H.A. JV Girls Basketball

EPIC Conference Champion T-Shirts.

2011-03-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Coach West can make your t-shirts (RTS). Using the program front for a guide it will say:

Halifax Academy Arched Letters around basketball

EPIC
CHAMPIONS Overlayed on top of basketball background
2011

JV Girls Basketball Reverse arched around basketball background

Shirt color: Turquoise Blue (They also have Green turquoise and Royal Blue)

Back of shirt: Your first name at the top of the back:

Tournament Brackets on the back with Halifax as winner

I have your sizes from team t shirts at the beginning of the year: If you need different let me know.

Ryanne and MeganK were not at the meeting, I need to know if they want a t-shirt. Someone please find out and email me at bmayunc@earthlink.net.

The cost of the T-shirt will be $10.00 or so. You will need to be able to pay me before getting your shirt so we can close the deal.

Anything you think I need to know about these shirts get the word to me quick. Thanks.

I will order as soon as I hear if MeganK and Ryanne want a shirt or not. Coach West is ready to print he says.

I think it is going to be a cool shirt. Captains take the lead and get me any information needed.

Bland

Final Stats 2010/2011

2011-03-04T07:24:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

These are the final stat totals for the year. Remember statistics only tell part of the story. For instance it does not factor in ball handling, leadership, defensive play, playing with focus and intensity etc. however without stats a team would have a difficult time in knowing where its strenghts and weaknesses were.

Scoring:

ppg=points per game. To find your total points multiply by the number of games you played in.

Kelly 9.3 ppg
Jamie 7.4 ppg
Emily 4.7 ppg
Mer 4.0 ppg
Alex 2.6 ppg
Lindsey 2.2 ppg
MeganK 14 points
Jordan 7 points
M&M 6 points
Kaela 2 points
Kim 2 points
Leslie 2 points
Brooke 1 point

FG Percentages:

Team FG% 33.8% 300/885

Kelly 49.7%
MeganK 38.9%
Emily 34%
Mer 31.2%
Jamie 29.2%
Alex 26.4%
Lindsey 24.7%
M&M 25%
Jordan 17.6%
Kaela 12.5%
Kim 9.1%
Leslie 7.7%

If you study these percentages you will see why I prefer layups. In addition to generally higher FG%'s it also gives you a better chance to get the other team in foul trouble.

Team 3 point %: 17.4% 4/23 One of these makes was a 50 footer by Lindsey at Fayetteville Academy.

Free Throw Percentage:

FT% Team: 37.5% 123/328 If we had made 50% of our FT's we would have scored 41 more points or an additional 1.78 ppg. In close games that would be huge.

Jamie 44.1%
Kelly 41.3%
Mer 40.3%
Emily 34.1%
Alex 28.6%
MeganK 20%
Lindsey 14.3%

5 or less attempts:

Brooke 1/2
Jordan 0/1
Kaela 0/4
Leslie 0/5

Rebounds:

Team: Offensive: 144 (6.26 per game) Defensive 381 (16.56 per game)

Kelly: 6.82 pg 67/90
Mer: 5.48 pg 45/81
Em: 4.0 pg 39/53
Jamie: 3.8 pg 33/48
Alex: 1.9 pg 11/33
Lindsey: 1.25 pg 5/24
Jordan: 14 total
MeganK: 13
Leslie: 13
Kaela: 10
Kim: 9
M&M: 6
Catherine: 2
Brooke: 1

Assists: 98% of our assists probably led directly to lay ups or other short shots. That was our focus and we did a good job of it.

Team: 7.43 per game 171 total

Jamie: 67
Lindsey: 43
Mer: 27
Alex: 13
Emily: 6
Jordan: 6
Kelly: 3
MeganK: 3
M&M: 3

Steals:

Team: 10.4 per game 240 total

Lindsey: 67
Jamie: 57
Mer: 38
Kelly: 22
Alex: 17
Em: 14
MeganK: 9
M&M: 5
Jordan: 3
Kim: 3
Catherine: 2
Kaela: 1

Blocks:

Team: 2.86 per game 66 total

Kelly: 26
Emily: 12
Lindsey:12
Alex: 6
Jamie: 4
Mer: 4
M&M: 1
MeganK: 1

Basic thoughts for your personal improvement: Work on making Foul Shots, Lay ups and shots you might expect to get from your position on the court. Practice does not make Perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect. Focus on good fundamentals. Ball handlers, work on dribbling with each hand and making fundamentally sound passes.

Remember: The best way to improve the team is to improve your own play.

I will plan to post additional thoughts at a later time.

Bland

Uniform Collection Day!

2011-02-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Please make sure all your teammates know this. I will be at school on Friday Morning in the school library at 8:30 am to collect all the uniforms and all the T-shirt money that is due. You will be allowed to be tardy a few minutes Teresa is taking care of that.

Please make sure that you have your uniforms washed and folded neatly (in a WalMart bag is a good way to carry them) and bring a check(if you still owe) made out to Halifax Academy and stubbed T-Shirt for $12.50 for the team T-Shirts still due. I would like to take care of all this type stuff on Friday. Thanks in advance.

BTW, If you girls would like a T-shirt that says you are the 2011 EPIC Champions we can probably get one made. Think About the Color you want. If you want a T-shirt you might want a different color than the green one you already have, but that is your call, it COULD be players can order different colors as long as there are not too many of them, Green, White, Navy, Pink. (on this I will have to check it out) We will talk about it Friday Morning in the Library. All JV Girls Team members and Ryanne Please attend.

I was thinking 2011 JV Girls EPIC Champions on the front and your name and number on the back. If you have a different idea print it up and bring it Friday.

Team leaders, please make the effort to let every girl on our team know to read this and bring your stuff on Friday so we can close this season out.

It was a Great Season Girls!

Now you can turn your head and look back to see what you have accomplished!

Bland

EPIC Tournament Champions 2011

2011-02-19T12:39:00.000-08:00

Hi Ladies;

A Great win against a tough Rocky Mount JV Girls team 33 to 28 to claim the always tough 2A EPIC Tournament Championship at Parrott Academy bringing an end to a Dream Season. I am very proud of all of you. Your poise under pressure all year has been wonderful.

It has been a very good learning experience for this team. One that should serve you all well in the future. We went from being the hunter to being the hunted this year. It makes you appreciate what great teams like UNC and Duke face every night when all the other teams put in extra time and share stradegy's in an effort to knock you off the top spot. It is the nature of the game. Learn to welcome the challenge. Competing is fun.

The Best news is our team had what it took to take everyone's best shot and keep on winning.

Scoring by Qtrs: 1st: 9 to 11, 2nd: 6 to 4, 3rd: 9 to 6, 4th: 9 to 7 Final Score 33 to 28

H.A. Scoring: Kelly 10 pts, Jamie 9 pts, MeganK 6 points, Emily 3 pts,Jordan 3 pts, Lindsey 2 pts.

Making the All Tournament Team as selected by the tournament committee were:

Tournament MVP: Jamie

All Tournament team: Kelly, Lindsey and Emily along with #23 and #25 from RMA.

RMA Scoring: #25 C. Boddie 9 pts, #23 A.C. Roberson 9 pts, #5 C. Coats 6 pts, #20 S. Dunn 2 pts,
#12 A. Jackson 2 pts.

FG%: Team 14/35 40%**: Individual: Kelly 5/8***, Jamie 3/5***, Em 1/2**, Jordan 1/2(3pt)**,
MeganK 3/8*, Lindsey 1/8, Mer 0/1, Alex 0/2.

FT%: Team 4/12 33.3%; Individuals: Jamie 3/4****, Em 1/4, Lindsey 0/1, Kelly 0/3.

RMA FT%: 7/17 41.2%: #25 Boddie 3/6, #5 Coats 2/5, #12 Jackson 2/6.

Rebounds: Team 5off/16def: Kelly 3/5****, Jamie 1/4***, Em, 1/4***, Mer 1/2**, MeganK 0/1*.

Assists: Team 7; Individuals: Lindsey 3***, Jamie 2**, Alex 1*, MeganK 1*.

Steals: Team 7: Individuals: MeganK 3****, Lindsey 2***, Jamie 2***.

Blocks: Team 5****; Jamie 2****, Em 1**, Kelly 1**, Lindsey 1**.

Layups: Team 8/18 44.4%; Individual: Kelly 5/8****, Em 1/2***, Jamie 1/2***, Lindsey 1/5, Mer 0/1,
MeganK 0/1.

T/O's: Team 9: Individual: Lindsey 3, Jamie 2, Alex 1, MeganK 1. This was a good number. We did not have very many unforced turnovers and you expect the girls that handle the ball 80% of the time to have a few. Good Work!

Heart, Heart and Heart! Teams that play with great skill can be good teams but it takes a team that plays with Great Heart and Great Skill to be a Great Team and to be a Champion. As we talk about so much at practice if the other teams gets all the 50/50 loose balls and all the 50/50 rebounds bouncing around in the air you are probably going to get beat and it is usually going to be by a bunch.

I thought the RMA team played better than I had seen them. Their Coach said he was proud of how they played. We had to have the Heart, Focus and Determination to meet that. As I told you in the locker room I was not going to sit there in a zone and let the game be a toss up knowing we could pressure them and win by 7 or 8 points. The Point Zone served its purpose to make sure we had gas in the tank in the second half and not be in foul trouble at the end of the game. If they had been cold from outside (they only had 2 outside shooters #5 and #23) we could have stayed in it longer but they were hot and we did not get out on their shooters quite fast enough in the zone early. They only scored 4 2pt FG's after we went to 24Lockdown with about 4 min to go in the 2nd qtr. Before that in 8 minutes or so they had 3 three's and 2 two's and 5 foul shot attempts.

Girls, we set as a goal 3 Championship Celebrations for this season. Along the way we had so many other wonderful victories that were part of making this a Dream Season. It takes focus, believing in what you are doing and executing what you work on. When you let your thoughts stray very far from your principles it usually costs you. Sometimes it only makes the game closer than it should be. Sometimes it costs you the game. This team had the ability to dig deep and focus on what it was good at the great majority of the time both on offense and defense. Your Reward is all these Championship Trophy's.

Congratulations 2010 Christmas Tournament Champions, 2011 EPIC Regular Season Champions,
2011 EPIC Tournament Champions. It was a dream season and every player on this team should be proud of what this team accomplished.

You Girls have been a wonderful group to coach and be around. I enjoyed everyday of it.

Remember to Enjoy what you have accomplished and let's never forget:

There is no Glory in Defense just Championships. It is not about who we are playing, winning or losing it is about Perfect Execution. The man on top of the mountain did not fall there. You can measure the speed of a race horse with a watch but it takes a race to measure its heart. Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together.

It has been a great season, I was told that the odds against us were stacked too high with Halifax Ac. being one of the smallest 2A schools playing against schools that should be in 3A in our conference. You proved that with focus and attention to detail and playing with talent and heart that was not so. Let's keep it up.

Finally a huge thank you to our fans. They have been great all year. Thursday and Saturday we had a great crowd supporting us. You girls captured the imagination of our Halifax Academy family by playing hard and playing with great skill. It was great to not only have the vocal and moral support of our parents but also the students and other members of our H.A. family that traveled so far to support us yesterdayt. Whenever you get a chance make sure they know how much you and your coach appreciated it. They were truly like having an extra player on our team.

I will post additional information from this season at a later date such a final stats etc. so check back.

***Would you girls that still owe for your Team T-Shirts please get a check for $12.50 to Teresa so we can close our account.*** Also please wash your uniforms and turn them in. If necessary I will set up a day to be at school to collect them. I will talk to our AD and Mr. Wiggs on what can be worked out.

Bland

JV Girls Tournament Championship Game

2011-02-18T15:20:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Excellent practice today! Here is some information you might want.

Tip time for the JV Girls Tournament Championship game is 12:00 noon.

It is about a 1 hour 50 minute ride to Parrott from Halifax Academy. Add time if you are further away.

We need to be dressed out and in the Gym by 11:00 am.

We need to be on the court shooting by 11:15am 45 mins. before tip.

I plan to leave about 8:30 am and should be there when you arrive.

Make sure you get plenty of water, Rest and Protein/Carbs tonight.

Allow yourself enough time to eat breakfast tomorrow morning.

Be certain you pack your uniforms and your shoes etc.

We should be the White team based on being the higher seed.

We should be the home team on the scoreboard based on being the higher seed.

The Tournament Championship Trophy and Runner up Trophy will be awarded on site after the game.

We want the big trophy.

The regular season championship trophy will be awarded at our athletic banquet.

Lets be focused and ready to play our best.

Coach May

Tournament Victory vs. St. Davids

2011-02-17T18:52:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls;

A great win today over a very good St. Davids team 31 to 28 to send the JV Lady Vikings to Parrott Academy to play RMA for the EPIC Tournament Championship at 12:00 noon Saturday. RMA defeated APA last night 23 to 20.

Scoring by Qtrs: 1st qtr: 8-9 2nd qtr: 11-8 3rd qtr: 8-3 4th qtr: 4-8 Final Score 31 to 28.

H.A. Scoring: Jamie 10, Emily 8, Mer 7, Alex 2, Lindsey 2, Kelly 2.

S.D. Scoring: #15 C. Garrett 15, #31 M. Park 7, #11 K. Dickens 6.

FG%: Team; 14/30 46.6%: Individual: Mer 3/4****, Emily 4/6***, Jamie 4/9**, Alex 1/3*, Lindsey 1/4,
Kelly 1/4.

FT%: Team 3/13; 23.1%: Individual: Mer 1/2**, Jamie 2/7, Lindsey 0/2, Kelly 0/2.

FT% St. Davids: 4/10 40%: #11 2/2, #31 1/2, #15 1/6.

Rebounds: Team 8off/15def; Individual: Jamie 0/7****, Kelly 4/2***, Mer 3/2***, Em 1/2**, Alex 0/1*,
Lindsey 0/1*.

Assists: Team 7; Individual: Jamie 3***, Mer 2**, Lindsey 1*, Alex 1*.

Steals: Team 7; Individual: Jamie 2***, Kelly 2***, Lindsey 1**, Mer 1**, Em**.

Blocks: Team 4; Individual: Lindsey 1**, Emily 1**, Kelly 1**, Mer 1**.

Lay Ups: Team 9/19 47.4%: Mer 3/4****, Emily 4/6***, Lindsey 1/2**, Kelly 1/4, Jamie 0/3.

Turnovers: Team 17; Individual: Jamie 7, Mer 4, Lindsey 3, Emily 1, Alex 1, Kelly 1.

Final Thoughts: We made it more difficult than it should have been by not making foul shots late and not doing a very good job guarding #15 early. #15 had 11 points in the 1st 7 min of the game. #31 scored 6 pts in the second quarter. Once we got our defense adjusted #15 did not score again until she made 4 pts late in the game and #31 only scored 1 point in the 3rd qtr. #11 scored all her 4 points in the 4th.

It was a great effort and I was extremely proud of all of you girls for your effort and focus on what we had to do defensively. Even though we worked on being prepared for #31 and #15 we had to adjust to them using #31 as a passer out of the High Post. Once we denied her the ball at that spot it caused their offense to have trouble getting started and they seemed to have no alternative plan. #31 and #15 are both very good players. That said we have some very good players on our side of court.

We set as a Team Goal at the beginning of the year a Goal to win 3 Championships: Defend the Christmas Tournament Championship, Win the EPIC Regular Season home and home championship and Win the Conference Tournament Championship. We have one goal burning brightly left in front of us. Lets give it our total focus and total effort.

We will practice Friday at the regular time and the team will assemble at Parrott Academy at 11:00am for the 12:00 noon tip off of the JV Girls Championship Game.

By the Way: The win today makes our Team record now 20 and 2 for the season. Let's finish strong, 21 and 2 sounds Great to me!

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together. Be Proud of Who You Are and What You do!

Thank you Girls and Parents for the wonderful team picture. It will always remind me of how happy we all felt after that great comeback win for the conference championship. Also thanks for my gift certificate to Sharky's I am really looking forward to going there to eat and I really appreciate such a nice gift. Also, it was a wonderful meal. Thanks to all the parents that made it possible and Thanks for all you do.

Girls you all need to give your parents a hug and a kiss and tell them how much you love them for all they do for you and for our team. They are not only our biggest fans, without them getting us where we need to go we would not go far. It takes a huge committment from players and parents alike to have a Great Season. Let's bring them home another Trophy for their efforts.

Last but not least: Didn't we have a great crowd for our game today. They made a difference.

Coach May

Final EPIC JV Girls Standings and Tournament

2011-02-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

***Picture Day Monday, bring your uniforms***

***We need to get the money together for our team T-Shirts, the bill came in***

***Please make the check out to Halifax Academy and stub it T.Shirt etc.****

The Final EPIC Conference standings are out. It turned out a little different than I thought. Rocky Mount finished in 3rd place and so therefore we will host St. Davids on Thursday assuming they beat CCS a third time Tuesday.

Halifax Academy 9-1
Parrott Academy 8-2
Rocky Mount Ac. 6-4
St. Davids 5-5
Cary Christian 2-8
Kerr Vance 0-10

We will play the winner of 4 vs 5 on Thursday. APA will play the winner of 3 vs. 6 on Thursday.

I am working on the gameplan for St. Davids. I have some thoughts on their team and skills. We will be fine.
See you Monday at 3:15 or so. We will shoot foul shots and take pictures. Bring your uniforms. Look pretty.

The Varsity Girls will travel to RMA Tuesday. The JV Boys will travel to KVA Tuesday. The Varsity Boys will travel to St. Davids Tuesday. We will practice Tuesday and Wednesday to be ready for our game on Thursday.
I think we are going to have a team dinner after the game Thursday. We might practice a little longer on Tuesday since we will be the only team at school. Extra time to work on individual skills and shots.

Let's get prepared to play our best week of basketball ever!

Bland

H.A. JV Girls E.P.I.C. Champions 2011

2011-02-11T18:10:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

A Great comeback win. One that took great effort and focus. I was so glad to see we can still play 24 Lockdown and play it well when we need it. I think we were 9 points down near the end of the 3rd quarter. Jamie's 3 got it down to 6 to start the 4th. We then outscored Parrott 7 to 0 in the 4th quarter to pull out the win.

We came in with 3 lofty goals for this season:

1- To defend our Christmas Tournament Title.

2- To win the EPIC Regular Season Title.

3- To win the EPIC Conference Tournament Title.

All I can say on our team goals is 2 down, 1 to go. Being the Regular Season Champion is by far the most impressive of all the title's. The Regular season Champion is simply the Best Team in the conference and is based on a season of play with home and home games. Way to go girls!

We did something some said we could not do. I am so proud of you all. Not many ever win a Championship of any kind in a lifetime. There is one thing for certain, the EPIC is dead serious about basketball. Any kind of Championship in Basketball is quite an accomplishment in the tough 2A EPIC conference. We were close to a tie for the championship last year( 4pts) and could not finish the deal. As they say the difference between ordinary and Extra-ordinary is just that little Extra. That is what you girls had when we needed it all year, that little Extra. That makes the difference.

Scoring by qts: 1st: 10-8; 2nd 0-6; 3rd: 6-8; 4th 7-0 Final: 23-22

H.A. Scoring: Kelly 12pts, Jamie 5pts, Emily 4pts, Mer 2pts.

APA Scoring: #5 L. Beyer 8, #23 E. Riley 6, #10 N. Wenzova 4, #12 L. Mills 2, #11 B.Tyndall 2.

FG%: Team 9/27; 33.3%: Kelly 5/9***; Emily 2/5**; Jamie 2/10; Alex 0/1, Lindsey 0/1, Jordan 0/1.

FT%: Team 4/9; 44.4%: Mer 2/2*****, Kelly 2/5*, Lindsey 0/1, MeganK 0/1.

Rebounds: Team 2off/14def: Mer 0/5****, Kelly 2/2***, Emily o/2*, Jamie 0/2*, Lindsey 0/2*,
Alex 1*.

Assists: Team 6**; Jamie 4****, Alex 1*, Mer 1*.

Steals: Team 12****: Jamie 4****, Mer 3***, Lindsey 2**, Kelly 2**, MeganK 1*.

Blocks: Kelly 2**, Alex *.

Layups: Team 8/17; 47%**; Kelly 5/9***, Emily 2/5**, Jamie 1/3*.

3 pointers: Jamie 1/1*****.

Turnovers: Team 10: Lindsey 3, Mer 2, MeganK 2, Jamie 2, Alex 1. (Only Ten in the bigtime atmosphere we were playing in was very good)

Final Thoughts: It has been a Dream Season. Remember all the stuff we practiced on. The Maxim I like to use alot that goes "Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail" comes to mind tonight. We were prepared to do a number of different things if we needed something. Against some teams one thing worked well and against other teams we had to pull a different tool out of the box. The Bottom line was we always had another tool we could go to when we needed something to run.

Even if you were well prepared but played with no heart and no effort you would never win. To be a Champion at any level you have to Play with great Heart. All those 50/50 loose balls if the other team gets them all you probably will not win. All you girls that have been around me for a long time know how much I value players that play with Heart,effort and focus. Without it in basketball you are nowhere.

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together.

We will enjoy this Championship for a lifetime but come Tuesday lets put it on the back burner and focus on winning one more with this team. Opportunity is fleeting. Two more games and this team will become next years Varsity and JV. We don't really have to do anything else to prove we are a great team but I would like to see us go ahead and show what we have and win another Championship for good measure. Believe it or not I still do not think we have played our best game this year. YET!

Get some much deserved rest over the weekend, 2011 EPIC Championship Team.

Coach May

Solid Win @ KVA.

2011-02-10T04:58:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

***Dismissal Time for APA 11:15am, make sure you have your uniforms etc and wear warm ups.***
***Team Picture's Monday @3:45pm***. If time I would like to shoot foul shots prior*** Uniforms!

A nice solid win at KVA. We got good play from a lot of players and that is what it takes. We are still tied with Parrott Academy for first place. They squeeked by St. Davids 21 to 20 on Tuesday. That means we are going to need to beat them to be the conference regular season champions. Let's be focused and ready and make the most of the opportunity. We have clinched one of the top two spots and will play the winner of the 4 and 5 or the 3 and 6 seeds on Thursday on our home court. I am pretty sure St. Davids is the 3 seed and KVA is the 6 seed. Rocky Mount is probably going to be the 4 seed and CCS the 5 seed.

Scoring by Qtrs: 1st: 6-9; 2nd: 11-1; 3rd: 13-4; 4th: 11-6; Final Score 41 to 20

HA Scoring: Kelly 14, Emily 12, Mer 5, Lindsey 2, Jamie 2, Alex 2, Jordan 2, M&M 2.

KVA Scoring: #4 Cristin Abbott 6 pts, #15 Rachel Ross 5 pts, #13 Brittney West 4 pts, #3 Mckenzie jones 2 pts
#11 Jracy Manahan 2 pts, #23 Lauryn William 1 pt.

HA FG%: Team: 18/45 40%: Individual: M&M 1/1*****, Mer 2/3****, Emily 6/10****, Kelly 5/9***,
Jordan 1/2***, Lindsey 1/5, Alex 1/5, Jamie 1/10.

HA FT%: Team 5/7; 71,4%****; Kelly 4/5****, Mer 1/2***.

KVA FT% 5/11; 45.5%

Rebounds: Team 12off/27Def: Kelly 5/10*****, Jamie 2/3***, Emily 2/3***, Mer 1/4***, Jorday 1/2**,
MeganK 0/2**, Lindsey 0/2**, Alex 1/1**.

Assists: Team 10***; Lindsey 4****, Mer 3***, Jamie 2**, Jordan 1*.

Steals: Team 8*; Lindsey 4****, Jamie 2**, M&M 1*, Kelly 1*.

Blocks: Lindsey 1*.

Turnovers: Team 12; Individual: Lindsey 4, Jamie 3, Emily 2, Mer 1, Kelly 1, MeganK 1.

Layups: Team 15/32***; M&M 1/1*****, Mer 2/3****, Emily 6/10****, Kelly 5/9***, Lindsey 1/4,
Jamie 0/5. Ladies, anytime we make 50% or better we are going to be awfully tough to beat as long as we play good defense and not make too many turnovers. Good Work!

Final Thoughts: We played a good game. They were hot to start with but once we got up in their faces their shooting percentage dropped off. It is hard to shoot and make it with a hand in your face. That is what great defense is about, contest shots without fouling and denying layups. I Thought a lot of you girls played a good game. We were effective with finding Kelly early and did some nice things with Mer passing out of the High Post late. Emily did a great job of stepping out a couple of steps then sliding back around the back of their zone and scoring. I also was excited to see Lindsey breakdown the front of their zone down by swinging the ball wide and getting it back and driving into the lane with both Low Posts sliding into scoring position for the pass or the Offensive Rebound. That was effective and we will add that to our arsenal of tools for when the other teams try to overplay the wing.

Our greatest advantage over most teams is our skill at getting good shots close to the goal on offense and playing tough on the boards on both offense and defense. When we move our feet and don't foul and stay squared up on our men defensively our athleticism makes it hard for the oppostion to get good shots just by not giving them any room to shoot and not letting them drive by us. Closely contested shots as we know are hard to make unless they are layups and we always want to make sure the other team does not beat us at getting more layups than us. We also always want to not put them on the foul line. Mix all the above in with not turning the ball over by focusing on making the simple smart pass and that is the formula for winning basketball.

The one exception to the simple pass rule is on plays like Up and seal out post ups etc. where there is some risk but if we complete the pass it usually means a basket or a foul, sometimes both. Plus that is on the far end of the court away from their basket and does not give the other team a run out basket opportunity. Turnovers that give up runouts are extra bad.

Ladies: Let's Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together. We have the tools and the talent to do what needs to be done we just need to make sure we step up, focus on the task at hand and do it. It is all about team.

Thought: Don't reach for something unless you are willing to dig and scratch for it. Everyone is willing to take something if it is easy. If you really want it, put the effort into it to take it. Roy Williams, UNC.

Coach May

Nice win over CCS.

2011-02-08T16:49:00.003-08:00

Hi Girls,

*********Dismissal Time Kerr Vance 12:45 according to my schedule********
***We can eat in town before we go or stop at Burger King in Norlina on the way, Captains Decide******

A good conference win. You all played good. We did the things we needed to do and it paid nice dividends.

Scoring by Qtrs: 1st: 9-2, 2nd 12- 3, 3rd 6-6, 4th 6-4. Final Score: 33 to 15

H.A. Individual: Kelly 10, Lindsey 8, Jamie 7, Mer 4, Alex 2, MeganK- 2.

CCS: #25 G- Britney Hunn 7pts, #32 G- Meggie Bloodworth 2 pts, #12 G- Caroline Scheliss 2 pts,
#5 C- Kaitlyn Innes 2 pts, #4 Rachel Kenny (reserve) 2 pts. #2 F Shelby Ballard 0 pts.

FG%: Team; 16/54 29.6%: Individual: MeganK 1/1*****,Kelly 5/10***, Lindsey 4/9** Mer 2/5**,
Alex 1/3*, Jamie 3/17, Jordan 0/1, Kim 0/1, Leslie 0/1, Catherine 0/3.

FT%: Team 3/5 60%***: Individuals: Kelly 2/2*****, Jamie 1/3.

CCS FT%: 5/15 33.3%: #25 Hunn 5/10, #12 Scheliss 0/3, # 2 Ballard 0/2.

Rebounds: Team 17Off/24Def*****: Individual: Kelly 4/6*****, Jamie 4/3****, Emily 4/3****, Kim 0/4***,
Mer 2/2***, Jordan 2/1**, MeganK 0/2*, Alex 1/0*, Kaela 0/1*, Leslie 0/1*, Catherine 0/1*.

Assists: Team 10****: Jamie 4****, Lindsey 2**, Jordan 2**, Mer 1*, Emily 1*.

Steals: Team 5*; Lindsey 3***, MeganK 1*, Kim 1*. (Not bad for X)

Blocks: Lindsey 1*

Lay ups: Team 14/35 40%*: Individual: MeganK 1/1*****, Lindsey 4/6****, Kelly 5/10**, Mer 2/5*,
Jamie 2/9, Kim 0/1, Emily 0/3.

T/O's: Team 7*****: Individual: Jamie 3, Kelly 2, Leslie 2. Very nice low # on turnovers. Great Work!

Final Thoughts: I will post these at a later date. I will say we seemed to have our energy level back and our focus back and we did a nice job of executing the things we talked about, Good work. It made a huge difference. Glad we got some of the younger girls some playing time.

Another Conference Game Tomorrow at KVA. Let's be ready!

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together.

Coach May

Nice win over CCS.

2011-02-08T16:49:00.001-08:00

A Step Backwards.

2011-02-04T19:11:00.000-08:00

OK Girls,

We took a big step backwards today. We missed 25 layups, 50 points worth. St. Davids wanted to do 3 things; They wanted to double team Kelly and make sure she did not beat them, They wanted to pressure Jamie and make it difficult to make the lob pass to Kelly or drive to the basket for scores and they wanted to take advantage of us not running back hard on defense by pushing the ball up the court as hard as possible to get good looks before we ran back and turned around. Bottom line: They wanted to take away what we do best and make us win the game some other way.

My greatest sorrow other than not winning was I did not feel we came into the game with the focus we needed to give us our best chance of winning. Jr. Beta Trip, illness,Spring sports thoughts and too many other distractions. We need to have tunnel vision about finishing the opportunity we have worked so hard to accomplish.

Chances are we will get another chance to play this team in the Conference Tournament either in the first round if we come in second place or in the Championship game if we come in first place.

It is still a fact that if we return to the court next week with renewed focus and energy and paying attention to detail we can be the conference champions. All we have to do is win the next 3 games. CCS at home, KVA on the road, APA on the road, three teams we have beaten already this year.

In order to do this we will have to put our minds back on playing how we played earlier in the year. Playing much harder on defense and working harder to get better shots than the opposition and making them. We need 100% focus on taking care of JV Girls Basketball Business this year.

Our Team Record: Conference 6 and 1, Overall: 16 and 2. I don't know of a single team that would not want to have our record at this point in the year. 16 wins is Nothing to sneeze at, be proud of it and be focused on finishing strong. We can go up to 21 wins with a strong last two weeks.

Scoring by Qtrs: 1st: 10 to 8, 2nd qtr: 2 to 7, 3rd qtr: 6 to 8, 4th qtr: 6 to 18 Final Score: 27 to 41

H.A. Scoring: Emily 10, Jamie 9, Kelly 2, Alex 2, Lindsey 1.

S.D. Scoring: #31 Park 15, #15 Garrett 14, #19 Boliek 4, # 14 Danielson 3, #12 Gilman 3, #11 Dickens 2.

FG%: Team; 10/43 23.3%: Individuals: Alex 1/2**, Emily 5/14, Jamie 3/15, Kelly 1/5, Mer 0/4, MeganK 0/1, Lindsey 0/1.

FT%: Team; 4/9 44.4%: Individuals: Lindsey 1/2*, Jamie 3/7.

Rebounds: Team 7off/16def; Individuals: Jamie 4/2***, Mer 3/2***, Kelly 1/4***, Emily 1/2**, Alex 0/2*.

Assists: Team 7; Individual: Jamie 4**** Lindsey 3***.

Steals: Team 6; Individuals: Mer 2**, Emily 2**, Jamie 2**.

Blocks: Kelly 1*.

Layups: Team 8/33 24.2% (25 missed layups, if we make half of them we win easy)

Turnovers: Team 14; Jamie 6, Alex 4, Mer 2, M&M 1, Leslie 1.

Final Thoughts: Take the time to clear your minds and get focused on playing our best next week. It is one game at a time. We can take no other team for granted. Hustle, focus and determination is the difference in winning and losing in most games. We need to make sure we have all three on our side.

PLAY HARD, PLAY SMART AND PLAY TOGETHER!! That is what it takes and that is what we need to refocus on.

Thought: Tough times don't last but Tough teams do! R. Williams, UNC.

Coach May

RMA Escape.

2011-02-01T16:54:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

It was nice to win. It was not nice to play as poorly as we played. There was poor execution across the board.
If you want to win you focus on execution and effort, the team's and your own. We did not do well on either.

Scoring By Qtrs: 1st - 11 to 6, 2nd- 6 to 6, 3rd- 2 to 2 4th- 6 to 9. Final 25 to 23.

HA Scoring: Kelly 8, Mer 6, Emily 5, Jamie 4, Alex 2.

RMA Scoring: #5 Catherine Coats 7pt (5 in the last 4 mins of the 4th qtr. 3 from the foul line), #23 Anne Claire Roberson 6pts (2 foul shots in the last 4 mins of the 4th), #25 Caroline Boddie 4 pt, #20 Shelly Dunn 4 pts (2 pts in the last 4 min of the game), #12 Alex Jackson 2.

FG%: Team 11/45 24.4% Individual: Kelly 4/7***, Jamie 2/7, Em 2/8, Mer 2/10, Alex 1/9, Lindsey 0/4

FT % Team 3/7 42.9%*; Individual: Mer 2/2*****, Emily 1/4, Alex 0/1

FT% RMA: 7/10 70%. ( 5/6 in the last 4 min's of the game)

Rebounds: 9off/12Def: Individual: Mer 3/3***, Kelly 2/4***, Alex 3/2**, Jordan 0/1*, MeganK 0/1*,
Jamie 0/1*, Emily 1/0*.

Assists: Jamie 2**, Lindsey 1*, Mer 1*. (Cannot believe we only got 4 assists when we could run Up 4 times in any quarter and score 3 basket if executed correctly)

Steals: Team 9; Individual; Alex 3**, Jamie 2*, Mer 2*, Lindsey 2*, Kelly 2*, Megan K 1*, M&M 1*,Jordan 1*.

Blocks: Team 4**; Alex 2**, Kelly 1*, Mer 1*.

Turnovers: Team 14; Individual: Alex 3, Mer 2, Jamie 2, Lindsey 2, Kelly 2, Megan K 1, M&M 1, Jordan 1.

Layups: Team 9/31 29%; Individual: Kelly 4/7**, Emily 2/7, Jamie 1/5, Mer 2/10, Lindsey 0/2. (50% is the minimum winning percentage and that is really too low)

Final Thoughts: The Next Season Syndrome: About this time of year players start getting excited about the next season whatever it is for you. They have dreams of we are going to be good. We are going to have a chance to win it all. Most of the time it does not work out, sometimes it might.

I do know one thing, you have a chance to be the Regular Season Champions for JV Girls Basketball and it is right in front of you for the taking. All we have to do is want it hard enough to focus on executing the things we know how to do and the things we have practiced basically since preseason practice.

Not many ever win a Championship in any sport. In Basketball at HA at the 2A level in the basketball rich EPIC conference, Championships are few and far between. We have 4 more conference games in the Regular Season. Do some soul searching and decide how important giving this team its best shot at winning is to you.

If you think it is not so important then enjoy dreaming about other seasons to come because dreaming of reaching any goal without putting in the focus and effort is just Dreaming. Winning is about Playing Hard and working hard to execute the things you know how to do and having the dicipline not to do the things you know you should not do on the court. If your heart is not in being the JV Girls Champions please just let me know.

Coach May

Comeback vs. Kerr Vance Academy

2011-01-28T16:50:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

A Great comeback against a super hot KVA team tonight. I am extremely pleased with the focus and team effort in the second half. It is what we had to have and you girls pulled together and played hard nose basketball.

No one is going to give us a break, we are going to get everyone's best shot. What we have to make sure of is we are ready to give whoever we play our best shot. When we play hard and execute our offense and defense the way we did in the second half I will take my chances with anyone we play. We just need to make sure we do it for two half's not just one.

Extremely proud of our Team Defense in the Second Half and our execution of up and swing and blue in the second half. Good Work!

Scoring by quarters: 1st: 8 to 11, 2nd: 7 to 10, 3rd: 12 to 0, 4th: 9 to 2. Final Score: 36 to 23

H.A. Scoring: Kelly 22, Jamie 6, Em 6, Megan K 2.

KVA Scoring: #4 Cristin Abbott 9 pts, #15 Rachel Ross 6 pts, # 13 Brittany West 6 pts, # 23 Lauryn Williams 2

FG%: Team 16/48 33.3%: Individuals: Kelly 9/15****, Megan K 1/2**, Emily 3/9*, Jamie 3/9*, Lindsey 0/2, Alex 0/3, Mer 0/7.

FT%: Team 33.3%; Kelly 4/8*, Jamie 0/2, Emily 0/2.

Rebounds: Team 12off/14def: Individual: Kelly 4/5****, Mer 2/3***, Emily 4/1***, Jamie 0/4***, Alex 1/0*,
Megan K 1/0*, Kaela 0/1*, Kim 1/0*.

Assists: Team 8: Jamie 6****, Lindsey 2**.

Steals: Team 16*****; Jamie 7*****, Lindsey 5****, Kelly 2**, Kim 2**.

Blocks: Emily 1 **

Lay ups: 37.8% 14/37

Turnovers: Team 20; Individuals: Mer 6, Jamie 6, Emily 3, Lindsey 2, Kelly 2, Kim 1.

Final Thoughts: We did what we needed to do to win in the second half. Great teams find a way.

There is really only a few constants in basketball, #1 is defense, If you play great defense it gives your team a great chance to win and you always can control how good you play on defense, it is simply your choice to make the effort. In the second half KVA only scored 2 points after getting 21 in the first half. Great defense takes a serious team commitment and it requires Every Player on the court to buy into it every possession.

Our team had to have it tonight in the second half and you girls on the court gave it to us. Not just a couple of girls but every girl playing hard every second of every possession. I am so proud of that and proud of you for the effort and focus and determination you gave us.

The second thing you can control to a degree is rebounding. Rebounding is a whole lot about effort and anticipation and a little about technique. It is something we can control to some degree.

The third thing is making Lay ups, we probably cannot make them all but with focus and concentration we should make way over 50%. That could be the difference between a easy win and a nailbitter.

These three things along with value the ball thinking and hustle and determination need to be our focus everytime we set foot on the court. When we execute what we practice we have a great opportunity to win.

Bottom line: I will keep saying it; It is more about us than it is about anyone we play. We need to keep taking care of business. It was a great game. Get some rest and lets come back Monday focused on doing what we have to do vs. Rocky Mount Tuesday. We are now 5 and 0 in the conference and have to play every team for a second time. Our future is in our hands. No let down. We know every team we play is going to give us their best shot. Lets be ready to give them ours.

Team Motto: Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.

Thought for the Day: There is No Glory in Playing Great Team Defense just Championships. Morgan Wooten Dematha High, All time winningest mens basketball High School Coach 1400+ wins. Girls Read this one twice.

Defense is the ultimate team game: You can be no stronger than your weakest link on any given play. That is why all 5 players have to commit to playing hard and staying in front of their man every possession every time down the court. There can be no taking time off. If you are too tired to guard your man give me the fist and I will sub for you and let you catch your breath.

Coach May

Hard Earned win at Hobgood.

2011-01-27T19:05:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

We escaped with a victory today at Hobgood 24 to 22. It was not a pretty game and our execution was not good. Lindsey and Mer made a great play to seal the win for us and Jamie made a big basket before that. We played with heart and that pulled us through. An ugly win is still a lot better than a pretty loss.

Scoring by Qtrs: 1st: 5-2 2nd: 7-10 3rd: 8-6 4th: 4-4 Final Score 24-22

H.A. Scoring: Alex 7, Mer 5, Jamie 4, Em 4, Lindsey 2, Kelly 2.

Hobgood Scoring: #15(G) Megan Medford 5, #(G) 31 April Duke 5, #42 ( C.)( tall)Jesse Bunting 5,
#35(F) Kaleigh Barwick 3, #30(F) Arianna Elenary 2, #50(F) Taylor Smith 2.

FG%: Team 37% Individual: Alex 3/4****, Mer 2/3****, Em 1/2***, Lindsey 1/3***, Jamie 2/8, Kelly 1/5 Not a terrible shooting percentage, if we had made a few more layups we could have really helped ourselves. We need to do a better job of executing getting the ball down to the low block, good things happen when we get the ball there.

FT%: Team 3/16 18.75% Individual: Emily 2/4***, Mer 1/7, Alex 0/1, Kelly 0/2, Jamie 0/2 I am not even going to talk about it. We are going to make them tomorrow.

Rebounds: Team 6off/8def; Individual: Kelly 2/3***, Jamie 2/1**, Em 1/2**, Mer 0/2*, Alex 0/1*.

Assists: Team 2: Individual: Lindsey 1*, Mer 1*. Cannot remember ever playing a game with this few assists. I know there were some good passes and the lay ups were missed but we just did not do a good job of forcing the ball into the low post. It is easy to say they tried hard to keep us from passing it there but don't you think there was a reason they did not want us to get the ball there. Great teams force their will on other teams, they run their stuff, if it is hard to do they become more determined and more focused.

Steals: Team 13***: Individual: Lindsey 6*****(Great Job), Kelly 3***, Mer 2, Em 2, Alex 1.

Blocks: Alex 1**, Kelly 1**.

Layups: Team 6/13 46.2%; Not bad we just did not get enough of them. We should make 50% as a bare minimum and 70% would be a good night.

Turnovers: Team 18 ; Lindsey 6, Jamie 5, Mer 4, Kelly 2, Em 1. We made too many for the number of layups we shot. A risky pass that has a good chance of getting a sure 2 points is one thing, a risky pass that leads to nowhere is not Playing Smart. It is not a game of Perfect but it is a game of playing the odds and doing things that favor your chances of winning.

Final Thoughts: We Played Hard and the teams will to win at the end was outstanding. As far as Playing Smart we did not do near as much of that as we are capable. For the most part we Always Play Together.

Girls it is going to come down to how well we can execute and how determined we are to execute our plays, our offensive sets, our defense and our philosophy. Bottom line we are going to have to play alot better if we want to reach our team goals. Let's chalk this one up as an off day that we were fortunate to escape with a win.

Coach May

Hobgood Away Times

2011-01-26T19:10:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Game time for Hobgood tomorrow is 4:00pm. Dismissal Time is 2:10. I suggest if you think you will need some food that you stop before you leave RR,NC. Be dressed and be on the court by 3:15pm.

Eat well, rest good and get plenty of fluids we have two games in two days.

Coach May

Victory over APA and Wed Practice Time.

2011-01-25T18:02:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

******Practice at 6:00pm Wednesday until 7:15 pm******

We got a nice win over Parrott Academy today 28 to 20. It was their first loss in the conference and their first loss of the year according to their Coach. It certainly did not help us with all the players not being able to practice Sunday and Monday, especially since we worked on some stuff we could have used to our advantage if everyone knew what to do.

It was a great team win and it is always a team win since no player can win by themselves. However, I have to give Mer a big pat on the back for having her best game ever as a Viking with 12 points and 10 rebounds giving her a double double, she also had 7 steals. Since I have been coaching I think that is the 4th time a player has had a double double and it could not have come at a better time. Ashton Bradley did it against APA on the road 2 years ago, Kelly did it the last two conference games and was close again today and Mer today.

Scoring by Qtrs: 1st: 4-4 2nd: 9-4 3rd: 9-0 4th: 6 - 12 Final Score 28-20 We did not help ourselves by putting them on the foul line 11 times in the 4th qtr where they scored 4 of their 12 points without the clock running.

Viking Scoring: Mer 12, Kelly 10, Lindsey 4, Em 2.

APA Scoring: #4 Kayla King 6, #5 Logan Beyer 4, #10 Natalie Wenzona 4, #23 Emily Riley 2,
#15 Caroline Carlyle 2.

FG%: Team 11/16 68.75% (A team record since I have been coaching): Individual: Lindsey 2/2*****,
Mer 5/6*****, Kelly 4/5****, Emily 0/1, Jamie 0/1(3pointer at buzzer)

FT%: Team 6/15 40%: Individual; Emily 2/2*****, Mer 2/3****, Kelly 2/4**, Jamie 0/2, Lindsey 0/2, MeganK 0/2

APA FT%: Team 4/12 33.3%

Rebounds: 5off/16 Def; Mer 3/7*****, Kelly 2/4***, Em 0/2*, Jamie 0/2*, Alex 0/1*.

Assists: Team 6; Individual: Jamie 4****, Lindsey 1*, Megan K 1*.

Steals: Team 15****: Mer 7*****, Emily 3***, Lindsey 2**, Alex 1*, Kelly 1*, Megan K 1*. 3 more steals and Mer could have had a Triple Double which is unheard of.

Blocks: Mer 1*, Kelly 1*.

T/o's: Team 20: Jamie 7, Lindsey 4, Mer 3, Kelly 3, Alex 3. We did not execute our press offense as it was designed and we suffered because of that. We will work on correcting it Wednesday.

Layups: Team 11/15***** 73.3%*****. Great Job Girls, that is exactly what we have been looking for. Way to step up.

Final Thoughts: It was a great win and it put us alone on top of the basketball rich EPIC where we are viewed as not belonging with all the Big Time(In their Minds) Basketball Schools. We will have to work extra hard because we will get every teams best shot 2nd time around. We have to be prepared and to be prepared we need to focus on getting better in every practice the rest of this season both as an individual and as a team. I am sure if they can come up with a plan they will. I am also sure that if we execute like we are capable it will not matter what they do, we just have to take care of business on our end. It is more about us than it is about them.

They say that imitation is the greatest form of a compliment. Have you noticed how many teams now are copying our 24 defense. When I started coaching the JV Girls 4 years ago we were the only team that ran a man to man(22) or a man to man full court press(24). Every conference team was strickly zone with a little bit of zone press mixed in.

Unfortunately we cannot run 24 in the lockdown mode much because we are always in foul trouble and do not want key players to foul out. Lockdown means full court Deny and you basically never get more than one foot from your player. Once they pick up their dribble all passing lanes are shut down by the overplay. One player not playing hard in lockdown allows an easy press break for the other team. The only time we leave our player is to play help defense on someone getting beat.

Thought: Good teams have good players but Great Teams have Great Teammates. Everyone has a role to do if we are going to reach our goals. It is all about team. We will never be any stronger than the weakest link on the court at any given time.

2nd Thought: The best and easiest way to improve your team is to improve your own play. John Wooden, Winner of 11 National Championships at UCLA.

Always: Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together and strive for Perfect Execution. That is the winning formula and that is winning basketball.

Coach May

Wednesday Practice

2011-01-24T17:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

I have worked out an agreement with Rabbit to share the court with his team starting at 6:00pm until 7:15pm on Wednesday so you can attended the going away party for the Wollett's.

I do expect each of you to be at practice and on the court at 6:00pm barring illness.

Coach May

Tee Shirt Money!

2011-01-22T08:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

The bills have come due for our Tee Shirts etc. Tee Shirts were $12.50 each. Hoodies were $23.00.
Warm ups are $42.00. Total of all three items are $77.50.

If any of you have paid directly to the school I need to know it. Please pay by check and make them out to Halifax Academy and stub them on the bottom so there will be no questions asked in the accounting department.

I want to turn all the money in and be done with it by the end of this month.

Thanks,

Bland

Always a Great Win at CCS. Practice Sunday.

2011-01-21T19:09:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

*********Practice Sunday night 5:00pm to 6:00pm******

If possible could Leslie, Brooke, Catherine, Kim and Kaela stay and extra 15 min

I don't know about you but I am tired. Like I said after the game, make sure you get some rest and nutrition.
This afternoon was another huge win, Cary Christian is a big time basketball program. If you do not think they are serious about being good at it you should have gone in the gym about 2:30 and watched 4 coaches on the petition divided court teaching organized team basketball to 4th or 5th graders. Where would we be if we could do that at H.A. and you had been coached since you were 9 or 10 years old? We don't even have a middle school team for Girls.

Back on subject: Final Score: H.A. 44 - Cary Christian 32. The 44 points is the highest total of any JV Girls game this year and the highest ever in a conference game I have coached(iirc). The 32 points given up is also the highest given up this year not counting the overtime game (33).

So much scoring for us was attributed somewhat to the pace of the game and in part the great games Kelly and Jamie had. Us giving up so many points is in part due to pace but also in part due to not very good defense.

We keep reaching and swatting for the ball and when we do our girl goes right by us. We have got to play defense with our feet and pick our spots to gamble. Coach Dean Smith most likely the smartest coach to ever coach used to only allow certain players to reach because of this problem.

We have got to learn to play aggressive defense with our feet and quit trying to reach on every possession. In this game with us scoring 44 we should have won by 20 points or so. I am not talking about effort, I recognize effort and trust me if I thought a team I coached did not give effort I would probably not want to coach.

Effort, heart, hustle and determination is everything, it is what winners are made of along with technique and skill. We as a team need to consider how to improve our technique on defense a little.

Scoring by Qtrs: 1st: 15 - 6, 2nd: 6 - 4, 3rd: 11 - 14 4th: 12 - 8 Final Score: 44 to 32.

Scoring H.A. : Kelly 28 pts, Jamie 8 pts, Mer 5 pts, Emily 2 pts, Alex 1 pt.

Scoring CCS: #25 Bethany Hunn 12 pts., #5 Kaitlyn Innes 5 pts., #4 Rachel Kenny 4 pts,
#12 Caroline Schless 4 pts, #2 Shelby Ballard 3 pts, #22 Janey Self 2 pts, #1 Genna S. 2 pts.

FG% Team 13/42 30.9%: Individual: Kelly 11/21***, Jamie 1/5, Mer 1/8, Lindsey 0/1, Em 0/2,
Alex 0/5. The minimum winning percentage is 33.3 %. We were close.

FT%: Team 18/35 51.4%***: Individual: Emily 2/2*****, Kelly 6/7****, Alex 1/2**, Jamie 6/12**,
Mer 3/8, Lindsey 0/2.

Rebounds: Team 21 off/10 Def: Individual: Kelly 7/4*****, Jamie 5/1***, Mer 5/1***, Em 3/0**,
Lindsey 0/2*, Alex 0/1*. The team that wins the battle of the boards usually wins the game.

Assists: Team 10: Jamie 7*****, Mer 2**, Lindsey 1*. Always remember that there were lots of good passes that the layup failed or set up another easy pass for the lay up or we got fouled on. 7 assists is a very high number Jamie could have had a double double herself if a couple of layups that came from her passes went in. At Carolina not the official stats but in the team stats Dean Smith and Roy Williams gave an assist when the player goes to foul line from the assist or misses the layup after the assist.

Steals: Team 5: Lindsey 3***, Jamie 2**

Blocks: Kelly1*, Lindsey 1*.

Turnovers: Team 14; Individual: Jamie 5, Mer 3, Alex 2, Kelly 2, Em 1, Lindsey 1. Only 5 turnovers for the ball handling load we put on Jamie to beat their press on the clear out and then for her to be able to drive to the basket and create scoring opportunities over and over was outstanding.

Layup %: Team 13/37 35.1%. Girls we have got to get this # over 50%.

Final Thoughts: Kelly had a great game, her second double double in a row, 28 points and 11 rebounds. It could not have come at a better time and she worked hard to get herself open. Jamie had a great game creating scoring opportunities for Kelly and others. She made some wonderful passes and worked awfully hard beating their man to man pressure on our clear out play. Good thing we put that in at the last practice isn't it.

It is never about one or two players no matter how good they play, it was a team effort and will always be a team effort. We win as a team and we lose as a team. It takes every ounce of effort each and every girl brings to the court for our team to win. Defense is such a big part of our team and on defense you are never any better than your weakest link on the court. We need each player to focus on what they can do to help this team continue to win. A few more layups made, a few more foul shots made, and few more great passes, more dominant rebounding, less t/o's, more defensive steals, tougher defense on your man. It all adds up. As I keep saying: We have to get better each day and each game.

You did a great job girls, I know we were tired from all the tough games this week. The bad news is we have another tough three game week next week if snow does not mess it up. Playing good basketball is fun. Seeing you girls getting better every day is fun for your coach. Keep playing hard and keep working to get better!

Thought: Will we be pushed to new heights by our dreams or let our problems pull us down. Roy Wms UNC. (I am counting on being pushed by our dreams and fixing any problems, I hope you are)

Points Potential: We missed 24 layups and 17 foul shots. That is 65 potential points we left out there for the taking if we just go 50% on layups and 60% on foul shots we would have scored 15 more points and have won by 27 points. Not complaining about the win because it was sweet, but it still is and has to be about Perfect Execution and we can never stop working to get there.

Final Thoughts: I could not help but think about this last night before I fell asleep. Great Players make Great Plays in Bigtime Games and Great Teams always find a way to do what they need to do to win. Lets build on it.

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together

Coach May

OT vs. Brunswick Ac.

2011-01-19T19:28:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Every win is a good one. It was a very difficult game to come back with no rest after the high of the come from behind victory over St. Davids and then to turn around in 24 hours and play a tough Brunswick Academy team that had two of its best Varsity players playing down on the JV's to help them win. I am proud of the effort. A lesser team would have folded. Final Score: HA 39-BA 33.

I was extremely proud of you girls that went to the line and made critical foul shots, and critical baskets when we had to have them. That takes mental toughness and heart. We did make it extremely hard on ourselves by not making layups (missed 18) and Making turnovers (22). No team will ever make all their lay ups or foul shots or not make some turnovers that is just a part of the game. However, we need to improve. We need to improve everyday because the other teams we have played are improving everyday. We cannot allow ourselves to become satisfied with what we have accomplished (11 wins and 1 loss) and allow that to keep us from working hard to become as good as we can be both as individuals and as a team.

The Thought of the Day f rom Lou Holtz (Dr. Lou on ESPN) that goes; The biggest enemy of Great is Good because so many teams and players quit trying to be Great because they are satisfied with being good enough.
We need to not fall in this trap. We can be great enough to run the table in the basketball tough EPIC. Every player on this team can become a better more consistent player between now and the end of the year. That is a great opportunity, so many teams and other kids would love to be in our shoes. Let's not lose our focus on trying to be Great and trying to become as Great a player as we can be.

Scoring by Qtrs: 1st 2-6, 2nd 10-5, 3rd 11-12, 4th 6-6, OT: 10-4, Final Score 39 to 33

Scoring H.A.: Kelly 12 pts, Jamie 10 pts, Mer 7 pts, Em 4 pts, Alex 4 pts, Lindsey 1 pt, Megan K 1 pts.

Brunswick Scoring: #12 Jessica Rivas 8 pts, #44 Makayla Clary 8 pts, # 34 Dani Wright 7 pts,
#21 Amanda Roberts 4 pts, #20 Elise Walton 2 pts, #42 Hannah Parker 2 pts, #32 Ashley Clary 2 pts.

FG%: Team 13/33 39.4%*: Individual: Kelly 6/14**, Mer 2/6*, Alex 2/7, Emily 1/4, Jamie 2/11,
Lindsey 0/1 The minimum winning percentage is 33.3 %.

FT'%: Team 54.2%** Individuals: Em 2/2*****, Jamie 6/12**, Mer 3/6**, Lindsey 1/2**, MeganK 1/2**.
The minimum winning % is 50%.

Rebounds: Team 12Off/19Def.; Individual: Kelly 6/5****, Jamie 3/4***, Mer 2/3**, Emily 0/4**,
Jordan 1/1*, Lindsey 0/1*, Alex 0/1*.

Assists: Team 6: Jamie 5****, Jordan 1*. This team # for assist is low, we must pass the ball better, catch the ball better and finish the shot better.

Steals: Team 8; Individual: Lindsey 3***, Jamie 2**, Emily 2**, Mer 1*.

Blocks: Team 9; Emily 4****, Kelly 2**, Lindsey 2**, Mer 1*. A Great job blocking shots. Of those blocked if we did not block them and one went in we would have lost in regulation. Good Work.

Turnovers: Team 22: Ind: Jamie 7, Alex 6, Lindsey 3, Emily 4, Mer 2. This # is to high. We need to cut down on the silly one's. 8 to 10 Turnovers would be about normal for this pace of game. I realize some are going to happen especially for the regular ball handlers who we ask to get the ball up court or to drive and create scoring opportunities. That is just part of the game. It is the unforced type of turnovers that hurts you the most. We just have to be more focused on making good passes to people that are open and be patient enough to not force passes that will be a low percentage of completion.

Layups: Team 12/30; It was great we made 12 but not so great we missed 18 or 36 points in missed Layups.

Final Thoughts: Girls we have just got to keep pushing in practice and games to get better. Winning is always a thrill and Brunswick might be the best team we play all year but I doubt it. We have a super tough road trip coming up at CCS Friday. We need to be ready to play our best.

We are now in the stretch run, let focus on playing our best.

Coach May

Comeback vs. St. Davids.

2011-01-18T19:05:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Lots of excitement today. Great comeback with great effort especially in the second half. Final Score 30 to 27.

Scoring by Quarters: 1st qtr: 6-6 , 2nd qtr: 2-7, 3rd qtr: 7-4, 4th qtr: 15-10 , Final Score: 30-27

Individual scoring: Kelly 19, Lindsey 5, Mer 4, Alex 2.

St. Davids Scoring: #31 (F) Melanie Park 18, #15 (G) Caroline Garrett 5, #11 (C) Katie Dickens 2,
#10 (PG) Caroline Boliek, # 14 Mary Grey Danilson 1, # 12 (F) Hannah Gilman 0. Players with positions were starters.

FG%: Team; 13/41 31.7%: Individuals: Kelly 9/14 ****, Lindsey 2/4***, Mer 1/5, Alex 1/7, Em 0/4,
Jamie 0/7.

FT%: Team 4/11 36.4%; Mer 2/4**, Lindsey 1/2**, Kelly 1/5.

Rebounds: Team 11/16; Individual: Kelly 4/5****, Em 3/2***, Mer 2/2**, Alex 1/3**, Lindsey 1/2*,
Jamie 0/2*.

Assists: Team 8, Jamie 7****, Mer 1*.

Steals: Team 9; Individual: Lindsey 4****, Jamie 3 ***, Kelly 1*, Mer 1*.

Blocks: Kelly 2***, Lindsey 1*.

Turnovers: Team 18; Jamie 7, Lindsey 3, Kelly 3, Em 2, Mer 1.

Layups: Team 12/30 37.3%.

Final Thoughts: Any win over St. Davids is a Great Win, especially in basketball. We now have 3 wins in a row over them dating back to last year.

We played unusually bad in the 1st half. We just did not value the ball and we did not run the things we practice.

In the second half tough defense and Jamie pushing the ball to the basket against their press on the secondary break to create a passing lane(numerical advantage) creating some passing angle's for some nice feeds to Kelly really helped. Kelly going up strong to catch the ball in traffic and then going back up strong in a crowd and making the shot was huge for us. Also Kelly was one rebound away from having a double/double and those 9 rebounds and 2 blocks with tough post defense were also a big part of our winning the game.

Enjoy this one quick because a very tough Brunswick Academy comes back to our gym for a rematch of the 1st round of our JV Christmas Tournament and we will need to be at our best again tomorrow.

Rest good, get some good nutrition and plenty of fluids and I will see you on the court tomorrow at 2:30pm.

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.

Coach May

Practice Monday 3:00pm

2011-01-15T20:14:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

We will practice Monday at 3:00 to 4:30 since we are not in school. Please spread the word. We have a huge game Tuesday with St. Davids Tuesday and then Brunswick on Wednesday and we need to prepare.

Please be on the court ready to practice by 3:00. I will try to be there by 2:45 or a little earlier if possible for shooting and individual work.

Bland

Conference Win @ RMA.

2011-01-14T18:27:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

It was a tough game but with a lot of hard work, determination and good basketball in the second half. We managed to come back after trailing at halftime and get a hard fought 30 to 17 win over a much improved RMA team and those other guys on court.

Scoring by Qtr's; 1st- 4 to 6, 2nd- 7 to 6, 3rd-12-0, 4th 7-5, Final: 30 to 17.

HA Scoring: Jamie 12, Kelly 8, Alex 6, Mer 2, Em 2.

RMA Scoring: # 25 PG Carolyn Boddie 6pts, #10 Bissette (reserve) 4pts, #23 Anne Clair Roberson(3 pointer) 4 pts, # 20 Shelby Dunn 2 pts, #12 Jackson 1 pt.

FG%: Team 13/36 36.1%: Individual: Kelly 3/4***, Mer 1/2**, Alex 3/8*, Jamie 5/14*, Emily 1/6,
Lindsey 0/1, M&M 0/1. The minimum winning * percentage is 33.3.

FT %: 4/11 36.4%. Ind: Jamie 2/3***, Kelly 2/4 **, Mer 0/4. The minimum winning * FT% is 50%.

Rebounds: Team 8off/16Def.: Ind; Kelly 1/7****, Em 3/4****, Lindsey 2/1*, Mer 0/2*, Alex 1/1*,
Jamie 1/1*.

Assists: Team 6; Ind; Lindsey 3***, Jamie 2**, Em 1*.

Steals: Team 11; Ind: Lindsey 4****, Jamie 3***, Mer 2**, Em 1*, Alex 1*.

Blocks: Team 3; Ind; Em 2***, Lindsey 1*, Kelly 1*.

Layups team: 9 made/23 attempted 39.1%

Turnovers: Team 23: Ind: Jamie 7, Alex 7, Em 4, Lindsey 3, Mer 2.

Final thoughts: Our turnovers were slightly inflated due to extreme officiating. Except for 3 or 4 turnovers vs their 4th quarter press we did not turn the ball over very much in the second half. We also cut down on some needless fouling in the second half and by playing defense with our feet instead of reaching it helped keep them off the foul line.

On layups, we still left way too many points on the table. 28 to be exact but in general we made some progress and that number was pretty good for as physical as they let them play. In basketball some days you just have to make up your mind not to be out hustle and out toughed.

One of the fun things about coaching is seeing my players learn to think the game. We now have gotten to the point that we seldom have to run a play because the team has learned how to take what we try to create out of called plays and to reproduce those mismatches and numerical advantages in the halfcourt free lance read option passing game.

It is also rewarding knowing we can dig deep and get down and play tough defense working hard to move our feet so there are no uncontested dribbles , shot or passes. It saved us against Faith and again today.

Girls this is how you play winning basketball it is having Individual skills, team skills and the understanding of how to play winning basketball. I am proud to say you girls are learning what it takes and have the individual skills and team skills to do it on the court. Be proud of yourselves, your coach is.

I also liked how we were able to use the screen out we have been working on in practice lately to gain an advantage in the 3rd quarter and were able to create out of the spread. Thats good basketball and when you mix that with good execution, skill and hustle it becomes winning basketball. As your coach/basketball teacher that is the greatest reward from coaching, seeing your players learn to play the game.

All that nice stuff said we are a long way from making any 100's on our exams. Every game is another exam. We have to get better everyday because the opposition is working hard to get better everyday. Remember, Practice does not make Perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect. We have to not be satisfied until we can do it right everytime and anytime we decide. Make a commitment to be as good as you can be everyday, I promise you will never regret it.

I got a nice compliment on you girls that made me feel good tonight. One of the Rocky Mount Patrons said something about having been a coach told me after the Varsity Girls game how he could tell you had been instructed well because not only were you good at all the fundamentals but you all basically had beautiful shooting form and shot the ball with a real good rotation. He said he had never seen that before on a JV Girls team and he had seen many years of girls basketball. Nice man.

Big week next week. St. Davids in on Tuesday, Brunswick in on Wednesday and Friday we travel to defending champions Cary Christian. We need to be prepared to take care of business next week. I will see you on Monday after school, be on the court by 15 after ready to practice.

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together and Have Fun. Of course the best way to have fun is to play good and win isn't it.

BTW: You girls that have some free time this weekend go back and read the blog on shooting form again and the blog on things we know about winning basketball from the preseason. Little things make a difference.

Coach May

Rocky Mount Game Information

2011-01-13T20:14:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Be at the gym at RMA ready to be on the court shooting at 2:30pm Friday. Green uniforms. Be ready to play. This is the first conference game of the year. Be focused!!

Eat good, get plenty of fluids and a good nights rest.

Coach May

12:25 No Practice.

2011-01-11T08:19:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

***Sorry girls, no practice of any kind today. My mistake, when school is called for bad weather there can be no practice. After seeing the weather forecast I was going to make that call myself since it is not going to melt today*** Hope we can practice Wednesday, also hope everyone's lights stay on and those that have to travel to work etc. can get home safe.

As of yet no decision has been made on practice today. I will watch the weather and talk with Teresa Long our new AD then post. I would like it if works out to have practice since we have the conference season starting up and want to get off to a good start. If we can(I will Post later based on weather etc.) have some type of voluntary practice I would like to do so at the 3:15 time slot if that is possible.

We are a good team maybe we can be a great team but we do not want to fall victims to the Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail syndrome.

I will post at the top of this thread a little later on how it stands etc.

Coach May

Practice Monday 1-10-11 moved to 5:30pm

2011-01-10T05:13:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

***As of 3:00pm as far as I know at this point practice is still on from 5:30pm to 7:00pm***

***Note: As always if your parents or your ride feels you will be in danger by coming to practice you have my permission to miss or to leave early as needed***

Due to rescheduling of the middle school game the JV Girls and JV Boys will share the gym from 5:30 pm to 7:00pm today for practice. There is still the possibility that all practices could be canceled due to the winter storm if it hits.

Girls, we need practice time. It is almost impossible to be a good team and not practice. I can only hope the other teams we have to play have missed as much practice time as us. We are too good a team to give our opposition an advantage.

I will post more when I have other information.

Bland

Northeast Academy Game Stats.

2011-01-05T17:11:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

******Dismissal Time for Kerr Vance Academy Game is 12:45pm*******

We won the game tonight 28 to 14. All wins are good and we looked pretty good with 13 points in the first quarter after that it was not a work of beauty.

Scoring by Quarters: 1st qtr- 13-0 2nd qtr- 4-2 3rd qtr. 4-6 4th qtr. 7-6 Final Score 28-14

H.A. Scoring: Kelly 7pts, Emily 6 pts, Alex 6 pts, Megan K 4 pts, Jamie 2 pts, Leslie 2 pts, Brooke 1 pt. Total 28 points.

NEA Scoring: #35 Robyne Barnes 4pts, #22 Molly Leggett 4 pts, #23 Megan Futrell 4 pts, #1 Olivia Brown 1 pt, #21 Anna Liverman 1 pt. Total 14 points.

FG%: Team 12/40 30%; Emily 3/3*****, Jamie 1/1*****,Megan K 2/3*** Alex 3/5 ***, Kelly 3/5***, Leslie 1/8, Kaela 0/2, Mer 0/3, Lindsey 0/6.

3pts: Lindsey 0/1

FT's: Team 2/14 - 14.3%; Brooke 1/2***, Kelly 1/3, Kaela 0/2, Lindsey 0/2, Emily 0/3, Leslie 0/4

Rebounds: Team 7off/20Def: Kelly 2/4***, Leslie 0/5***, Jamie 1/3**, Emily 1/3**, Mer 1/3**, Kaela 2/0*,
Kim 0/1, Lindsey 0/1.

Assists: Team 5; Jamie 2**, Alex 1*, Lindsey 1*, Jordan 1*.

T/O's: Team 10; Jordan 3, M&M 2, Mer 1, Em 1, Kaela 1, Leslie 1, Brooke 1.

Steals: Team 6; Lindsey 4****, Alex 1*, Jamie 1*.

Blocks: Team 5: Kelly 3***, Em 1*, Lindsey *.

Lay up %: 9/27 (33.3%): Em 3/3****, Alex 2/2****, Kelly 3/4***, Leslie 1/8, M&M 0/2, Mer 0/3, Lindsey 0/3, MeganK 0/1, Kaela 0/1.

Some thoughts: The lay ups were slightly unrepresentative as we were forcing Leslie to force up shots to get her in the book or fouled. Even taking Leslie's shots out of the equasion we missed 11 lay ups or 22 points worth. Our focus as a team has to be to make our lay ups, keeping the opposition from making lay ups, controling our turnovers and forcing the other team into turnovers. Outside of that if we execute our offense and Inbounds plays well and make our fair share of Foul Shots we can be a great team.

Foul Shots: I thought we were turning the corner back around Dec 9 when we were practicing on a regular schedule. Since then we have only had about 4 practices as a whole team plus a few more during Christmas Break with a partial team because of the shooting the bad weather, Exams etc.. I am going to say the jury is still out on this team as far as will we make up our minds to be a great team or not.

I promise to give you 100% as your coach to try and make this team and you as good as we can be. I think we can be very good. You girls need to make a promise to yourself as an individual player and as a team and teammate to give back that 100% to make our team's dreams become a reality. Not many people ever have the opportunity to be part of a Championship Team, I hope you girls realize what a great chance is in front of us.

Effort, Focus, Intensity, Team Work, Hustle, Perfect Execution, Perfect Practice, Determination, 100% concentration on being our best and being willing to put in the hard work. Nothing worth having is ever easy. How bad do you girls want to be the best? It is time to step it up. When you give anything your 100% best effort you will have no regrets because all anyone can ever do is their best.

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together and Have Fun.

Thought: Will we be led by our Dreams or will we let our problems control our destiny? R. Williams UNC

Coach May

UNC Practice Trip Monday Jan 3rd.

2011-01-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Happy New Year!

We have practice Sunday afternoon at 5:00pm until 6:30pm(The Gym is ours until 7:00pm) to prepare for the Northeast game and the Kerr Vance game. I need all players to be there if possible.

Monday we go on a field trip as a team to watch the UNC Boys team Practice at the Dean Smith Center.

Remember to bring enough money to eat.

I need a head count of who is planning on attending Sunday at practice. It should be a fun trip. We will have lunch on the way, watch practice (1:45 to 4:00) and return home. Each driver can decide on if they want to stop to eat somewhere nice like the Red Lobster or The Rib Eye(Henderson) both on the way home or to drive straight back or do fast food again.

The time lines would be approximately:

Eat at Red Lobster: Home around 7:00pm
Eat Fast Food: Home around 6:30
Return Home to eat: Be home around 6:00pm

Every Player going on the trip needs to have a signed permission slip from your parents.

Example:(copy)
Please excuse ----Players Name----- from school on Monday Jan. 3, 2011 to go on a field trip with the JV Girls Basketball Team to watch a UNC Varsity Boys Practice in Chapel Hill.

Signed by Parent.

Do not forget to have this release form with you Monday morning in order to go. Turn it into Mrs. Poole. This trip is optional if you do not want to go you can just go to school as usual. As stated before it is an approved school trip. Unfortunately, if we do not go this time I do not think we will have an opportunity to make it up this year.

Coach May

Practice OK'ed for Wednesday!!!

2010-12-28T17:23:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Practice will be at 3:00pm until 4:30pm Wednesday Dec 29th. Please try to be there if possible.

Coach May

Practice Canceled!!!

2010-12-27T09:01:00.001-08:00

Hi Girls,

Teresa Long just informed me that Mr. Wiggs has canceled all practices for Monday and Tuesday even on a voluntary basis. Wednesday will be decided on later in the week.

Call your friends and spread the word. We will most likely try to practice on Sunday Jan 2, 2011 due to the lack of practice time before our first conference game.

I have requested the Sunday Jan 2, 2011 time slot of 5:00pm to 6:30pm for practice.

****I was told, Definitely no practice Monday or Tuesday of this week.****

We need to work on some ideas that could give us some advantages if we can do them for the conference season plus tighten up some of our other offensive and defensive packages we use. It is hard to get better without practice time.

Hope you girls saw your team picture in the Daily Herald, Friday edition(back page) accepting the Christmas Tournament Trophy. Nice!

Coach May

Monday Dec. 27, 2010 Practice.

2010-12-27T05:56:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

I understand the roads are not great. I will be at the Gym today for Practice at 3:00pm to 4:30pm. If your parents are worried about the roads you can not come. Most of the main roads are passable since I just got in from town.

Because of Exams and Christmas we have only practiced a few times since Dec 9th. We need to have this week to get back into touch with our skills. Since Dec. 9th we have only practiced 3 times and played two games. That is not enough practice time to be at the top of our game.

We return to school on Jan 3rd, 2011 and go to watch UNC practice. You have make up exams on the 4th so we will not practice, exams on the 5th and we play NEA that night. We then have one day of practice on Thursday to get ready for our first conference game vs. Kerr Vance.

Needless to say if we want to give ourselves our best chance in the conference we need some practice time.

Thought: Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail. John Wooden UCLA

I will be at practice today, if you can get there please try to be there with me. The other practices are on the blog under holiday practice schedule.

Coach May

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Girls,

Hope you all have a Great Christmas. Remember the reason for gifts is from the gifts that the Three Wise Men brought to the Baby Jesus. We give gifts to the one's we love in honor of Christ our Lord.

Coach May

PS- Enjoy the Snow, I will post tomorrow about Monday practice after we see what the roads are like at that point in time.

Championship #1.

2010-12-21T18:16:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

***No practice on Wednesday, Next Practice Thursday Dec 23rd at 3:00 to 4:30pm.***

It was a tough job but we managed to defend our title as JV Christmas Tournament Champions for the 4th year running. I know you girls that have played with me the last 3 years now have won 3 in a row.

To me, I think this was the most gratifying Christmas Tournament win because we faced so much adversity in this tournament. With no practice time basically coming into the tournament because of exams and snow etc. We had to play a really tough team in the first round in Brunswick and it took alot of energy. Then to come back after being down at halftime in the championship game and in deep foul trouble to win and to do it with Lindsey and Mer fouled out for the entire 4th quarter and Jamie and Emily playing with 4 fouls each was really something. It took heart and knowing how to win.

The reason I titled this blog Championship #1 is simply we want to add two more to it. Regular season EPIC Champions and then EPIC Tournament Champions. This was a good start.

Final Score: Halifax Academy JV Viking Girls 31- Faith Christian 25 BTW: They scored the last 5 points of the game when we were not really guarding them since we did not want to foul and there was only seconds on the clock.

Scoring by Qtrs: 1st: 7-2 2nd: 2-11 3rd: 11-2 4th: 11-10

HA Scoring: Em 8, Alex 7, Lindsey 6, Kelly 6, Jamie 4.

FCA Scoring: #11 Mary Peyton Fisher 15, #4 Stephanie Stallings 4 pts, #12 Carrie Lewis 4, #30 Bailey Parks 2.

FG%: Team 12/51 23.5%; Em 3/11, Lindsey 3/12, Kelly 3/13, Alex 3/13, MeganK 0/1, Mer 0/1, Jamie 0/8. 33.3% is the minimum winning %. Just by shear will and toughness were we able to win shooting this poorly.

3Pt%: Lindsey 0/1, Alex 0/1.

FT %: Team 7/14 50%; Jamie 4/6***, Alex 1/2**, Em 2/6 50% is the minimum winning %.

FCA FT%: 9/19-47.4%; #11- 4/8, #4- 2/4, #12 -2/5, #5-0/2

Rebounds: Team 7off/14Def; Em 2/6****, Alex 1/5**, Jamie 4/1**, Kelly 3/2**, Mer 0/4**, Lindsey 2/2**
Jordan 0/1*.

Assists: Team 9; Lindsey 5****, Jamie 2**, Alex 2**.

Steals: Team 15; Mer 5****, Jamie 4****, Lindsey 2**, Kelly 2**, Em 1* Jordan 1*.

Blocks: Kelly 1**.

Layups: 9/38-23.7%. Outside shots: 3/13-23.1%. 3pt shots: 0/2-0%. Foul Shots 7/14-50%. We can do alot better especially on the lay ups.

Some Thoughts: It was an ugly win but we played with a great amount of heart and effort and that is the most important thing. An ugly win is always better than a pretty loss. I personally thought we got almost zero of a fair break on the officiating, maybe I am biased but if we had not tried to run some clock we might have fouled all the starters out.

Bottom line if we make half of our missed layups we win this thing by 20. We will continue to address that in practice and I think once we get back into shape and having consistent practice time we will take a large step forward in that respect.

There is almost too many to mention for their efforts but I will give it a try. Mer with 5 steals, tough D and 4 Rebs in very limited playing time due to foul trouble. Emily 8 points, making them when her team needed them the most, 2 clutch foul shots and a huge 8 rebounds. Jamie great team leadership, great Defense on #4, 4 steals, Great play down the stretch in a new position making plays and foul shots to seal the win. Alex clutch outside shooting, her shooting is really coming on, a hard fought 6 rebounds and when the chips were on the table a very respectable job of dribbling when we needed her the most. Lindsey, maybe her best game of the year, she played hard on Defense gave us great leadership at the PG and had 5 assists. Kelly, playing super tough when the game was on the line. Defended the basket, making clutch shots out of the 4 corners with the chips on the table and being strong under the goal and on the boards, way to step up. Jordan, stepping in and playing tough to buy us some time and hustling and fighting to make a steal. Megan, Playing in a tremendous pressure situation in a new spot and holding your own. To all of you I give you a Giant Star and my upmost respect.

If there was an Tournament MVP for the two nights I would pick Jamie hands down. If we got to choose up the starting 5 and top reserve I would take my starters and Kelly. Be proud of yourselves, your coach is proud of you. It is time to take it to another level. Next Practice Thursday 3:00pm to 4:30pm. Try to be there since it is the last practice before Christmas. I have your T-Shirts and Hoodies and I will bring them Thursday.

Play Hard A+, Play Smart A-, Play Together A+. Team Record: 7 and 1.

***Remember No practice on Wednesday, get some shopping done. Next Practice Thursday 3:00 to 4:30pm.

T/O's: Team 12; Jamie 3, Mer 2, Lindsey 2, Em 1, Alex 1, Kelly 1. We should always expect the girls that handle the ball the most to most likely make the most turnovers. If we have big girls making lots of turnovers when handling the ball very little we would have a serious problem.

Coach May

JV Girls Championship Game 6:30 PM Tuesday

2010-12-20T18:22:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

A nice win tonight against a tough Brunswick Academy team. They were certainly about as physical as any team I can remember in awhile and very challenging. Final Score: Halifax 38 Brunswick 25.

I will post more in a little while. Be at the Gym and ready to play by 6:00pm. We will wear white.

Scoring by Qtrs: 1st- 11 to 6 2nd- 7 to 3 3rd- 4 to 8 4th- 16 to 9

Scoring Totals: Halifax; Jamie 22, Mer 9, Em 4, Alex 2, Kelly 1

Scoring Totals Brunswick: #12 Jessica Rivas 13, #20 Elise Walton 7, #34 Dani Wright 4,
#21 Amanda Roberts 1.

FG%: Team 15/43 34.9%, Jamie 8/16***, Mer 4/8***, Em 2/5*, Alex 1/5, Kelly 0/5, Lindsey 0/4.

FT%: Team 8/38 21%; Jamie 6/17, Mer 1/7, Kelly 1/10, Lindsey 0/3.

Rebounds: Team 6off/13Def.; Mer 3/3, Alex 0/6, Kelly 2/3, Jamie 1/1.

Assists: Team 8; Mer 3, Lindsey 2, Jamie 2, Alex 1.

Turnovers: 4; Em 1, Jamie 1, Lindsey 1, Kelly 1.

Steals: Team 13; Jamie 5, Lindsey 3, Alex 2, Mer 2, Em 1.

3Pt shots: Kim 0/1.

Some thoughts: It was a great game by the starters. They ran a very difficult press that I had never seen. It was amazing we only made 4 turnovers. I thought Jamie and Mer both had very good games and Alex getting 6 rebounds really helped. It was as always a team effort and our defense is basically what won this game for us with a big assist from our 4 corners game and alot of effort by the five starters and the top subs.

Some other interesting stat facts were we made all our field goals on lay ups (15), we also missed 22 lay ups. So that was 15/37 in layups. We missed 30 fouls shots out of 38 attempts. Obviously some of the foul shots were the front ends of one and one's so between the lay ups and the foul shots we left 74+ points out there for the taking.

I know it would not have worked out that way and 100% would have been an unreal percentage but 74 points we missed + 38 we made, would have been 112 points. Probably some kind of a JV National Record if we had done it. Being a little out of shape due to the long lay off due to exams and snow no doubt hurt us plus the aggressive nature of the game and lack of practice time. I was proud of how my team refused to fold to their pressure and the physical play. We have the makings of a really special team, we just need to close the gap on a few problem areas and continue to do the things we do well even better.

Enjoy this Victory until you wake up and then focus on Faith Christian. They are good enough to take our Trophy away from us. We need to make sure we are ready to play our best and play hard. Get some rest, drink some fluids and eat well. Be at the gym and ready to play by 6:00pm.

Grades: Play Hard A+, Play Smart A-, Play Together A. Good game! Let's finish what we started!

Thought: To the Victor's go the spoils.

Coach May

Practice Sunday 5:00 to 7:00pm

2010-12-19T10:33:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

We have practice for the JV Christmas Tournament tonight starting at 5:00pm until 7:00pm. Most of you have not practiced since we last played on the 10th at Village Christian. We had 7 girls at practice on Friday.

You all need to try to attend practice tonight.

Coach May

Friday Dec. 17th Practice as scheduled

2010-12-17T04:48:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

The roads SHOULD be clear this afternoon. We will practice from 4:00 to 5:30 as set by Coach Herman. We do have the JV Christmas Tournament starting Monday and have not practiced in a week due to exams. If your parents have concerns about driving I will excuse you from practice if necessary. I will be at the gym a little before 4:00pm.

Bland

Shooting Form, Passing and dribbling.

2010-12-14T09:22:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

***You need to read this and take it to heart but wait until after you do well in all your exams. School is still more important than basktball.***

The Old Saying: God, Family, Education and Basketball in that order.

Since you are all right handed this season I will not have to talk in terms of how to reverse this for a left handed player.

Shooting Form and Thoughts:

The basic thought used at the Carolina Basketball Camps for shooting is BEEF.

B= Balance. You should always be in good balance, shoulders over the balls of your feet, butt stuck out slightly to create an athletic and balanced stance. Your right foot closer to the goal than your left. (This is for right Handed shooters, left reverse it)

E= Eyes. Your eyes should focus on the front of the rim. Some teachers are now saying look at the back middle of the rim. You can take which one works the best for you. I personally look at the front and try to visualize the flight of the ball swishing thru the net in my mind. I never stop looking at the rim, and do not follow the ball with my eyes. Also, do make the effort to hold your head steady. If it is swaying it is going to make the shot go off line.

E= Elbow. Your right elbow should be underneath the ball. If the elbow is not inline with the shoulder and the ball it will cause a sidespin release, an untrue rotation and the possibility of applying a side force to the ball on the extension thru the shot that could push it off line.

F= Follow Thru. The full extension of the arm underneath the ball and the full release of the wrists. Called the Fish Hook look. Concentrate of holding the follow thru at the top for an instance once the ball has left your hand to reinforce the focus on finishing the shot. Do not forget it is truly a one handed shot, the left hand is just there to balance the ball and when the ball leaves your hands the only thing still touching the ball is your shooting hand.

Other Thoughts:

Up and over: The best thought I can think of on the feeling of shooting the ball properly with the proper motion is up and over. The proper shooting motion is more of an up and over motion than a push at the goal with your right forearm. Think in terms of extending your arm upwards instead of out pushing the ball. The up and over motion would be similar to having a board in the way that you had to extend your arm upwards to reach far enough to get your hand over it so you could release the ball with your wrist. This motion creates what is called the Fish hook look. I see lots of girls that are trying to throw the ball at the basket with their forearm and no real release of the hands. This is not a good way to shoot. The proper release is a flip not a push.

Shoulders square: Always try to keep your shoulders square to the basket. When shooting a foul shot, imagine your shoulders square to the foul line.

Knees: To be a great shooter you have to use your knees. Have a little bounce in your knees to give you rythmn and fluidness and power.

On Foul Shooting: All of the above, plus make sure you line up exactly on the same spot everytime. I mean to really focus on being exact! Focus on exactly where you place your right big toe. Your left foot should be back off the line a little at a spot you are comfortable with and balanced. Bend forward from the waist with your backend poked out slightly for balance and B.E.E.F. it with an up and over and through the nets. I like to think in terms of my right big toe being dead on line with the absolute center of the basket and as close to the line as possible but absolutely not touching the line.

Routine: The Carolina Coaches all insist that players have a consistent foul shooting routine. If you like to bounce the ball 3 times then shoot, make sure you do it the same way everytime. The routine is your comfort zone, it signals your body to relax and do it just like you do in practice over and over. Using it gives you the chance to put yourself in the zone. If ever interrupted while in your routine by the official or a violation, start your routine over from the beginning. Take a step back then start over from scratch. Players are allowed 10 seconds to shoot once they are handed the ball. However if it is an official interuption such as the buzzer accidentally went off while on the line, a violation etc. you will get another 10 second count. You also will hear me hollering to reset, thats short for starting over. Decide what your routine is going to be and stick with it. Having a consistent routine will make you a better foul shooter. BTW, the reason I hate the game Knock Out is there is no routine like you would use in a real game. If you are going to practice, lets do it the right way and lets do it in a way that will make you a better player. Remember Perfect Practice vs. just practice.

Proper hand positions on the ball: Place the ball in the right hand not in the finger tips and not in the palm but on the pads of the right hand with a little air space underneath the ball. Fingers wide but not super stretched. Ball balanced. The left hand should be under the halfway circumference of the ball and should work only to balance the ball for the right hand to shoot it. If you shoot and push with both hands the left hand is going to push the ball off line on most shots. Rick Pitino Coach at Louisville and known as a great shooting coach teaches his players to have their thumbs form a T. Put your right hand on the ball and balance the ball in one hand then put your left hand on the ball so that your right thumb and your left thumb form a T on the back of the ball. On my hand the T slightly touches but for girls with smaller hands if could be some separation but not so much that it allows the left hand to not be underneath the midway point on the ball. Remember, the left hand is there for support and to balance the ball, not to apply any force. I have a shooters ball with the finger marks on and I will try to bring to to practice over Christmas for you to look at.

Perfect Rotation: You can usually tell if a player has good form by the rotation of the ball. If it leaves the shooting hand and rotates in a true reverse spin rotation(no side spin) It has been released properly as far as a one handed shot goes. How fast it spins is not a real factor, just make sure it spins true.

The Old Days: Back in the 60's girls all shot set shots (similar to foul shots with no hop or jump) they also shot with two hands pushing the ball very similar to making a two handed chest pass at the basket. Today girls and boys all shoot alike as the game has become more athletic and the old set shot took a second longer to get the ball away and was more prone to being blocked since it was released from a lower point. I will say one positive thing for the girls back then is most of them could really shoot. I think it was easier to do and required less technique and strenght. Unfortunately I have not run across a great many coaches that are really good shooting coaches in the lower school levels when shooting should be taught. That is why I keep telling you girls to take the time to learn to do it right and do so now. Bad habits are extremely hard to overcome.

Jump Shot vs. Push Shot: A true jump shot involves taking one step and jumping straight up in the air ideally to the top your jumping ability and releasing the ball at or just before the top of your jump to make it more difficult to block. Most players cannot shoot as well jumping to their top vertical leap as they can not jumping quite as high. You have to determine the spot you are most comfortable with on your jump and can make the most shots. Most players do not shoot a true jump shot. If you do not take the step and just hop without the step to shoot it is technically called a push shot but all the other things about proper shooting form still apply.

Mental Approach: Always, absolutely always, tell yourself you are a good shooter and you can make it. If you miss a foul shot don't degrade your self. Tell yourself , OK lets get set up just perfect just like I practice and shoot it pretty, I know I am a good shooter and this one is going in. Make yourself visulize the ball going into the basket before you shoot in your minds eye. Never take the approach of I just can't shoot. Even if you are in a little slump remain positive and work harder on the fundamentals. Having good fundamentals is your comfort zone when shots are not falling. If you think you won't make it chances are you won't.

Team Mental Approach: Never, even if joking tell your teammate they are bad shooters. In competition you can tell them You are a good shooter but I am a better shooter. But shooting is such a mental game, lets not ever talk ourselves or our teammates into missing shots. Be supportive, tell them you know they can make it.
If they need a confidence boast just say B.E.E.F., you got it.

Practice, Practice, Practice!!!! But never forget: Practice does not make Perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect. Make sure you do it right over and over until it becomes second nature. Great Shooters are for the most part made not born. It is a learned skill. Only by consistently doing it with the correct form and doing enough repetitions can you become a truly consistently good shooter.

On Practice: What would be good practice? Perimeter players: Try to shoot ten shots from the left corner one big step inside the 3 point line, ten from halfway up on left, ten from behind the foul line, ten from halfway down on the right and ten from the right corner. Keep up with how many you make. Then go to the foul line and shoot 10. Do it over and over. Low post players should do a similar pattern like we do sometimes in practice starting with a lay up, short bank, half way up the paint,left elbow, foul line, right elbow, halfway down, short bank and lay up. I suggest you do 5 shots from these spots and keep count. Make it your own personal competition to set a new record for yourself.

Shooting form practice: Short shots ONLY. Start at the left block, next peg up, bottom of foul circle, right peg, right block. Shoot the ball with one hand only. Try to make 10 in a row from each spot. Keep score. Track improvement. Try to make swishes. Up and over with a full release of your shooting hand. In the learning stages it is suggested to do about 300 or these shots over the course of one week. When you go to shooting longer shots remember your non shooting hand is the assist hand, it is there to balance the ball for the shooting hand, not to exert any force on the ball.

On lay ups: Make certain you focus on the top corner of the box behind the rim. Make certain you do not rush the shot. Remember the famous saying "Be Quick but don't Hurry" I think this should apply here. Most of the missed layups/put backs are caused by not focusing on the box long enough. If you turn your head toward the goal to see it go in while you are releasing the ball you will most likely shoot the ball over the basket and that easy two points will be missed. Focus on the box until the ball is gone and hits the glass, you will be able to tell if it went in because our fans will cheer, the bench will cheer and I will be yelling pick up your man on defense.

On passing: I am sure you all know how to make the different passes(Chest,Bounce, Overhead, Baseball, Hook bounce) since we have covered them all in pre-season practice. We will review them again over Christmas Break just in case. The one thought you need to take home with you and make a mental commitment to do is try to make EVERY pass you make either in practice, in a game or even just goofing around in warm ups before practice, as close to a perfect pass as you can make it. Get in the habit of having proper form, and putting the ball in exactly the right place for your teammate to catch it. Get into the habit of making perfect passes, everytime. Make it part of your focus.

Also, we need to learn not to telegraph the pass. If you look where you are passing it long enough before actually passing the ball the defense will catch on and try to steal it. Look one way and see the players with your perifial vision. Turn and pass quickly and accurately if they are open. You can also fake one way and pass another if you think that defensive player is anticipating the pass.

On Dribbling: We are woefully pitiful at dribbling the ball. Not without potential to dribble well but certainly hesitant to ever use our left hand at all in a game. We will be adding more left handed dribbling drills and dribbling drills in general immediately after the Christmas Tournament.

Girls: How well you learn these skills sets your ceiling for how good you can be not only on our JV Team but also when you get to the Varsity. Most of the time getting good at something does not happen over night. It is like osmosis it seeps into your game. Only by working on these skills consistently do you have a chance to become very good at them. We only have the court for 70 minute of practice time a day, that is not much time. You have to be willing to try and do it right everytime and to also work on it on your own. As I always say in practice if the only time you touch a ball is during basketball season for our 70 minutes per practice you are going to really limit how good you could become.

Thought: Never forget this one: The Best way to improve your Team is to improve Yourself. John Wooden, UCLA the winner of 11 National Championships.

Make a commitment to yourself to never stop striving to learn and Never stop trying to get better. If you can make 100 foul shots in a row, try to make 101.

I am on the court basically everyday before practice. If you need help with your shot or other skills or if you just have a question or want me to take a look at something just ask. The same always goes for anything that has to do with our basketball team and how we play. I am not a mind reader so if you need to know something ask. There are no bad questions, if you don't know something just find the time to ask. I prefer that you see me before practice or after practice since we run all our practices on a fairly tight planned time schedule and it is not fair to the other 13 girls to stop the group unless it is directly related to what we are working on in that time frame.

***If you are working on you shooting form, take this information and re-read it often. It will help to keep you focused. I tried to included every aspect I could think of on shooting form and I am looking for ways to add some video instruction to this page in the future. It will also add additional information on shooting when I think of other good thoughts. If you would really like to become a great shooter this information and lots of practice is your ticket. I will try to follow this with a teaching post on some other aspects of play at some point such as defense***

Coach May

Holiday Basketball Practice

2010-12-13T09:51:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

As it stands now, I have requested the gym for these time slots and it is set:

Friday 17th: 4:oo to 5:30
Sunday 19th 5:00 to 7:00pm
Monday we play JV Tournament
Tuesday we play JV Tournament
Wednesday 22th: 3:00 to 4:30 Practice Canceled on Wednesday for a Great Tournament Win.
Thursday 23rd: 3:00 to 4:30
Friday Christmas Eve off
Merry Christmas!!
Monday 27th: 3:00 to 4:30
Tuesday 28th: 3:00 to 4:30
Wednesday 29th: 3:00 to 4:30
Thursday 30th: 3:00 to 4:30
Friday 31st: 9:00am to 11:00am

***Jan 3rd, 2011, We will leave school at 10:32 to attend Basketball Practice at UNC. Every player will have to to sign a release form and turn it into Mr. Wiggs at the office to be able to go. If you do not have a form you cannot go. If you would rather stay at school and not go that is your option. We will eat lunch and those that would like we can stop at the Red Lobster on the way home(optional) can do so. Just bring enough money to eat.

The release form should read:(Make your Own and don't forget it)

I give ____***Full name***_____________________ my permission to go on a school field trip with the JV Girls Basketball Team on Jan 3, 2011 to Chapel Hill, NC to attend a UNC Varsity Mens Practice.

Signed by Parent*****

If there are changes I will make the corrections on this blogspot. We will try to go back and address some team weaknesses and individual skills over the Christmas break and after the JV Tournament. The conference season starts soon after Christmas Break.

Coach May

Jan 4, 2011 Practice as usual 3:15 pm to 4:30 pm.
Jan 5,2011 NEA at Halifax

Mr. Chambliss

2010-12-12T09:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Mr. Chambliss passed away Sunday morning at 10:20. Keep him and his family in your prayers. He was a very special man and I am going to miss him. Thanks for dedicating the Game vs. NEA to him.

Coach May

A Bad Day at Village Christian

2010-12-10T19:25:00.000-08:00

Hi Ladies;

Not a good night for us. V.C. ran exactly what we prepared for. It is called the run and jump #32, it was invented by accident at the University of Kansas when Dean Smith was a Senior player and his team used it to win the National Championship in 1953. Coach Smith brought it to Chapel Hill as a coach and popularized it. We have tried to put it in use I know for the last two years maybe even before that but we have not been very good at running it. It requires a lot of practice time and quickness. So due to lack of practice time to spend on getting good at it we don't run it. It is a great defense and very hard to play against since you have to be very disciplined and have everyone do their jobs consistently and precisely to beat it. You absolutely cannot pass the ball sideways once you get near the half court line since they overplay the passing lanes once the dribbler is trapped and a turnover at midcourt leads to a lay up for them. That is why we had those other 3 downcourt options since they did not always send the same girls to run the double team. That is why we were supposed to stop before half court and before dribbling into the double team. They only double you if you got near the half court line and they wanted to make the trap just across the half court line.

We lost by 16 points, 39 to 23. As you can tell from the other scores against our schools teams they are a very powerful basketball school. I doubt we will play a better team this season. We lost by 16, the JV Boys lost by around 40 and the Varsity Girls lost by around 50. Our shooting in the end killed us. We only made 6 shots out of 32. By my best guess 25 of the shot we took were lay ups or short shots within 4 feet of the basket. If you do the math,that means we missed around 19 short shots, if we made half of them we would have won the game even with a terrible 18 turnovers.

Stats:

Scoring by Quarters: 1st; 10 to 15, 2nd; 8 to 10, 3rd; 3 to 10, 4th; 2 to 4.

Scoring: Mer 7 pts, Jamie 7 pts, Emily 5 pts, Alex 2 pts, Lindsey 2pts.

VCA Scoring: #35 Lauren Goldner 16 pts, #20 Hannah Morrison 7 pts, #32 Brittany Tschida 5 pts, #5 Brett Hinkamp 4 points. No other higher than 2 points.

FG%: Team 6/32 18.75%; Individuals: Jamie 2/6*,Alex 1/4, Emily 2/9, Mer 1/6, Lindsey 0/1, M&M 0/1,
Jordan 0/1, Kaela 0/1, Kim 0/1. 33.3% is the minimum winning % against a decent team. This team was a very good team so we would have had to make around 44% to have won. That would have been 8 more lay ups or shots to tie.

3pts shots: M&M 0/1. Jordan 0/1.

FT %: Team 11/23 48.8%: Individual Lindsey 2/2****, Jamie 3/4***, Mer 5/11, Emily 1/4, Megan K 0/1, Jorday 0/1.

Rebounds: Team 6off/17Defensive; Mer 3/11****, Jamie 2/0, Alex 0/2, Kelly 1/1, Jordan 0/1, Leslie 0/1,
Emily 0/1.

Assists: Team 5; Alex 2*, Lindsey 2*, Jamie 1*.

Steals: Team 8; Alex 4****, Mer 1*, Jamie 1*, Lindsey 1*, M&M 1*.

Blocks: Lindsey 1*, Kim 1*.

Turnovers: Team 18; Lindsey 7, Jamie 4, Mer 1,Emily 1, Kelly 1, Megan K 1, M&M 1, Kim 1, Brooke 1.

Bottom Line: Too many turnovers and too many missed lay ups. Make our lay ups and we win. Make half our missed lay ups and we win a close game. Make lay ups and take away the turnovers that led to lay ups for them and we win big. Chances are we will not see that defense again this year(I hope not), unless Brunswick runs it no other team on our schedule used that defense last season or in any other year I have coached. That is one of the things that makes the run and jump work good for them, teams hardly ever play against that defense so it is hard to get used to it. Even with 7 defensive players on the court yesterday at practice all at once we really could not simulate the pressure VCA was able to create and the speed they were able to do it with.

As you know, we are not allowed to practice during exam week. As it stands right now I plan to practice Friday after exams at our usual time if the gym is available after the Octagon Club Christmas meeting scheduled there for Friday after exams. Keep Sunday night open also 5:00 to 7:00 approximately if I can get the gym for those times. We play the annual JV Christmas Tournament on Monday 12/20 and Tuesday 12/21. We have never lost this tournament since I have been coaching and I do not plan to start this year if we can help it. We will need Friday and Sunday to get the kinks from exams out in order to play close to our best.

Study hard, Basketball is fun but grades are what will get you where you want to go in life. Take studying seriously and do your best on the exams.

BTW, if you did not know it, Village Christian has an enrollment of 791 students. They are one of the largest 2A schools in the NCISAA. I for one would rather find another school of similar enrollment of us to play. Having such a numerical advantage gives sports teams huge advantages in finding 6 or 7 real good players in sports like Basketball.

***As I have told you in practice a number of times I am on the court almost always by 3:00pm, If you need help with your skill development or understanding anything we do in practice all you have to do is ask. I also am usually available after practice everyday. We only practice about 75 to 70 minutes per day depending on how fast all you girls get on the court from class so if you want to really improve you have got to take ownership in your improvement and understanding your job on the court. For most of you this will mean putting in some extra time.

Thought: The best way to improve the team is to improve your own play. John Wooden UCLA
***If every player would do this think how much we could improve.***

Coach May

Victory @ NEA

2010-12-08T18:49:00.001-08:00

Hi Girls,

A nice win against Northeast Academy. You always want to be the kingpin in your own neighborhood. The closer to home the better it is to keep the bragging rights. It also was especially nice that we won this game for Mr. Chambliss. The Final Score was 32 to 6 and we were able to give every girl some quality playing time that is very difficult to do with only 6 minute quarters and 14 girls on the roster .

Stats:

Scoring by quarters: 1st 12-0, 2nd 10-2, 3rd 10-0 4th 0-4

Scoring: Mer 6pts, Alex 6pts, Lindsey 6, Kelly 6, Jamie 2, Kim 2, M&M 2, Kaela 2.

NEA Scoring: #35 Robyne Barnes 4pts, #21 Anna Liverman 2pts.

FG%: Team 15/45 33.3%*; Individual; Kelly 3/3****, Alex 3/5**, Lindsey 3/6**, Mer 2/4**,M&M 2/6*,
Kaela 1/3*,Kim 1/5, Jordan 0/1, Catherine 0/1, Jamie 0/2, Brooke 0/2 Leslie 0/3, Emily 0/4. 33.3% is the minimum winning %.

FT%: Team 4/6- 66.6%**; Jamie 2/2****, Mer 2/2****, Lindsey 0/2.

3pts shooting: Team 0/3; Lindsey 0/1, Alex 0/1, Catherine 0/1.

Rebounds: Team 8off/12def: Kaela 2/1**, Leslie 0/3**, Mer 2/0*, Emily 2/0*, Jordan 0/2*, MeganK 1/1*,
M&M 1/1*, Kim 0/2*, Jamie 0/1, Brooke 0/1.

Assists: Team 8; Mer 2**, Jordan 2**, Emily 1*, Jamie 1*, Lindsey 1*, MeganK 1*.

Steals: Team 18****; Lindsey 4****, Alex 3***, Mer 2**, M&M 2**, Catherine 2**, Jamie 1*, Kelly 1*,
MeganK 1*, Kaela 1*, Brooke 1*.

Blocks: Lindsey 1**, Kaela 1**.

Turnovers: Team 7; MeganK 2, M&M 1, Jordan 1, Kim 1, Catherine 1, Brooke 1.

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.

Coach May

Faith Christian @ Home.

2010-12-07T04:53:00.000-08:00

O.K. Girls,

An ugly win is always better than a pretty loss. We defeated Faith 33 to 20 but it was not a game that we can be very proud of anything about it except the outcome and that we played hard. Missing layups and not being able to execute plays is going to get better or we are going to fall far short of the potential we have with this team. To date this is the first team I have coached that could not execute plays with some degree of skill. That includes my very first team when it was brand new to every player on the court.

Getting better will start with practice on Tuesday. We cannot keep trying to wish the ball where we need it to go instead of making good passes, we cannot play sound basketball and not value the ball. In case you have not noticed the ball is important, you would never score if you don't have the ball. If you take care of the ball and get a lot more good shots at the basket than your opponent you have a great advantage in a basketball game.

We absolutely cannot keep missing point blank layups. There is a lot to said for having the necessary focus to improve and we need to get with it. We need to make our #one focus become making lay ups and being more careful with the basketball or as it is called in coaching jargon "value the basketball".

Stats: By quarters; 1st- 3-7, 2nd-8-0, 3rd 11-6, 4th 11-7

Scoring: Emily-8pts, Jamie 7pts, Meredith 6pts, Alex 4pts, Kelly 4pts, Lindsey 2pts.

Faith Scoring: #4 Stephanie Stallings 7pts, #12 Carrie Lewis 6pts, #30 Bailey Parks 5pts, #11 Mary B Fisher 2pts.

FG%: Team 13/47( 27.6%); M&M 1/1***, Alex 2/4**, Kelly 2/6*, Lindsey 1/4*, Emily 3/11, Mer 3/12,
Jamie 1/8.

FT%: Team 7/21(33.3%) Jamie 5/12 , Emily 2/7, Kelly 0/2.

Rebounds: Team 14off/17def; Kelly 5/6, Mer 4/5, Emily 3/1, Lindsey 0/3, Alex 1/1, Jamie 1/0, Kaela 0/1.

Assists: Team 6; Mer 2, Lindsey 2, Kelly 1, Alex 1.

Turnovers: Team 11; Lindsey 3, Jamie 3, Mer 2, Emily 2, Leslie 1.

Steals: Team 11; Jamie 3, Lindsey 3, Mer 2, Emily 2, M&M 1.

Blocks: Team 3; Mer 1, Em 1, Kelly 1.

I might post some additional thoughts later but the one thing that comes to mind is we have to work harder and with more focus to get better in the areas we are not doing well. Lay ups, Value the Basketball, FT's and Assists, which will go up by executing the plays we run better.

Grades: Play Hard-A , Play Smart-D, Play Together-B, Execution-Offense F, Defense B.

Thought: You never get back more than you are willing to put into something. We have got to be willing to invest our focus and our effort towards improving both our team skills and our individual skills. Time's wasting for this team, we just had practice #20 so we are about 25% thru this season. Those that have a passion to be really good need to step up. Opportunity only knocks so many times.

Coach May

Jan 3rd Trip to Carolina Practice.

2010-12-05T19:27:00.001-08:00

Hi Girls,

As I told you at practice last week I have gotten permission from Coach Roy Williams for us to attend a Carolina Men's Practice on Jan 3, 2011. We will leave school around 10:32, stop and eat lunch probably at Wendy's in Chapel Hill and be at the Dean E Smith Center by 1:30. Practice officially starts at 2:00pm and will last around 2 hours or a little less. This should be a very good learning experience since we have copied much from the UNC learning system as passed on from Dean Smith to Roy Williams. I think you will be impressed with how hard they practice and how there is no wasted time. BTW, we will have to be quite while watching practice. No exceptions!

If you like we can make plans to eat dinner at the Red Lobster or some other nice spot on the way home or we can just come on back or fast food it. I will check with you all on that .

I will need a few parents to volunteer to drive but they are very particular about letting many people into practice so we will need to limit the number of drivers as best we can to maybe 5 including myself. This is considered a field trip and parents will have to sign a consent form for their children to go.

We will miss practice that Monday, first day back from Christmas Break, then practice on Tuesday and play on Wednesday at home vs. NEA.

I will post additional information if any comes available. If you wish to go please make certain your parents read this post.

Coach May

Jan 3rd Trip to Carolina Practice.

2010-12-05T19:27:00.000-08:00

Nice win @ Fayetteville Academy

2010-12-03T20:02:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

The first quarter we actually played well but we missed so many layups. The second quarter we played our worse quarter of the year, it was the first time this year I have been disappointed with our effort and focus. The second half we went back to Playing like a Team and playing hard and smart and pulled away. Remember Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together? When we drift away from that bad things happen.

Jamie had a great game and really held us in there in the first half when we were struggling. Kelly gave our offense and defense a big lift with a dominant second half. Mer did a great job working hard on the defensive glass in the second half. The domination of the defensive boards and concentrating on staying in front of our man defensively when they had the ball were the keys of the second half along with the fact our relentless pressure began to take its toll on their team.

Here are the Stats:

Scoring by Quarters: 1st: 8-2; 2nd 3-6; 3rd 15-7; 4th 8-2 Final Score 34 to 17

Individual Scoring: Jamie 15pts, Kelly 10pts, Emily 4pts, Lindsey 3pts, Mer 2 pts.

Fay Academy: #25 Sarah Reavis 4pts, #30 Kendal Williams 4pts, #21 Kenan Stiehl 4pts,
#12 Rebecca Gainey 2 pts, #11 Jan Schafer 2pts.

FG%: Team; Team 12/36 33.3%*; Ind: Kelly 5/8**, Jamie 4/12*, Mer 1/3*, Emily 2/7, Kim 0/1, Lindsey 0/5. 33% is the minimum winning percentage

3Pt%: 100%; Lindsey 1/1****

FT %: Team 7/14 50%: Jamie 7/12***, Emily 0/2. Fifty percent is the minimum winning percentage.

Rebounds: Team 5off/14def; Individual: Mer 0/6***, Kelly 2/2**, Jamie 0/2*, Lindsey 0/2*, Megan K 2/0*, M&M 0/1*, Brooke 0/1*.

Assists: Team 8; Lindsey 3***, Mer 2**, Jamie 1*, Emily 1* , Alex 1*(Sideout Play). We had more turnovers than assist. It should be reversed.

T/0's: Team 10: Jamie 3, Mer-Emily-Lindsey-Kelly-Megan K, M&M,Catherine all had 1.

Steals: Team 18** Individual; Jamie 5***, Kelly 3**, Mer 3**, Alex 2*, Lindsey 2*, Megan K 1*, Leslie 1*, Kim 1*.

Blocks: Team 4; Kelly 3***, Alex 1*.

Some closing thoughts: It is always nice to win. We can play so much better than we did in the first half. Even in the second half our execution of plays was terrible except for crisscross. We even ran 4J wrong for the first time ever. Our execution of inbounds plays was exceptional, I think we scored at least 8 points just on good execution of line and sideout. We need to bring some of that same execution to these other plays. They are layups waiting to happen when executed properly. Some day the game is going to be on the line and poor execution is going to cost us if we do not refocus our efforts. We did a better job of pushing the secondary break up the court and letting Jamie penetrate to the basket before the Fay. Ac. defense was set, however we still have plenty of room to improve on that by pushing it harder and running the court harder.

Remember we need to be able score in these ways and we are capable with a little effort:
1- From our Defense, steals.
2- Inbound plays
3- Primary Break from steals and rebounds with good outlets.
4- Secondary Break(discussed above)
5- Set plays (We should score at least 10 points per game here maybe more)
6- Foul Shots (70% is a good goal, 50% is the minimum)
7- Free Lance Passing Game offense(Read Option vs Zone is the same thing). Basically at this point with most of you girls having played for me for 3 years the good stuff in our passing game offense always resembles a play of some type we run, it is just more spontaneous, but it is also more dependent on the passers and the scorers being on the same page mentally to make it work)

Thought for the Day: The biggest enemy of being Great is being good because to many players let being pretty good trick them into not working hard enough on their game to be Great. Dean Smith UNC.

Don't let being simply pretty good make you as an individual not become as good as you can be and for heaven sakes don't let it keep our team from becoming the Great Team it could be just because of not having the commitment to be Great.

Have a passion for being the best you can be and a passion to be the best team we can be.

Our attitude will determine our altitude. Roy Williams UNC

Coach May

Nice win over Hobgood

2010-11-30T18:07:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Nice win tonight over one of our arch rivals Hobgood 39 to 10. I was impressed with our effort our defense and our interior passing and rebounding. Many coaches think if you dominate the boards like we did it is the game. I don't know if all that is true but I do know when we dominate the boards we have hardly ever lost.

I am going to post our stats and I might come back and add some thoughts later if I come up with some. If I don't I will see you at practice tomorrow, next up Fayetteville Academy on the road Friday.

Scoring by Quarters: 1st: 6-0, 2nd: 13-2, 3rd 12-8, 4th 8-0 Final: 39 to 10

Scoring: Halifax; Kelly 12pts, Jamie 9 pts, Emily 6 pts, Mer 4 pts, Lindsey 4 pts, Megan 2 pts, Jordan 2 pts

Scoring Hobgood; #31 April Duke 5pts., #15 Megan Medford 3 pts, #35 Kaylie Barwick 2 pts.

FG% Team: 35.2% 19/54. Individuals: Jamie 4/6***, Mer 2/4**, Kelly 6/12**, Lindsey 2/4, Megan K 1/3*, Jordan 1/3*, Emily 3/10, Kim 0/1, Catherine 0/1, Brooke 0/1, M&M 0/2,
Alex 0/5.

FT% Team 16.7%; Individual; Jamie 1/4, Mer 0/2. Practice, Practice, Practice!!!

Rebounds Team: 14off/21Def=35; Individual: Mer 2/7**, Kelly 4/3**, Emily 5/1*, M&M 0/3,
Jamie 1/1, Megan K 1/1, Leslie 1/1, Alex 0/1, Kaela, 0/1, Kim 0/1, Catherine 0/1.

Assists: Team 13: Individual; Mer 5***, Jamie 3**, Lindsey 1, Alex 1, Kelly 1, M&M 1,
Brooke 1.

Turnovers Team 8: Mer 2, Alex 2, Catherine 2, Kelly 1, Leslie 1.

Steals team: 13; Jamie 5***, Lindsey 5***, Jordan 2*, Leslie 1*

Blocks: Kelly 3***.

Final Thoughts: It was good to get everyone some time on the court. Thats always good for team morale. As you can tell we have a very talented team. However we can't depend on that physical talent always winning us games. We have to become better everyday and better in everyway. Not missing lay ups would be a huge advantage. Making our fouls shots will win us many close games.

I thought Mer had a great game. 5 assists and 9 rebounds was great. Jamie as usual had a great game 5 steals, 3 assists, great defense and 9 points, Kelly made her presence felt with 12 points 7 rebounds and 3 blocks. Lindsey picked back up from last season with a good floor game and 5 steals. I was excited for Megan K get her first points as a Viking and she played a nice floor game. Last but not least, Emily did some good work on the offensive glass with 5 offensive rebounds.

Enjoy this win until practice tomorrow and then come ready to work on getting better. As I told you in the locker room after the game, every team is going to get better during the year. If we stop to rest on our laurels someone is going to pass us.

Remember: Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together and Strive for Perfect Execution on every play in practice and in games. Practice does not make Perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect.

Coach May

Friday Practice for Hobgood

2010-11-27T07:41:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

DISMISSAL TIME FOR HOME GAMES IS 2:30PM. WHITE UNIFORMS! REST GOOD!

Things we covered in practice Friday.

1- Tip Play
2- Secondary Break
3- Dean Play
4- Gap Play
5- Shot Blocking philosophy
6- Right to an upright stance, what to know
7- Crossover, Crossover with back to the defender and Crossover and pass for the lay up
8- 32 Run and Jump Defense
9- Pushing the ball ahead against a partially set defense.
10-How to force the dribbler to their left or opposite hand

We play Hobgood Academy on Tuesday at 3:15. Hobgood is one of our biggest rivals. Last year I lost my first game ever to Hobgood. I did not like it very much. They played well and we did not play up to expectations. We only made 24% of our shots from the floor. Remember 33% is sort of the bottom end for winning on shooting percentage at this level and you had better do some other things well to win with that.

We will wear White uniforms for Home Games. Hopefully Catherine's jersey will be here. Johnson and Lambe has it and is changing the number to #12 from Nancy Fleming Morris's retired #14 . Our Warm ups should be here soon. Once all the numbers are established we will try to get the tee shirts ordered and priced. We all will need Green Hoodies for the cold to wear with our warm ups to travel. It will have your number on it. Girls that have hoodies from last year can just use those same hoodies since they should match and all returning players wanted their old numbers back.

Any girls, especially the first year players that can get to the gym on school days that we practice and on the court I will be there early enough to work with you as a group and individuals on half the gym from 3:00pm to 3:15pm to try and help you improve your skills both as a group and as individuals. The opposite end of the gym will stay available for the girls that are past needing this extra fundamental level teaching time. You might consider asking your teacher if you can leave class a little early if there is nothing important going on.

Academic's are important to me. If ever you need to stay after school to visit with a teacher for extra help I suggest you do it. Please try to send me word so I will know where you are. Basketball is great but doing great in school should always be your #1 goal.

I was impressed with the number of JV Girls on the first 9 week honor roll. Keep up the good work. We have a very smart team.

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together and Strive for Perfect Execution!

Coach May

Happy Thanksgiving Girls.

2010-11-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Practice Friday at 3:00pm to 4:30pm.

It was a good practice Wednesday. I see lots of players making steady improvement in both their individual talents and as a team working together on the court.

I am going to work harder on developing your individual skills in the coming weeks. When you stop getting better you are going backwards progression wise. Never be complacent.

**All Girls please go back and read "things to make us a better team". I have added a few things and some things cannot be stressed enough. We all need to know these things.

Have a Great Thanksgiving and be thankful for Our Lord, Your Family, The chance to have a good education and for your teammates, your true friends and Basketball. In that order.

Remember to tell your loved one's Thank You for their effort to prepare you and your family a nice Thanksgiving Meal.

Never forget how truly blessed we all are!

Coach May

Victory @ Faith Christian

2010-11-23T18:12:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

We defeated a good Faith Christian Team tonight 36 to 23. Here are the stats:

Viking Scoring: Jamie Harris 16 pts, Kelly Williams 10 pts, Emily Conner 8 pts, Alex Darnell 2 pts.

Faith Scoring: #4 Stephanie Stallings 11 pts, #12 Carrie Lewis 10 pts, #20 Rebecca Schellenberg 2 pts.

FG%: Team; 16/35 46%*** 33% is the minimum winning percentage.

FG%: Individuals; Emily Conner 4/5 80%***, Kelly Williams 5/8 62.5%***,
Jamie Harris 6/10 60%***, Alex Darnell 1/4 25%, Lindsey Pulley 0/1, M. Mohorn 0/1, J. Jean o/2, M. Stephenson 0/4.

FT%: Team; 4/10 40% The minimum winning percentage is 50%. I would like to be at least 60%. I think that is a goal we are capable of attaining.

FT%: Individual; Jamie Harris 4/6 67%**, Emily Conner 0/4(Em's form looks good, she will make her share this year, IMO).

Rebounds: Team 3off/23D. Emily 0/6***, Lindsey 0/4**. Alex 0/4**, Kelly 1off/3D*,
Jamie 1/2*, Mer 1/1, Jordan 0/1, Kaela 0/1, Leslie 0/1.( We need to work the offensive glass a little harder and be stronger with the ball after getting the Defensive Rebound)

Assists: Team 11; Lindsey 4**, Jamie 3**, Megan M 2*, Kelly 1*, Alex 1*. (We had 11 assist to 8 turnovers and that is a really good ratio)

Turnovers: Team 8; Jamie 3, Lindsey 1, Mer 1, Jordan 1, Megan M 1, Leslie 1.

Steals: Team 6; Jamie 2, Alex 2, Lindsey 1, Kelly 1. ( A little surprised we could not steal the ball from them more)

Blocks: Team 2; Jamie 2**.(Kelly, Mer and Em should get 2 or 3 apiece most any game just by looking for the opportunity and getting their hands up quicker)

All in all a good showing against a good team. I was a little surprised we could not turn them over easier but sometimes it is hard to steal the ball from a good team.

Secondly I do not think we played the 24 defense as well as we can. Remember no defense is any stronger than the weakest link at any given time so 4 girls can be locking their man down and playing their hearts out and 1 player can be not keeping up with their man and they pass it to the player who is wide open and nothing happens. Also we need to be able to see where the ball is and see our man at the same time. Several times they pushed the ball up the court and we had defenders at the goal who never turned around and forced them to make a play allowing an easy basket.

Technically our goal in 24 is to deny the pass to our player, if a player has the ball our goal is to play aggressive defense with our feet to block their path and make them pick their dribble up. Once they lose their dribble they should be attacked without fouling while the other players intensify their effort to not let their man become a receiver. Remember, if the ball is closely guard for 5 seconds it is a turnover same as a steal.

I thought we did a good job of running some stuff. Jamie had a terrific game both defensively and offensively. Emily and Kelly did a good job around the basket and Lindsey did a good job running the team. If I had to do it over again I would have used the open offense against them. But, it will work out so the next time we play them we will have something they have not prepared for.

Alex had two nice long passes on Fly to Jamie for baskets, those baskets kind of broke their backs if they had any intentions of making a run late in the game. We need to get the airball pass play down a little. Jamie actually made a pretty good pass but we did not execute it like we should. We will practice it more in the next week.

Have a good nights sleep and I will see you at 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm Wednesday and Friday for practice for one of our big rivals Hobgood next Tuesday.

If I forget to tell you Have a Great Thanksgiving on Thursday and while you are giving thanks make sure you let your parents know how thankful you are for all they do to get you to practice's and game's. Also, know how Thankful I am for the opportunity to Coach each of you.

It is an old saying the greatest compliment a team can give their coach and their teammates is to play hard all the time. I consider it the #1 reason I love to coach basketball. Thanks for your effort!

BTW, the Varsity Girls did a great job of running the 24 Lockdown defense(They call it Deny) to make a comeback and get a nice win against Faith. Four of the girls on the court all were good at running it since we played it so much on the JV and Abby seems to be a natural for it with size and speed. It is a fun way to play.

See you at practice and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Coach May

Faith Christian on Tuesday 3:30

2010-11-22T15:13:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

First game tomorrow is finally here. Here are some notes:

Dress nice for travel.

Wear your Green Uniform. (Catherine I will bring Jersey # 10 for you, bring your team shorts)

Make sure you have shoes and socks.

Your Warm ups have been ordered and hopefully we will have them soon.

Dismissal Time is 1:30pm.

Be at the Gym ready to warm up by 2:45. We will probably go in to meet and run out at around 3:10. Tip time is 3:30.

They have a nice concession area adjacent to their new gym.

Make certain you have a ride. If you need a ride contact me at 252-308-2863(cell)

No earrings allowed or necklaces or anything sharp in your hair during games. NCISAA rules.

Edit to add: Directions to Faith Academy can be found on the halifaxacademy.org website under athletics/away game directions. Basically it is 5 stop lights past the hospital.

As one of my favorite sayings goes "Failing to prepare is preparing to Fail", we prepared as well as any team I have ever coached. I am very proud of the improvement we have made as a team since the first day of practice. Now we get to go out and use all this stuff we worked on in a game that counts. It is fun to compete, I love it. Let's Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together and Execute to the best of our ability. If we do that I like our chances.

See you tomorrow,

Coach May

No Practice or Scrimmage 11/18/10

2010-11-18T07:51:00.001-08:00

Hi Girls,

As you know we had a potentially dangerous situation yesterday at practice. The game with RRHS has been cancelled. Due to law enforcement agency's using the campus and the potential for danger we will not practice until the situation is resolved. Take the time to rest your legs, and catch up on your school work, we have our first game at Faith Christian Tuesday.

Obviously when we return to school we will practice and if we can practice before then I will post it on this site.

Be Safe,

Coach May

RR Scrimmage Stats

2010-11-16T16:28:00.001-08:00

Hi Girls,

It has been good to play some competition other than ourselves in the last week or so. It also is good for our development as a team. I think slowly we are beginning to stamp out an identity for this team.

Points: Emily 10, Kelly 7, Mer 5, Jamie 4, Alex 3, Lindsey 2

FG%: Emily 5/8*, Kelly 3/6*, Lindsey 1/2*, Jamie 2/5*, Mer 1/5, Jordan 0/1, Kim 0/2,
Alex 0/8. 33.3% is the minimum winning shooting % from the field and is marked with a *.
3Pts: Alex 1/2* ( This was good, but we need to keep the number on this shot down by moving the ball quickly and getting shots closer to the basket)

FTs: Kelly 1/1*, Mer 3/8, Jamie 0/2, Emily 0/2, Lindsey 0/1. Minimum winning % is 50 % marked with *.( We can do better, several of the shots were shot well and just did not go down.)

Reb's; offensive/defensive: Kelly 2/5=7*, Jamie 2/3=5*, Emily 1/4=5*, Mer 3/1=4*, Alex 1, Lindsey 1, Megan K 1, Kim 1, Leslie 1, Catherine 1. (Fairly good but not a dominant as we can be)

Assists: Lindsey 4*, Jamie 4*, Jordan 2*, Alex 2*, Megan 1*( At time we really showed how well we can pass, would have like to not have had the foolish unforced turnovers.)

Turnovers: Team 13.

Steals: Mer 2, Alex 2, Jamie 1, Lindsey 1. ( In general I did not feel we made enough steals considering the opportunities, however they did make unforced turnovers maybe due to not being able to get a good shot against our zone defense)

In general it was a fairly good showing, I thought the post players had a good game, I thought Jamie was dominant on defense. Lindsey did a good job of running the PG position. We need not fool ourselves though we need to keep pushing to get better and also find our teams identity. Every team is different and it is my job as your coach to find what we can do the best to gain an advantage in a game. I am seeing progress and I also think I know the direction we need to move in. Everyone keep working hard.

Thought: Dreaming of reaching goals without putting in the work and the effort to prepare to reach the goals is just dreaming. Bob Rotella, Professional Sports Phycologist

See you at practice tomorrow. Come ready to get better!

**Note: Never forget our #1 goal is to Win. I will never sacrifice a chance for our team to win as long as we have a chance. I think that if you give me 100% in practice and games it is my job to give you 100% chance to win.

Our 2nd goal is to develop the players on this team with skills and understanding of the game as much as possible. I have been impressed with the girls that have played for me and how much they have improved from year to year. This year is no exception. Keep pushing to get better.

Our 3rd goal is to have fun. Winning usually takes care of that. To me basketball when executed correctly is a beautiful game. Play with a passion for the game and a passion to get better, we can be no better as a team than how far that passion carries us.

2nd Thought: There is no Glory in Practice but without Practice there is no Glory! Sylvia Hatchell UNC

Coach May

Things to know to be a Better Team.

2010-11-13T06:08:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

***This is a repeat of something I posted for one of my prior teams. You all need to read it and take it to heart. ****

1- Always Hustle and Play Hard! By playing hard all the time and playing hard Together it greatly increases our chances.

2- Always pay attention in practice to what I say. In a game always pay extra attention to what I say. If I am hollering to put your hands up it is for a reason. Maybe I can see the official is getting ready to call a reaching foul on you. Listen and be in tune.

3- Always be prepared to line up in Press Offense and Sideout/Baseline situations. By not lining up we give the other team an advantage. Some Coaches coach their players to look to steal the ball when a team plays unorganized. The Cary Christian Coach is one of them.

4- We need to become a better rebounding team. Period! Work harder on the glass, box out, try to get inside position, anticipate the shot and attack the ball aggressively.

5- Little Things to Note:

a- Learn to look down the court while starting your dribble or even before. Your teammate if she is running the court is only open usually for about 1 second. Don't miss the opportunity to get an easy basket by not looking ahead.

b- If an opposing player is in the corner, Trap Her. One player can do it by themselves by being agrressive and alert. Make that player make a play from a bad situation.

c- See your man and the ball. If you do not know where the ball is when you are on defense you are at a serous disadvantage.

d- Sprint the court and turn to face the opposing offense quickly on fast breaks. Make the opponent make a play.

e- Always be ready to receive the ball. Your hands and your mind should always be looking for a pass from anywhere at any time. Many times your teammate might see you open and Not Pass you the ball because they see you are not looking.

f- On defense make sure you do not let your opposition squeeze down the sideline. If you put your food on the edge of the court they can only go one way. Anticipate that move and take advantage of it. Try to make her use her off hand(left is she prefers her right).

g- Understand the game. Get players the ball in positions they are most likely to be successful. This is double true in key situations.

h- Make the easy pass. Long crosscourt passes thru many hands are seldom effective and usually two point for the other team. A good skip pass is entirely different against a zone defense that an outfront cross court pass. Learn the difference.

I- Move the ball quickly with crisp accurate passes. Do not telegraph your pass. Do not force passes into a crowd wishing the ball will get there. If there is nothing there we need to swing the ball back around making the easy quick pass and give the defense a chance to get out of position. Have good judgement and value the ball. Always have a plan on what options you have with the ball after you have received it.

j- Play defense with your feet and you hands. Square up on your opponent and take away the dribbling lanes to the basket. Force a player to use their dribble and pick it up then increase the defensive pressure on the ball while your teammates work on taking away the passing lanes creating a steal opportunity. Do not reach across the body of a player dribbling by you with your opposite hand. It is an automatic foul call in most games.

k- Practice does not make Perfect. Prefect Practice makes Perfect. Give all skill drills your full effort. Make every pass as close to perfect as you possibly can. The little things make a difference.

l- Pay attention to detail. Know your job!

m- Be strong with the ball and value the ball. Every time we turn the ball over it is 2 points we cannot score and 2 points they can score. Thus it can create a 4 point swing in a close game.

n- Execute it the way we practice it. Do not re-invent the wheel. You can sometimes use common sense such as if your man forgot to guard you go to the rim and call for the ball but in general everyone needs to do their jobs the same way so your teammates know where to look.

o- Defensively try to force you opponent to use their weak hand. Many players just cannot go left(if right handed) by forcing her left it greatly increases our chances of forcing a turnover.

p- Work hard to improve your skills. Take what we work on and say in practice and spend some time developing your talents. Every player should always be working on something to make them better. It could be as simple as dribbling to the left, making a perfect pass every time that hits your target in the chest or in stride without having to slow down.

q- Box out. Get your player on your back, work to get inside position on rebounds. We are a pretty good rebounding team but we could and should be a dominant rebounding team both defensively and on the offensive glass.

r- Never stop to pout. If you miss a shot don't let it affect the following defensive opportunity. While you are mad at yourself your opponent might be breaking down the court for a lay up. Hustle back extra hard.

s- Always be in the game if you are not in. When I send you to the scorers table hopefully you know who you are subbing for was guarding and what defense we are playing. When you sub in ask who you are replacing if you are not positive. You never know when your opportunity will come up. Always be ready. It could be your finest time ever on the court. Be prepared to play your best.

t- 50 -50 lose balls. Always win the majority of them.

u- Defensive Position- Square up to your man, put your left foot out further than your right to force your man to go left if they are right handed, reverse if left handed. If beat sprint in front of your man and then turn around and square up and force your man to make a play. Slide your feet if you need to move laterally.

We have 5 or 6 girls on this team that have had quite a bit of game experience. This should mean we do not make many mistakes. Offensively or defensively. If we are going to be good this is what we need to do. We need to make certain we are never out hustled or out worked on the court.

Thought: Hustle, Determination and Focus make up for many disadvantages in a Basketball game.
John Wooden, UCLA

2nd Thought: If Hustle, Determination and Focus make up for disadvantages in a basketball game what does it do for a team that is more talented than the opposition?

Perfect Execution plus Playing Hard, Playing Smart and Playing Together equals championships.

Coach May

RRJV Scrimmage

2010-11-12T14:45:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Be at RRHS Gym at 5:45 pm on Monday. Wear your uniform (Green) if you have one. If you do not have a uniform I will bring enough Green jerseys for everyone to have one.

As far as today's scrimmage vs. the varsity girls. Being a good team for us basically is going to boil down to 3 main area's of improvement. Making our lay ups, not throwing the ball away so consistently and not getting beat down the court on defense.

We have not practiced our offensive plays for the 1-3-1 zone yet but we will get there soon. Hope RR doesn't use alot of 1-3-1 Monday. Most teams we play in our conference do not use it. I am not sure we played a single game against it last season. Fayetteville Christian ran one 2 years ago.

Rabbit plans to have the gym open Sunday night at 5:00pm for any of you that would like to work on your shooting. I would suggest 50 shots from the area of the court you normally shoot from plus 50 from the foul line. We have to improve our shooting.

Last year we scored most of our points from steals and the spread. To date this year I am not sure we can take the ball away as effectively. I will be looking for a combination that can. We will work on the spread offense package before we play any games that count.

BTW, I understand there will be real officials at the scrimmage Monday. Not much got called today, Rabbit does not usually call anything much and if he lets it go I usually let it go also. We just have to suck it up and play.

Have a good weekend and come ready Monday to:

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together.

Coach May

Something to be Learned

2010-11-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

A couple of thoughts about todays scrimmage with the JV Boys.

1- We will probably not play a JV Girls team all year that has their quickness and size or talent.

2- Our team lacked judgement and patience. Poor judgement on trying to make too many home run type passes thru closely guarded players with quick hands. And secondly, the lack of patience to move the ball around and give their defense a chance to get out of position or for one of our players to break free for a real good pass and shot opportunity.

3- We gambled way to much on defense. We were running 22. That means sprint back, make sure the basket is covered first, once the dribbler is under control build back out to our man. If we can force the dribbler to pick up his dribble we would seriously overplay the passing lanes looking for the steal. If we overplay to much against a team with good talent they are going to make us pay, this is especially true about trying to pressure a good dribbler out front who is capable to taking it to the basket off the dribble. We have to be smart enough to pick our spots for hard pressure and make sure we make the opposition work for what they get. If we want to turn up the heat we will play 24 or 24 lockdown.

4- Friday we are going to scrimmage some with the Varsity Girls. We need to play a more passive 22 defense against them because we do not want Hayley blowing thru the middle for a layup all night. ( Read item 3 above.) On offense we need to have the good judgement to make the easy pass and the simple pass instead of trying to wish it somewhere that is closely guarded. Roy Williams says that basically it always comes down to the Quality of our shots against the Quality of theirs. We want to make sure they are shooting long shots. In our case we would like lay ups but we have to also be willing and able to make some wide open 15 foot shots.

5- We need to make certain that we do not play out of control. We have the ability to play fast but we are not going to get a layup on the first two passes every time down the court, especially against a set defense. Value each possession, be strong catching the ball and going up for close in shots. Don't make weak passes or passes that are just a prayer because your teammate waves for you to pass it to her. Pass it to her when you know it is a pass that can get to her. Play Smart.

6- I like games like today and probably tomorrow. It is a chance to compete. We just need to realize that a victory against either of these two teams in a real game would be a close game and the team that makes the least mistakes both on offense and defense is going to have the best chance in the end. Think about it as a warm up for the conference championship game, it could be that type of game. If we can make it a game with our Varsity Girls we can play with anyone on our schedule. Take it as a challenge to get better.

We can be a very good team but it is going to take both physical and mental efforts from every player to get there. No real good team is going to give us anything easy. Lets build on what we can become and what we need to do to be the best we can be.

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.

Thought: For a learning experiece to really be of any value you need to make sure you learn something from it.

Coach May

PS- we will try the boys again during the year. I was impressed with them but we still should have made it more of a game and I think we can down the road. Hopefully, it was a good learning experience.(ie:meaning we learned something from it)

Washing Instruction for JV Uniforms.

2010-11-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Girls and Moms,

We will be passing out uniforms in the next day or two. As of right now we only have 13 jersey's but that is being worked on by Coach Herman. These are the recommended washing and drying instructions to keep the uniform looking nice and from possibly coming apart.

BTW: The uniform jersey is reversible, white and green. White at home, Green on the road.

1- Wash in cold water and on the Gentle cycle.

2- Do not put in the Dryer. Either hang it on the line or somewhere in the house.

I will post more info after we meet with the girls about it, such as shoe color, sock type and color etc.

Coach May

2010 Halifax Academy JV Girls Basketball Roster

2010-11-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Girls,

Listed below is our 2010/2011 Roster and primary and secondary positions for now. Primary position is listed first.

Mer Stephenson 5, 4.
Emily Conner 4, 5.
Jamie Harris 3, 2, 1.
Alex Darnell 2,3.
Lindsey Pulley 1
Jordan Jean 2,3.
Meg. Kessinger 1,2
Kelly Williams 5
Meg. Mohorn 1 or 2.
Kaela Dickens 4, 5
Kim Shearin 3
Leslie Tudor 4
Cath. Garner 1,2.
Emily Alston 2, 3
Brooke Roberson 3 or 2.

Congratulations Girls, lets have a great year!

Things you need to focus on improving as individuals:

1- Making lay ups. The most basic way to score. Make yourself good at it. Work on it on your own.

2- Making foul shots. Almost the same list as above. Work hard on it. Maybe 50 shots a day with the # of makes going up everyday. As a team we should be making 60% of them in games, that means some of you need to make 75% to pull up the team average.

3- Dribbling: Dribbling fast: Dribbling while seeing the court in front of you.

4- Passing: make the easy pass, the ones you are the most capable of making but make sure you make it a near perfect everytime even in warm ups and drills as you can.

5- Defense: know where to be and do your job. Take pride in playing defense and playing it hard. Defense equals 5% knowledge, 95% effort, hustle and focus.

Thing you might have noticed.

1- We practice hard.
2- We practice as fast as we can.
3- Every drill we can make into a competition becomes a competition. Lots of times the competition is with me and the reward is a pass not to run. Lets try our best to do good. What is the most common trait between Michael Jordan and Tyler Hansbrough? Roy Williams and Dean Smith say it is they were so competitive. They wanted to win every drill and every possession.
(Yes, we have copied much from their practices) There is something to be learned from loving to compete. It does not mean you don't love your teammates or hate your opponents. On the court competion is fun. If you win don't brag, if you lose congratulate your opponent and go practice on getting better and give it your best next time.
4- Every second on the court is valuable. We only get about 70 min of practice time per practice, we need to make the most of them.

Thought: Hustle, Determination and Focus make up for many disadvantages in a basketball game. John Wooden former UCLA Head Coach and the winner of 11 college National Championships.

Coach May

Tryouts JV Girls Basketball 2010/2011

2010-10-29T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Girls,

All girls interested in playing JV Girls Basketball be at the Gym on Monday November 1 in your basketball practice gear. All Girls trying out MUST have a physical on file with Coach Herman to try out. State Law.

Girls 9th grade or below be at the Gym and on the court no later than 3:20 pm. Practice will end as usual at 4:30 pm Sharp.

10th graders will need to report to Varsity Girls Practice at 5:45 pm (you need to double check this time). If the varsity does not need you, you will be sent back to the JV team Tuesday. You are welcome to attend both practices if you wish.

We have quite a few names on the sign up list. We will try very hard to make the team cuts quickly and all at one time. I greatly wish there was a girls middle school team at our school for those that we do not have a uniform for this season.

See you Monday! Please share this information with all the girls trying out.

I expect our team to have a great season! Come ready to build on last year.

I look forward to seeing you all.

Coach May

First day of Practice 2010/2011

2010-10-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

Hi Girls,

Monday, November 1, 2010 is the first day of official basketball practice. I look foward to seeing what our skill set will allow us to do on the court this season.

Our goals are always:

1- Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together.

2- Play great defense. Defense wins championships.

3- Create offense by stealing the ball from our opponents whenever possible.

4- Pushing the ball down court and looking for the easy basket before the other team has set its defense.

5- In the half court offense looking inside for a shot close to the basket first and back outside if nothing is available.

6- Getting to the foul line and making the shots and not fouling the other team. We want to score more points from the foul line than our opponents attempt.

7- Be a great rebounding team. More baskets in girls basketball are scored on offensive rebounds than any other way. Last season we did not get our share.

8- Never ever be out hustled.

9- Always being prepared.

Thought: Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. John Wooden, UCLA Coach 11 national championships.

Coach May

Individual Summer Practice

2010-06-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

Hi Girls,

I have the stats on turnovers but I cannot find them. When I do I will post them. One thing to remember is the players that handle the ball alot have alot more opportunities to make turnovers. Players that only have the ball in their hands for a few seconds at a time should not have a high turnover percentage.

At UNC they calculate turnovers based on minutes played. So many turnovers per minute. I guess I could do this but it would be somewhat of a guess since we do not track that stat.

If any of you girls would like for me to email you the list of things you should work on for next season and for your future basketball developmentto work on over the summer you can email me at bmayunc@earthlink.net and I will email it back to you. This way it stays between you and me. If you want to talk about it that is fine but due to the nature of working on areas to improve I think it is better to handle it like this rather than publish it on this blog.

BTW, I do not think it will be anything on this worklist that will surprise anyone and it is certainly not intended to hurt anyone's feelings. Everyone should try to enhance what we do good and improve the weak areas to become a more complete player or as the case maybe to match our skills to the position we are best suited for.

Rabbit is planning to put in our pressure defense or maybe some form of our pressure defense for next years Varsity. It will be fun watching the girls I have sent to the Varsity play the style they were good at during JV.

Thought: Failing to prepare is Preparing to Fail. John Wooden 10 National Championships UCLA.

Coach May

Blocked Shots & Deflected Passes 2010

2010-02-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Here are the stats for this past season on Blocked Shots and Deflected or tipped passes. I thought it was interesting that every player at basically every position seemed to be pretty good at blocking shots. This was another area that the team excelled.

Blocked Shots:

Lindsey: 17

Jamie: 17

Emily: 15

Lindy: 15

Jesse: 9 (This includes the likely game saving block on the last play @ St. Davids)

Caroline: 4

Renee: 4

Mer: 3

Jordan: 1

Casey: 1

Alex: 1

Team Total: 83 Signs of a remarkable agressive defensive attitude. Great Work! Almost 4 per game on average as a team.

Deflected Passes:

Jesse: 12

Lindsey: 10

Caroline: 7

Jamie: 6

Lindy: 5

Mer: 5

Alex: 3

Emily: 3

Casey: 2

Jordan: 1

Team Total: 54 As you realize we deflected lots of other passes but if we pick it up it is a steal.
Only those that we tip and do not gain control of make it on this list.

Final Thoughts: You have been a wonderful group at creating defensive pressure. Every time we block a shot or tip a pass or force a turnover it demoralizes the other team. I could see it on the face's of most of the teams we played. They looked like they reached a point they wanted to be somewhere else.

We had very good athleticism and speed on this years team. Next year for us to be as good at pressure defense some players that were really good this year will have to be even better and some girls earning the minutes of the departing 10th graders will have step up their games and their conditioning big time for us to be as good. It is hard work to play tough in your face deny defense for 18 to 22 minutes per game.

Never forget that great defense wins championships. Playing great defense has a lot to do with skill, effort and hustle but it also has a lot to do with attitude. If you do not have the attitude that is required to keep playing hard all the time and stay focused you will not be a great defensive player.

Thought: Your attitude determines you altitude. Dean Smith, UNC. In other words you attitude bottom line determines how high you go and how good you will be. A poor attitude on defense is always easy to spot out on the court. They are the one's not playing hard.

Next up: Turnovers and Final thoughts about this past season and maybe some thoughts about next season. It might be a little while before I post these year end thoughts. Thanks to all of you girls and your parents for all your efforts in making this year a great season. Ladies, never forget to tell your parents how much you love them and appreciate all their efforts on your behalf. We don't go very far without them.

The Athletic Banquet is scheduled as of now for May 21, 2010. If I do not see you before then I will see you there. I plan to come and watch one of your softball games and soccer games this spring. Don't forget to Work hard in school the remainder of this year, it pays off.

Stay Sweet, Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together plus work on your games when you have some time.

Coach May

2010 Season Assist Totals

2010-02-25T07:04:00.000-08:00

Hi Girl,

An Assist is defined as a pass that leads directly to a basket. There are lots of great passes that the shot is missed or the receiver of the pass is fouled while shooting and scores points on the foul line. These don't count as assists. In the UNC system if the pass leads to a foul shot the team stats reflect it as an assist. However the official scorers at college and pro games do not recognize it. In a perfect world and if we had tapes of every game we could study we should possibly have a category for good passes that were not assists but could have led to the the next pass and the basket. Maybe one day we will have that capability at our school.

Assist Stats:

Lindsey: 49

Jamie: 39

Jesse: 22

Lindy: 16

Emily: 14

Mer: 6

Caroline: 5

Jordan: 4

Caitlin: 3

Casey: 2

Alex: 2

Renee: 1

Megan: 1

Team Total: 164

Team Average: 7.1 per game.

Final thoughts: The PG should be your leader as far as assists go. The plays all run through them plus they have assist opportunities on all baseline inbounds plays. The wings have the second best opportunity for assists due to fastbreak opportunities and they have the best opportunity to feed the low post from the sidecourt.

I personally think our assist totals were a little low. I think over 10 per game would be more like what we should expect. Of course we do not want any player to pass up a lay up for another lay up but we do want our players to share the ball if another player has a better chance to score.

In general we did a pretty good job with assists but I know for a fact we could have done better. Too many times we made passes that were just not as good of a pass as it could have been. By the time the player reached and got control of the ball the scoring opportunity was no longer there. That is why we need every player on the court to be very good at passing the ball and seeing the court. It is a simple skill and doing it well becomes a habit.

In college 2 assist to every turnover is the minimal assist to turnover ratio you want from your PG. At our level I think 1 to 1 would be an exceptional ratio, but I also know if we shot better Lindsey would have had quite a few more assists than she did. Same for the other wings. On the other hand I know we have the talent to be even better.

Remember the saying For those that much is given much is expected in return. Well basically it means the Good Lord gave you the talent and ability to see the court and pass the ball better than most of the girls you play against maybe any you play against, so therefore it needs to be your focus to be the best you can be at doing it. Don't settle for being good enough, push to be real good, the best you can be. Set a high standard for yourself. It is simply as case of making a commitment to yourself that you want to be not only good but real good at passing the ball and this applies to every player that ever gets on the court.

These little commitments to yourself not only will make you a better player and your present team a better team it is the first step to making the future teams you will play on great teams.
I for one think you girls have the ability to make Viking Basketball really good if you will just want it bad enough. We will never however get there unless you girls at this level make the commitment to take your games to the next level. Every player needs to step up. Basically it is mostly mental discipline and expectations of yourself.

Thoughts of the Day:

Dreaming of reaching goals without putting in the necessary focus is just Dreaming, but dreaming of reaching goals with the required focus, effort and hard work is how dreams become a reality. Bob Rotella, famous Sports Phycologist

Great opportunities come to those that make the most out of small ones. Dean Smith, UNC.

Next up: Blocks and Deflected passes for 2010.

Coach May

2010 Steals

2010-02-23T20:28:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

I think the best thing we did as a basketball team was being able to pressure the other team creating the opportunity to steal the basketball and create easy shots for ourselves. The 24 defense is a great team defense and it took advantage of our overall team speed and quickness, especially the speed and quickness of our 3 perimeter players.

When we executed it correctly to me it was a thing of beauty. As we talked about sometimes it took awhile for the other team to meltdown but more often than not as we kept the pressure up the other teams would eventually lose their wills to win and basically give up. All I can say is I give you the players a giant congratulations on your ability to execute this defense. It took a tremendous amount of heart and energy to make it work as well as it did. It was definitely fun to play and fun to watch. Great job!

Stats:

Jamie: 90

Jesse: 82

Lindsey: 66

Lindy: 43

Emily: 29

Caroline: 17

Mer: 12

Casey: 10

Alex: 10

Caitlin: 6

Megan: 4

Jordan: 3

Renee: 1

Team Total: 373

Average Steals Per Game: 16.2

Final Thoughts: Pressure defense, our calling card. I have not looked it up but I am certain 373 steals for the season and 16.2 steals per game is a team record during my tenure. It probably is a conference record. With 16 steals leading to probably at least 6 or 10 baskets per game on lay ups it created over half of our offense came from our defense. If we had scored everytime we stole the ball we would have averaged 32 points per game just on steals. That is why being good at 24 Lockdown was so important to us. It was also important for us to be equally as good making lay ups and making good passes in the open court leading to making even more lay ups.

On Individual notes. I think Jamie with 90 steals has the individual record for steals in a season. Right behind her was Jesse with 82 steals and Lindsey with 66 steals. They formed an unbelieveable pressure combination and that is what made us so good. There was essentially no place to hide for the opponent, there was no weak link to attack.

Also Lindy did a great job of covering back and still contributing 43 steals from the 5 position. Very few times did we get beat after gambling allowing the other team to break us down for an easy lay up. Also, Emily did a nice job using her long arms and quickness making steals and covering her man creating a total lockdown for the opposing team. Plus we got good contributions from the bench. Great defense is always a tremendous Team Effort. If there is any single player not doing their job the defense will not work. You are only as good as your weakest link on any given possession.

On a single game note, Lindsey has the team record with 13 steals in one game. Jamie is second with 10 steals in one game and Jesse is in 3rd with 8 steals in one game. Good work girls.

Be Proud of Yourselves. We might go a long time before we see a team that is as good as this one was at playing pressure lockdown defense. That will be the challenge for next years team to see if it can be as effective as this years team playing defense and to find other area's of the game it can improve on to make the team even better.

Thoughts to have a better team by:

There is no glory in defense, just Championships. Morgan Wooten, All Time winningest High School Coach.

Don't play defense the way you like to be guarded, play defense the way you hate to have someone guard you. Bobby Knight, All time winningest college coach

Teams with skill make good teams but teams that play with skill and heart make great teams.
Dean Smith, Hall of Fame UNC Coach

Next up Assists.

Coach May

Final Stats Rebounding Defensive/Offensive

2010-02-23T04:34:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

These are our rebounding totals.

Stats:

Lindy- 142 (92/50)

Jamie- 89 (56/33)

Emily- 68 (47/21)

Mer- 59 ( 41/18)

Jesse 56 (35/21)

Caroline 50 (38/12)

Lindsey 36 (28/8)

Alex 23 (16/7)

Casey 5 (3/2)

Caitlin 4 (3/1)

Renee 3 (3/0)

Jordan 2 (2/1)

Final Thoughts: A team that can dominate the boards has a huge advantage. Basically since we alternate possessions in basketball after made baskets and on jump balls the predominant way to give your team an advantage at winning the game is to get offensive rebounds and steals. The reverse side of this is we also need to get defensive rebounds which means we do not allow the other team to have many offensive rebounds/second chance points and we need to not turn the ball over (or let the other team steal the ball from us).

I always think about the fact that in girls basketball more points are scored on offensive rebounds than any other shot at least supposedly according to statistics. I really do not think we got our share of offensive rebound points. As a matter of fact, we got most of our points from steals, which is wonderful. However if we were equally as good at rebounding we would have been even better as a team and if we can mix in making a high percentage of foul shots better yet. Just look at the final stats in all categories and think about it. Also think about things you could do to move up the chart in each area.

Rebounding is a combination of good hands and size/reach and positioning but it is also at least equally determination, hustle and heart. Lindy was by far our leading rebounder and she is slender. She worked hard for the ball. She recognized that rebounding was her responsibility and she accepted the challenge.

Jamie our second leading rebounder is not that tall, but she has all the other skills and as we have all noticed, when the ball is somewhere close to her she thinks it should be hers. In my opinion nothing could be better than to have 5 girls on the court all the time that had that same attitude. Same thing for loose balls on the floor. You have got to want the ball and you have got to go after it. If you hesitate, the ball is gone. You need to think the ball is yours.

The one player on the court that gets a pass on rebounding for the most part is the PG who has back responsibility to not allow the other team to get run out lay ups and fastbreaks. When the PG drives to the basket the 2G takes that responsibility.

Practice putting the ball off the glass and grabbing the ball strong and going back up strong and scoring. Do it over and over. Also practice grabbing the ball at the top of your jump coming down strong bring the ball to to under your chin with two hands and pivot to get yourself away from the defender and make an imaginary two handed overhanded outlet pass. Sharpen you skills, Defense and Rebounding win championships.

Thought: Hustle, determination and focus make up for many disadvantages in a basketball game. John Wooden UCLA Winner of 11 National Championships.

Next up Steals!

Coach May

Free Throw Percentage's

2010-02-22T20:06:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

This is not a pretty picture:

Team FT%: 73/226 32.3% We actually shot the ball better from the field than we did at the foul line. They call them Free Throws for a reason. We let 156 points not including possible 1 and 1's slip thru our fingers. If we had made just 50% from the foul line we would have scored 40 more points than we scored. For certain enough to have allowed us to win all the close games we lost. Practice, Practice ,Practice. You cannot be good without good form and lots of practice.

Casey: 2/2 100%

Lindy: 21/40 52.5%

Jordan: 1/2 50%

Caroline: 5/13 38.5%

Jamie: 24/69 34.8%

Jesse: 5/17 29.4%

Mer: 5/17 29.4%

Emily: 6/29 20.7%

Alex: 1/5 20.0%

Lindsey: 3/20 15.0%

Renee: 0/2 0%

Final thoughts: The summer after my sixth grade I went to basketball camp at Campbell College. One of my dorm counselors was Pistol Pete Maravich, then a high school senior. We got to know each other a little since his room was across the hall. One day at the gym as the bus for the kids was loading up he challenged me to a foul shooting contest. With about 50 kids my age cheering I made my first 7 shots. Everyone said , wow you are going to beat Pete Maravich. Well Pete ran out of time before he missed and stomped me real bad. Want to guess how many he made in a row without a miss? 144. I kid you not.

Make it a game for yourself. Try to make 5 in a row, then shoot until you can make 10 in a row. Trust me, there are lots of guys that can make 20 straight and not even think about it.

Proper form, lots of repetitions = Perfect Practice.

50% is my minimum shooting percentage for foul shooting at this level and I personally think that might be too low. Think about how many more points per game you might have scored if you made 80% of your foul shots. How many more games would we have won? Work at it, make yourself good at it.

Thought: Kites don't rise against the wind. Learn to do it the right way, there are proper ways to do things, don't get caught up in I want to do it my way when your coach or your teacher tells you to do it another way. Thats trying to fly your kite against the wind, it just will not fly.

Next up: Rebounds, Defensive and Offensive.

Coach May

Final FG% Stats for the season.

2010-02-22T05:17:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

I have already posted the scoring stats for the past season here are the very important FG% stats. As you know the more points you score the harder it is for the other team to beat you.
Basketball is basically get good shots and make them and keep the other team from getting good shots by stealing the ball away from them and playing great defense.

FG%: Team; 257/764 33.6% The minimal for winning is 33.3%.

Lindy: 44/111 39.6% (Our post players should always shoot a good percentage)

Mer: 17/45 37.7%

Jesse: 52/139 37.4%

Lindsey 33/91 36.3 %

Jamie 59/172 34.3 %

Caroline 8/29 27.6%

Emily 17/63 26.9%

Casey 8/30 26.6%

Alex 13/53 24.5%

We used 20 shots attempted as a minimum base for getting an accurate number for FG%.

Renee 5/8

Caitlin 1/4

Megan 0/7

Jordan 0/12

Some thoughts:

It has been well established that 33.3% from the field was the minimum Winning FG% for play at our level. Ideally we would like to shoot at least in the 40's as a team. In order to do this we would need everyone to improve and the best shooters on the team to shoot 50% or better to balance up the worst.

Basically everyone needs to go up. The leading FG% players are normally those that play close to the goal. The more outside shots you shoot the harder it is to keep your FG% high. Example: In college 33.3% of three point shots is considered pretty good, while 50% is good for two points. Also the players that attract the most defensive attention(players the other teams want to stop) and are forced to try and make shots against good defensive teams like Cary and Parrott will shoot a lesser percent.

Everyone on this team needs to improve their shooting, If you are below 33.3% you need to focus on shooting shots that are more open or closer to the basket. Everyone on this team needs to focus on making lay ups and short shots around the goal. If we average as a team 35% or better we probably would have come in first place in the conference. If we made 40% of our shots we might not have lost to any private academy. As I said , every player needs to improve their shooting ability. As a team and as individual players we need to make shooting the ball better priority one.

Basically the way to improve your shot is to work on shooting the ball with proper form. This has been discussed at lenght during the season. Perfect Practice, 50 shots per day with the proper form this summer would help alot. College players usually do 300. Tyler Hansbrough shot 300 everyday before practice. Better shot selection, every shot is not a good shot. Learn to make Lay ups. If we had made all our lay ups we might have shot 40% this past season. It would have been close.

We invested about all the time we could out of our 70 min. of practice time to making lay ups and shooting the ball better. If you really want to improve you need to practice on your own. Practice the shots you normally get in the offense and foul shots. Good Luck!

I will post the other stats later.

PS- Remember Practice does not make perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect. If you are doing it incorrectly you are just grooving a bad habit.

Balance, Eyes, Elbow and Follow thru. BEEF. Good balance, eyes on front of the rim, shooting elbow under the ball and follow thru with a good wrist snap and full extension of the shooting hand. Watch the rotation of the ball if it does not spin backwards you most likely do not have good shooting form.

Most shooting errors occur due to not letting the supporting hand(left for everyone except Caitlin) drop off the ball before the shooting hand releases to the basket.

Right now is the time to take your shooting the ball to a higher level. It is the off season and you are all young enough to work on better form to come back as better players next season and the rest of your career.

Coach May

2009-2010 Scoring Averages.

2010-02-20T18:57:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

I have missed practice. To me practice was the most fun since it was a time for improvement. I am working on all our Stats. Scoring is the first one I have finished. If you averaged more than 1 point per game I posted your average. Less than 1 point per game I posted total points scored. I will follow with all the other stats once totaled. Including FG%, Rebounds etc.

Jamie 6.4

Lindy 4.7

Jesse 4.6

Lindsey 3.4

Emily 1.9

Alex 1.5

Mer 1.5

Caroline 21pts.
Casey 18 pts.
Renee 10 pts.
Caitlin 2 pts.
Jordan 1 pt.

The numbers were rounded off to tenths.

Team Scoring: 26.3 points per game Team Scoring against only Private Academy's: 26.4 ppg.

Opp Scoring: 22 ppg. Opp. Scoring, Private Academy's only: 19.8 ppg.

More to follow later so check back.

Coach May

Sad ending to a great season.

2010-02-18T18:15:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Winning is always so much more fun than losing. We just spotted CCS to much of a lead in the first half by only scoring 2 points in the entire half. We did a better job of stopping #25 by the hard work of Lindsey playing deny defense on her and we held her to 10 points instead of 18 like she got the last time we played her. #25 made about half or more of her points on offensive rebounds. One time she scored on an obvious no call over the back that should have been a foul on CCS.

Every team that has defeated CCS this year says they won by playing a zone defense and making them shoot from the outside. Tonight that strategy did not work very well as #2 had a most likely a career night with 11 points, mostly from long range shots in the corner. Sometimes you just have to take a chance against good teams.

All that said we just did not score often enough to have a good chance of winning. We only made one shot in the first half. We had several lay up chances and some good looks from the perimeter but we just could not score. Our shooting % was the lowest of the year.

In the second half Lindy did a nice job of screening out for Jamie who played a great second half, taking the ball into the gaps and scoring. We also did a nice job of rebounding in the second half. We just dug ourselves too big of a hole to come all the way back.

Stats:

1- Scoring: Jamie 10 pts, Lindy 2 pts, Emily 2 pts.

2- FG%: Team 6/31 19.3%; Emily 1/2**, Jamie 4/15, Lindy 1/4, Jesse 0/3, Caroline 0/2,
Mer 0/2, Lindsey 0/1. I do not think we could expect to beat anyone in our conference shooting 19.3%. Basically the minimum winning % against a good team is 33.3% and that is the minimum.

3- FT%: Team 2/7 28.6%; Jamie 2/4*, Jesse 0/3. Need 50% minimum.

4- Rebs: Team 20D/5off; Lindy 12 rebs**** 10D/2off, Caroline 5***- 5D/0 off, ,
Jesse 2-1d/1off, Jamie 2- 0/2off, Emily 1D, Lindsey 1D, Alex 1D, Mer 1D. We did a good job for the most part after the first few minutes.

5- Assists: Team 5; Jamie 2**, Lindy 2**, Lindsey 1*.

6- Steals: Team 10; Jamie 3***, Lindsey 3***, Jesse 2**, Lindy 2**. Not bad considering we did not press all out but about 1/2 the game.

7- Blocks/Deflections: 3B/4Def.; Lindsey 1B/1Def**, Lindy 1B/0d*, Emily 1B/0d*,
Jamie 1B/0d*, Caroline 1B/0d*, Jesse 0B/1D*.

8- Scoring by Qtrs: 0 to 6, 2 to 8, 8 to 8, 4 to 5.

9- Opp. Scoring: #2 Jamie Wertz 11 pts, #25 Anne Montgomery 10 pts, #12 Jena Ellis 4 pts.,
#5 Shelby Ballard 2 pts.

10- Turnovers: Team 9; Jesse 3, Lindsey 3, Casey 1, Caitlin 1, Lindy 1.

Final Thoughts: As you can see from the stats we lost the game by not shooting it very good. #25 really has been our problem, if we had been in 24 defense the whole game their guards most likely would not have scored much, the problem is #25 would have probably gotten her usual 18 instead of 10. They scored 32 against us at Halifax, 26 against us at CCS the first time and 27 against us this time. We just needed to score more points and unfortunately we have not shot the ball well in their gym.

I thought Jamie had a great game, especially the second half. It took great determination and skill to take it into the paint knowing she had to negotiate that big girl at the end. Lindy also had a great game with 12 rebounds and the savvy to go out and set those screens properly allowing Jamie to drive to the goal. Caroline also gave us a lift with her work battling on the glass getting 5 rebounds and playing hard on D.

Last but not least, Lindsey did a wonderful and brave job on #25 who was probably twice her size counting her reach. I was proud of the way she fought and also how she did not turn the ball over in the second half even against their press. She was also very unselfish and did not hunt her shot. They seemed to be concentrating on not allowing her to shoot from up top.

All in all it was a very good year. If we could count the 2 very likely wins taken away from us by not getting to host Ridgecroft and Fayetteville Christian both teams we beat by double digits on their home courts we would have won 16 games. Add in a couple of good plays at the end of some games and we might have gotten to 18 or 19 wins.

Looking back, not holding on to the win vs. CCS at home and losing to Parrott by 1 there was costly to us since it cost us being able to play at home the first two tournament games. I believe if we had won those two and were hosting St. Davids today at home we would be playing for the championship Saturday instead of feeling kind of empty about not getting there like I do now.

As I said in the locker room it was an honor to coach you this season. You played Hard and with effort, that is the best compliment you can have as a coach. I still think we are a great team and it was disappointing we never played our very best game like we do in practice most of the time.
But remember most of you are first year starters and young. It took a lot of heart to accomplish what you have accomplished. We have been the winningest team at Halifax Academy for the past two years.

We as a team improved a lot since the beginning of the season. We have the potential to be a great team in the future. But remember one thing, just like you have to improve every day in practice because the other teams are improving also, in the off season you have to improve your own skills because some of the girls we play against no doubt will be working of improving their skills. If you are not getting better you are getting worse, there is no standing still in sports.

I will post the final team and individual statistics later on after some time to work on it some. I will also post my email address for any of you that would like me to tell you what you need to focus on this summer to take your game to a higher level. It will include both what you do well and things you need to improve on, so if you are afraid it might hurt your feelings don't send me your email address. The skills evaluation is private between coach and player only, so I will Email it to you directly, if you want to share it with others that will be up to you.

I will miss practice Friday, I really thought we were going to go the distance.

Stay Sweet and always Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together.

Coach May

JV Girls Advance to Play CCS.

2010-02-16T17:18:00.000-08:00

*****CARY DEPARTURE TIME THURSDAY 2:30PM. GAME TIME 5:30PM.*****

Hi Girls,

Way to go! Our season gets to live another day, now if we can knock off CCS we can play for the Conference Championship. It is Survive and Advance. Fun isn't it? It will be even more fun when we beat Cary out on their home court. Be proud of what you have accomplished but let's not settle for anything less than what we are capable of accomplishing. Stay focused!!! Two more wins and we can grab ourselves a piece of H.A. Basketball History. Give it 100% effort and focus!

Stats:

1- Scoring: Jesse 14 pts., Lindsey 6 pts., Lindy 4 pts., Caroline 1 pt., Emily 1 pt.

2- FG%: Team 30.7%; Lindsey 3/3****, Jesse 7/13***, Lindy 2/6*, Jamie 0/9, Caroline 0/2,
Alex 0/2, Mer 0/1, Jordan 0/1, Megan 0/1

3- FT%: Team 25%; Caroline 1/2*, Emily 1/4, Jamie 0/2.

4- Rebs: 12D/17Off***; Lindy 9****=6D/3off, Jamie 5***=0/5off, Caroline 5***=1D/4Off,
Emily 3*=0/3off, Jesse 2*=2d/0 off, Jorday 1 off, Renee 1 D, Caitlin 1 off, Alex 1D, Lindsey 1D.

5- Assists: Team 9; Lindsey 4***, Jamie 3**, Caroline *, Caitlin 1*.

6- Steals: Team 20****: Jesse 5****, Jamie 4****, Caroline 3***, Lindsey 2**, Lindy 2**, Caitlin 2**, Mer 1*, Megan 1*

7- Blocks/Deflections: Jesse 1B/2Def**, Lindy 1B/2D**, Lindsey 1B, Mer 1 D, Caroline 1D,
Alex 1 D, Caitlin 1 D.

8- Turnovers: Team 10; Jamie 3, Jesse 2, Lindy 1, Lindsey 1, Caroline 1, Alex 1, Casey 1.

9- Opp. Scoring: #14 Chloe Thompson 5 pts, #21 Alex Jackson 2 pts, #24 Dunn 2 pts,
#40 Catherine Coats 2 pts, #23 Anne Claire Roberson 1 pt.

10- By Qtrs: 8 to 4, 4 to 1, 10 to 5, 4 to 2. Final Score 26 to 12****. Good Job Girls!

Final Thoughts: A great win, all wins at tournament time are great wins. We again show what having the ability to play great pressure defense can do for a team. If you play it hard and do it well and keep it up for long enough it breaks the other teams will to win. Its is our skill and our will to win against their will to win. I have not seen anyone that can create offense from their defense like we do and I have not seen anyone that can break the other teams will to win better than we do when our pressure defense is working good.

I am proud of that fact and I am proud of my team. It is a wonderful Defensive scheme but it takes great heart, determination, focus, effort and talent to make it work. It also takes all 5 players playing their hearts out every possession. It is you the girls on this team that make us a great defensive team. Coaching and scheme by itself would not get us far. You are a joy to watch.

Even the coach from RMA says you are one of the best teams he can think of ever playing against at playing great pressure defense. This is coming from a man that went 3 years at St. Davids and did not lose a conference game.

We win as a team and we lose as a team. but I want to point some things of interest on the individual side from the RMA game. I thought Jesse had her best game and it came at a great time, she played great defense as usual, she also played great offensively. I also thought Lindy with 9 rebounds was huge for us. Lindsey played a very solid floor game at the PG position and had 4 assists, 2 steals and made all three shots she took. Jamie had an unusual day for her as her shots were just not falling but she played great defense and made 4 steals, 3 assists and hustled and got 5 offensive rebounds. Remember the Thought for the Day that says "do not let something you cannot do keep you from doing the things you can do to help your team win."

I also thought Caroline did a nice job playing extra min's with Emily feeling bad and I thought Caitlin did a nice job hustling to make 2 steals,1 assist and 1 offensive rebound, making a difference in the game.

Grades: Play Hard A+, Play Smart A-, Play Together A. Good Work!

Bland

Tournament Game and Time Set.

2010-02-13T09:36:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

We are set to play Rocky Mount Academy JV Girls on Tuesday with a 4:15pm Tip Time. In this tournament format we are the home team wearing white. If we lose we are out of the tournament and our season is over. If we win, we will travel to Cary Christian on Thursday to play for the right to travel to St. Davids new gym and play for the Championship against probably Parrott or St. Davids next Saturday at 12:00 noon.

We need to take care of business. We have a real shot at winning this championship and giving this team the recognition it deserves. I still say when we play good we are the best team in this conference and one of the best 2A teams in this state, maybe the best.

Dedicate yourself for these next 7 days to reach the goal of being the Tournament Champions.
Give Basketball your total focus. Don't be looking ahead to spring and spring sports. We worked hard to get to this point, lets give this basketball team the focus for a strong finish it deserves.

We also need to make sure we are focused for RMA, remember Respect all opponents but fear none. This is Survive and Advance. I need you to be at practice Sunday 4:00 to 5:30pm. We need extra time to work on our shots and to work on this new defense we will use vs. Cary if we advance. Plus we need to talk about RMA.

No team I have ever coached has advanced in the Tournament. The first year we were 2 ft from the goal for a wide open lay up by our best player at RMA trailing by one and she got tackled from behind with no call. Last season we played St. Davids their closest game of the year but still lost by 12 or so. St. Davids did not lose to anyone my first two years. So this is our chance, lets make sure we are prepared to play our best.

The Varsity Girls got a bad draw and will have to travel to Parrott to play on Wednesday. I hate they could not have played at home. Just luck of the draw since there were 4 teams tied. 2 teams got to play at home and host and 2 teams had to travel.

Bland

No Luck vs. APA - Picture Day Tomorrow @ 4:15

2010-02-11T17:49:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Before I forget it, thank you for my cards, they were very thoughtful and I really appreciate them. Also a thank you to the parents for the nice party after the game. I wish it could have been a Victory Party but we just started off a little to slow, spotting them 8 points before we scored. After the first quarter, even with all the intentional fouls at the end we won 21 to 17 over the last 3 quarters. Unfortunately when you add in those 8 points from the 1st. quarter the final score is 21 to 25.

We did take the lead in the fourth quarter by one point and we made a steal and had the ball. I was just getting ready to call spread but an APA player stole the ball at midcourt before we could make it up court and they scored and we never led again. If we could have made it up the court and gone to the spread series I think we probably would have won, at least the odds would have been in our favor, plus we could have protected our starters with 4 fouls.

Stats:

1- Scoring: Jamie 10 pts, Jesse 6 pts, Emily 4 pts, Mer 1 pt.

2- FG%: Team 7/29 =24.1%; Jamie 4/7***(1/1 3pts) , Jesse 3/8*, Emily 0/1, Mer 0/1, Lindy 0/3, Lindsey 0/3, Alex 0/5(0/2 3pts) They played good defense but we need to shoot better, those easy misses early in the game would have help alot if we had made them. We probably would have won.

3- FT%: 4/11 36.4%; Emily 2/2****, Mer 1/2*, Jamie 1/7.

4- Rebs: Lindy 6***-5D/1off, Alex 5**-2D/3off, Jamie 4**-2D/2off, Jesse 3*-0D/3off,
Mer 3*-2D/1off, Caroline 2*-2D/0off, Emily 2*- 1D/1off, Lindsey 1D.

5- Assists: Team 6; Lindsey 3**, Emily 2**, Jamie 1*.

6- Steals: Team 15**; Jesse 4**, Lindsey 4**, Jamie 3**, Emily 2*, Lindy 1*, Caroline 1*.

7- Blocks/Deflections: Emily 3***/1*, Lindy 0/3**, Jamie 1*/2*, Jesse 0/2*, Lindsey 1*/1*,
Mer 0/1*, Alex 0/1*, Casey 0/1*.

8- Turnovers: Team 10; Jamie 3, Lindsey 3, Jamie 1, Caroline 1, Casey 1, Alex 1.

9- Opponents Scoring: #3 6 pts, #4 6 pts, #23 4pts, #20 4 pts, #2 3 pts, #21 2 pts.

10- Opponent FT%: Team 5/18 27.7%; #3 Mauck 2/7, #4 King 2/4, #2 Ruffalo 1/4, #11 Huddle 0/2, #21 Arthur 0/1.

11- Scoring By Quarters: 0 to 8, 4 to 3, 12 to 6, 5 to 8.

12- Fouls: H.A. 19, APA 10. We have to learn to play tough but not to foul so much. If we can make the other team work hard by staying in front of them and everyone close to their man, some of the time they will throw it away on their own.

Final Thoughts: We need to learn to value the ball more than we do. We can still play fast, take the ball to the basket or make the pass to a breaking player when it is open, but when it is not there we need to keep our dribble alive and bring it back out and look for a better opportunity to score.

Basically in a closely matched game like this one who ever gets the most good shots at the basket will usually win. That is why steals for fastbreak baskets, offensive rebounds for easy buckets, and good shots out of our set offense against their set defense add up to big advantages. Plus making free throws.

I still think we are a great team, it is an honor to coach you, you play so hard for me and your teammates. You have tremendous Heart and will to win and if you could pick one trait it would be that. Keep your spirits high, we finished 3rd in the conference and all those other teams are very serious about winning at basketball at every level. If you don't think so just look at their gyms and what they pay their coaches.

There is no such a thing as an easy day in this league. We have a very good shot at winning the conference tournament if we play close to our potential. APA has only lost 1 game and we let them slip by twice. Cary if we can stop that one girl is very beatable. We will start to work on that Sunday afternoon at 4:00pm to 5:30pm. We will practice Monday 1:00pm to 3:00pm. Varsity has picture day at 3:00pm.

Our picture day is Friday(tomorrow) at 4:15. Bring you uniforms and shoes. If there is time we will shoot some and have a walk thru until the JV Boys take the court.

Interesting Note: Parrott is the largest school in 2A sports with 690 students. We have 440 or so. A couple more students and they would have to move to 3A, about 10 or 15 less and we would be 1A.

Grades: Play Hard 100%, Play Smart 90%, Play Together 100%.. Good showing!

Bland

Dissappointing day in Cary

2010-02-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Things did not add up for this to be a real good day for us today @ Cary Christian. If you wonder why, think about it. We basically have not had a practice as a team since maybe last Thursday.(maybe my fault and I should have practiced Sunday night during the Super Bowl, but one I did not want to make you miss the game and two the beta club girls I thought might need to rest since they were going to have a long day Monday and Tuesday). The Jr. Beta club trip took half our team for the practice the day before this game(I said before that The Jr. Beta Girls deserved to go and I still think that, I just wish that date could be moved back two weeks after basketball is over or at least before a easy game or a non conference game). We were late getting to the game because of car trouble( I hope there is not much wrong with Nancy's Van). Once we got there we had limited time to warm up because they had a middle school game going on and it ran late(We didn't even have a locker room to go use until I complained). Then to top off the day we lucked up and got two more basically worthless officials that may as well have worn a CCS Jersey. Then about the fourth quarter when we had worked our way back into position to maybe win the game late Lindsey was called for her 5th foul that she did not make. Basically all this doesn't add up to a good day.

All that said the lesson here is sometimes we have to make your own luck. We only lost by 9 pts, and if we don't foul trying to catch up at the end we only lose by 4 or 5. We just were not very sharp, something you will see when you see the shooting stats. Plus #25 lit us up for 16 points. We just have not done a very good job on her either time we played against them. BTW, if you didn't know it the reason we did not play against her last year is she has been on the Varsity and was moved back down for her 10 grade year to work on her game. (Coach spin for it was our best way to have a winner JV Girls Team, or we were so good on the Varsity we did not need her there)

Stats:

Scoring: Lindy 7 pts, Jamie 4 pts, Jesse 4 pts, Lindsey 2.

FG %: Team 5/26 19.2%; Lindsey 1/3*, Lindy 2/6*, Jesse 2/6*, Mer 0/1, Caroline 0/1, Emily 0/2, Alex 0/2, Jamie 0/5. Hard to win shooting this bad. 33.3% is sort of the minimum.

FT %: Team 7/19 36.7%; Lindy 3/8, Jamie 4/10, Emily 0/1. Hard to win and not shoot 50% or at least close to that from the line.

Rebs: Team 19D/12 off; Lindy 7-5/2, Emily 7-4/3, Jamie 5, 2/3, Alex 4- 2/2 ,Jesse 3D, Mer 3-2/1, Caroline 3-2/1, Lindsey 1D. Offensive rebounds does show we were hustling.

Assists: Team 3; Lindsey 2, Jamie 1. This number is way to low. We should get this many on inbounds plays.

Steals: Team 12; Jesse 4**, Jamie 3**, Lindsey 2*, Caroline 2*, Lindy 1. Not a bad total but we got called for 19 personal fouls getting them.

Blocks/Deflections: Jamie 0/3D, Lindsey 1B, Emily 1B, Lindsey 1D. The Blocks were good, the number of deflections means we did not do as good as we need to in playing the passing lanes aggressively. Remember for pressure defense to work real good it is force a dribble pick up and play the passing lanes in deny. Make the other girl make a difficult pass over everyone's head with a defensive player all in her face. I think we sometimes forget what gives us our best chance to win. We will work on it Wednesday in practice in prep for APA.

Turnovers: Team 12; Jesse 4, Jamie 3, Lindsey 2, Caroline 2, Lindy 1.

Final Thoughts: I still think we are the best team in this league, we did not play like the best team today but as you can tell from the opening statement things were not going exactly our way. We still have a shot at being the 2nd place team and earning a bye in the conference tournament. Basically we need to beat APA. Next week the tournament starts and I think we have a very good chance to win the championship if we play good and have a fairly officiated game. BTW, the same sorry officials called the JV Boys game and Drew told me after the game if I was going to pursue sanctions against the two officials(called both games) he would like to file a complaint also.

Basically we have to win either 3 games or 4 games to be the conference champions depending on how we do vs APA. I know we can do it if we play like we can. Its there for the taking, lets get ready.

Grades: Play Hard 100%, Play Smart(Execution & Thinking) 80%, Playing Together 70%.

Number 3 on this list we need to talk about at practice. I do not think it is a big deal but I will just say that it cannot happen and still play winning basketball and it needs to not happen again. I am the only one I want to hear being critical of our play on the court period, thats the coaches job not a teammates job. With teammates if it is not something positive or instructive/helpful it needs to be left alone. You can always talk to me with your thoughts and if I think it needs to be talked about I will do it. Coaching is the coach's job and if you are being critical of your teammates play you are getting into coaching plus you are probably hurting your teams chances and your teammates feelings. We just don't need it.

*Basically I think this issue is no longer an issue for this team since our last practice.

Coach May

H.A. 27 - RMA 5

2010-02-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

A workman like effort. Sometimes when the offense isn't at its best you can still dominate the game with defense. That's our teams calling card. We can always turn up the heat and create offense from our defense. Dean Smith said once that if he coached at the High School level he would devote most of his time teaching defensive pressure. Of course it is partly a great design and we do run Dean's defensive pressure packages, but it is also lots of hustle, determination, focus and heart and you girls have a bunch of it. Without the hustle and heart all the great defensive plans in the world would not be worth the paper they were written on. This teams heart and determination makes me personally so proud to be your coach.

Stats:

1- Scoring: Jamie 14 pts, Renee 6 pts, Jesse 2 pts, Mer 2 pts, Casey 2 pts, Lindy 1 pt.

2- FG%: Team 40%**; Renee 3/3****, Mer 1/1**** Jamie 6/9***, Casey 1/4, Jesse 1/4,
Caroline 0/1, Lindsey 0/2 ,Emily 0/3, Alex 0/4.

3- FT%: Team 50%*; Jamie 2/2****, Lindy 1/4.

4- Rebs: Team 16/4; Caroline 4D/0 off**, Jesse 3D/0 off*, Lindy 3D/o off*, Jamie 1D/2 off*,
Caitlin 2D/0 off*, Mer 1D/1 off*, Emily 1D/1 off*, Alex 1D.

5- Assists: Team 9; Jordan 3****, Lindsey 2*, Jamie 1, Lindy 1, Emily 1, Caroline 1. Special Congratulations to Jordan for making 3 assists in about 3 mins. of playing time and leading the team in assists for the game. 3 perfect passes. Great Work!

6- Steals: Team 14; Jamie 6****, Jesse 3**, Caroline 1, Mer 1, Lindy 1, Emily 1, Lindsey 1.

7- Blocked Shots: Team 3; Lindy 1*, Lindsey 1*, Jesse 1*.

8- Deflected Passes: Lindsey 3**, Mer 2* , Jesse 1*, Emily 1*.

9- Turnovers: Team 12; Casey 3, Jamie 3, Jesse 3,Lindsey 2, Jorday 1. Everyone else 0.

Opponent scoring: #40 Coats 2pts., #14 Chloe Thompson 2 pts., #32 Sigmon 1 pt.

Final Thoughts: We got a great defensive game out of Jamie and Jesse with 9 steals. Jamie with 6 totally dominate her girl. I am sure Jamie and Jesse will be the first to tell you that unless you other teammates lockdown your girl so she is not open they probably don't get those steals.

As in most cases in life great individual performances always have great support from lots of people in the background helping to make it happen. Probably like your Moms and Dads getting up on a Saturday morning early in the snow and taking you to play this game. I say you all owe them a great big hug. Now I probably owe them one also since I am the Coach of this team but I imagine they would rather have two from you. One for me and one for you. Thanks Parents.

I will post a new post on practice Monday when I know what it is exactly. I have a call into Coach Herman now. I do know we will practice. If we can win 2 more games CCS and APA,
I think we will share for the conference title.

I am not sure we remembered to say the Lords Prayer at the end of the game. I know we did before the game. If I forgot you girls say it on your own. I did on the ride home just in case. We can never be too thankful for our many blessings.

6 and 2 in the conference and 13 and 6 overall. If we get to count the two games canceled as forfeits we would be 15 and 6. Great Work!

Bland

H.A. 35 - St. Davids 29

2010-02-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

NOTE: I will get the official word on playing Saturday at 9:00am in the morning at 6:30 am. I will call Nancy and Seglenda as soon as I hear. Everyone phone a friend, make sure Caitlin and Renee get a call. If we do not play we will make it up next Saturday at 12:00 and the rest of the teams will play this Monday at 3:15 or so. I will also post it on this blog page at 6:30am or so. Be prepared to play, I have my doubts that we will have anything but rain and Rocky Mount is predicted to have rain only. Get some rest and get something to eat

Hi Girls,

A really great effort tonight. St. Davids gave us their very best shot and we answered the bell and won. You girls are a wonderful team when we are playing hard and playing well. St. Davids came in with a new wrinkle on defense running kind of an extended match up zone that tried to force us to make long passes or get trapped at the half court line.

I was really glad we gave the extra work to the Spread series and the high picks. Without it we would have really had a difficult time. I was really proud of how you girls were able to improvise some nice backscreens and pick and rolls on the fly. That shows me you are learning to play team basketball. Lindsey did a great job of running the team on the court( a pg's job) and you girls did a great job of making it all work(teammates job). It was truly a Team effort on offense and defense and we do not win without it.

It was a great effort by the perimeter players especially Lindsey who shouldered most of of the primary ball handling. Jamie and Jesse did a great job helping her when she was trapped or in trouble and she got some good solid screens from Jamie and the high post girls who had to take some hard hits to set the screens.

Stats:

Scoring: Lindsey 9 pts., Lindy 6 pts., Jesse 6 pts., Emily 4 pts., Caroline 4 pts., Jamie 2 pts.,
Alex 2 pts., Mer 2 pts. Team; 35 pts.

FG%: Team 46.2% ***; Jesse 2/2****, Alex 1/1****, Lindsey 4/7**, Emily 2/4**,
Caroline 1/3*, Mer 1/4, Lindy 1/5.

FT%: Team (11/21) 52.4%**; Lindy 4/4****, Jamie 2/2****, Jesse 2/4*, Caroline 2/4*,
Lindsey 1/5, Emily 0/2.

Rebs: Team 29***(22 D/7 Off.); Jamie 7***(6D/1Off.), Mer 5**(3D/2Off), Lindy 4D**,
Emily 4**(3D/1off), Lindsey 4**(3D/1off), Caroline 3**(2D/1off), Jesse 2*(1D/1Off), Casey 1D*.

Steals: Team 10; Jesse 3*, Jamie 2*, Lindsey 2*, Emily 1, Caroline 1, Casey 1.

Assists: Team 5; Lindy 1, Emily 1, Jamie 1, Jesse 1, Lindsey 1.

Blocks and Deflected passes: Jamie 3B**/1Def, Jesse 1Def, Lindsey 1 Def, Mer 1 Def, Alex 1 Def.

Turnovers: Team 11; Lindy 0, Mer 0, Casey 0, Emily 1, Jamie 1, Caroline 1, Jesse 3, Lindsey 5.
Considering the tremendous pressure they put on the primary ball handlers I thought we did real well. Might like to have a few mishandles back but down the stretch when we focus on making the easy pass we were really good. It was a good effort.

Score by Qtrs: 10 to 6, 4 to 9, 7 to 7, 14 to 7. Final 35 to 29.

Opp. Scoring: #23 M Woods 8 pts, #15 C. Garrett 6 pts, #12 E. Nicholls 6 pts, #30,
H. Gillman 4 pts. , #14 J. Caro 3 pts., A. Buckingham 2 pts.

Final Thoughts: It was a great win. We are now 12 and 6 overall and 5 and 2 in the conference. Based on what the St. Davids Coach told me it appears we are tied for second with CCS who lost to Parrot and to St. Davids. KVA has only won one game and RMA has not won as of yet. We want to make sure they do not get started against us. St. Davids record if all this part fact part assumption is correct must be 3 and 4 with wins over KVA/RMA and CCS.

I still think if we can win out we will get a tie for 1st place. I do not beleive APA will go undefeated the second half of the season. As I said before they only have one real good player and usually a coach and team can shut one player down.

Grades: Play Hard 100%, Play Smart 97%, Play Together 100%.. Great Effort maybe the best of the year.

Thought: You can measure the speed of a Race Horse with a Stop Watch but it takes a Race to measure its Heart. Roy Wms., UNC.

Girls I think the greatest attribute of this team is the heart you play with. If you have Skill by itself , you can be a good team but if the team has Heart and Skill it can be a great team. You girls fall into this category. I am watching each of you girls get better by the day, keep it up, this is what winning basketball is all about and what we are doing is how you get there.

Bland

Vikings 35 - KVA 15

2010-02-04T20:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Great game! I think all in all it was our best performance of the year. We took away their inside passing game and contested every shot and pass. Basically we made them make plays. As I told you before the game it was our will against theirs, we wanted to make them work hard and have to make difficult plays with hands in their face. As the game went on we broke their will to win. Thats how you win games with your defense.

Making it seem difficult to dribble or pass the ball to get good shots and having to always struggle to get off a good shot over outstretched hand will break the spirit of a team that does not have a tremendous will to win or heart as I like to call it. That is basically what we did vs. KVA. Great pressure defense is our calling card, right now its the #1 area of the game that we can dominate our opponents.

We also did a very efficient job of running our offense's and were strong on the glass. We are continuing to develop our games in this area. Our outside shooting was very good and we got lots of support from our bench with 13 points plus some very good defense and rebounding.

Let's build on it!! If we can play at this level or higher the rest of the year it will take a monumental effort to beat us.

Stats:

1- Scoring: Lindsey 12pts, Mer 7, Jamie 4, Jesse 4, Casey 4, Emily 2, Alex 2. 35 pts.

2- FG%- Team 43.75%** Lindsey 3/3 3pts 1/1 (2pts)****, Jesse 1/1****, Mer 3/4***, Emily 1/2**, Alex 1/2**, Jamie 2/6*, Casey 2/6*, Caroline 0/1, Renee 0/1, Megan 0/3,
Lindy 0/4.

3- FT%- Team: 42.9%; Jesse 2/2****, Lindsey 1/2*, Jamie 0/1, Emily 0/2.

4- Rebs- Team 22**; Lindy 3D/3Off=6***, Jamie 4D/1off=5***, Mer 3D/1off=4**,
Caroline 3D/1off=4**, Emily 1D, Jesse 1D, Casey 1D.

5- Assists- Lindsey 2*, Jesse 1.

6- Steals- Emily 3**, Lindy 2*, Jamie 1, Lindsey 1, Caroline 1, Casey 1.

7- Blocks and Deflected Passes- Jamie 1B, Lindsey 1B, Emily 1D, Mer 1D, Caroline 1D.

8- Turnovers: Team 8*; Caroline 2, Lindsey 1, Jamie 1, Jesse 1, Mer 1, Lindy 1, Emily 1, Casey 0.

9- Scoring By Qtrs: 5-2/12-3/12-4/6-6

10- Opp. Scoring: #14 H. Abbott 4pts, #25 E.Crews 4 pts, #22 E. Wilson 3pts, #11 H. Powell 2 pts, #10 C. Ford 2 pts, #12 R. Ross 0**, #15 P. Wester 0**, #13 Freeman 0.

Final Thoughts: We did a great job defensively. We also executed our offense very well and shot a very high FG%. Our Record is now 11 and 6 overall and 4 and 2 in the conference. We have had 2 very likely wins taken away from us since we beat Ridgecroft and Fay. Christian on the road fairly easily and both return home games were canceled. Throw out the RRHS games and we could very well be undefeated with a little luck or a little better execution.

This is a very challenging stretch but we are playing well and I look foward to the Game Friday vs. St. Davids and Saturday @ RMA. Be proud of yourselves for your good play, your coach is, your parents are and your school is.

Grading: Play Hard=100% Play Smart=95% Play Together=100%

As I said before, it was our best game of the year. (So Far).

Thought: The Good Lord gave us eyes in front of our head to see what we need to accomplish not in the back of our heads to dwell on things we already accomplished. Roy Williams, UNC

We have to be able to move our focus foward to St. Davids on Friday and RMA on Saturday, lets not get caught resting on our laurels.

Bland

No school Wednesday, Voluntary Practice @ 12:00

2010-02-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Had fun at practice Tuesday. getting a chance to work with some of you individually I can see lots of progress in your games. A little extra time in the Gym could be the difference in some close wins.

We do not go to school Wednesday(edited to say we do not go to school as announced) I will hold another VOLUNTARY Practice 12:00 to 2:00pm. VOLUNTARY means you do not have to come if the roads are not good enough for your parents to travel on or FOR you to travel on.

Hwy 158 from my house to Wendy's is clear basically, from Wendy's to the Patrol station is clean, from the Patrol station to school there is one bad spot just before the power substation in the curve at Matthew Parrish's house. Coming from 903, Hwy 903 is clean, the worse road is Three Bridges Road coming in from 903. There are lots of bad spots on that road. I would suggest to plan to miss going that direction if possible. If not possible go very slow and do not be fooled by the dry pavement, there are icy spots that come up on you quick.

I feel it is very likely that we will go back to school on Thursday(my GUESS is a 2 hr delay) and we will travel to Kerr Vance to play KVA assuming they are back in school. I hope that some of you girls that can safely get to school for practice, will make an effort to get there, since those of you that have not come to voluntary practice any this week probably have not touched a basketball since last Friday.

We have 5 games starting Thursday in 8 days. If you play basketball this should be what you play for. We have worked on a couple of new wrinkles for KVA and RMA in practice that we could use.

I have checked around the internet and these are some of the things we know about the EPIC JV Girls Basketball Standings. We are 3 and 2, we have lost by 1 and 2 pts in the last seconds. Parrott has beaten us by 1 and has beaten St. Davids by 1 and Rocky Mount by 15 or so and they say they beat Cary Christian. We do not know what they have done vs. KVA. St. Davids has lost 2 that we know of, us and APA. Cary Christian has lost once that we know of. RMA has not won in the conference it appears. Their website says they have lost 4 games in the conference. If I had to guess I would say APA is most likely undefeated at 5 and 0, CCS could be 4 and 1 but this is possibly not accurate , HA is 3 and 2, St. Davids is maybe 2 and 3 and KVA is probably around 2 and 3 but all we know is they beat RMA and lost to us. RMA is 0 and 4 for sure and maybe 0-5. But all this is guess work based on our record and a few scores I could find off the internet sites.

I do not think APA will go undefeated the second half of the season. They simply rely too much on one girl #3 Madison Mauck, someone else will beat them and I think we will beat them. CCS could lose to anyone with maybe the exception of RMA, just not very likely although anything is possible, we need to go to Cary and win Tuesday. St Davids could have lost to CCS when they played already or of course they could have upset CCS.

Bottom line is if we win out we will most likely either be outright Champions or tie for the Regular Season Championship. We just have to control the things we can control and that is ourselves. It is time to play our very best basketball starting now.

Coach May

Things to know to be a Better Team.

2010-01-27T14:57:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

I know I have asked you to learn a lot of basketball. These are some of things we probably already know and have talked about in practice, but just in case you have not thought about them throughly please commit them to memory. Every possession is important. Every game has been a nailbiter. Little things add up to big wins in close games.

Things we should know and need to know to be a better Team.

1- Always hustle and play hard. By playing hard all the time and playing hard together at the same time it greatly increases our chances.

2- Always pay attention to exactly what the coach says. If I am hollering hands up it is for a reason. Maybe I can see the official is getting ready to call a reaching foul on you. Listen and think about what you hear!!!

3- Always be prepared to line up in the Press Offense and Sideout and Baseline Situations. By not lining up readily we give the other team an advantage we don't want them to have. Normally this is the PG's job to call for this but anyone of the floor can make the call, what does it cost. On the baseline and sideout plays line up quickly so you can get good position.

4- We have not been as good a rebounding team as we need to be. Work harder on the glass, box out, try to get inside position and learn to anticipate the shot. Rebounding is mostly desire, positioning and effort. Good hands also help.

5- Look down the court early before dribbling. A player sprinting in front of you is only going to be open for a split second. If you dribble twice then look up they will not be open any longer.

6- If a player is in the corner, any corner, trap her, hands up standing close and try to make her have to make a difficult lob pass to get the ball out of trouble. Try not to foul her. Hands up!!

7- See your man on defense and see the ball at the same time. If you see someone going for a lay up stepover and make them make a play with someone guarding them.

8- If you get beat talk, Holler for help, Maybe even "Lindy Help" Etc. Call players name.

9- Sprint the court and turn around quickly on fast breaks, try to beat the other team to the spot in front of the goal and turn to make a play. If you cannot catch up, try to tip the ball from behind off the dribble and play for the rebound. Don't Foul, its 50/50 if they are pressured and moving fast that they will miss the shot.

10- Always be ready to catch the ball. If you are open but your hands are down that split second might keep the passer from making the pass to you taking a potential easy shot away from us.

11- On defense make sure you take the sideline away. It is no need to leave the other team a path down the line(edge of the court). Step over, hold your ground and make her either crossover to her other hand or charge or dribble out of bounds. If contact is to occur you have to stand still. Force them to make a play. Directly under the basket try to seal off their path back out to the front of the goal. Away from the basket take the line away, expecially in the backcourt/midcourt areas. Again, force them to make a play, it is 50/50 that they can at full speed.

12- Understand the game and the situation. In late game situations get the ball to the players that are most likely to be successful in a key pressure situation. That said a lay up is a lay up, we always want a lay up. Never pass up a lay up for another lay up. If you have the lay up make it. If time is running out take your best shot, if there is time to pass to someone who might have a better chance to score try to make the pass.

13- Make the easy pass. Long low passes thru many hands are seldom lucky enough to not be stolen or tipped. Every pass is not going to be a home run pass. Sometimes to be a good team you have to make the pass that sets up the scoring pass.

14- Move the ball quickly with accurate passes. Watch the passing lanes, don't telegraph your passes, don't force passes that are not there. Have your hands ready to receive the ball and have a plan what to do with it(pass it back quickly, drive, shoot it, pass to another teammate)

15- Be quick but don't hurry. One of our thoughts for the day. Basically it means always be quick but don't try to get so fast you make a mistake like travel without dribbling or not catching the pass before taking off.

16- Play defense with your feet. Get in defensive position and square up on the girl. Take away the dribbling lanes and if possible force her to give her dribble up (Dribble Used) this will allow your teammates play the passing lanes hard until the opponents gets the ball to another player. If they do, play to force another dribble used and a possible steal again. Make them work to get anywhere with the ball. Every pass and every dribble should be contested. Teams that do not have a strong will to win will sometimes give in if its too hard to do for too long.

17- Do not reach across the body of a offensive player with your opposite hand when they are driving by you. It is an almost automatic foul call. Flick underhanded with your lead hand.

18- Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Give all the skill drills your full effort and concentration in practice. The little things make a difference. Work on your skills every time you practice and do them correctly every time you practice. Perfect Practice.

19- Play closer attention to detail. Know your job and the expectations of your teammates and
coaches. Learn to do it the way it is supposed to be done. Sometimes we have to improvise but for the most part if everyone knows what to expect it works out better. The little things.

20- Be strong and value the ball. Every time we turn the ball over it is 2 points we can't score and 2 points the other team has the opportunity to score. That is a 4 point swing possibility. It could win or lose lots of games as close and most of them we play are.

21- Execute it like we practice it. Don't re-invent the wheel. Have the mental discipline to do it a certain way. We practice it a certain way for a reason. One, everyone knows what to do. we always take a lay up or a short easy open shot but in general we need to play the way everyone is familiar with from practice. Winning teams don't surprise their teammates very often on the court.

22- We need to get more points out of our inbounds plays. Execute them very precise as a team. Make the play call and line up quickly so you can get good position. Right now this is a major difference between this team and the last two teams I had. Last year we averaged at least 6 points per game on inbounds plays. This year I doubt we are averaging 1 basket per game. Of course don't just throw it somewhere when we don't have reasonable chance to get the ball. Turnovers don't help either. Just execute better.

23- Get your hands up on shots close to the goal and make the opponents make the play over top of you. Don't swat down unless you are sure you can get your hand on the ball.

24- Fifty Fifty balls, we need to win the majority of them. If we cannot pick it up, tie it up. Especially try to tie it up under the other teams basket since a steal there would mean 2 points for them.

25- Defensive position, square up, force the dribble to their weak hand. If beaten off the dribble sprint in front of the player and then turn around and square back up. Make them make a play.
Jesse does a great job of this everyday in lay up chase in practice. Lets use it more in a game. Beat them to the spot and don't bail them out by fouling.

26- AVCSS.Com is a good website to go to for game improvement basketball skill drills according to Nancy.

27- Always pass the ball ahead when your teammate is open in front of you. Make a good catchable pass and follow the play in case they miss. If its is close and you can get to the goal easily take it in yourself.

28- If a team is trapping us at the half court line stop before you cross the line if you know you are going to be caught in a trap at the edge of the half court line and corner. Be aware of the 10 second count. You can dribble around to the middle or dribble back a little and create a passing lane. The easiest play is to stop short of the half court line and pass to someone usually the other backcourt player who is still behind you a little. We do have half court press offense play also.

29- Absolutely do not waste your dribble. A few of you have a habit of automatically dribbling the ball as soon as you catch it and then after one bounce picking the ball up to look for somewhere to pass it. Try to think catch and triple thread position then make your decision. I your teammate makes this error break to her immediately before she gets trapped. Conversely if our opponents do this get up on her tight and make it hard to pass and take away her receivers, it is the same thing as forcing a Dribble Used and playing the passing lanes, which is one of our defensive goals.

30- If you are being contested for the ball use your pivot to get your body between her and the ball. Be strong with the ball and try to rip thru the hands while pivoting.

31- Do not reach across the inbounds line, jump up and down and move your arms and try to make it hard to make the pass. If you hit the ball while it is in the other players hand on out of bounds situations it is a technical foul. You can also be called for a technical by reaching over the line even with no contact.

32- You cannot enter the lane on a foul shot until the ball has hit the rim or the backboard. This goes for the shooter and for the rebounders. Penalty is they disallow the shot, even if it goes in.

33- Once the foul shooter has the ball in her hands you cannot change positions on the foul line. Even if no one is in a spot it has to stay that way until they shoot if the shooter has been given the ball. Also you cannot call time out once the ball is handed to the shooter.

34- Shooting the Ball: BEEF Balance, Eyes, Elbow, Follow Thru. Good balance, Eyes on the front of the rim in the middle from where you are shooting. Some player look at one of the little grommet that hold the net, I usually just look at the front of the rim. Elbow in close directly under the ball. Shoot and Follow thru finishing in good balance with you arm extended and you wrist fully released. The shot should leave you hand as a one handed shot. The non shooting hand is just to balance the ball and should not influence the shot. The shot itself is a up and over motion with a wrist snap. You can tell if it is good form if the ball rotates with a perfect backspin vs. side to side and is on line. A good practice drill used at the UNC Basketball camps is to sit on the floor of your living room and hold the ball properly and shoot and release with a perfect rotation over and over. Then practice it on the court. I would say 50 shots per day or so. Practice does not make Perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect.

35- Lay ups; Focus on the spot on the backboard that you need for the ball to hit to make the shot. Then relax and shoot it. I still think we are guilty of trying to see if the ball is going to go in too much of the time. We need to dedicate ourselves to focusing on making lay ups. If we had not missed any lay ups this year I know for a fact we would be undefeated in the Conference.
Also, it you are going fast, faster than you can control on the drive for the lay up slow down to a makeable speed at the last couple of steps. However, don't slow so much that it is awkward feeling to make the lay up, find the right pace. If you have gotten that far and are actually in the shooting motion it would have to be a great block to get to the ball, and it will usually be a foul. Be strong and be focused on making your lay ups and put backs.

36- We need to remember when trapped and unable to pass the ball to either use our dribble or to pivot our body away from the pressure and move the ball away from the reaching hands. These two manuevers are especially useful when trying to make the outlet pass after a defensive rebound.

37- Never be lackadasical with a soft floating pass under the opposing teams goal after getting a rebound. If they intercept it under the goal it is an easy two points for the other team. Lots of teams play this pass lane looking to pick up easy points by waiting for a player to make this mistake. Be aware of it and look and think before making a risky pass.

38- After a made basket we can run the baseline end to end as long as we get the ball inbounds and touched by a player within 5 seconds. We then have 10 seconds to get the ball past half court.

39- On any inbounds situation except a scored basket, FG or FT it is a spot throw in. This means we cannot move our pivot foot after the referee hands us the ball. If we do it is traveling just like traveling on the court. A good official will say its a spot throw in, but not all officials are good officials so know the rule.

40- If we step on the line or in the court across the line before the basketball is contacted on the court by a player it is a violation giving the ball to the other team.

41- In general always make a bounce pass when passing thru traffic under our goal to someone cutting to the basket. One it is much easier to catch and two it is much more difficult for the defense to get their hands on the ball.

42- On inbounds plays, always make the pass with 2 hands. This is because if a player steps in front of the pass receiver you can pull the ball back without making a turnover. Now the one exception to this would be if you were making a baseball pass to a receiver a long way down the court. Again be sure you do not step over the line and you have 5 seconds for the ball to be touched.

43- On a baseball pass down the court try to make sure the target player can catch it in the air if it is a shorter throw, or if it is a long throw that the receiver can chase and catch on the bounce and take it to the goal the throw needs to be down the middle of the court since at any angle it could go out of bounds before Jamie or whoever else might be the chaser could catch up to it. Also by being down the middle it is a straight line after the catch to the goal for a lay up, the ultimate objective for use of this pass.

Revisit this spot later because as I think of other things I will continue to add to the end of the list.

Thought: Big opportunities come to those who make the most out of small ones. Roy Williams. UNC. Girls, these little lessons are small opportunities for you to get better, read them and learn them.

Coach May

H.A. @ Parrott

2010-01-26T20:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Without a doubt one of the most disappointing losses ever in my coaching career. Even having to play 5 against 7 (5 players and 2 referee's) I felt we had the better team and should have been able to separate ourselves from Parrott. Sometimes it just comes down to having to make a play. It could have been a steal, a rebound, a basket, not making a turnover, a hustle play or even simply not fouling them so much, whatever, sometimes as a team someone or several someone's have to step up and make a play and even though we tried hard we just did not get it done.

The sad thing about it is we should not have put ourselves in the position that they would have a chance to beat us at the end of the game. In the first quarter we scored ZERO points. In the second quarter we scored 4 points and in the 4th quarter we scored 2 points. I guess the best news of the night was Parrott also beat Cary Christian so we are probably tied with CCS for second place 2 games behind Parrott. Of course that is not much consolation for this game.

BTW, the official that took Emily's made foul shot away from us said he was sorry and that he probably made a bad call. I will explain it to you in practice. Of course its not like an apology does us any good after the game is over.

1- Scoring: Jamie 10, Lindy 6, Lindsey 2. Thats it.

2- FG%: Team; 36.4%* Lindy 3/4***, Jamie 4/8**, Lindsey 1/3*, Casey 0/1, Emily 0/1,
Jesse 0/2, Alex 0/3. 36% is usually good enough to win, this time it was not. I think the fact we did not rebound well and we did not turn them over more cost us the game as much as any one area.

3- FT%: Team; 28.6% 2/7 Jamie 2/2****, Lindy 0/2, Emily 0/3. (Parrott 5/25= 20%) If they had been a good foul shooting team we would have been out of it. If we had made ours chances we would have won. 50% is the MINIMUM winning percentage for our level of play.

4- Rebounds: Team 9D-1offensive ; Lindy 3D, Jamie 2, 1D-1offensive, Emily 2D, Jesse 2D,
Mer 1D. One of our pre-game goals was to be strong on the glass and go hard to the offensive glass. APA just did not look that big and physical to me. Rebounding is a lot like defense, its a little ability and a lot of hard work and want to. Only one offensive rebound is unacceptable.

5- Steals: Team 11; Lindsey 5 **, Jamie 2*, Lindy 2*, Jesse 2*. We have been averaging around 20. It takes everyone playing hard at the same time and moving your feet. Reaching is just a foul.

6- Assists: Team 2; Lindsey 1, Jesse 1. Not very good numbers for sharing the ball and passing the ball effectively. We should have more than this on just inbounds plays.

7- Blocks: Team 4; Emily 2**, Jamie 1*, Lindsey 1*. Not bad.

8- Turnovers: Team 15; Jesse 2, Emily 2, Lindsey 3, Jamie 3, Lindy 5. I cannot remember a time that our turnovers were higher than our steals and assists added together. We have been averaging under 10. We need to focus on not trying to do things that we are not that good at, big girls in general need to give the ball up in the open court unless they have a clear easy path to the basket.

9- Opponent scoring: #3 Madison Mauck 8 pts 3fgs/2of2 FTs, #10 Jana Warren 5 pts 2fgs/ 1 of 2 fts, #23 Emily Riley 2pts 1fg/0 of 2fts, #5 Logan Beyer 2pts 1fg, #21 Holden Arthur 1 pt 1 of 2 fts, #11 Campbell Huddle 1pt 1 of 4 fts, #2 Emily Ruffalo 0 pts 0 of 4 fts, #4 Kayla King 0 pts 0 of 4 fts, #20 Teigh Beth Bailey 0 pts, 0 of 1 fts.

10- Scoring by Quarters: HA first; 0 to 5, 4 to 4, 12 to 4, 2 to 6.

Final Thoughts: A savvy player or a savvy team basically means a team or player that understands how to play in order to win the game. Such as being smart and not fouling a good foul shooter, recognizing a weakness in an opponents game and taking advange of it, knowing where your teams best chances are late in the game etc, etc, etc. We need to develop team savvy.

Savvy players or winning players also understand that you need to focus on what the coach says to try and do. Such as needing to foul if we have not stolen the ball by 30 seconds to go as we called for in the huddle, and to have someone foul that would not foul out. We lost time and we lost our most savvy player the player that would have been the one I would have gone to for the last shot. Girls you need to learn to listen and to think about what is said. As a team we need to develop some savvy, cleverness, game winning thinking. With One real savvy play down the stretch tonight and we probably win the game. We have lost two heartbreakers in a row by not playing with enough savvy down the stretch. There is no magic bullet, we have to just try to go back and get better in every phase of the game and hope we can make the plays next time.
As I said before these other teams want win just as bad as we do. We just need to take care of business.

Roy Williams says about coaching the highest highs are not as high as the lowest lows are low. These last 3 games have been rock bottom on the low list.

Practice tomorrow at 3:15pm.

Grades: Playing Hard: 95%, I cannot say everyone played hard all the time but for the most part we played hard almost all the time. Wouldn't you like to know what that extra 5% would have done to the results of the game. I know I would.

Playing Smart: Execution; 90% Somethings we did better like sideouts and Press offense. Somethings we did not do too good like busting our butts to follow instructions at the end of the game, going hard to the offensive glass and avoiding fouling them.

Playing Together: 98% I thought we played very unselfish, we made a couple of errors that might could be considered selfishness but I just think it was trying to make a play that was not there.

Thought: Hustle, Determination and Focus make up for many disadvantages in Basketball.
John Wooden, Hall of Fame UCLA Coach and winner of 11 National Championships. Girls this is what we have to go back to. We need a strong finish and we need to take this saying to heart, especially the part about focus and determination.

Coach May

H.A. @ RRHS

2010-01-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls;

I am going to create this space on the blog for the RRHS stats. I will get back to putting in the numbers later. As you know the final score was 29 to 53 and we did not play with the energy or the execution I felt we should have had. It was disappointing but as I have continued to say it was not an important game to us. Myself I would have much rather had practice to get ready for the conference game vs. APA. It might have been worth a point or two.

I was told today that our game got a big write up in the Herald. Just so you girls will know, I have been sending in the story and stats of the majority of our JV wins. I have no idea if they are ever printed since I do not subscribe to the Daily Herald. I do not send in the losses(normally) but I would if some individual had a earth shaking game.

I just wish they would tell the whole story and say they pulled 3 girls off the Varsity because they were not sure their regular JV could beat us and they wanted to protect their undefeated season. I understand RRHS is off our basketball schedule for next season and the difference in their rules and our rules are a part of it.

Stats:

1- Scoring: Lindy 8 pts, Alex 7 pts, Jamie 6 pts, Jesse 4 pts, Casey 2 pts, Emily 2 pts.

2- FG%: Team 41.9%** Individuals: Alex 3/4***, Lindy 3/5***, Jamie 3/5***, Emily 1/2**,
Casey 1/3*, Renee o/1, Megan 0/1, Jordan 0/4.

3- FT%: Team 100%****; Lindy 2/2**** Thats all we had, they must not foul.

4- Reb's: Team 20; Lindy 4** (3d/1off), Emily 3*(2d/1off), Jesse 3* (2d/1off), Mer 3* (3d),
Caroline 3*(2d/1off), Alex 2D*, Renee 2D*, Jordan 1D*.

5- Steals: Team 19; Jamie 6***, Jesse 5***, Lindy 3**, Lindsey 2*, Alex 2*, Caroline 1*

6- Turnovers: Team 11; Lindsey 3, Jamie 2, Casey 2, Jesse 2, Mer 1, Alex 1.

7- Blocks: Team 10; Renee 2**, Lindsey 2**, Jamie 1*, Jesse 1*, Emily 1*, Caroline 1*.

8- Assists: Team 3; Lindy 1, Jamie 1, Casey 1.

9- RR Scoring: #4 V. Edmunds 17 pts, #22 K. Moss 8pts, #31 B. Whitlow 8 pts,
#21 N Wright 6 pts, #10 A. Potter 4pts, #32 K. Murray 4 pts, #14 S. Abernathy 4pts,
L. Simmons 2 pts.

10- Scoring by quarters: 2 to 13, 14 to 16, 8 to 12, 5 to 12.

Final Thoughts: I would have liked to have played RRHS without the 3 girls(Edmunds, Potter and Whitlow) that came down from the Varsity. I think it would have been a great game. Those three girls scored 29 of their points and certainly made them a much tougher team to score on. RRJV beat Kerr Vance by 2 points with their regular JV players and we beat Kerr Vance by 1 point. They are a good team and it would be interesting how they would finish in our conference as a private academy team where it is against the rules to move players back and forth from the Varsity down to the JV.

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.

Coach May

Heartbreaker vs Cary Christian

2010-01-22T17:18:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

We almost had maybe the greatest comeback ever in JV Girls Basketball. We fell just short on a lucky shot(throw) by Cary with about 1 second to play or so 32 to 30. It hurts but there are so many lessons we can take from it.

Number one, always remember, we win as a team and we lose as a team, no one play ever costs us a game by itself unless you played a perfect game the rest of the time. Every mistake in the game if we had not made it could have been the one that allowed us to win the game instead of losing the game. Those at the beginning of the game cost us just as much as those at the end.

We did not have to fall 16 points down (24 to 8) before we played the way we ended up playing down the stretch which was basically all world good. We just let Cary get too far ahead, even though we made a miraculous comeback to take the lead on some great team offensive play and defensive play. We basically outscored Cary 22 to 8 in the last 10 minutes of the game. We just need to take care of business each game and look at each possession as an opportunity to put ourselves in the position to not let a missed rebound and a lucky shot beat us.

Bottom line when we play with great intensity when we think we have to absolutely play our best like we did the last 9 or 10 minutes of the this game we play our best. We relax and become more focused and more energized. We did the same thing in the comeback vs. Village Christian that fell just short. We just need to take the lessons this game taught us to heart and learn from them.

1- Scoring: Lindy 10, Jesse 8, Jamie 4, Casey 4, Alex 2, Lindsey 2.

2- FG% Team: 41.4%** Individuals: Lindy 3/4***, Jesse 4/8**, Alex 1/2**, Casey 1/2**,
Jamie 2/6*, Lindsey 1/3*, Emily 0/4. 33.3% is the minimal winning percentage. Great Work!

3- FT% Team: 60%* 50% is the minimal winning percentage. Good Work!

4- FT's Individuals: Casey 2/2****, Lindy 4/5***, Mer 0/2, Jesse 0/1.

5- Rebounds: Lindy 3D, 3Off=6*, Jamie 3D, 3Off=6*, Jesse 3D-2Off=5*, Lindsey 2D-2Off= 4*,
Emily 1D-1Off=2, Caroline 2D=2, Alex 1Off=1 Team Total: 26

6- Steals: Jesse 6***, Jamie 5**, Lindsey 4**, Lindy 4**, Emily 2*, Mer 1, Caroline 1.
Team Steals 23*** That's what pressure defense is all about!! Great Work!!!

7- Assists: Jamie 1, Lindsey 3, Caroline 1, Emily 2. Team 7. Seems low. Wish I had a tape.

8- Blocks: ( Unreal , I had no idea we had so many) Jesse 5*****, Lindsey 3***, Lindy 2**, Emily 2 **, Jamie 2 **, Caroline 2**, Mer 1*. 17 team blocks a new team record!'

9- Turnovers: Team 10(not terrible); Jesse 5, Lindsey 2**(good for a PG who handles the ball that much 3 assists to 2 to's is pretty good), Mer 1, Lindy 1, Emily 1, Jamie 0**(real good for as much as she handles the ball)

10- Cary Christian Scoring: #25 Anne Montgomery 18 points (8 FG's and 2 of 8 FT's),
#12 Jenna Ellis 6pts (all FG's), #14 Cary Robinson 5 pts (2 FG's 1 FT)
#2 Jamie Wertz 2 pts (2 of 5 FT's), #5 Shelby Bollard 1pt (1 of 2 FT's), Gabby Mayhew 0 pts.

11- Scoring by Quarters: H.A. First; 4-12, 3-4, 13-8, 10-8. Final 30 to 32

12- Team Record: 10-4 Overall, 3-1 Conference

13- Next Game: Monday @ RRHS.

14- Next Practice: Sunday Night 5:00pm to 7:00pm. Be there and make sure your teammates know to be there. Last Practice before RR and Parrott on Monday and Tuesday.

Final Thoughts: We are still a great team. Only a great team could have pulled itself off the mat and made the kind of push it took to give us a chance to win. I thought Lindy had a very good performance and showed a lot of heart down the stretch. I thought Lindsey had maybe her best game at running the team and defensively. We got a nice lift today from our bench, I was proud of what they gave to the team.

Our Ace calling card is still our pressure defense. When we play it good and tight good things happen. We had 23 steals and 17 blocked shots. That is great Defense. Remember Defense is mostly determination and hustle and everyone playing it hard at the same time.

I love our style of play. We we execute it right we are amazing. It is beautiful basketball. I thought we did the best we have done with the Viking Passing Game Offense. Be proud of yourselves, your coach is and your many admirers are.

Get some rest, get plenty of fluids and get some proteins(Meats,eggs,seafood etc.) in your body 24 hours in advance of the games. . Also try to get plenty of Carbs (noodles, French Fries, bread, beans, pizza) Sunday night before the game. We have a tough two game stretch and we need to play our very best both days! Try to not run any this weekend so we will have our legs fresh for Monday and Tuesday.

Grades: Play Hard A+, Play Smart B+, Play Together A. (BTW, Play Smart not only means play smart but it also mean executing both on offense, defense and Inbounds plays.)

Coach May

JV Girls win @ St. Davids

2010-01-19T18:20:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Certainly an exciting victory. Heart, hustle and determination and a will to win always pays dividends. As I told you before, playing winning basketball in this league is not for the faint hearted or the weak willed. It also helps if you can execute your offense and defense very well and make lay ups.

We had a couple of outstanding plays that were vital to us winning this game. Jesse with her block under the goal with about 8 seconds to play and her defensive rebound and determination not to get tied up for a jump ball or have the ball stripped away was the #1 thing. Lots of heart on that play. The will to win.

Lindy making 3 out of 4 foul shots with the game on the line late. Huge also. Focus and determination and Perfect Practice, Execution.

In the stat column Lindy with 3 out of 4 from the line, 10 rebounds and 3 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocked shots and 5 points stands out. Jesse with 5 steals, 1 block( a huge one), 3 rebounds and 6 points was big. Jamie had 2 blocks, 2 steals, 3 assists 4 rebounds and 4 points and lots of hustle plays. Actually everyone had lots of hustle plays, Emily played most of the game on one leg and had 7 rebounds and a block and an assist.

Remember, we win as a team and we lose as a team. We need to remember though when we have the chance to kill the other team early we need to do it. We probably missed enough lay ups to have won this game by 12 or 14 points. I didn't see the other team blowing easy lay ups so we need to toughen up on them.

1- Points: Jesse 6, Lindy 5, Jamie 4, Lindsey 2, Alex 2, Mer 2, Emily 1. 22 points (We needed everyone of them)

2- FG%: Jamie 2 /3***, Mer 1/2**, Jesse 3/7*, Alex 1/3*, Lindsey 1/3*, Lindy 1/6, Caroline 0/2, Emily 0/4. 33.3% equals a minimum winning performance for and individual, but obviously we need some players to shoot better than that if we are going to shoot 33.3% or better as a team.

3- Team FG%: 30% Just shy of a minimal winning percentage. If we make a couple more lay ups this game is not that close.

4- FT's: Lindy 3/4**, Emily 1/2*, Jamie 0/2. Team %: 57%* 50% is the minimum winning performance level.

5- Rebounds: Lindy 10*** (8D and 2 off.), Emily 7**(4D and 3 Off.), Jamie 4*(2D and 2 off), Jesse 3*, Mer 1D, Lindsey 1 off, Caroline 1 off.

6- Assists: Team 9; Lindy 3*, Jamie 3*, Lindsey 1, Jesse 1, Emily 1.

7- Steals: Team 8 (What happened? We need to refocus on defense) Jesse 5*, Jamie 2, Lindy 1.

8- Blocks: Lindy 2**, Jamie 2**, Emily 1*, Jesse 1* ( very likely the game saver, but if any of the other shots that were blocked had gone in we might have lost then also, Still a great play and a clutch time)

9- Turnovers: Lindsey 3, Jesse 2, Jamie 1. These turnovers stats seem kind of low to me.

10- Opponent Scoring: #23 M Woods 6 (Zero in the 4th qtr), #11 K Dickens 6 (2 in the 4th),
15 C. Garrett 15 (1 out of 3 from the foul line in the 4th), #14 J. Caro 2 (all in the 4th),
#12 A. Buckingham 2 (all in the 4th)

11- Scoring by quarters: HA first; 5 to 6, 6 to 0, 4 to 8, 7 to 7. 22 to 21 final.

Final Thoughts: It was a great win in their Taj Majal Gym. It could have been a much easier win. We will have to play much better to beat Cary Christian coming up Friday. As a team we need to learn to make hay while the sun is shining. Easy points off lay ups sometimes get hard to get as the game goes on(the other team learns your plays). We need to focus and focus hard. Still bottom line we won and there is no place in the victory column for a write up of it being close only who won and that was us.

Girls we win as a team and we lose as a team. A team is no better than the trust you have in each other and the trust you have in your coach and the system you are trying to execute. Its not an accident we are 3 and 0 in the conference, actually I don't think we should have lost a game, maybe Roanoke Rapids but even that game we just did not play well.

When you lose everyone wants to be critical, when you win everyone wants to be your friend and your coach. Bottom line back when everyone said we would probably only win one game for the entire year(before the season started) I believed in you and you had to believe in yourself and what we were trying to do. We don't want to lose sight of how fleeting fans and fame can be and we absolutely cannot afford to lose sight of the fact we need to keep getting better and keep doing very well at the things that have gotten us to this point and this record.

Thought: You have eyes in the front of your head to see the things you need to accomplish both individually and as a Team not in the back of your head to see what you have already accomplished. Roy Williams, UNC.

Grades:

Play Hard- A+, Play Smart-(execution) B, Play together A.

Enjoy this win until tomorrow at 3:15 pm (it was sweet) and then come to practice with the focus and determination to become better than we were today and yesterday. Our opponents probably will be working on getting better also.

I am proud of you for what you have accomplished on the court. Don't take it for granted, there is no easy way to be a winner, you just have to be willing to scratch for it.

BTW: The Fayetteville Christian game has been canceled. Sorry, thats 2 home games we have lost off our schedule counting Ridgecroft. And 2 likely wins seeing we beat them both on the road fairly easily.

Team Record: 10 wins 3 losses. Conference Record 3 wins 0 losses.

Coach May

JV Viking Girls 22 Rocky Mount 12

2010-01-15T17:43:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls;

Another big conference win. All conference wins are big and you girls did a great job of taking care of business especially on the offensive glass and playing tough defense and forcing them to turn the ball over. As they say some days the shots aren't going in as well as other days but you can always play great defense.

As you can see every school in our conference is committed to having a great basketball team at every level. Our record is 9 and 3 overall and 2 and 0 in the conference. If we could go back to the three games we lost I think we would have a good chance to win all three of them.

Be Proud of yourselves, you are representing your school and your coach very well. More importantly you are representing yourselves and your team and your teammates very well.

1- Scoring Totals: Jesse 6, Mer 5, Lindy 4, Casey 2, Caroline 2, Lindsey 2, Jamie 1

2- Rebounding: First # Defensive 2nd # Offensive = Total Rebounds; Jamie 2/5=7*,
Mer 2/5=7*, Lindsey 2/3=5*, Jesse 3/2=5*, Lindy 2/1=3, Emily 0/3=3, Alex 1/1=2, Caroline 0/1=1

3- FG%: Team 27% Individuals: Casey 1/1*, Caroline 1/1*, Mer 2/5*, Jesse 3/9*, Lindy 2/6*,
Lindsey 1/6, Jamie 0/3, Emily 0/3.

4- FT%: Team 28.5% Individuals: Mer 1/2*, Jamie 1/4, Caroline 0/1.

5- Steals: Team 20; Jamie 5*, Lindy 3*, Jesse 3*, Lindsey 3*, Caroline 2*, Emily 2*, Alex 1, Casey 1.

6- Assists: Team 10; Individuals: Lindsey 3*, Mer 2*, Jamie 2*, Jesse 1, Emily 1, Caroline 1.

7- TO's: Team 8: Individuals: Jesse 4, Lindy 2, Emily 1, Lindsey 1*, Jesse 0*, Mer 0*

8- Blocks: Lindy 2*, Emily 1*, Jamie 1*. Team 4.

9- FT's: Team 28.5%; Individuals; Mer 1/2*, Jamie 1/4, Caroline 0/1.

10- Opponent scoring: #23 Roberson 4, #21 Jackson 4, #14 C. Thompson 4. They were 2 of 5 from the foul line.

11- Scoring by quarters: Vikings First; 6-2, 4-4, 6-4, 6-2. 22-12

Final Thoughts: We did a great job defensively, Jamie did a great job on their PG making it difficult for them to run their offense. You can never put enough value on taking the other teams PG out of the game, or not having your PG taken out of the game.

We got lots of steals that could have been easy lay ups if the ball had bounced our way a few more times. Winning is fun, don't ever take it for granted, as the saying goes everyone wants to win once the game starts but you have to be willing to want to prepare to win in practice and that is something we have done a good job of.

We have not played our best game yet, as good as we have been at times I know and I think all of us close to this team know we haven't come close to playing the way we can especially on offense. That is a good sign in my opinion, it shows we have heart, it shows we are a great defensive team and it shows we have room to improve. I personally think we are as good as anyone in the 4 corners and the spread offensively and as good as anyone I have seen defensively . As we keep playing we will relax and make more and more shots in the half court, it is just a matter of time. We just need to remember what got us here and thats Great Pressure Defense.

I also need to make a special note of Mer having her best game, she has been working hard on getting better and it is showing. I know sometimes I push you girls hard to get better fast, those of you that have embraced the being pushed are showing great improvement. If I did not think you had talent I would not push as hard. It is never anything personal I love each and every player on this team and I love how this team plays, you are all special young ladies and we are now and can continue to be a very special team. I would not be the coach you need if I didn't care enough to push you hard.

My job is to help us get there as individual players and as a team. It hurts our girls basketball by not having a middle school team and good fundamental coaching at that level. Every school in our conference has middle school programs. When they get to the JV they have been together as a team for 3 years or more. We have to make up for that disadvantage with focus and heart and hard work. Individual performances aside We win as a Team and We lose as a Team. I cannot think of a single girl we could do without, it will always need to be a team effort.

Our Grades: Playing Hard A+, Playing Smart B+, Playing Together A. Not bad!!

Thanks to all of you girls for your Great effort, Playing Hard is the highest compliment to your Coach and your teammates. Enjoy your weekend off, get rested up and I will see you at practice Monday at 3:00pm. St. Davids in Raleigh next up, Cary Christian next Friday, big games just keep coming our way. I am sure the RMA coach who was the St. Davids coach the last several years will be calling St Davids to prepare them for our pressure defense. That's OK, they still have to play against it.

Coach May

Vikings 18 - Kerr Vance Academy 17

2010-01-08T18:08:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

We won the game 18 to 17. A bad win is always better than a good loss. However, lack of focus and execution just about cost us the win. We basically turned what should have been a comfortable win into a nailbiter that we would have lost if the clock had 1 more second on it. That's what not taking care of business can do to you.

1- Team scoring by quarters: H.A. first; 9-3, 3-5, 2-4,4-5. Final 18-17 We lost every quarter except the first. Thank goodness we were sharp early.

2- Scoring: Jamie 8, Lindy 4, Emily 4, Lindsey 2.

3- FG% Team: 24.1. 2 pointers, FG's% Team: 33.3 on 3 pointers. Combined FG% 25% for the game. Usually if you shoot less than 33.3% for the game you are not shooting at a percentage that gives you much of a chance of winning the game. Without looking back we have shot around 38% as a team for the year to date not including tonight. I think we got tired and lost our edge, focus and concentration.

4- FG% Individual: Lindy 2/3 66.6%*, Emily 2/5 40%*, Jamie 3/9 33.3%*, Lindsey 1/6 16.6%, Jessie 0/4, Alex 0/3, Mer 0/1, Casey 0/1. Team 8/32 25%

5- FT% Team: 1/7 14.3% Individuals: Jamie 1/4 25%, Lindy 0/2, Lindsey 0/1

6- Steals: Jamie 5*, Jessie 5*, Lindy 5*, Emily 4*, Lindsey 4*. Total 23 steals. Without a doubt the best stat of the night, if we score off 11 of the 23 steals we would have had 22 points just off scoring on half the steals and that would be a low conversion rate. Obviously we did not do that well since we only scored 18 points for the entire game.

7- Turnovers: Team: 8 Individuals: Lindsey 2, Lindy 2, Emily 1, Jesse 1, Caroline 1, Casey 1, Jamie 0, Mer 0, Alex 0. 8 seems low, I wish I had a film to study. If we only turned it over 8 times and they turned it over 23 times that means we had the ball 15 extra times with chances to score. That means we played even worse on offense than it looked.

8- Assists: Team 7: Individuals: Lindsey 4*, Emily 2, Jamie 1.

9- Blocks: Team 7*: Individuals: Lindy 4**, Emily 2*, Lindsey 1*

10- Rebounds Defensive: Jamie 4*, Emily 3*, Jessie 2, Lindsey 2, Mer 1, Caroline 1, Lindy 1.

11- Rebounds Offensive: Lindy 3*, Emily 1. In general not as good as we needed as a team. This number for offensive rebounds should average around 10.

12- Opponents scoring: # 14 Hannah Abbott 7pts, #15 Price Wester 4, #12 Rebecca Ross 3,
#4 Jessica Darnell 3, #13 Meredith Freeman 0pts, #10 Cameron Ford 0 pts, #11 Hannah Powell 0 pts. Take notice of how your player did that you guarded.

Final Thoughts:

We did a good job on their best players #12 and #15, thank goodness I had the chance to scout them in advance because they could have been scoring points on us early until we figured out who to guard and it might have tilted the game in their favor. We will not have that advantage in most games.

This was our first conference game, as you can see it is not for those who are afraid to play in the spotlight. These teams want to win and their fans want them to win. By all rights we should have lost this game, we just plain and simply did not play smart and we did not execute. Just a few good passes on fast breaks or a few lay ups made or a couple passes handled cleanly instead of bobbled when it would have been a layup and we win easy.

Basically, We Played Hard, we did NOT Play Smart, most of the time we Played Together. Early in the game we looked sharp as the game went on we played worse. Maybe thats my fault for not having us in top game condition.

We win as a team and we lose as a team, as your coach I loved the effort and the heart and the fact we managed to get a win but it should have never come down to us having a chance to lose.

I have to point out that every coach needs to be able to trust that the players on the court are going to always Play Hard, always Play Smart to the best of their ability and always make every effort to Play Together. If the players I choose to put on the court do the 3 things in our motto and we lose I say congratulations to the other team, it wasn't our day. But, as a team we need to be committed to what our motto stands for and executing our plan. That commitment is the difference between us having a great team maybe a conference contender and just a having a team. It cannot be any other way.

Have a good weekend and get some of rest. Rocky Mount at home next Friday, another conference game. They will play us at least as tough as Kerr Vance. Be ready.

Thought: Everyone has the will to win once the game starts but those that win consistently are those that have the will to prepare to win, both as a team an individual. Roy Williams, UNC.

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together

Coach May

Nice Win over Fayetteville Academy

2010-01-05T18:01:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Nice win tonight over Fayetteville Academy 30 to 18. Basically we played pretty good for such a long lay off and we were able to play all of our players. We are now 7 wins vs 3 losses. Here are our stats:

1- Scoring: Lindsey 12, Jesse 6, Jamie 4, Lindy 4, Caroline 2, Renee 2.

2- FG% Team: 36.6% *

3- FG% Individuals: Renee 1/1*, Lindsey 6/10*, Jamie 2/5*, Jesse 3/8*, Caroline 1/3*,
Lindy 2/8, Emily 0/1, Alex 0/2, Jordan 0/1. 33.3% is the minimum for star(winning performance)

4- Rebounds: Jamie 6*, Mer, 5*, Lindy 4*, Emily 4*, Caroline 3*, Lindsey 2, Alex 1, Casey 1, Renee 1.

5- Steals: Jesse 4*, Lindsey 3*, Lindy 2, Caroline 2, Jamie 1, Casey 1, Caitlin 1. Team 14

6- Assists: Lindsey 4*, Jamie 1, Lindy 1, Jesse 1, Emily 1. Team 7

7- Turnovers: Lindsey 2*, Jamie 2*, Jesse1*, Lindy 1, Casey 1.

8- Blocks: Lindsey 3*, Mer 1, Renee 1. Team 5

9- Free Throws: Jamie 0/4, Lindy 0/3, Mer 0/2, Lindsey 0/1, Megan 0/1, Caroline 0/1.
Team Foul Shooting 0/12. 0%. We will do better!

10- Score by Quarters: 8 to 8, 8 to 0, 10 to 1, 4 to 9. (18 to 1 in the 2nd and 3rd qtrs.)

11- Opponent Scoring: #12 Poulus 7, #15 Mattias 4, #33 Sanborn 3, #35 Reavis 2,
#44 Warren 2

12- Final Thoughts: We did a good job of taking them out of their offense. Poulus scored 5 of her
points in the last 3 minutes or so of the game. Sanborne and Warren scored 3 and 2 each.
Our defensive pressure and pushing the ball up the court took their legs away and when you
are tired its tough to compete.

I thought we did a good job with the Viking Passing Game, Lindsey gave us a lift shooting
well from the top of the key, Jesse gave us a lift with her 4 steals and Jamie did a good job defensively on their best player and she was our leading rebounder with 6. We also competed well on the boards. Mer gave us a lift with 5 strong rebounds and 5 good outlets and Caroline got 3 rebounds and had 2 steals. All in all except for our foul shooting(which I know will get better) it was a fairly good game. Having good depth is a huge advantage, especially in weeks like this one when we play 3 games. Time to get ready for the rest of the week. Fayetteville Christian next.

Thought: Wouldn't it be a shame to be tapped on the shoulder for your finest hour and not be prepared to do your best. Roy Williams, UNC. True in school, true in life and true when waiting for your chance to help your team in any sport.

Take pride in your game and prepare hard to give yourself the best opportunity to do your best.

**Some time soon, take time to thank your parents for all they do for you, take time to thank a teacher or administrator for trying to help you learn the things you need to know, take time to thank God for sending his only son Jesus Christ to earth to teach us how to live our lives and then die for our sins so we could be with him after this world for eternity.

Time goes by quickly don't miss the opportunity to let the one's you love and appreciate that they are important to you.

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together

Coach May

Gym Time for Practice Saturday

2010-01-01T15:28:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Sunday practice at 7:00pm to 8:30pm is still on and all players need to be there.

Rabbit just e-mailed me that the Alumni games for Saturday have been postponed until the 23rd. That means practice time is available. Can any of you practice from 4:00 to 5:30pm Saturday?

Ask around with your teammates and let me know if we can get enough to scrimmage. Need 10. Someone call around if you think you would like some gym time. I need to know say by about 2:00pm.

The biggest week of the year to date is coming up. We need to be on top of our game.

My cell is 308-2863, Home Phone is 586-5191. Don't think I will be at the Golf Course much today. Brrr!

Bland

Sunday Night Practice

2010-01-01T07:52:00.001-08:00

Hi Girls,

Happy New Year!

I think we have the court for Sunday Night @ 7:00pm until 8:30pm following the JV boys and Varsity boys scrimmage. Please try to be there. Pass the word along to your teammates.

Big week next week, lets get ready!

Coach May

PS- Try to be ready to practice at 7:00pm, we have a big practice schedule.

Practice Wednesday and Friday!

2009-12-29T14:34:00.001-08:00

Hi Girls,

Practice for Wednesday December 30, 2009 is 3:00pm to 4:30pm.

Practice for Thursday December 31, 2009 is 10:00am to 12:00pm.

There is no practice for New Years Day, Friday January 1, 2010.

We do not have practice scheduled for the weekend but I might consider doing so if I find out there is an open time that works.

We are back at school Monday Jan 4, 2010, so practice is at the normal time 3:15 to 4:30pm.

We play Fayetteville Academy on Tuesday, Fayetteville Christian on Thursday, and our first Conference game of the year Friday vs. Kerr Vance Academy, all at 3:15pm Tip Time.

It would be great to win all 3 games plus get off to a good start in the conference.

We have exactly 3 practices before the Fayetteville Academy Game on Tuesday unless we add a weekend practice.

BTW: Fayetteville Academy is the team that had #12 Poulus who liked to drive to the middle of the paint and drop the ball off to one of her two very large post players. We won the last game something like 21 to 14 right before exams. We will work on trying to do somethings that might make them less effective.

Team Motto: Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.

Thought: Good teams have good players, Great Teams have Great Teammates. R. Wms, UNC.

Second Thought: The fastest way to improve the team is to improve your own play. J. Wooden, UCLA winner of 11 National Championships.

Always: God, Family, Education, Basketball (or whatever sport you are working on at that time) In that order.

Coach May

Team Stats thru JV Tournament

2009-12-27T12:59:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Thought you might like to see our team stat leaders. I listed the top 4 in each category and at the end I am listing some conclusions based on the stats. The first game vs. NEA stats are lost so they are Not included. (Edit: I found the NEA Stats and have added them in.)

1- Team Field Goal %: 38.8%. 33.3% is the minimal winning score. We are doing pretty well but we have to remember that most of our scoring is lay ups so we need to spend more time improving our shooting and continue to improve our pressure defense and spread offense to get even more lay ups. I would like to see this go in the 40's, we are close.

2- Team Free Throw %: 35.6%. 50% is the minimum here and we are way off.

3- Individual rebounds: Defensive: Lindy, 36,Mer 16, Emily and Jamie 15

4- Individual rebounds: Offensive: Lindy 20, Jamie 11, Emily and Jesse 10.

5- Steals: Jamie 42, Jesse 39, Lindsey 27, Lindy 15 and Emily 13.

6- Assists: Lindsey 17, Jesse 10, Jamie 8, Lindy 6.

7- Blocks: Jamie 5, Lindsey 4, Jesse 2, Lindy and Emily 1.

8- FG%: Lindy 52%, Caroline 44%, Mer 38.1%, Jamie 37.7 % Basically as I said 33.3% is the minimum for a winning performance.

9- FT%: Lindy 80%, Caroline 66.6%, Mer 57%, Jesse 42.8%. 50% is the minimum winning FT shooting percentage. We need to improve and we will try to give it more time in practice.

10- We are averaging scoring for 9 games 29.1 points per game(ppg) Our opponents are averaging 21.3. Take out the first game vs. NEA that we won 47 to 4 and it is 23.5 for us vs. 21.3 for our opponents. That is a winning margin of 2.2 ppg. 4 points more per game on foul shooting and lets say 6 points more per game on better 1/2 court offense better offensive rebounding and less turnovers would raise our ppg by 10 points. That would be huge. As a matter of fact if we can keep our opponents down defensively 10 more points per game would probably make us win the conference title. Let's try to get there.

Some Conclusions:

1- We need to improve our Foul Shooting %. That is why they are called FREE throws.
2- We need to improve our individual shooting skills. We will devote more practice time to this.
3- We need to work on getting more offensive rebounds. Basically 2 out of every 3 does not go in, we are not getting our share of putbacks. Rebounding is mostly effort and determination and positioning.
4- We need to improve our 1/2 court offense to give us easier shots, thus improving our shooting percentage. Hopefully our new Viking offense will help.
5- If we can cut down on turnovers which is over 11 per game, that would give us more chances to score and less chances for the other team to get an easy shot. I would like to see us get this number down to maybe 7 per game. Zero would be better but 7 is a good realistic improvement that is attainable.
6- Never ever forget that our pressure Defense is still our best offense, we need to work to get even better at it. A steal and a fastbreak layups is the easiest way to score points. We will devote more time to somethings we can do.

We practice tomorrow (Monday the 28th) at 10:00am to 12:00pm. We need all of you there that can be there.

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together and when possible Play Fast!

Go Vikings

Coach May (Edited 5:00pm 12/28/09)

Viking Girls JV Tournament Champions!

2009-12-22T21:12:00.003-08:00

Hi Girls,

We played a good game against a tough opponent to win the Championship Trophy for the second year in row. Be proud of yourselves, I am proud of you. We played with alot of heart tonight and I appreciate your effort and focus.

I know I push you all pretty hard, but I know we can really play when we are focused and everyone is playing at 100% effort. If I did not push you to play your best, it would be giving up on you and I would not be worthy of being your coach. I am not going to ever not push you to be your best and you don't pushing to be The Best. We are a very young team, we are good right now and can be become a special team.

We won the game tonight 30 to 21. We did a very good job of executing our game plan and guarding Taylor Norris #11(She had 9 points with 3 of them coming late on a desperation 3).
As usual our pressure defense was our best offense. Our 4 corners offense and spread offense sealed the victory for us and I loved the way we played cat and mouse and lulled them to sleep only to attack when they overplayed. That is great basketball and that is Winning Basketball.

I love the style we play, its the most fun style of basketball but it is hard work and requires great focus and heart to play that hard that long. We will concentrate on shooting the ball much more of our practice time a good % of the year and also try to improve our 1/2 court offense. Of course we cannot let any other part of our game slip, especially our tough defense. Remember the Thought for the day that goes: There is no in playing great defense Just Championships.

If we had selected an all tournament team made up of 6 players like we do at some tournaments, the 5 best and the Most Valuable Player for this tournament, I would have voted for Lindy, Jesse, Lindsey, Emily and Taylor Norris and Jamie as the top six players. I would have voted for Jamie as the Tournament Most Valuable Player.

1- Scoring Totals: Jamie 12, Lindy 4, Jesse 4, Emily 4, Lindsey 2, Alex 2, Caroline 2.

2- Rebounds: Lindy 5*, Jesse 4*, Jamie 4*, Caroline 3*, Emily 2, Alex 1, Mer 1. (5 is the minimum for a winning effort star if you are a post player, 4 if you are a perimeter player. Caroline got only 3 but in limited time on the court.)

3- Steals: Jamie 10**, Lindsey 5*, Jesse 3, Lindy 2, Caroline 2, Alex 1. (4 and up is great)

4- Assists: Jamie 3*, Jesse 3 *, Lindsey 1, Lindy 1.

5- Blocks: Jesse 2*, Lindsey 1, Jamie 1, Emily 1.

6- Turnovers: Lindsey 3, Jesse 1, Jamie 2.

7- Foul Shooting: Jamie 4/9, Lindsey 0/2, Caroline 0/1. Team % 33%

8- Shooting %- Caroline 1/1*, Emily 2/3*, Alex 1/2*, Lindy 2/5*, Jamie 4/12*, Jesse 2/7,
Lindsey 1/6, Casey 0/1. 50% for Individual equal star quality. Team %- 35.1%* 33.3% for Team = Minimum Winning performance.

9- Cornerstone Scoring: #11 Taylor Norris 9, #23 Nichole Walker 6, #44 Kali Shaw 4,
#15 Scarlett Harris 2.

10- Scoring by Quarters: 1st- 8-2, 2nd 6-9, 3rd 8 to 3, 4th 8 to 7. Good Work!!

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together! Doing those three things we wear on the back of our team shirts plus EXECUTING well wins Championships!

Have a very Merry Christmas, take time to show your family you love them an appreciate all they do for you. Never forget the real reason for the celebration of Christmas is it's Jesus Christ's Birthday, God's only son! We celebrate in honor of him!

Next Practice is next Monday the 28th of December 10:00am to 12:00pm. Be there ready to get even better both as a team and as an individual.

Coach May

PS- Renee is sick with the Flu and says she might be out awhile.
Coach May

First Round JV Tournament vs. Northeast Academy

2009-12-22T20:45:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Not a very good game for us. Basically we were rusty and played down to our competition a little. Still an ugly win is better than a pretty loss. Plus by winning we get to advance to the Championship game with a chance to win redeem ourselves and win our second JV Tournament in the past two years. We did not have one 3 years ago.

1- Scoring totals: Jamie 8, Jesse 6, Lindsey 4, Lindy 2, Caroline 1, Jordan 1.

2- Rebounds: Lindy 7*, Jamie 4*, Emily 4, Alex 3, Mer 3, Jordan 2, Jesse 1, Lindsey 1, Megan 1, Casey 1.

3- Steals: Lindsey 13***, Jesse 8**, Jamie 4*, Emily 3, Caitlin 3, Megan 3, Alex 2 , Mer 2, , Jordan 2. Lindsey set a team JV record for the teams I have coached with 13 steals. Great work!

4- Assists: Lindsey 2, Jordan 1*

5- Blocks: Lindsey 2*

6- Shooting percentage: Team- 24.3% (Poor) 33.3% is the minimum winning performance.

7- Individual Shooting: Lindy 1/3*, Jesse 3/11, Lindsey 2/8, Jamie 3/13, Megan 0/1,
Caitlin 0/1, Caroline 0/2, Jordan 0/2, Alex 0/3, Emily 0/4. 33.3% is the minimum winning percent for shooting. We only had one player Lindy who met or exceeded that, we need to meet or exceed that as a team.

8- Foul Shooting: Jordan 1/2 *, Caroline 1/2*, Lindsey 0/2, Jamie 0/3, Jessie 0/4. 50% is the minimum winning percentage in foul shooting. We had only 2 players meet that today.

9- Team Foul Shooting: 2/13 for 15. 4%

10- Northeast Scoring: #11 Taylor Moms 5, #25 Madison Burch 2, # 33 Mollie Cocke 1.

Of note: We beat this same team in the first game of the year 47 to 4. We won today 22 to 8.
By Quarters H.A. score first: 10-0, 4-0, 7-3, 1-5.

Coach May

Practice 12-22-09 1:00pm until 2:30pm.

2009-12-21T17:21:00.000-08:00

We will practice after the Varsity girls (11:00 to 1:00) Tuesday at 1:00pm. We will play Cornerstone for the tournament Championship at 6:00pm I think. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to prove to ourselves we can play better than we did in the first round.

Stats to follow after tomorrows game for both games.

We will wear white uniforms.

Coach May

PS- Call Jamie and Jordan and let them know! Be Focused!!

Friday Practice Cancelled, Next Practice Sunday!

2009-12-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Sorry we could not practice today (Friday) but it would have been bad if we had to have a sleepover in the gym or someone got hurt getting home. By the time I got home from practice it was mostly light rain here. We have about 1 inch of snow on the ground.

JV Girls will practice Sunday night at 7:00pm until 8:30 pm or so. We have not practiced since Thursday a week ago, that will be 10 days by Sunday night. I have some new things we need to talk about for the upcoming JV tournament.

Be there and be ready to practice by 7:00pm sharp! Let's try to make it a Halifax Academy sweep for the boys and the girls. Get focused! I think our boys will be favored in their division and Hobgood will be favored in the Girls based on them defeating us by 9 points a couple weeks ago.

We play Northeast Academy Monday at 5:00pm. Be at the gym by 4:00pm. Get your uniforms on during halftime of the first game. We will have Pre-Game starting by the end of the 3rd Quarter in the weight room.

Spread the word to those who do not use this blogpage about Sunday's Practice @ 7:00pm. We have gotten our record back up to 4 wins and 3 losses. Lets not backtrack!

Coach May

Practice for Friday!!

2009-12-18T05:13:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

We need to practice!! We have not practiced since Thursday 10th of December due to exams. Thats 8 day ago! As of right now I still plan to practice @ 4:00pm until 5:15pm as scheduled. We could just have rain, at this point no one knows. I will get the word out as quickly as possible it there is a change by way of this blogpage, school announcement if we know by 12:00, or by telephone call a friend.

You may call me at 308-2863(cellular) for updates as I know them. We might not know until it actually starts snowing or sleeting a substantial amount what we will do. It could be a late decision on cancelling. As of right now practice is as scheduled.

1- Here are some things you need to consider and I will also. If the Octagon club cancels their Christmas event in the Gym(no idea if they will) from 12:00 to 4:00 we could if possible move our practice up to say 1:00 to 3:00, this would allow us 1 hour to eat lunch and then we would be finished with practice earlier.

2- If your parents feel you are in danger or are afraid you might be in danger I will excuse you from practice, just let me know by calling me at 308-2863(cell). This is always true but it is mandatory you let me know before practice.

3- I do have some things that are new we need to practice for the upcoming tournament next Monday and Tuesday. I plan to teach it Friday and practice it Sunday. I am not sure there will be enough time to re-teach this until during Christmas break after the JV Tournament so you need to practice if possible.

4- As of this moment I plan to have practice at 4:00pm to 5:15pm as previously scheduled.

Coach May

JV Girls Upcoming Schedule of Events.

2009-12-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

Information last edited 12-17-09

Hi Girls,

Times you need to know! Christmas Break is a good time for us to work on getting better, the conference season starts up soon after. We play Fayetteville Academy Tuesday and Fayetteville Christian on Thursday and our first conference game with Kerr Vance on Friday all in the first week back at school after Christmas break. So write these times down and plan to be at practice. We cannot get better without investing some time and effort in it.

Friday Dec 18, 2009 Practice @ 4:00pm to 5:15pm

Sunday Dec 20, 2009 Practice @ 7:00pm to 8:30pm (We play Monday and Tuesday)

Monday Dec 21, 2009 Game with NEA 5:00pm be at the gym by 4:00pm

Tuesday Dec 22, 2009 If we win we play @ 6:30 pm if we lose 4:00pm, 1 hour early in gym

Wed. Dec 23, 2009 Practice 10:00am to 12:00pm

Monday Dec 28, 2009 Practice 10:00am to 12:00pm

Tuesday Dec 29, 2009 Practice 3:00pm to 4:30pm

Wed. Dec 30, 2009 Practice 3:00pm to 4:30pm (changed due to conflicting times)

Thur. Dec 31, 2009 Practice 10:00am to 12:00pm

Thought: Good, Better, Best, never let it rest until Good becomes Better and Better becomes the Best. This applies to every skill we use playing basketball as an individual and as a Team.

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.

Coach May

Next Practice!!

2009-12-12T12:37:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Just so you can plan, our next practice is next Friday from 4:00pm to 5:15pm. JV Boys will practice after us.

Monday Dec. 21 we play Northeast @ 5:00pm, Hobgood plays Cornerstone @ 4:00pm.

The winners meet Tuesday night @ 6:30pm. Losers will play Tuesday at 4:00pm.

Be at the gym one hour before tip off for any of the Halifax Academy JV Girls games.

Coach May

Victory@Fayetteville Academy

2009-12-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Just an early post on our win at Fayetteville Academy. It was an ugly win but nonetheless it was still a solid win. Fayetteville Academy is one of the better girls programs in the state. They are currently defending NCIHSAA Champions. Girls we beat 2 years ago were on the State Championship team last year and girls that we beat last year are regular players on this years Varsity Team. A win over their program is a nice accomplishment. Just because you are our girls and we all love you does not make you automatically better basketball players than other teams. Its hustle, scheme and execution that makes a team win.

For a team that only has 2 of the top 10 players back from last years team at this time of the season, three 8th graders and 1 first year 10th grader in the starting 5 we are doing darn good. If we could have played with a little less nerves and a little more execution we could be sitting here undefeated. Give yourselves a big pat on the back for how we are doing.

The good news we have not even come close to playing our best game yet. Stick with me and this team, give me 100% effort and focus and lets see how good we can be. Its there for the taking. We are going to get better as a team and we are going to get better as individuals.

1- Scoring totals: Jamie-5 pts, Lindy 4 pts, Emily 4 points, Jesse 4 points, Lindsey 2 pts, Mer 2 pts, Alex 2 points. Final Score 23 to 14.

2- Team Shooting %- 10/29 34.5%* (above 33.3 percent is the benchmark, 50% would be great)
3- Individual Shooting- Alex 1/1*, Lindy 2/4*, Emily 2/4*, Mer 1/2*, Lindsey 1/4, Jamie 2/6, Jessie 1/8. 50% is our bottom percent for getting a star in individual shooting. * equals good performance, good enough to win. ** equals superior performance.

4- Foul Shooting: Jesse 2/4*, Jamie 1/4, Lindsey 0/1, Mer 0/2. Team: 27.3% (50% is our minimum % for good in foul shooting, 60% is within range). I hope for better.

5- Rebounds: Jamie- 8**, Lindy 5*, Emily 5*, Mer 1, Lindsey 1, Jesse 1 (Rebounding equals Heart, effort, skill and opportunity)

6- Steals: Jesse 6**, Lindsey 2, Jamie 1, Lindy 1.

7- Assists: Lindsey 2, Jamie 1

8- Blocks: Lindy 1, Lindsey 1*

9- Turnovers: Jamie 6, Lindsey 3*, Jesse 1*, Emily 2, Lindy 2, Casey 2. (3 Turnovers for a PG in a pressure game is good, 1 Turnover for a 2 guard as much as Jessie handled the ball is good)

10- Opponents: #12 Elizabeth Poulos PG- 6 pts., #21 Jasmine Matem PF-4 pts., #35 Sarah Reavis C-2 pts., #11 Pratiksha Singh, G?? 2 pts. All else 0.

11- Score by Quarters: 1st. 8-2, 2nd 7 to 8, 3rd. 2 to 4, 4th 6-0. It was big we shut them out in the 4 quarter. It was a 3 point game at the end of 3 quarters. We did a good job of gutting it out.
Our 4 corners was instrumental in another win.

Next Practice is Friday December 18 at 4:00pm until 5:15pm. We might also practice on Sunday, time yet to be decided but probably around 6:00pm.

Work hard on your exams. Remember: God, Family, Academics and Basketball in that order.

Its was a good win. Even an ugly win is better than a pretty loss. Our style of play is difficult to play against. When executed properly it creates its own offense. It gives us a great opportunity to win against most teams. It is also the most fun style of basketball to play, if you don't believe me just ask Roy Williams and Dean Smith. It is high risk but the rewards are victory. Buy into it with 100% effort and focus, believe me, its our best chance.

We play again Monday and Tuesday the 21st and 22nd of Dec, in our very own Christmas Tournament. A championship would be sweet. We play Northeast Academy in the first game I think @ 5:00pm and the winner of Hobgood and Cornerstone in the second assuming we can defeat NEA. We won this tournament last year.

Don't take NEA lightly, I am sure they have been working hard to prepare for our pressure defense, its going to take alot more than just showing up at the gym. Their coach will have them ready.

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together.

PS- Some of you girls played yourself almost sick(Jesse especially) and others. I don't want anyone sick but do not think I do not recognize the effort and intensity you play with. Without it we would be nowhere. We have been 100% on Playing Hard and I am proud of you for that.

On Playing Together I think we would have to get a 99 or a 100% for that also. On Playing Smart I think we are trying to Play Smart and I think we do a pretty good job of it but thats where we need to make our most improvement.

You can always control Playing Hard and for the most part Playing Together. Playing Smart requires experience and everyone being on the same page about what to do and when to do it. We are getting there and we will continue to focus on that and getting better individually in practice.

Do good on your Exams!!!! We do not need any of you unable to play in the second semester. Remember, you have to be passing 5 courses and have a 77(I think) average overall. If you are taking a study hall you cannot fail any course and be able to play second semester.

Coach May

@Ridgecroft

2009-12-10T05:10:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls;

1- Congratulations Girls! It was a hard earned victory at Ridgecroft. In the 4th quarter we finally adapted to the poor officiating on defense and quit fouling and by spreading the court on offense we exposed their weakness which was lack of size in the post.

It was a great team effort and the 5 starters had to play alot of minutes and dig deep in the 4th quarter facing foul trouble, unreal officials and rowdy fans. I am very proud of the heart and effort you showed down the stretch. I was also very proud of the execution we played with when the chips were on the table both offensively and defensively. We need to focus on doing that for 4 quarters instead of just the 4th quarter.

I want to single out a couple of players who had excellent stat lines for this game. Lindy Clark had her best game yet as a Viking, 14 points on 5/6 shooting, 16 rebounds (10 defensive,6 offensive), 2 steals, 4 out of 5 from the foul line and 0 turnovers. In addition she played much of the second half with 4 fouls and managed to not foul out.

Jamie Harris, 6/9 from the floor for 12 points, 5 rebounds and 5 steals and only 3 turnovers. Plus she had to sit alot in the 2nd quarter with 2 early fouls and was able to play the rest of the game with only 1 more foul. She picked up her game in the 4th quarter offensively when the chips were on the table and our team needed it.

Remember however, there is no way we win this game or any game without the contributions of the rest of the players. Especially in this game Jesse who took #11 defensively for a good portion of the game and almost made herself sick by playing so hard, Lindsey with 7 assists over half of which came during the critical 4th quarter, and she had to do the bulk of the ball handling against a very quick defensive player and a team that overplayed the passing lanes and were allowed to foul without it being called everytime down the court. The PG has the toughest job on the court and without good play from that position your team has no chance. Also, Emily who played tough around the basket and scored 5 points and had 6 rebounds and 3 steals and 1 assist, maybe her best game yet as a Viking.

So we have some good things to build on. We are a good team and when we play like we are capable we can be a great team. You players keep chasing it and I will keep pushing you for your best.

We win as a team and we lose as a team. We are no better than the weakest link on the court at any given time, everyone has to do their job and do it to the best of their ability every possession offensively and defensively. We also have to focus on doing it right and doing it consistently in practice. Remember, Practice alone does not make perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect.

* (Star Symbol) Means outstanding for their position or outstanding for the amount of time played!

2- Scoring totals- Lindy 14*, Jamie 12*, Emily 5, Jessie 5, Lindsey 4.

3- Shooting percentage: Team 45.7%** (Best of the Season)

4- Individual shooting: Lindy 5/6*, Jamie 6/9*, Jessie 2/4*, Lindsey 2/5, Emily 1/6, Alex 0/5

5- Rebounds: Lindy 16**(Tied with Ashton for the most ever coached by me), Jamie 3, Emily 3, Mer 3*, Jesse 2, Alex 2, Lindsey 1.

6- Assists: Jesse 4*, Lindsey 1, Casey 1*, Emily 1*.

7- Turnovers: Lindsey 8, Jesse 5, Jamie 3*, Emily 2, Casey 2, Mer 1, Alex 1.

8- Steals: Lindsey 7*, Jamie 5*, Emily 3*, Lindy 2*, Mer 1*, Casey 1*.

9- Foul Shooting: Lindy 4/5*, Jesse 1/2*, Emily 3/7 and Jamie 0/2. Team 50%*

10- Blocks: Lindsey 1*

11- Opponents Scoring: #11 Hennie Larabee 22 pts. 7 FG's, 8/13 FT's, #23 Nichole El-Khoury 3 pts. 1 FG, 1/2 FT, #13 Mary-Joe Harrell 7 pts. 0 FG's 7/9 FTs, #14 Katie Blowe 3 pts. 0 FG, 3/5 FTs.

As you can see they basically except for #11 could not score from the floor(1 other FG early in the game). They had to go to the foul line to have a chance. They are obviously taught to draw contact and kind of jump into the defender. Having a hometown bias official made their offense work real well for them and us reaching and dropping our arms made it worse.

In games like this you have to adapt. I was not saying keep your hands up just to hear myself holler, every time we swatted down it was a foul. That is simply a case of you need to pay more attention to what I say. When we finally did late in the game we pulled away. We will do better if we play them again.

We play hard but we play with class, sportsmanship is essential if we want to call ourselves a classy team. I am proud of the way we play. Keep it up. The behavior of the parent after the JV boys game will be a black eye for their school for a long time. Shameful, and I know for a fact their school is embarrased because of it but you cannot undo what is already done so always think before doing something foolish.

Basically in my opinion the officials that called both JV games, one in particular basically incited these hostile actions from the crowds of both teams with their poor or biased officiating.

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.

Coach May

vs. Village Christian

2009-12-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

I don't have time to post much. I just wanted to tell you what a gallant effort you made in coming back and tying up the game against VC tonight. It took heart and we played with a lot of it. Be proud of that.

Got to bounce back quick. Its a huge game tomorrow vs. Ridgecroft on the road. Game time is 4:00pm, we leave at 2:10.

1- Scoring: Jamie 8, Lindsey 5, Lindy 4, Jessie 4, Mer 2, Caroline 1.

2- Rebs: Lindy 7, Jamie 3, Lindsey 3, Mer 2, Caroline 2, Jessie 2, Emily 1.

3- Assists: Jessie 2, Lindy 2, Lindsey 1, Emily 1

4- Steals: Jamie 7, Emily 4, Mer 3, Jessie 2, Lindsey 1, Lindy 1

5- Blocks: Jamie 2

6- Team Shooting %- 32.25% 10/31

7- Team Foul Shooting %- 36.4% 4/11

8- Individual shooting %: Mer 1/1, Lindy 2/4, Lindsey 2/4, Jesse 2/7, Jamie 3/10,
Caroline 0/3, Emily 0/2.

9- Individual Foul Shooting: Jamie 2/3, Caroline 1/2, Lindsey 1/4, Emily 0/2

10- Opponents scoring: #32-9pts. #20 -5pts. #5 -4 pts. #24-3pts. #30 &#22- 2pts.

11- Turnovers: Lindsey 4, Mer 2, Jamie 2, Jesse 1.

Thoughts: We played with great hustle and heart(Play Hard). We played unselfish(Play Together). We did not execute our situational plays very well (Play Smart) We will get better. Think about how important it would have been to have those blown chances back where we lined up impropertly or executed poorly. 2 points and we win the game.

This was a very good team. It was also well coached. I would say they are very similar to RRHS. We came up 1 point short and we had a chance to win the game. We have just got to become more focused at executing our play as well as we can each and every time . When we go some execution at the end we scored and scored quickly. Get some rest and lets get after it again tomorrow.

Each new day brings hope and new opportunities to those that look for them.

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together

Coach May

Post edited to add some information 12/10/10

Victory @ Fayetteville Christian

2009-12-04T19:38:00.000-08:00

Hi Girls,

Stats: * beside a stat means very impressive!

1- Final Score 32 to 15*. A very nice win.

2- Scoring Totals: Lindy 10*, Mer, 6, Lindsey 4, Caroline 4, Jamie 3, Jesse 2 , Emily 2.

3- Rebounding: Lindy 4, Emily 4, Jamie 3, Jesse 3, Mer 3, Caroline 2, Alex 1. For a total of 24 rebounds. 18 defensive, 6 offensive.

4- Steals: Jamie 7*, Lindy 5*, Em, Jess, Lindsey, Mer, Casey 1 each. Total 17.

5- Assists: Lindsey 6*, Jamie 2, Lindy, Jesse, Caroline 1 each. Total 11.

6- Blocks: Jamie 1 *

7- Free Throws: Jamie 1 of 2, Alex 1 of 2, Mer 0 of 2.

8- Shooting percentage: 15 out of 48, 31.3%. Free Throws 2 out of 6 33.3%.

9- Scoring by Qtrs: H.A. first: 6 to 4, 16 to 4*, 8 to 7, 2 to 0.

10- Defensive stats: Fay Ch. scoring: #15 K Sawyer 8 points, #51 C Walker 7 points. No one else scored.

11- Turnovers: Mer 5, Jamie 3, Jesse 3, Lindsey 3*, Caroline 2, Emily 1, Casey 1.

12- Individual shooting: Lindsey 2/4*, Em 1/2*, Mer 3/7, Caroline 2/5, Jessie 1/6, Jamie 1/8, Caitlin 0/1, Alex 0/3 Team % 31.25

Thoughts: Winning is a lot more fun than losing. From the looks of the other games, F.C. has a good basketball program so take pride in the win. I thought our TEAM defense was better today than it has been since the first game. When someone got beat our post players and other players did a good job of helping off their man and making the competiton make a play.

I thought our post players did a good job of posting up and getting good shots in the low post, I think our perimeter players did a nice job of getting the ball to the low post on timely passing and moving the ball around their zone.

We dominated the rebounding and our pressure defense made it hard for them to run their offense, these are the two main reasons we won.

We did not exploit their weakness in the high post at all. That will be worked on in practice next week. They had a hole there that we never got the ball in.

We made too many unforced turnovers (18 total). Basically we did a good job of playing winning basketball, but we all know we can still play better. I was disappointed we only scored 2 points in the final quarter. I think that was simply a case of losing our focus, kind of like at the end of the chaos drill when everyone is tired.

Our first objective in a game is to pressure the ball and get points from making steals and running the fastbreak.

Our second objective is to keep the other team from getting any easy shots. Especially no lay ups or short follow shots.

Our third objective is to try to get the ball in the low post or drive the ball to the basket, as you can see thats where our points come from. If the low post players can get a good shot thats great if they cannot they pass back outside and the wings might get a good look or we can swing the ball and look for something good on the other side and give their defense a chance to make a mistake by making them shift.

As a team we have to focus on learning to make the shots our offense presents us. That means we have to spend more time on our individual skills and make sure we are doing them correctly.
More emphasis on proper shooting form and low post and high post movement and scoring is on our agenda.

Also more emphasis on boxing out and weakside offensive rebounding.

We have Village Christian at home on Tuesday, Ridgecroft on the road on Wednesday and Fayetteville Academy away on Friday. Next week will be a busy week. Try to find time to work on your game some this weekend. 100 shots with the proper form would be a good start.

We will be putting in a man to man offense and overload offense on Monday and maybe a new inbounds play called Carolina. Be on the court early if possible.

We were the best prepared team on the court Friday, lets work to make sure we are the best prepared this week both as a team and as an individual.

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together

Coach May