I drove up with our 2 other teammates (Coach Webster was going to meet us there later that night) to a campsite just outside the city of Ludington. We had to drive through torrential rain storms that truly tested my driving stamina and mental toughness, all the while hoping and praying that we wouldn’t have to set our brand new tent up in the rain. After a 4 hour drive we got to our campsite, which was relatively dry, and got everything set up. We had a very private campsite until 6 hooligans drove up to the site right next to us and proceeded to set up their 3 tents practically on top of ours. We decided to build a fire and wait for Coach Webster to get there before going to bed for a good night’s sleep before our game the following morning. But a phone call from Coach Webster at 11:00 pm informed us that she was literally driving through a tornado and didn’t know if 1) she should continue driving or 2) she should let herself get swept up by the 40 mph winds and hope that randomly she would drop in our campsite.

She finally made it that night and we all headed to bed tired but excited for the tournament. However, a good night’s sleep was not in the cards for us. Not only did we have to deal with our loud neighbors, we didn’t bring any sort of sleeping pads or air mattresses so we slept on the rock hard ground. AND it started storming about an hour into our slumber. Needless to say, the 4 of us probably slept for a total of 3 hours and we all woke up with sore backs and necks.

Saturday morning was a new day and we shook the rain off our tent and wiped the sleep from our eyes (or lack thereof). We headed to our court, the top flight women’s court, and it was literally 5 feet from the beach of Lake Michigan. I have never seen so many people at a Gus Macker tournament in my life. There were over 3,500 participants and at least 50 people crowded around our court for every game. To say we absolutely dominated would be an understatement. We stayed in the winner’s bracket the entire time and Sunday afternoon we were standing on the beach taking a team picture holding up our trophies.

Looking back on our weekend, a couple quotes keep going though my mind:

1. “Players play, tough players win.”

2. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

3. and that “We are the Champions” song keeps playing in my head at random times throughout the day…weird

On June 27th, all of our newcomers will be joining us to take summer school classes and get started with summer workouts. We’re so excited to have them all here! And just recently, we got a new addition to that incoming class. Her name is Kayla Drake and she’s a transfer from Eastern Kentucky University. She’s a really tough guard that really established herself by getting Freshman of the Year in the Ohio Valley Conference. She’s originally from Kokomo, IN, and we’re really happy to have her coming back to her home state to play for us! You can check out more on our website at http://www.gomastodons.com.

Outside of work, I’ve been pretty busy too! Over Memorial Day weekend, six of my teammates from college and I went to Las Vegas for 4 days and 3 nights for vacation. It was a blast! There was always something going on and tons of people. We went to see a lot of the sights, but my favorite was the fountains at the Bellagio. Then this past weekend, I went to Morris, IL to play the Gus Macker tournament there with one of my college teammates and a couple of her friends. We obviously came away champions! The last day was a little rough though because it rained most of the day which made the sport court pretty slick. The first game seemed like we were playing in ice skates, but it cleared up later on so we could continue our domination!! This weekend I’m headed up to Milwaukee to meet up with some college friends and play in the Wisconsin Kickball State Tournament. I had no idea it even existed until my buddy called me, but we all thought it sounded like a lot of fun! Then in a couple of weekends, Coach Mann, two friends or ours, and I are playing in another Gus Macker in Luddington, MI. I’ll make sure Coach Mann updates you after that one!

Hope all is well and that your summer is going great! Until next time…

Gus Macker Champions!!

With the season ending and the July evaluation period still a couple months away, I was able to take a little vacation time. Colorado was calling my name and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get some downhill skiing in. On my list of favorite things to do, basketball is tops, but skiing makes a strong case for #2 on the list. So I hopped on a plane and met up with my family in Winter Park, CO for 5 days. Now the last time I had been skiing was my senior year of high school where I got a little too aggressive and ended up being driven off the hill on the back of a snowmobile after taking a nasty spill from going airborne over a monster jump. I’d like to say I learned my lesson, but I still have a need for speed and adventure so by day 3 on the slopes I was fearlessly bombing around the jumps once again. I’m happy to say that besides some minor aches and pains I came out injury free and I’m looking forward to making the trip again next year.

I hope that you all are finishing up the school year strongly and getting ready for summer basketball. The staff here is anxious to get out and see all the great talent this July. Keep working hard and we’ll see you soon!

As coaches, we’ve been doing a lot of work on recruiting since the season ended. We’ve had a lot of campus visits and are really getting to know the 2010 class that we are recruiting. As of April 9, we were able to make our first phone call so that’s been fun to finally be able to talk to recruits and get to know them better! During the weekend of April 17-19, all of us were able to get out and see some AAU tournaments to give us a little teaser of what’s to come in July. I was in Raleigh, NC for the Deep South Classic, and I thoroughly enjoyed the 80 degree weather!! It was awesome to see good, competitive basketball, and I strongly believe the athletic ability and talent just keeps getting better and better in women’s basketball.

Other than campus visits, May and June are pretty low key months for us. We’ve been trying to take advantage of that by getting our vacations in and spending some extra time with family. Coach Mann took a trip right after season to Denver to go skiing with her family, Coach Paul took his whole family to Disneyland a couple of weeks ago, and Coach O’Connell just came back from a trip to Florida to see her sister and her new niece! My vacation is coming up on Memorial Day weekend, and I can’t wait! I’m going to Las Vegas with six of my teammates from college and really looking forward to relaxing and warm weather.

I actually had a pretty action-packed weekend, too. On Saturday, I bought myself a car – a 2007 black Chevy Trailblazer that I LOVE!! Then yesterday, I went to Game 4 of the Bulls/Celtics series and I must say that is was one of the best games I’ve ever seen. It was a double OT game that stayed close throughout, but the Bulls ended up pulling it off with a 121-118 victory. I am continually more and more impressed with Derrick Rose and how he carries himself on and off the court. Ben Gordon stepped up and had some big shots, and the un-sung hero for that team is Kirk Hinrich. He works so hard on every play and does all the little things. Now they just have to get one in Boston, and you never know what can happen!! It’s so good to see exciting playoff basketball again in Chicago!

Well, we have a visit coming today so I have to get going to get prepared. Hope you are doing well, and we’ll be doing weekly postings from now on so check back in soon!!

I hope you are all doing well and getting ready to enjoy a great holiday season. I am currently at home in Crown Point, Indiana. We have four days off of practice before our next game (December 29 @ Wright State) which is the longest span of time I’ve had for Christmas since my freshman year of college, so I’m looking forward to enjoying the holiday and being with family.

We played a very tough game against Duquesne yesterday that we lost 77-64 to put us at 2-8 (1-1 in the Summit League) for the season so far. Duquesne is a very fast-paced and solid basketball team, but we really played them tough. It was a heartbreaking game for us because our players did everything they needed to do to put themselves in the position to win a game, but we just struggled to put the ball in the basket.  I thought we did an excellent job taking care of their pressure, our defense was solid, and we got plenty of shots but we just couldn’t knock them down. Right now, we are so close to where we need to be and we see small improvements every day. Once this team totally gels and finds a way to put it all together, I think we are going to be very dangerous. And the thing we keep reminding our players is that the goal is to win a conference championship, so all of these tough battles we fight only prepare us more for those games to come.

Personally and professionally, things have been pretty busy for me! Between traveling to play, recruiting trips, and all the craziness of the holiday season, it seems like I’ve been running around quite a bit lately. I tend to get in these moods where I need to just go, go, go, and about a week ago I spent a day Christmas shopping then came home to wrap everything and get prepared, then I wrote all my Christmas cards, and then I cleaned my entire apartment top to bottom!! It was a long day for me, but when I have order in my life it centers me. Lately, I’ve been trying to take up cooking/baking. I’ve really been getting in to it and loving every minute of it! Pretty soon I’ll have my own show on the Food Network and Emril will be calling me for recipes

Other than that, I’ve just been watching, listening to, and scouting basketball as much as possible. I have to agree with Coach Mann and what she wrote earlier about always having a game on. It’s so much fun now that I know coaches at other schools and watching their progress, and that combined with watching my favorite teams (Duke men, the Bulls, and the Celtics) has been great so far. The other team I’ve been following closely is my Chicago Bears who just had a HUGE win tonight over the Packers which is always that much more satisfying for me after living in Green Bay for four years!!

Well, I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year with your friends and family! I hope Santa is nice to all of you, and that he puts wins on the court in all of our stockings! Keep working hard, and until next time… GO ‘DONS!