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March 25, 2003
Thursday March 20, 2003Today we had a long day. This morning I had class for two hours for my education degree. Then we all had to board our plane at 2pm and after a little wait in the rain we were on our way to Knoxville TN. We had all the pep band and cheerleaders with us as well as many family members, babysitters and fans. It was a bumpy flight and we have a few nervous flyers but we all got here safely just in time for practice. We went to the Thompson-Bowling arena and practiced for an hour. We were lucky enough to catch up with our assistant coach from last year Nikki Caldwell and Kathy Allen who played with us last year. We had another practice at a different arena after that and managed to see some of the campus. There is no one around as UT is on spring break.
After the two practices we were finally allowed to check into the Knoxville Marriott hotel and get ready for dinner. Dinner was a fun affair watching all the men’s tournament games and chatting. We are all really relaxed and enjoying ourselves ahead of Saturday’s game. We know what we have to do to win and are focused on doing it to make it to the next round. I will write more tomorrow.
Friday, March 21, 2003Today we had a fun day with a wake up call at 930am. This was a great sleep in for me as I am normally out teaching on Friday’s at Western Albemarle High School. We then had a field trip to the Women’s basketball hall of fame. It was a neat place to visit to, there was a video that showed the history of women’s basketball. It is amazing to see the development of the women’s game. When the game was first adapted to women there were sometimes 10 players on the court. Also at the hall of fame are some practice mini courts and the girls had fun trying to dunk on the smaller hoops.
After this we had some down time and then we were off to practice at two different gyms again. This time it was going over the scouting report first then to the main arena for an open practice. We really had some fun at the end of practice, we had these competitions about making up shots that the posts had to perform and then the guards. It ended up even in the end. Just imagine a post player doing an inside out dribble and between the legs dribble to a jump shot. It was fun and got the team relaxed which is what we need to be for our game tomorrow.
After practice we had a press conference which Debbie, Brandi and I were involved in. They asked questions about our season and at the end our thoughts on the war. I just hope that all the troops get to come home as quick and safely as possible. Its amazing that people my age are over there and I hope that by us playing provides some sort of entertainment to get their minds off the real happenings.
We ended up with some spare time after practice and I did some more school work. I can be such a nerd, doing work on a Friday night but it was needed and I have to be in shape for when I get back to school. We had a nice team dinner, then were all ready for bed. WE were ready to wake up and win! Talk to you tomorrow!