could write about things that happened to me at school and at home. I could tell you all about the fact that I am finally in Drivers Ed and going to be able to driver. People that know me are saying “It’s about time!” I could tell you about my friend that I went to visit in the hospital because she had meningitis. It’s not a fun thing to have and they are very careful to make sure it does not spread. It was a little strange because they had gowns and masks and gloves outside her room. She had been taking medication for over 24 hours before we visited so we didn’t need to wear any of the stuff, but it was weird seeing a friend in the hospital so sick. It does make you think a little bit about how much people mean to you. So I asked myself what I could write about this time. Since DeLaSalle does not play in any fall basketball leagues, I could not write about that. Since the season does not start for more than a month, I could not write about practices and games. So I decided to write a little bit about how basketball has helped me. I don’t know if I really know all the things it has done for me. My parents tell me I will realize more and more as the years go on how it has helped make me who I am. I do know it has forced me to be more organized and able to manage my time well. I don’t see anyway to play sports and get good grades without being organized and manage your time well. Basketball has given me a good lesson in priorities. Many times I need to decide against things I would like to do because I have a game the next day or practice. Sometimes I can’t do things because I need to have enough time to finish my homework and study to maintain my grades. I have been told many times that playing basketball is a privilege and that I need to earn it. I would love to just sit around and watch some TV or a movie when I get home from school or practice. I know that won’t work and I need to make the choice to get my homework and studying finished first. Basketball is the same because it’s easy to cheat a drill a lot of the times. It’s easy to say you made 3 more free throws in the last drill than you actually did. It does not help you, or the coach, or the team if you do. Another thing I have learned is commitment. I learned right away in basketball that the more I threw myself into practice and games the better I got and the more I was able to help the team. I learned that first in basketball and used it to improve my grades. If I fully committed myself to getting the best grades I could, I found that I got good grades. Simple when I say it like that but not so simple because if your priority and commitment are not there, it’s hard to get yourself to work that hard. I have heard that “Nothing worthwhile is easy” and “You have to work hard for what you want”. In basketball if you want to play on some really good teams you have to work hard. The same is true in school and because of basketball I understand what hard work is and that it will help me with school work. In basketball if you’re not working really hard the girl next to you probably is. If you want time on the court then you better work hard. In school if you want really good grades you better work hard. All of this would not be possible if I did not also learn discipline and determination. In basketball and in school if you want to get better, you have to set your mind to it and just do it. It’s easy to get ok grades in school but that’s not going to get you where you want to go in life. If you are determined and disciplined then you will achieve things you never could expect. As a little girl I would watch the state tournament on TV. I would see some of those girls in the gym and would think how cool it would be to be able to do that. I never expected at that time to be able to say that I have played in the state tournament champion game two years in a row. I guess the point is that with hard work, commitment, disciple, determination, and knowing your priorities you can achieve a lot.
8-24-08
I love Basketball!!
Since this is my first blog, I figured I might tell you a little bit about myself and my school, and then tell you a little bit about my summer. I go to DeLaSalle High School, which is located about 50 feet from downtown Minneapolis. I am not sure it's 50 feet, but I think I might be able to toss a basketball down the road, and it would get to downtown before it stopped. We are known as the Islanders, because the school is actually located on an island, on the Mississippi river. We play in the Tri-Metro Conference, and we are a class AAA school. The last three seasons we have finished 3rd, 2nd, and 2nd, in the state tournament. It is so hard to get so close, and then to lose, but I keep reminding myself that so many other players just wish to get to the tournament, and never do. We are so lucky to have those experiences, and I don't ever want to think any other way. We have a very tough section, and to return to state again this year will be difficult, but I think we have the talent to make a good run. I have one sister, Brittany, and one brother, Darin. My mom is Chris, and my dad is Stan, and we live in N.E. Minneapolis. I still watch the Disney Channel, and I am a Hannah Montana fan. I like reality shows like, "So You Think You Can Dance," "High School Musical - Get in the Picture," and of course "American Idol." I love bright colors, but mostly green, and I just painted my room in wide stripes, of different shades of bright green. I will almost always get chicken strips when I go to a restaurant. Anybody that has played with me, and has done a between game dinner stop, will know that. I'm a little OCD at times, but learning to work with it (ha-ha). Last but not least, I love and I mean LOVE to play basketball. I played traveling basketball for the Cooper Hawks and won the State 8AAAAA championship. This will be my 5th year of playing basketball at some level, at DeLaSalle High School, and I would not trade it for anything else. I have been very blessed over the year, to have some outstanding coaches at all levels I have played at. I played for DeLaSalle's AAU team, for a couple of years. I then played for the Minnesota Stars for one year. I then moved to the Metro Stars for the next two years. The first year I played with the Metro Stars we won the State 15U AAU Championship. I try to go to as many games of my AAU teammates as I can, but high school schedules don't make it easy. I hope you get a little bit of a feeling for who I am, and now I will tell you a little bit about my summer. Since I start school, most likely before you even read this, (Aug 25, 2008) the summer is over. I had a really fun summer! I swam a lot at my cousin's house. I think I also improved my game a lot. I know I improved my defensive game a lot. I think I really worked hard with help from my coaches, and it paid off. Everybody has a different level of ability, and to get the most out of that ability, you have to work hard. I am very dedicated to improving my game all year long, and I work everyday on my game. I work with Jimmy Rogers from Basketball Plus, at least once a week, and it has made a difference. I also got some help from my coach, Carl Scales, who took time to work with me. DeLaSalle summer workouts were also a lot of help, and I attended PointGuardCollege. My dad and I went to the gym down at our church, and shot any day I could find time. That is what I did away from my Metro Stars White team. Our team had at least two practices each week, and we played 2-3 weekends a month, and many of those tournaments included travel. It's a lot of hard work in hot gyms, when many of our friends are just hanging out all summer. The fact is that I would not do it if I did not love it. I love working on my game. I love to learn something new about the game. I love basketball!!
Carissa
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