Over Halfway Done Already?!?!

By now we are well over halfway through our season, and I can’t believe how far we’ve come. Since I last posted, we have beaten Otterbein and Marietta at home and John Carroll and Muskingum away. All four games were great team wins. The John Carroll and Marietta games were televised, which is always exciting, and perhaps a little nerve-wracking. Luckily, aside from a view embarrassing facial expressions on my part, no one did anything embarrassing. A former player, junior Paige Watson, was the color commentator for the Marietta game. She did a great job describing the team from an insider’s point of view. She also added some accurate and insightful comments. We are all very proud of her! :) It was also “Bring a Kid to the Game Day”, so we sat at a long table after the game and signed autographs for them. A couple of our male student fans even got some shirts signed, haha! I guess we are big time!
The trip to John Carroll, our cross town rival, got a little crazy. Now, when I say cross town, you would assume it would be a short trip. But you have not taken Cleveland weather into consideration. Instead, the forty minute trip took two hours. I didn’t mind, since I was able to relax and listen to my iPod longer, but Coach announced that it would be necessary for us to change on the bus. Chaos ensued as 16 sizable girls tried to change into their uniforms on a charter bus. We got some good jokes out of it, and I think it got us energized and focused on the game. Needless to say, anyone that was driving on I-480 that night got quite a show as they passed our bus. As junior forward Serena Farage pointed out, at least we’re probably not going to see any those drivers again. We literally ran into the locker room, threw on our warm-ups and ran onto the court. I’ll never forget that experience!
So today is officially the start of the second round of OAC tournament games. We play home against Capital University, who is a big rival of ours. Despite a strange bout of minor finger injuries, we have been practicing well. We are excited and ready to go. It should be a good game, and rumor is some of our guy fans are wearing body paint. We always appreciate their support and they make the games even more intense.
AWWWWWWWW JACKETS! Sting ‘em!
Junior Center Ariel Brough, #45

To the left are me and freshman forward Katie Heinlen at our Ugly Christmas Sweater Party!

To the right are freshman forward Mariah Strayer, senior guard Amanda Mondrach and freshman forward Catherine Spisak all hanging out after a game.

SCHOOL DAYS

We started back to school yesterday, after spending a good deal of the break playing basketball, eating and sleeping. The break between semesters does give us a great opportunity to get out into the community. Our team visited Kidder Elementary in Brunswick and helped out any way the teacher in that classroom wanted. We read, ran flash-card games, helped make Christmas gifts for parents, and even participated in physical education class! I think our players enjoyed it more than the elementary students. We were happy to help out, and also try to show the students that they need to study hard and set their goals high.

Mark Mabry, a B-W graduate, is the principal there. He even dug through some old yearbooks and found a picture of our own Rachael Quiring when she attended kindergarten there! The top picture is Jessica Butzer on the climbing wall in physical education class and to the right is Ariel Brough, all 6'2 of her, with a class. No, she's not standing on anything!

Posted by Coach Harrer - 1/13/09

Other pictures - to left is Amanda Schroeder helping out with flash card math games. Below is Katie

Heinlen.

Courtney Ritzler reading to a class

Catherine Spisak (left) and Mariah Strayer (right) reading with students.

Carrie Ritzler hleping students with an assignment.

San Antonio!

Well it has been about a week and a half since we left for San Antonio and started our “new season,” and what a crazy week and a half it has been! (As Coach Strickland mentioned, we went through a little bit of a performance slump, but we dealt with adversity and came back from San Antonio with two good wins.)
The trip to Texas was fun and exhausting. After practicing hard TWICE on the 26th, we set off for the airport early on the 27th. We had a few first time flyers but luckily they didn’t freak out. Travel went smoothly. There were no delays or lost luggage, and we entertained ourselves between flights by playing Bananagrams, which is a little like Scrabble. We like to play board games together, and it can get pretty competitive. (Senior guard Amanda "Mondie" Mondrach brought the game, so I posted a picture of just her with it. You can thank me later, Mondie!)
The car rental company lost our van reservation so we had to scavenge for dinner the first night in Texas. We walked a mile to the nearest Mexican restaurant, which was fine because this team will do just about anything to get some food. While waiting for our tables we made friends with some of the locals. One lady gathered our team together and blessed us, which must have worked because we played and practiced well the rest of the trip. I guess we should probably thank her! :)
The next day, after practice, Coach let us explore San Antonio. We took a boat tour (see picture) on the River Walk and shopped, of course. A group of us decided to go to dinner at Dick’s, which is a restaurant where the waiters are intentionally rude to you. We’ve all developed pretty tough skin from joking around with each other, so we had a good time, despite the insults.
Our games against Trinity and Mary Hardin-Baylor were a blast. They were the kind of games that remind you why you love basketball. The energy was crazy. Everyone, even those who didn’t see a lot of playing time, helped bring intensity. The buzzing (like yellow jackets) from the bench really helped set the tone! Haha!
Both games were a great team effort. There were a variety of contributions which led to our victories. Whether is was by scoring, getting tough offensive boards, making great steals, finishing "and-ones", or cheering, everybody helped. We had some younger players step up and senior guard Jessica (Butz) Butzer definitely sparked us. Even though we always have a team-first attitude, we were excited for those few who set great career highs.
Ultimately, the best experience of the trip was getting to celebrate two good wins with my teammates, who are also my best friends!
Needless to say, we were all pretty tired by the end of our four day “vacation.” However, that didn’t stop some energetic freshmen from running into our room, screaming, while we were dead asleep. One senior, I won’t name names, was so startled that she dove out of her bed and onto the floor. It was hilarious, but not at the time, and I never will forget it.
After getting a day off and one practice in, we played Heidelberg, another OAC team. We won 91-41, and everyone who dressed contributed on the floor, which was awesome! Again we had a bunch of career highs, and a lot of fun cheering each other on. Now we have to get ready for Otterbein tomorrow! STING 'EM! Bzz!
Junior Center Ariel Brough, #45