First Day of Classes & Conditioning

There's always something special about the first day of school and today was no different. I couldn't sleep last night, much like I couldn't sleep the night before I started kindergarten and then again when I was getting ready to start high school. The morning was hectic with players in and out of the office checking on class schedules, asking about tutors, and even counting down the days until summer vacation.

Soon 11am rolled around and everyone headed into the gym and all seemed right with the world. Many ran harder and longer than they really wanted too but the time went by quickly (at least for me!) and before anybody could say "Running really sucks!" we were all in the weight room.

Most impressive performance of the day went to Titi Takai. We could see that she was struggling with the running a little bit but we're all too used to seeing players struggle during the first day so nothing was said and Titi just kept plugging away. It wasn't until we got into the weight room and Titi took off her shoes and socks did we see the problem - the worse first day blisters we've seen in a long, long time. There was one on each foot and so every single step had to be more than painful. Titi never complained, never gave any indication how much pain she must have been in and most importantly, never quit running. Titi Takai is mentally tough!!

It was a great first day. . .and I can't wait for tomorrow!!

Facebook Group

Several weeks ago Michaela (Williams) Leinonen started up a Facebook group called "Dave Stricklin's Hoop Survivors" in hopes of getting both Umpqua and Golden West alumni together to share stories and stay connected. Lately I've been trying to track down and invite as many former players as possible to join the Facebook group and in the process I've received some great emails and have relived some awesome memories.

If you read this and are in contact with any former players and teammates, please encourage them to join the group and share their stories. I've been coaching for a long, long time now and I can honestly say I still don't of any team that works as hard as we do, that works as hard as we've always worked. That work ethic and the committment to be the very best we can be is the thread that binds all of us together. It doesn't really matter whether we competed together over 20 years ago or whether we're getting ready to compete on this year's team - we're all in this together and in my mind we're still just one big team.