6/27/06

Last night was our last practice. It almost wasn't as when we showed at the gym, it was filled with about 30 giggling girls playing beachball volleyball. Turns out the riding camp being held at the school was forced inside due to the rain and had the gym until 8 pm. We made use of the time to hold our last team meeting discussing the logistics and expectations for our trip to Iowa Saturday morning.

When we finally got the gym to ourselves, coach Carol pulled a bold move and scheduled a scrimmage between the athletes and the partners. Filling out the roster for the 4 partners was coach Kevin and a local young man (Brandon, son af a Ethel Walker Math teacher it turns out.) Good thing that Brandon was there as we needed some bench breaks on the partner side in the high heat and he provided a youthful movement to our offense that was critical to the result.

Regulatiuon time ended in a tie with a late surge comback by the partners from a 4 basket deficite. One overtime later, the score was still tied and we thankfully called the "experiment" over.

Not sure we are ready but it doesn't matter as we are on our way. I'll be surprised if we are not in the top division and I'll be surprised if we do not contend in any division we are in. The tale will be told when we see the mental and physical state of the team after 4 days of preliminaries Sunday through Wednesday. Will we have lost interest? Will we all be tired from too many late nights? That's a tale to be told next week.

Today's photo was taken after our exhibition game at the COnnecticut State games June 10th against the SCSU "staff". Our closing 6 point rush to a two point victory raised the team spirit and expectations. A great night for sure.