Great Weekend - Lousy 22 Seconds!!

It's amazing how 22 seconds can ruin your whole weekend!! After beating Bellevue and Columbia Basin in the first two rounds, we tipped off against Yakima Valley CC in the championship game of the Yakima Tournament. With 22 seconds to go and the score tied at 80 we turned the ball over before we could get off the shot we wanted. Yakima immediately called timeout and set up a play to go to their best scorer. We successfully stopped their first option, but in the mad scramble that followed, they fired up a deep, deep 3 that beat us. Kristi Fallin finished the game with 31 pts and 11 rebounds while Cassandra Tiggett grabbed 17 rebounds and Mykiea Russell added 11 points but the loss definitely made the long trip home even longer!

Yakima Valley CC is a very good team that was picked by many in the preseason to win the always strong NWAACC Eastern Region. Playing Yakima at Yakima is especially tough but we certainly didn't help our own cause by committing 31 turnovers and missing 14 free throws. We'll continue to work hard and get better, as I'm sure Yakima will, and maybe we'll see each other again in March.

A special thanks to Andy & Kathy Owens for taking the team to dinner while Linda and I stayed in the gym to watch and scout other games. Running a first class program is a huge endeavor and we're always grateful for those parents, friends, and fans that go out of their way to help us. Thank you very much!!

Yakima, WA

It's a little after midnight and we're in Yakima, Washington for our first tournament of the season. We arrived about 9pm, checked in to the hotel, went to eat, and then had a team meeting. After making sure everyone kept our midnight curfew I went down to the hotel restaurant and made arrangements for tomorrow's pre game meal. We play Bellevue at 2pm and I'm happy for the early start, especially since it's our first game and everyone is bound to be a little nervous. If we played at 8pm then we'd have to sit around all day and that can't be good for first games nerves.

Dan Jones of the Douglas County News Review wrote a season preview article on our team that appeared in today's paper. Dan came to practice on Tuesday and interviewed nearly everybody and left saying he had enough material to write several articles and so I am sure this is just the first of many. Here's the link:

http://www.nrtoday.com/article/20081120/SPORTS/811209958/1056&title=UCC%20Riverhawk%20women's%20basketball%20team%20aiming%20for%20the%20ultimate%20prize

Jason Hink and Brent Newton of KPIC came to practice yesterday and did a couple of quick on camera interviews to air on TV. I've known both those guys for a long time and it was fun catching up and talking about some of our former teams and players. One of their new projects is to start broadcasting all of our home games and a few select away games over internet radio. Since our team currently has players from five different states, we are going to have a lot of happy friends and families who will now be able to follow the Riverhawks more closely than ever. I left their business card back in Roseburg but will post the link to the radio site as soon as I get back.

Kickin' Bass

With our last scrimmage today and our first games next weekend there's been a dozen last minute details to take care of before everything gets really crazy. Team rosters and picture need to be turned in to the NWAACC, travel arrangements finalized and then travel budget turned in, grade checks, team gear checked out including shoes (still waiting on a pair to arrive) travel bags, sweats, backpacks, etc. As you all know it takes a lot of money to run a first class program and so to raise a few extra bucks we put together a schedule/poster that is funded by several local businesses, a couple sets of parents and grandparents, and a very generous photographer. Anyway a week or so ago we took a team picture on Jesse Morrow's boat, which happens to be green and have "RiverHawk" on the side. Jesse is the Chairman of the Public Safety Dept. at UCC and is always quick to help out anyway he can. Photographer Keri Blue took some great pictures and is putting the poster together under the slogan "Kickin' Bass," in reference to the boat of course. I hope it turns out to be a self fulfilling prophecy!!
Early November is big in terms of birthdays for our team. Miranda Holenstein's was the 6th, mine was the 12th and Cassie Scheffelmaier's is the 15th. So last night the whole team got together after study hall for birthday cake and ice cream and watched a little game tape of our last scrimmage against OIT. I'm very lucky to be associated with so many hardworking, but really fun people. If we score nearly as often as we laugh we're going to be tough to beat!!

Scrimmages & Halloween

October always seems like it's twice as long as any other month of the year and this year was no exception. We all get tired of conditioning and practicing with and against the same players day after day after day and it seems like game time will never get here. The challenge for all of us is to bring game-like focus, concentration, and intensity to practice every day, even though we know our first game is still weeks away.

This past week we had scrimmages at Southern Oregon University and OIT. At times we played very well and other times we struggled. With seven newcomers on our ten player roster it's still taking some time to get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and to get our timing down, especially on offense. We're still not in sync half the time but I expect that will come with experience. Our biggest drawback right now is that we need to get in better shape. As soon as we get tired we're a step slow to the ball, we're not as physical, and we have trouble concentrating. I think once we're in better shape we have a chance to be very, very good.

Last Friday was Halloween and most of the team came over for dinner and then took nine year olds Taylor and Caelynn trick or treating. Mykiea Russell put on an ugly pirate mask, grabbed an empty pillow case and came back with at least a weeks worth of candy. Mistaking her for a kid, several people asked her if she had just moved into the neighborhood. . . If you think she's scary in these pictures, wait until you see her pick up full court!!