Ali Stack: Senior :)

I hope everyone is having a terrific summer, as I know I am! It is certainly flying by though. It is so hard to believe that it is almost July. I am from the small town of Vermilion, OH (about 20 minutes from Cedar Point which may make it easier for you to know where I live haha). I spend most of my time working out, being a marketing intern, and slaving for the wonderful Drug Mart. It is a super busy summer but I am having fun still. I am a Communications major and Psychology minor. My parents names are Gary and Gayle, and I have an older brother named Eric. Oh, and the cutest dog in the world Motis. I am super excited to meet all of the new freshmen in the fall, even though you all are going to make me feel extremely old haha.

This is a picture of my parents and I on my 21st birthday :)

Amanda Schroeder- Senior =)

Hope everyone is have a great summer! I sure am! So for the newcomers I from Columbus Grove, OH. I'm majoring in Pre-PT/Exercise Science...but I have just decided that my goal now is to be a nurse. So I have a lot of thinking to do before the start of school. As far as my family, my parents are Max and Shelly, and I have two younger brothers, Derek and Blake. I'm currently working at a produce stand for a local business. I'm taking the GRE tomorrow..so everyone pray that I do good!:)
I am currently doing Insanity with a friend and we are starting week 3! :) That plus the workouts are extremely tiring, but totally worth it. Can't wait for the start of next season! Hopefully everyone is excited as I am! Well thats enough about me....I'll see you all in the fall!=)

In the picture is my housemates: Becca, Me, Abbey, and Casey It's a lot of fun living with them and we pretty much do everything together!

Great times with Older Yellow Jackets

It's a big summer for a few of our older Yellow Jackets. Three of them are getting married this summer!!! I'm so happy for them!

So today was Jen Nance's bridal shower. Natalie Winkelfoos (sitting in the background) hosted the shower and did a GREAT job with it.

Erika Schultz and Karissa Kusick-Dominick also were there.

Just one week ago, Kim Luthman got married to Justin Jones. Snapped this picture at the reception - I have no idea where Justin is as Kim is sharing a slow dance with Heather Eckstein (now Hanchuk) and her husband Greg. Both Heather and Missy Jakovcic (now Galus) were bridesmaids.

Jen will be married in August. Also in August, Dana Palivoda will marry Brandon Boyes. Busy summer and fun stuff!

Team Camp

I can't believe how quickly summer is going! We already had our team camp.

Coach Strickland did an awesome job, as usual, of putting it all together and running it. Several of our players helped out as well.

It was great to see everyone again. It seems longer than about 6 weeks ago since I saw them.

We had alums coaching teams in it as well. I forgot to get pictures on Saturday when Kim and Holy Name were here but did remember on Sunday so got a picture of Nikki coaching her team.

Great job everyone!

Summer

So BW is hosting the DIII National track meet this week. A few of our players came back to work. Jen Calhoon and Catherine Spisak worked several days. JoBeth Roll was here for a day too. I was able to catch Cat and Jen in action today - Cat working the merchandise sales (she is a master of the credit card machine) and Jen selling tickets. It was great to see them!

My Final Blog-"Glory Daaaays!"

Welp. I just finished up an emotional week of graduation festivities. This weekend was especially crazy with Ovation on Saturday where I managed to tear up during the alma mater. Following Ovation, I went out to dinner and had a little event which I had aptly entitled “My Last Hurrah.” It was my last night with my teammates and I had a blast! Couldn’t have been better! And everyone is really excited that they never have to hear me say the words last hurrah again because it is all I’ve been talking about for months.

Sunday we had our team banquet. It went really well. Coach made yet another great highlight tape, and I made it through my senior speech in one piece. I will admit that Ali’s speech about me got me a little frazzled. But I mainly pulled it together, thank goodness. (It is tradition that a junior makes a speech about a senior and then the senior gets to make a speech. Ali was that lucky junior ;) )

One of my teammates said that the banquet didn't feel like a banquet. It felt like a bunch of friends hanging out. I couldn’t agree more. There is truly nothing more rewarding than knowing you’ve affected other people’s lives, and knowing that they have affected yours in wonderful ways as well. How many people are lucky enough to say their best friends are yellow jackets? Not too many. In twenty years, it’s the people that I will remember the most.

So, to sum it up, over the past four years I’ve had good days and bad days; homesick days and days where I felt like I never want to leave; stressful days and lazy days; winning days and losing days; crying days and days where I laughed so much a got a headache. Regardless, one thing is certain. They were all glory days.

Former Center, Ariel Brough #45
Keep livin’ the dream ladies.

The Loon Calhoon and me at my last hurrah.
Obviously still super excited about my last hurrah.
Just one of my best friends Monica "Mon Mon" Gustin and me at my last hurrah.

Make it REIGN!

pictured above ( retired, future alumnist & current players )

pictured above ( GDI with coach ! )

So this this past weekend as an honorary weekend here at B-W... APRIL REIGN. This is a two day event on Friday and Saturday where all the sororities, frats, reccos and GDI get together and have four different competitions. There is tug of war, a boat race, obstacle and chariot. To start the weekend off right.. our team GDI won women's chariot.. then things kinda went down here for us GDI girls. Obstacle we didn't place nor in tug and not even in boat. One of the worst performances ever by a group of GDI's. Even though we lost and have the BEST weekend ever and everyone had a ton of fun. Jess and Looney Tunes ( Jen Calhoun) even jumped into Wallace lake. As always.. us basketball girls stayed classy. AwWwWwWww Jackets ! :)

- Catherine #42 :)

GRADS

Tonight I got to catch up with one of our graduates, Karissa Kusick- Dominick (we know her as Kuz). She came back to campus to be on a panel for one of the science clubs. Kuz is finishing up her residency in Pharmacy at the Cleveland Clinic. Kuz has always been extremely successful in all she does - awesome student, state championship in high school, everything she does. She has accepted a full-time position with the Clinic on the completion of her residency in just over a month. She was actually offered 4 full-time jobs and had hospitals competing with each other to give her more money or more vacation in order to get her services.!! She is working with oncology patients and loves getting to know them. She is just an incredible young lady!!! It was great to spend some time with her.
I also got to see Jenn Neal and Erika Schultz who showed up to play some open gym. So it was a GREAT evening. One of my favorite things of all to do is to catch up with our Yellow Jackets who are off in the real world! It makes me love my job even more when I see them and see how extremely successful they are!!!!! B-W really does attract the best and help them reach to new heights in life!

Coach Harrer

Trip to Dayton for the Elite (?) Eight

Welp, I'm sitting here at home in good ol' Powell, Ohio and I have a severe case of Senioritis. So I've decided to do a quick blog to avoid doing any homework. Thanks to the event organizing skills of Catherine "Kitty Cat" Spisak, a group of us yellow jackets made the three-hour-one-way trip to Dayton to watch the UConn women destroy Florida State in the Elite Eight. Along with Kitty and I, freshman Megan Frisina, junior Ali Stack and sophomore Monica Gustin made the commute. We had a fun trip down, listening to some of the "freshest" rap music, munching on the two full bags of snacks that we didn't even have to ask Kitty to bring, and listening to a stirring rendition of "The Three Best Friends That Anyone Could Have" from the back seat. The game was fun to watch even though it was a blow out. UConn is a machine! Monica Gustin was on the edge of her seat as she is UConn's number one fan and has been for years. (She showed up to open gym last week in a full UConn outfit, Taurasi shirt included. Embarrassing.)
The ride back was a little less fun. We were all exhausted and a little cranky. After Monica and I had an intense argument over what restaurant we should stop at, we decided to stop at a Steak and Shake for some food. Fights involving food can get heated. Even though we were all pretty tired, Kitty, in usual form, had a lot of energy and made it her goal to keep us entertained. We got a few on-the-spot song parodies and awkward comments out of her before she passed out.
We got back around one in the morning, and even though this little swarm of jackets was exhausted, we had fun time and made some more good memories.

Ariel "Glory Days" Brough

Catherine Spisak keeping things lively in the backseat on the trip back, with Megan Frisina on the left and Ali Stack on the right.


The scoreboard, obviously.



Monica Gustin and Catherine Spisak just livin' the dream!

And the Cavs win it!

Although our official season has come to a close, the yellow jackets just can't stay away from the gym for too long! After taking a nice week off for Spring Break we all came back to BW ready to shoot, run, and work out. We had our first open gym yesterday where we split into 2 teams: the Celtics and the Cavs! It can get repetitive just playing 5 on 5 so we like to spice things up and play in our very own NBA series. The Cavs started off strong but the Celtics came back and made the series pretty close. The Cavs prevailed 4-1 thanks to Ariel Broth, our glory days senior! Haha. I am sure next open gym's series will be just as fun!
JoBeth Roll (aka Mo Williams of the Cavs!)

Sad yet excited

So our season came to a close much earlier than we are used to. We know we are a better team than the results we had at the end of the season and that makes us sad.
Ironically, one of the teams we lost to, Rochester, is playing in the final four this coming weekend. We also beat 2 teams that made it to the sweet 16. So, we know what is possible.
On the other hand, I'm really excited for what is to come in the future. Why? Because this team seems more anxious to get to work than past teams. Losing can be good when it pushes you forward. We have a lot to do to prepare, but work ethic can get us there. THAT is exciting!!

Coach Harrer

15 strong

Today, we got a little treat as we got to practice against some of our alumni. They did a great job as a scout team, and it was fun to play with them again :) But it isn’t just the alums that are being helpful, we always say that everyone on the team plays an important role in our success, and this is certainly true. Jess already mentioned how the team really came together to pull out a victory over JCU on Tuesday, and I completely agree. Everyone, no matter what her role, is really focused on the team’s success. Those who don’t get the chance to play still play such an important role. They go hard every day in practice and most of the time they don’t get breaks. They have to press and play defense for fifteen minutes straight sometimes! And their support and leadership from the bench is going to continue to be a huge key for us down the stretch.

Our game against JCU in the Quarterfinal was one of my favorite games to play in. Even though we struggled the entire game and never really had a lead, everyone played with so much passion, enthusiasm and faith that there was never any doubt in my mind we would win. We were down by one with fifteen seconds to play when sophomore Catherine “Kitty Cat” Spisak got fouled in the 1-and-1, and I knew she would make her free throws even though she was spazzing out at the line a little bit.

Dear Kitty,

Next time focus more on the rim during your clutch free throws and not the confusion over what defense we are going to be in.

Love,

Ariel

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that I’m very proud of everyone who stepped it up, put their fears and frustrations aside, and gave me an opportunity to play in another game. People kept up that attitude today in practice. Everyone is dialed in and focused on the physical AND mental parts of the game. I can’t wait until 8 pm tomorrow!

<---------Kitty and I fifteen game-seconds after she hit her free throws. This is the best picture ever because it shows the thrill of victory and genuine friendship. There is nothing better than celebrating a hard fought victory with your friends...

...even if it means blowing out their eardrums. Sorry Kitty.