Wow. What a crazy couple of days. I’m back at the office after three days of basketball. The girls played eleven games in 2 1/2 days. And their record? It was an amazing 11-0.
What were the highlights? There were a lot. We took ten girls. Of those ten players, four girls were returning from last year’s varsity squad. But only two starters went on this trip. The other kids either played JV last year or were incoming freshmen. So we had a fairly young team. But the team played like a seasoned team that had played many games together.
Dana and Peyton played great inside. Whitney and Elizabeth were strong whenever they saw the ball (either inside or outside). Elizabeth will be someone to watch. This could be her breakout season! Kelsey and Hillary were amazing on the wing. We’ve watched Kelsey for five or six years. And now that her knee is strong, she is playing with fire in her eyes! Laura, Lauren and Abbey were great. They played strong when they were in. I especailly loved how hard they played on defense. But they were amazing teammates from the bench, as well. When they weren’t on the court, they were cheering or directing their teammates who were on the court. Finally, Jocelyn was fun to watch. She is an incoming freshmen with an attitude – a great attitude. She has an older sister at South. And her sister is the state champion pole vaulter. So Jocelyn has big shoes to fill. But she showed some good talent and some great promise. She has innate speed and a very good touch on her shot. She made some key jumpers when we needed them. She will be a welcome addition to the team.
While all of the wins were good wins, I was most impressed with the way the girls conducted themselves – both on and off the court. On the court, the girls played hard. They talked and called out what they saw. When they got loud on defense, nothing got past them. Even my daughter started to talk on the court. 🙂 In the first half of the semi-final game, the girls held their opponent to just three points. It was an amazing thing to behold. And after every game, the girls were genuine and generous in their praise for their opponents.
And Eddie was great at reinforcing this with the girls. He even made it a point to individually speak with a couple of the girls from the other teams. At one point, he even did some “one-on-one” shooting instruction for one girl from Parsons, Kansas. You’ve got to admit that you would smile when you got home and told your parents and friends that a former NBA player was doing shot instruction with you. It must have made that girl’s week. And Eddie had the same effect on most of our girls.
Off the court, the girls spoke to other players from other teams. Dana made it a point to hang out with Ashley Lord – an AAU teammate who plays for a 2A school in south-eastern Kansas. But all of the girls were warm and cheery to everyone they met. Even the opposing coaches were great. It was amazing to see coaches walk up and just chat with each other. It was quite a difference from the “take no prisoners” attitude that we often see in surburban Kansas City (or even in AAU ball).
Usually, there is a lot of time for other things – like movies or shopping with the girls. But this time was different. They were either playing ball or resting before they played ball again. Yet throughout the camp, the girls were motivated, energetic and supportive of one another. It was great to see. And this camp should really help the girls get unified and focus them for state-wide success next year. I can’t wait until the regular season begins again.
-CyclingRoo-
P.S. The coach asked me to sit on the bench as his assistant coach. It was quite an honor – and quite strange. I know enough about the game to be dangerous – but not enough to be truly instructive. And since my daughter was playing, I mostly kept my mouth shut. For those of you that know me, you know what a Herculean task that was. But I learned a lot from being on the bench. Eddie is a great coach. The girls responded to his enthusiasm and his knowledge of the game. I hope some of the girls will get a chance to work with him again.

Today was a day away from the office and homefront. Dana’s high school basketball team is now at camp at Southwest Missouri State University (former home of basketball star Jackie Stiles). The camp is a chance for a whole bunch of the Shawnee Mission South kids to play together during the off-season. And since the school’s coach can’t work with them in the off-season, we are working with a coach-for-the-week.
And what a coach. Eddie Robinson (formerly with the Charlotte Hornets) is coaching our girls this week. He is here by God’s grace. We met Eddie when we turned to a recruiting agency to help us with Dana’s college search. Eddie has been working with Dana for nine months. And when the opportunity arose to coach Dana and her team for a couple of days, Eddie agreed. The girls are working very hard and learning a great deal.
The girls will be working their tails off. They had two games tonight. They will have six games tomorrow. And, if things work out, they’ll have two more games on Thursday. Wow! What a lot of work. So my job will be to make sure that all the girls are hydrated and rested.
So how did the girls do tonight? Well, we got here at 4:00 and had our first game at 7:15. The girls played well, but not spectacularly. They were very solid on defense. And the offense was sufficient for the competition. But the competition in the first game was not very strong. So the girls didn’t work their hardest. They won by over thirty, but they looked sluggish. The second game was better – but they will need to step it up if they expect to win the tournament.
Dana did well. But as her Dad, I am not the most unbiassed observer. A couple of the younger girls had very noteworthy games. Elizabeth played well defensively and showed some real promise on the boards. Peyton showed why she will be making a big difference on the inside. The upperclassmen played solid. Kelcie had some really sweet coast-to-coast fast breaks. And Whitney was all over the court defensively. Even Laura Dopp got in on the action. She had a couple of really good shots from the baseline.
All in all, it was a great start. Let’s hope that tomorrow goes even better than tonight
-CyclingRoo-

It’s been three days since my last post. So I’ve been a very naughty boy. I have not had a chance to blog since Friday. Dana and I spent all weekend in Carbondale, Ill. But we were at a Motel 6 w/o any connectivity. Worse still, I couldn’t find free WiFi access anywhere. I am sure that if I cruised through Carbondale with NetStumbler going, I would have found something. But there just wasn’t any time.
So why was I in Carbondale? My daughter Dana was involved in an AAU basketball tournament. The winner of the tournament got an automatic berth to the AAU Nationals (to be held in Orlando this summer). So Dana and I headed out from Kansas City on Friday afternoon. She drove for 6.5 hours and we made it into Carbondale while there was still fading daylight.
The campus at Southern Illinois is great. The gyms were nice with a few minor challenges (like ventilation and clocks). The competition was pretty fierce. We were in the 16U brackets. There were five teams in the bracket. So Saturday was pool play. Our girls played an Illinois team (the Titans), a central Missouri team (the Lady Jazz), and an Indiana team (the Elite). We went 2-1 on Saturday. The Titans put up a good challenge, but fell flat in the second half. The Lady Jazz rallied from a first-half deficit to squeak out a narrow win. And the Elite fought hard until the very end. So Saturday was a good chance to focus on teamwork and trust. The more games these girls play together, the better they are becoming!
When Dana and I got up on Sunday, we were greeted with the news that our final pool play game had been cancelled. We were set to play the Kansas Belles at 10:00. But since the result was only going to determine which of the two would have home court advantage at 1:00, both teams decided to bypass the final pool play game.
So we met the Belles in our bracket semi-final. The Belles were also 2-1 from the previous day. Their only loss had come at the hands of the Lady Jazz. So our 1:00 match-up was very telling. At the same time, there were some personal reasons for this game. About half of our team had been on the Belles at one time or another. So we faced off against friends. But that’s the great thing about amateur athletics. It is supposed be friendly competition – and it was. But when the tip-off whistle blew, both teams came out wanting the win.
Dana had a great start but still struggled at the free throw line. She was hitting around 50% from the charity stripe – and she wasn’t happy. But her interior play was strong. And she put the Belles strong post player (Jadhon Kerr) into early foul trouble. Boy, that was tough. We love Jadhon and her parents. But Dana knew she would need to drive on Jadhon. Eventually, Dana fouled her out. But after the game, Jadhon and Dana hugged. And Jadhon’s mom (also named Dana) promised to pray for our game against the Lady Jazz. I love friendly competition – especially between good families!
So the 3:00 championship game was between Team Excel and the Lady Jazz. We had lost to the Jazz just one day earlier. So this was going to be a tough game. And the venue managers didn’t help. They delayed the game until 4:00. In fairness, this was a good decision. It gave both teams a chance to cool off and revitalize. But it put us another hour later. Win or lose, the trip home was going to be very late.
So Dana took the extra time to work on her free throws. And Todd (her coach) was great. He recognized that the trouble was mental and not mechanical. So he told Dana that she wouldn’t be allowed to go through her typical free-throw ritual (three bounces, a head bob and the shot). She would have to step to the line and shoot without thinking. Dana agreed. So the extra few minutes was good for Dana.
Both teams started well. But since this was the championship game, there were some nerves. After all, the winner of this game would earn a berth to the AAU National tournmament. Once the teams got past the jitters, the game got very serious. Dana was relentless in driving to the net. I wasn’t tracking points (since I’m the designated cheerleader – and I can’t see anything anyway). But she went to the charity line three times in the first half and came away with six points. So Dana finished the first half with some unspecified number of points and 100% free throw shooting. At half-time, we were ahead by six points.
At the beginning of the second half, the Jazz keyed on Dana. They double-teamed her. So she went to work on the inside-outside game. They would collapse on her and she would dish it off for an easy score by her teammates. Everyone got in on the act. Shaylyn, Amanda and Taber were dropping in points from the outisde while Marissa and Ashley kept things exciting inside. Even our newcomers (Hadleigh and Kelley) made a big difference. They were able to find (or make) the openings whenever they turned up. It was great to see this “total team effort” from such a young squad! And when our outside shooters got really hot, the Jazz team shifted their defense. So Dana found herself open on the block and really kicked in some points. In the end, we won by almost twenty points. The Jazz were strong, but our girls were even stronger on this day.
So the drive home was great. Everyone was smiling and hugging each other when we left the gym. And winning always makes a six hour drive more bearable. Dana still needed to drink a couple of Amp drinks (caffeine + sugar). But she drove home as well as she drove to the net.
So it’s now “off to nationals” in July. In the meantime, there are a few more tourneys where we can hone our skills and breed confidence in every player. All in all, this was a great weekend for a team that has only played together for three weeks!
-CyclingRoo-