Vacation

Todd and I pulled it off yesterday. We drove nine hours, on our trek to Idaho to see our families, with 2 kids in the back seat and DIDN'T lose our minds.

Todd and I have big plans for this vacation, the first is to REST.

Last night wasn't the best start as Brooklyn woke up at 2:30am and stayed awake until grandpa woke up at 5:30. I am optimistic her sleeping will improve on this trip.

Second item on the agenda is to WORKOUT every day. Todd and I went for a run this morning, one of the first for us together without kids in a long time. Despite the roaring Minnesota wind, it was incredible.

Of course Todd had to jump in the truck afterward to see how many miles we actually ran.

Speaking of Minnesota, Todd told me once when we were flying into the Minneapolis Airport that is where they invented the "mini" sodas. You know, those smaller versions of a Soda Pop.

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Summer Training

Our team is in full swing in their summer workouts. Right now everyone is spread out whether they are finishing high school, at home enjoying the warm weather as LaTisha Adams says, or training back here in Bozeman.

What I love about this team is their commitment to each other. They all agreed to train together for the second session of summer school which begins at the end of June. During that time, some of them will be taking summer classes, some will work on the golf course, but the most important thing is that they will be working out with each other for six weeks straight.

Until that time our players are keeping in touch by sending letters to each other. The first letter was sent by our seniors Sarah Strand and Lyndi Seidensticker. They asked their teammates to e-mail them back their summer goals.

What's great about knowing each other's goals is accountability and motivation to each other. What I am most looking forward to though is seeing their improvement this fall.

Keep up the hard work ladies. Championships are made in the offseason and Champions are the habit of everyday training.

Go Cats!

It Factor

Think about how many women's basketball programs are out there, how many different styles of play, position needs, and ask yourself the most important thing that all coaches are looking for.

Athleticism?

Height?

Strength?

Instinct?

Scoring ability?

Rebounding ability?

These are all great traits, but the most important characteristic is the "IT" factor.

You won't find the definition of "IT" in the dictionary, at least in relation to its importance on the court so let me try to be clear to all of the 2011 prospects looking to get full ride offers by the end of the summer.

The "IT" factor is your toughness, competitiveness, desire, determination, confidence, composure, clutch ability to outwork, and out hustle your opponent.

Coaches put their success in your hands, so we want the player that's going to find a way to win.

Potential doesn't mean anything  if the athlete doesn't have the mentality and work ethic to turn that in to results. Results are what matter when it comes to wins and losses.

So my advice to the 2011 class this summer. Shoot for two letters, I & T.

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Basketball & Marriage

I thought I would do a weekly blog on the similarities between basketball and marriage as my Associate Head Coach's wedding to men's coach T Starr comes closer, 15 days to be exact!

Similarity number one:
You have leaders and you have followers. Temesghan will make a great husband as soon as he realizes who is the leader in the relationship.

Similarity number two:
You can't always be right (vocally) unless you want a technical foul or you want to sleep on the couch.

Similarity number three:
You have to put the time into both to be successful.

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You should come to camp

Road Trip

So the Friday guest blog didn't last too long. I guess no one works on Fridays during off season.

My offseason plans are to

• get rejuvinated: easy once T-Ball season begins tomorrow night & we get the boat out
• establish the next five year vision for the program
• see more of Montana!

This past week I drove to Shelby, Montana for a highschool Athlete the Year Awards Banquet & Lewistown, Montana for a Bobcat Club social and golf scramble.

My Clint Eastwood Good, Bad, & Ugly of these trips

Good: Listening to the amazing accomplishments of the 2009-10 high school athlete's of the week. Talk about talent. 90% of these athletes were multi sport and 90% of the guys had the hair flap behind the ear haircut.

My driver!

Bad: Shelby's pool was under maintenence so my son was pretty upset by that.

My irons & anything related to the short game of golf!

UGLY: Driving back to Bozeman with Temesghen Starr (men's basketball coach) after the Lewistown Golf Scramble. He described himself as "rattled" when he left his keys at the hotel. He found them after three flights of stairs. Then he remembered leaving his golf clubs in Lewistown when we were only 30 miles from Bozeman.

Back to the Good. Temesghen didn't mind listening to all of my country.

Crossing two sides of the state I passed hundreds of elk, deer, antelope, casinos, windmills, ranches, and probably zero skyscrapers! I loved it.

Next is Billings, Fort Benton, and in August our family's first camping trip on Flathead Lake. I hear Glacier National Park is MAJESTIC.

Recommendation for your summer plans. Bring Temesghen Starr. You are sure to have an exciting vacation. Guess who is joining us on Flathead?

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From the Archive - Special Olympics

(This was posted over a year ago during the 2009 Montana Special Olympics)

The Special Olympics Montana State Games has taken over Bozeman with more energy than a Cat-Griz football game!

Wednesday night was the kick off as I helped join volunteers in our community feed over 1500 athletes in under 2 hours before the opening ceremonies. What I admire most about these athletes are the attitudes and optimism.

Here are a few examples:

Spaghetti Dinner - "Please tell the cook this is the best spaghetti I have ever had." There wasn't one complaint with 1500 plates! All I saw were smiles, athletes thanking everyone, and people enjoying an evening with family, friends, and coaches.

Power Lifting - My staff helped our strength coaches with the power lifting on Thursday. This included the bench, squat, and dead lift. Here were some routines:
Patrick - INTENSE, he hit his lift and then yelled "WOOOOO!!!!" to the crowd with clenching and pumping his fists.
Glenn - HAM, Sumo-stomp approach before signaling the crowd to cheer him on.
Aaron - GRIZ all the way, with his maroon uniform. I have to admit he was the first Griz to ever win me over while high-fiving us.
Vivian - FOCUSED, she would throw her dead lift down and then step right over it and walk off.
Heather - TOUGH, she would point to her coach, stare down the weights and then smash it.

Sportsmanship - They compete AND cheer on their competitors. I have never seen so many hugs and support in one room. Jacob would hug competitors before he would lift. Then he would hug athletes after they lifted. Ryan had arms as cut as Sylvester Stalone and would high five every judge near him. They were so supportive of each other that our judges, particularly Andrea, began clapping after they completed their lift. How often do you see a judge cheering?

Coaches - These coaches know their athletes better than anyone. They would come to our table after the first lift to tell us how much weight he or she would lift next. I was thinking, are you sure they should do that much? The athlete would squat without strain and I realized they know their athletes better than I do. The coaches challenged their athletes like any other coach would.

Medal Presentation - This was the best part of the day. The athletes would walk up, receive a bronze, silver, or gold, but then strike their POSE. Not one athlete missed the opportunity to be in the spotlight. Whether they skipped, sprinted, or strutted to the podium, we all enjoyed every minute of it.

Our Bozeman Police Department helped present the medals, but one officer may not know that Aaron added rabbit ears behind his head for the picture. Let me also tell you to look out Buzz... He dead lifted over 400 pounds. WOW!

My nephew Tyler is now 15 years old and has Down Syndrome. I remember when he was born and my dad telling me why we call these children "special." He said they understand how to appreciate and live life to its fullest whereas the rest of us often make that a challenge.

We can certainly learn a lot from their spirit, optimism, and attitudes. What a "special" week for me. I got more out of it than what I was able to give! Great job to all of our athletes this week!

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Camp time!

Happy Mother's Day

What do you do on Mother's Day? Hopefully not much. That's the point right, to take a much needed rest with your family.

My husband made me an omelette for the first time, and it was pretty good after we both added some additional salt. The only thing he forgot was to grease the pan. I just appreciated the 45 minute effort he put into it, although I can whip an omelette up in about 5 minutes. He told me the kitchen was a lot cleaner the way he cooked though.

My kids handed me some cards with personal notes on the inside. I will admit, I couldn't quite understand the chicken scratch by Brooklyn that my husband drew an arrow to saying "from Brooklyn." It's the thought that counts.

Knowing that you are appreciated and are needed is so powerful. Whether it's a grab of your leg when your child is afraid or a call for mommy in the middle of the night after a bad dream you can say you are blessed.

I want to thank all of our moms of our players for such an amazing job they do with their daughters every day. Our student athletes are strong and confident because of their influence.

There is no greater voice than a mom's voice in a child's ear. You'll know that to be true if you've ever witnessed Gwen Perry at a MSU basketball game.

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ICEBOX

Have you ever seen the player who is a "clutch" performer?

How about the player who makes a mistake, shrugs her shoulders, and stops playing?

These scenarios reflect the level of one's mental toughness.

Our staff and team had a company called Icebox talk to us this spring regarding mental training. It's a lot harder to teach mental toughness than it is a layup, but it's also the most important tool in the game.

If you are the one who is a "clutch" performer, you don't get rattled in a tough environment, and are able to keep playing through error, I want to recruit you! You have a gift.

For the rest, here are a few points to work on this summer that I took from this presentation.

"The 4 C's: composure, concentration, commitment, and confidence." I also added competitiveness.

Composure: Put yourself in a challenging environment. Ex. Trash talking open gym player that is physical to guard you. If you can't remember what they said to you at the end you probably improved on your composure.

Concentration: Ex. Shoot your free throws exactly the same way, same thought every time. Now step to the line and have someone wave arms in front of you or put pressure on yourself for a miss. If you are able to keep it the same, knock them in, then you have improved concentration.

Commitment: Whatever workouts you have planned or set for the summer, do 1% more every day. Always make sure NO ONE has done more than you have.

Confidence: If you fully commit to all of these areas, train hard, get a ton of reps, you will find confidence comes a lot easier. If you haven't put in the time and effort, this may be a challenge.

Why is compete so important? Everyone can play hard, but only one team wins!

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