Umpqua 93 Mt. Hood 61

Right before the starting lineups were introduced last night, Kayla Haines spoke up and said, "I'm a little nervous." Almost immediately I heard a "Me too" and a "So am I" and saw a few others nod their heads and I knew right then that we were going to be okay. So far we've played really hard in the bigger games and seeing everyone a little anxious was a very good sign.

I must admit I was a little anxious too. We hadn't seen Mt. Hood since Thanksgiving weekend and they were missing a couple players then, including their best guard. On top of that, neither Denay Martin (knee) or Corynn Jorgensen (flu) practiced on either Thursday or Friday and Sam Russell (knee) only practiced a little bit on Friday just so we could do some five on five stuff. If that wasn't enough, Linda wasn't at the game at all - she's working on her Master's Degree from Western Oregon and had a meeting that she couldn't get out of. Being completely out of our routine made me nervous but as it turns out I shouldn't have been.

Sam sat next to me on the bench and was a great temporary assistant coach. (Although I've never had an assistant before who kept suggesting that "we" put her in the game! "Let's put Sam in - she'd do a great job!!") Corynne didn't play but was ready in case we needed her and Denay was very productive in limited minutes. Kayla chased down every loose ball and rebound in the first few minutes and we were literally off and running. Soon it was 17-1 and none of us were nervous anymore. Here's the link to the newspaper article on the game; http://www.newsreview.info/article/20080113/SPORTS/352991418

On a side note, it was fun to watch the girls all gather in the gym lobby after the game and sign team posters for all the Girl Scouts who were in attendance. It's great to play and coach at a place where there are so many fans!