Tonight was the final intersquad scrimmage for the basketball team before they begin their season in just a few short weeks. The girls ended up scrimmaging the men’s JV basketball players instead of themselves. This way they were able to use their substitutions a little more and play against people who did not know their own plays. The scrimmage ended up running smoothly, so that is promising for the season. Other coaches here at TU helped check in fans through a new ticketing system, so fans had to pre-register for the scrimmage before coming into the gym. As far as I know, this is the system that will be used in a few weeks when play begins.
I am thrilled that I have completed my hours now! I squeezed a lot of hours into a short amount of time. I am thankful for my boss and for Miriam with being flexible with changing schedules and understanding the long days I was putting in to complete my hours on time. This experience really opened my eyes to another program on campus, and how things are operated behind the scenes. Each athletic program truly is a business of their own, and each has a different way of operating themselves.
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Today was the final “Wisdom Wednesday” so we wrapped it up with one final “Filler Word” activity. I did this one a little different, so the girls had to do two rounds without using any filler words. I set all the index cards on the floor face down, and had the girls each choose two. This way they had a little time to think about their speech and prepare a better one-minute standup presentation. This is still uncomfortable for the girls, but the more they practice speaking in front of others, the better they will be at it! I keep telling the girls, it is better to practice within an environment where you know everyone than it is to present in front of strangers….at least during this part of their lives.
There are not enough girls in practice to run three full teams to scrimmage, so the coaching staff is modifying the drills and game-play just a little. As of now, it will be this way when the scrimmage rolls around on Friday as well. We received word yesterday their first game that was scheduled for December 3rd is now either postponed or cancelled. Lake Erie is currently in quarantine. I have a feeling this will not be the last time this happens to their team. What a time to be alive.
Happy Monday y’all. Volleyball is done for the semester, but I am still attending basketball practice in the gym. Again, my hours are so close I can taste it! I will have over 200 hours by the end of this week! I planned to wrap things up before Thanksgiving, so all the preparation and calculating of hours paid off here. Basketball practices are blurring together, if I am being completely honest. I hear the same play sets being called practice after practice, so by this point the team should have an understanding of what is going on. I would say for the most part yes, the girls know what the system is, but there will always be a little bit of a hiccup with college athletes. Same goes with our kiddos….some days there are smoother practices than others. Other days it looks like we are competing for a national championship. Like the flipping of a coin.
I am really looking forward to finishing up my masters. Not that I do not enjoy basketball practice, but I am a little tired of being in the gym each day. I want to have just a small amount of time that is not spent in the gym or working on discussion posts or papers. The time is NEAR! Another Friday afternoon spent in the gym for both my mentorship and my actual job here at TU. Yippee! I am getting so close to finishing my hours…..the light at the end of this dark tunnel is near. The basketball girls are having another scrimmage in just one week, so there is preparation happening in practices for that. I have noticed improvement as far as speed and quickness with the girls, but some are still forgetting how to run some plays. I am sure this is something Miriam and her staff are attempting to address with the team. I am unable to attend tomorrow’s practice (Saturday) but I believe the breakdown of plays will be a focal point.
With volleyball we have plays, but mainly we rely on our hitters to make the proper calls themselves. We do a lot of breakdown skill work so we can trust they are making informed decisions. Our setter calls the initial offense, but our hitters make the calls thereafter. Our freshmen are catching on, but it is taking them a while to understand our offensive system. Just as past Thursday’s go, this one was no different. Early mornings spent in the gym/ weight room before everyone else’s workday begins! This is also a reason I do not feel guilty leaving the office when I can at 2:00pm. The girls, in my opinion, practiced the hardest they have thus far in the season. Even the girls who (probably) won’t see a lot of playing time are stepping their game up. The offense is speeding up and the girls are executing what the coaches are teaching them. I know I have said this in posts before, but this is not rocket science. If each kid just trusted the coach in what they are trying to teach and implement, the season would run A LOT smoother. This is not just basketball- this goes for our volleyball kids as well. Part of this is beating bad habits out of kids too. Sometimes high school coaches never teach the fundamentals, because kids are talented enough to get away with bad habits in high school. This is frustrating as a coach, but it comes with the territory. Just imagine if we did not have to always start at the beginning and each kid caught on in two days. Wishful thinking!
Today I spent a good part of the afternoon preparing for “Wisdom Wednesday.” Today’s topic was budgeting! This was something my parents had worked with me on before, but I am fully aware not every kid has parents who help them manage money. I told the girls a few times that post-college life will be here before you know it, and you will have to learn how to manage your monthly paycheck. Under the “projects” section of this website the files I worked with are shown. I printed each of the girls a budget sheet, and made them fill in the blanks as I went along. I averaged some of the numbers, but got as close as I thought I could with a recent graduate salary. A few of them were shocked as to how far a paycheck does not go. I also spoke about the “emergency fund” and why this is necessary. My parents always told me to have $1,000 in case of an emergency, and I also took a Dave Ramsey course in high school that said the same thing. This, again, was a bit of a shock to the girls. At the end of the final budget there was only $117 per month left from the paycheck after bills were paid. I told the girls to consider working more than one job, especially if weekends or night shifts pay double. Just some life tips from someone who works multiple jobs to pay bills.
Tuesday involved a weight room session and more individual skill sessions. I am a little envious of basketball players in the sense they do not need a lot of equipment to work on skills. Volleyball on the other hand is a whole other beast. The nets need to be set up, the floor lines need to be accurate, and there is only so much one individual can do at a time. Volleyball works best if there are three or more in one group at a time. We have (literally) double the amount of athletes on our team, and half the coaches (currently) so we are unable to break down in individual skill sessions like basketball does. One can dream, however!
From an outside point of view, I can see who is picking up on drills, plays, and critiques more than others. It should not be a surprise to the girls once game play begins who is playing and who is sitting and watching. Nothing is rocket science (I tell my kids that too), but some athletes just pick things up quicker than others. Those who pick up quicker tend to be more successful on the floor. Not rocket science, just college athletics. Another Monday, another practice. It took a little bit for the girls to liven up today, but that seems to be common across the board. Our girls are the same way. Tomorrow (Tuesday) they are practicing for the first time in five days, so that should be interesting. There was more game play during practice today than there has been for the last few weeks. I believe Miriam is implementing a faster offense than was present last year, so weeks leading up to this has been the breakdown of said offense. Live play for about 15 minutes showed just what the team is doing well, and what they need to work on still. I am curious to see how the faster, more fluid offense works when they begin play in about three weeks. With a new coaching staff comes new changes. Two of the four coaches for the girls are brand new, so there has to be adjusting happening on both ends. The girls are asking questions and appear to be connecting with the two new coaches more so than they were even one month ago. With changes comes un-comfortability, so kudos to both the staff and the kids.
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Sarah ParkerThis is where you'll find blog posts about the activities I will be doing with the basketball team. Archives
November 2020
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