Practice 11-12-2009

Hi Girls,

Some notes:

1- Our uniforms look nice, remind me to get a thank you note for all of you to sign to send to the Athletic Council. The uni's are your responsibility to take care of, they cost $100.00 per uniform.
Pay special attention to the washing instructions. Use cold water, delicate cycle and tumble dry on air or low heat. Don't lay them out wet since the colors can bleed through or hang on the line. Tell Mom!!!!

2- I will try to get Megan's sizes this weekend for Warm ups, T-shirts and Hoodies and I will hopefully order the Warm ups and Hoodies Monday and the T-Shirts no later than Tuesday. Pricing is and is $38.00 Warm ups, $22.46 T- Shirt and $18.24 Hoodies and Practice Jersey's are $15.00. Make all check to Halifax Academy, code the checks for what you got and give them to me. All your stuff should be in by next week. You have to buy the Warm ups, the other things are optional but most girls wear Warm up Pants, T-Shirt and Hoodie on travel days. On home games we dress nice.

3- We need to have a team meeting and discuss team goals for 2009. Maybe after practice in the cafeteria soon. Here are some I thought of: You can add or change.

Team Goals 2009/2010

a- Every player scores in a game
b- Win all games against the local academy's
c- Beat RRHS at least once
d- Improve more from the start of the season to finish than any team I have coached
e- Qualify to host a conference tournament game.
f- Make a run for the EPIC Conference Championship
g- Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together and Have Great Fun working to accomplish our goals.
h- To know no team works harder than us in practice or in games.
i- Win the JV Christmas Tournament we host this year.

4- Practice Notes:

In my opinion the most dominate player in practice so far has been Jamie. The most pleasant surprise has been Emily and the two players that have shown flashes of the talent necessary to be dominant in their position are Lindsey and Jesse. Both with their speed and quickness and Jessie with her ability to pressure the ball. Honorable mention goes to Alex for her court game and shooting ability and Lindy for the steady good play and leadership and overall game she brings to the team.

I see lots of girls that have talent and if they can eliminate turnovers and make a few more plays they would help themselves and help this team a lot. Keep working on getting better, its a long season. If you show me you can help this team you will get some time on the court.

We never want to forget we have to continue to improve every week in practice. Every team we play is going to improve, if we don't teams we can beat now might be beating us later in the year.

Our calling card has to be playing smothering defense, 22 and 24, getting fastbreak lay ups and making them and not turning the ball over. Always remember when you turn the ball over that is two points you do not have a chance to score and 2 points the other teams gets a chance to score. So a turnover potentially costs your team 4 points. Six points if you count 3's.

A typical JV Girls team will be around 30 points. Some games we won with less than 20. Every basket opportunity and every basket given up is important.

We have covered an unbelievable amount of information so far in practice. However, it is my job as coach to have us prepared for things we will see in games. It is not as simple as pick up basketball, every school we play has good coaches, they are working on wrinkles to give their team the advantage. If we do not prepare well we will be preparing to fail.

We have exactly 2 players back from the top 9 players from the start of last season. Making life simpler then we had quite a few players last season in their second year of playing under me and several of them basically already had a good understanding of what to do and these players made it easier for the newcomers. Plus the Jenn's and Kaela's and Kimberly's and Ashton's of the world almost always were in the right place at the right time taking care of their responsibility. Offense, defense, called plays, out of bounds plays, press offense, it goes on and on.

This team has to push itself to get to that same level of consistency. Know what to do and where to go and do it everytime.

All that said, we have the potential to be good, possibly real good if we want it bad enough and work hard for it. It is going to be hard for teams to match our speed and overall athleticism. Cut out the turnovers and make the lay ups and chippies and make sure you do you job on the court and the sky is the limit.

Let's have a special year. I didn't return this season to coach you girls expecting to do anything less than have a special year.

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together!

Thought: Good things come to those who expect good things and are willing to work for them.

Second Thought: We represent Halifax Academy, our parents, our team and ourselves. Lets do our very best on and off the court.

Coach May