Sam's first blog!!!

Hey guys, my name is Sam AKA Hammy AKA ZE PANZER and I'm a giant sophomore blogging for the first time!  ...  Whoopsie!  Anyway, as I'm typing this we are on the bus in Rochester, heading back to our hotel to shower before dinner!  Applebee's probably wouldn't want our stinky butts in the restaurant while people are eating.  (We probably are not the best smelling team in Ohio...).  We arrived here a few hours ago and headed directly to our practice in order to prepare for the game. Technically we were a little late, but the combination of our determination and amazing agility got us through the practice on time!  Waaaaay to go ladies!  I'm so excited to play our first actual game with my amazingly talented and hilarious team!  Let's kick some Tuft booty tomorrow ladies!!

GAME TIME BABY.

OUR FIRST GAME IS THIS WEEK! AND I'M TYPING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS BECAUSE IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO EXPRESS MY EXCITEMENT OVER THE INTERNET! We kick off our first game this Friday at a tournament in Rochester, New York vs Tufts.  Tufts is a school in Massachusetts whose mascot is the "Jumbos".  So there you have it folks.  We shall be playing the Tufts Jumbos. Or the Jumbos of Tufts University.  What is a Jumbo you ask? Simple.  An elephant with tusks. Duh. Tufts Jumbo Tusks. Jumbo Tusks of Tufts.  Ok. I'm done.

So anyways, we leave Thursday morning for Rochester!  I think that of all the things we get to do, traveling to different places and staying in hotels with my teammates has got to be one of my favorite parts of basketball season!  The bus rides are just fun in general and then we get to eat a lot of food, and then we get to goof off in hotel rooms.  Its nice to not have to worry about anything but hanging out with your team and getting better at basketball.  As excited as I am about having a home tournament this year I'm also sad that there won't be anymore regular season overnight trips. I think I would still rather have the home tournament.  But back to my main point, I cannot wait until we finally get to play in our first game.  All of our hard work from bootcamp to this week's practices will hopefully start paying off.

And yeah, you have to know that the season isn't going to be all rainbows and sunshine, there is going to be some bumpy parts.  But I have total faith in  my teammates that we can do anything we want this year, and we can pull each other up from any bad time.

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail."
              -Ralph Waldo Emerson

#RiseAbove

Jessica Lairson

Rise Above

Hello All!

The season is just about here! I cannot tell you how excited I am to spend this season with these wonderful people.  Last night after practice we had team bonding, which was very long but amazing nonetheless.  Naturally we started off with a team dinner because what's a gathering without food!  Our team already has formed great relationships and we quickly became great friends and teammates in the short time we have spent with each other.  We strengthened our bonds even further when we shared our life heroes, hardships, and highlights.  You can guess in a room full of girls and three guys (Coach Bailey, Coach G, and Coach Blon) there was lots, and lots of crying and laughing.  We all poured our hearts out to each other which really strengthened our bonds and over the course of the season they will only get stronger.  We also played some blind fold dodge ball because there's not too many things more ridiculous than blind folded people throwing things at others.  Obviously my partner Gab and I dominated because we make such a great team.  We did a lot of activities which made for a long night but our team grew even stronger in the process.

Today we scrimmaged Tiffin and did very well.  We were all excited about getting on the court and playing other people than ourselves.  We still have a lot to work on, but we, as a team, strive to be better than yesterday.  This leads me to our team word for the season.  A quick shout-out goes to my girl Pup for coming up with the word, actually words but who's paying attention...  Coach asked us to think of a word that represents our team during team bonding and after hearing what everyone has overcome in their lives already and the many more events that we will encounter in our lives, rise above fit well.  We strive to rise above our opinions on the court, ourselves when we get down, our school work, and everyday obstacles we encounter. I think this word is just about perfect for our team.

I cannot wait for what this season has to offer all of us.  I don't think anyone understands how we feel about each other as teammates and coaches.  I think our chemistry and friendships are deadly for our opponents.  We push each other and pick each other up.  This team is full of great teammates and we have a lot going for us.  We just have to keep getting better than yesterday.

AWWWWWW JACKETS!

Erin Allen #14

     (Just a little something I made from a quote I found because I'm slightly obsessed with quotes..)

ALRIGHTTT

Hello from the crippled! So far, this season has definitely not been what I would have expected my freshmen year to be. Being injured may be one of the most challenging situations I have ever been put into. I miss playing so much and I really miss being out there with the girls. Coming into the season, I was so excited to experience all of my new "first's" like finishing my first preseason conditioning, playing in the first practice, and stepping onto the court as a yellow jacket for the first time. This injury has just really challenged my patience and strength to overcome this adversity. On a more positive note, I am only out 6-8 (crossing my fingers) weeks, and I still feel as if I am a part of this team. Plus, I may be biased, but I have the best coaches and teammates in the world! Numerous of the girls have given me rides to my classes or dinner, opened doors for me, the coaches are working with me to do whatevery they can to get me back as quickly as possible, and one of the most encouraging things was I got a text from almost every single girl on the team after my surgery. That shows true love right there! So, because of my new injury, I have been given a whole new role on the team. I may not be out there physically with the girls, but I hope to be the biggest fan they have sitting on the sidelines & I am doing everything I can to get healthy!! Other than that, school and everything has been going great! Now just looking forward to New York next weekend!!

Until next time,
Megs :)

BA-NA-NA, BA-NA-NA-NA

Hey all,

These past few weeks have had their ups and downs. The injury bug has bitten the team severely in the behind this year and it is very frustrating not only for the ones that are injured, but the team and coaching staff as well. Megan had surgery about a week ago to repair her menisci, she'kiera has a sausage link as a finger, Erin's foot is in some mysterious, constant pain, Jessa has a sprained MCL and I have a Cankle. Luckily, it's all in the pre-season and before any of our games so hopefully everyone can get back to 100% as soon as possible and get back out there to compete.
On Thursday the team traveled to Ashland to compete in our first scrimmage of the year. Considering that Ashland was last years D2 National Champions, I think that we did alright against them; losing the first half and winning the second. Though, there are a lot of things to still work on, it was great to get out there and beat up on someone else and not each other! This Saturday we host Tiffin for our final scrimmage of the year at Noon so we hope that a few of you readers can come out and see what we have in store for the 2013-2014 season!
Hope to see you all out at our home games this year, we promise not to disappoint!!

Much Love,

Shari Mangas #20

"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble in it's own"
-Matthem 6:34

Oh hello

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week and have a fun weekend. This past week, yesterday actually, we had our very first scrimmage of the 2013-2014 season against Ashland University. We played really well and I'm so proud of my teammates, I couldn't have asked for a better group of girls to play basketball with. I am so pumped for the season to start because the team is putting in so much hard work and dedication that I know will pay off in each game. Well, as most of you know, last year there was a freshmen-senior prank war going on and of course, the freshmen won :) this year it will probably be a sophomore-freshmen prank war but I don't know, we've been pretty busy with school work and basketball so it's hard to find time. Last year Allyson, Alissa and I had no life so it was easier to find time. Well, I'm sleepy so I'll wrap it up. I hope everyone has a great weekend and finishes the semester strong! Bye y'all.

Sincerely yours, Janaya

Let's Make it Happen!

Hey everyone I hope all is well with you! 

I can’t believe we just finished our seventh practice, it feels so surreal because I have been waiting so long for the season to start and now it’s finally here. For me these past two months have flown by and I still can’t believe last week was midterms and I’m already meeting with my advisor to schedule spring classes, where has this time gone! In just about three and a half weeks we’ll be starting our first game in the Rochester tournament in New York and I can’t wait for the team’s hard work to finally pay off. Throughout the entire conditioning everyone was killing the times and pushing themselves past their limits in preparation for this year. I couldn’t be any more excited or proud of my team for all the hard work we have put in and I can’t wait to see the outcome of this season. This year has been awesome so far, between volunteering at Camp Cheerful’s Halloween dance and having the opportunity to work the concessions for the Cavs Wine and Gold scrimmage held in our gym. Also, this is one of my favorite times of the year because this is when my brother Ryan, my sister Alysa, my friends Tina and Anthony and I go to haunted houses. In the past two years we have traveled all over in order to find the best haunted houses and I have the top three that we must always go to every year, which are the Mansfield Reformatory, The Fear Experience and Bloodview. The Mansfield prison is the best because you get to actually walk through the entire prison which takes approximately 45 minutes to an hour to get through as they have people jumping out of cells and props set up everywhere. We always have a fun time going to the haunted houses and we look forward to going every year. My second year at BW has been awesome so far and I can’t wait to see what the rest of this year has to hold for me!

Marissa Hellisz #22

 

you're gonna hear us, ROARRRR

hello everybody. I hope you are all having wonderful weeks. I know here in Berea, we have all had really exciting, very mentally and physically hard, and absolutely crazy weeks. End of conditioning, Midterms, First practice, fall break (with 2 practices)...so many emotions flowing I think we could all fall over. However, I think the excitement of the beginning of a great new season of a sport we all love, with out team by our side is what keeps us standing. 

 Currently I am sitting in the library with my two best buds, they are working very hard beside me but I am on a little study break so I could talk to all you avid readers of this blog. This year has been great so far, everything from team bond trips with personality tests to volunteering at camp cheerful's halloween dance. I would like to comment, not to toot out own horns, but pup, erwin, aud, sheri, and I had some pretty awesome costumes. take a look...

nothing like the good old mystery gang. 

Well that is about it for now, stay tuned for many more memories to come. As for my fellow yellow jackets lets get out there and work hard, work together, and win! 

Have a wonderful day friends

Awwww JACKETS,

Steph #12

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

2 Timothy 1:7

It's time!

Hey everyone! It has been an interesting year so far! I've been busy with classes and conditioning, but weeeeeee maddeeeee it! We finished our 33 20's Friday morning! We all killed the times and we are ready for the season to start! I can not wait! Besides conditioning and classes, I started an internship with YouthChallenge! YouthChallenge is an adaptive sports program for kid with disabilities. It is such a great experience, and I love that we can get kids active, no matter if they are in a wheelchair or not. And to go along with getting kids with disabilities a change to be "normal", the team went to Camp Cheerful and helped the kids there for the weekend camp get all dressed up in costumes for a Halloween dance! We danced the night away, and the kids had a blast! In other news, I met Anderson Varejao at the Wine and Gold scrimmage that was held in our gym. It was perfect. He is my favorite basketball player of all time! (P.S. He makes me look like a midget). I would add a picture, but whenever I try to post it there is just a bunch of words and numbers....so just imagine me looking like a small child next to him! Annddddd that's all folks! Here's to a great season with great people! AWWWWWW JACKETS!! Lexi Rohrbach #45

One More Week

Hey everyone! ONE MORE WEEK. We have one more week of conditioning, and one more week until our first practice. Time is literally flying by. It feels like we just started boot camp, but we're on the home stretch. I am so proud of how hard everyone has been working. The definition of toughness can be seen during our conditioning. People are pushing past their limits and I couldn't be more proud to be a part of that kind of team. I cannot wait for the season to start! -Audrey Smolik #24 Mark 9:23 "Everything is possible for one who believes."

Hola, cómo estás!

Hellooooo there! Hope all is well with everyone, all is going pretty well over here. Currently watching Love and Basketball with my two best buds, so can't really go wrong with that! My little Spanish tid bit up there is because I am taking my first Spanish class EVER here and it is super hard so Spanish is pretty much dominating my life right now. Basketball-wise though we are about a month into it all and a week done with the dreaded boot camp. Boot camp is the ultimate love-hate relationship ever. You hate it but you love it, ya know? It's exhausting yet exhilarating and punishing yet rewarding. Just baffling. It's definitely a lot easier when you have your team there though. I couldn't be happier or more proud of how everybody is doing. We are crushing the times and pushing ourselves and each other to get every last bit out of each other. It is so amazing to see how hard people are going and it will be even more rewarding when it all pays off. Season is coming upppp and I'm pumpedddddddddd. But I can't talk about allllllll of it, I gotta save stuff for other people to blog about tooooo! So just know that all is swell up here in Lang 317 and that I am one happy camper and that I love my team and that I love (and hate) boot camp and that I love this movieee! So adios amigos! Ally "Pup" Dehart #34

Helllo again, It's Gabrielle blogging. Wellll, where to start? It's hard to believe I've been in college for more than a month! It is so surreal to think I'm actually in college. Schools been going well, and so is basketball! I cannot wait for the actual season to start! It is a stuggle adjusting my schedule with class, work, basketball, and you cant forget about eating!!! but I'm getting use to it! It's such a change from highschool...like im growing up. Well I really am not much of blogger if you havent already figured that out sooo yeahhh. Hope everyone is enjoying their classes this semester! Keeps hitting the books and studying hard! See you alll soooon :) -Gabrielle Grace Vitez