Thank You

I would like to thank Coach Scanson for being so persistent 5 and a half years ago when I had an assistant coaching position open. He literally did everything imaginable, including driving to my office from Las Vegas to convince me he was the perfect candidate for the job, and he was.

Coach Scanson has been a valuable coach and teacher to our student athletes bringing more than his enthusiastic "rock star" energy to practices every day.  He was a visionary and pushed our social media networking capabilities to a whole new level. When asked for an idea he would give me twenty options.

The Scanson "Diet Book".

•  If the restaurant has dessert in the name of the restaurant you can have dessert. Ex. Cheesecake Factory.
• You are not allowed to have more than 4 breadsticks.
• Don't eat off of other's plates. He learned that after the first year of finishing my meals on road trips.
• Pick bacon or sausage not bacon and sausage.

Although we will have to find another brilliant chef for team dinners, and I will have to call ITC five times a day, I wish Coach Scanson and his family the best in their new adventure. Our staff and team will miss you but know this is a great opportunity for your family.

So you ask where is Coach Scanson going? Our program has been utilizing the services of a software company called Fast Model that organizes playbooks and opponent scouts. Fast Model just got a great addition, but he won't "break" when you ask him for MSU's plays!

The best news of all is that he is still in Bozeman and now can dance WITH his daughter during the music before our opening tip.

Coach Bin

Cagey Squirrels

My family went camping with some friends this weekend and found ourselves in a pickle with the local squirrel community. The second we set up camp squirrels were running in a dither, which at first was a joy. All of the kids were pointing with excitement trying to catch them.

The next morning, however, was not so wonderful. Our friend came over and said that squirrels had gotten into his camper and stole something underneath the hood. Then we saw a squirrel running from another vehicle carrying something.

So my husband popped his hood, a squirrel jumped out, and he jumped out of its way with his own cat like reflexes. Our children will be so athletic!

As we looked in the hood we noticed the insulation was all torn up. These nice, sweet rodents were destroying our insulation to build themselves a cozy nest. Instead of sweet words our children were now pointing saying "mean squirrels."

We went into immediate protection mode.

• Keep the hood raised so the squirrel can't reach the insulation. That didn't work as they can jump.


• Spray the insulation with mosquito spray. Failed! They aren't mosquitoes.


• Wait with my son's Indiana Jones whip and then scare them. I'd rather go boating on the lake.

In the end we let them have our insulation and build themselves a comfortable Silverado Sofa. They have learned to adapt to city slickers coming in on their neck of the woods so we might as well let them have what they want.

Coach Bin

Purpose

I, along with assistant coach Mandy Close, spent the last two days listening to amazing speakers at the Global Leadership Summit. Going into the summit my expectations were to learn how to be a better leader, better teacher, improve my skills, and grow stronger in my faith and relationship with my Lord and Savior.

What I got out of this summit was so much more. I think the core of this Summit challenged each of us, more than 160,000+ listeners to ask a very important question. What is our purpose and how do we fulfill it to the best of our ability? As Pastor Steven Furtick put it, "don't survive the world, change it."

I feel blessed and humbled that I have been given an opportunity to coach and teach young women. Our student athletes learn the importance of sacrifice, putting their teammates above themselves, serving their community with thanks. .In fact, the best and most admired student athletes are the ones who hone such humility.

If I could accomplish one goal for each student athlete, besides winning the Big Sky Conference and Championship, it is that they identify their purpose beyond basketball and run toward it with perseverance.

I am a work in progress as always, but feel re energized for an incredible 2011-2012 Season,

Coach Bin

Disneyland

What do you do when you finish July recruiting? YOU GO TO DISNEYLAND!

My family and extended family including my niece and nephew, sister, and Nana and Papa planned the day to a tee. Todd and my sister organized the day with the "must rides"  list. They used a company called ride a max to map the day out for what times to go to certain rides so we didn't have to stand in lines all day. However, when we got through the doors at 8:32am instead of 8:00am we threw that sheet away.

It didn't matter because the first thing we saw was GOOFY! Brooklyn was so mad that we didn't just hang out with him the rest of the day.

Brooklyn's first ride was Astro Boy, or something like that, a space ship while the others went on Space Mountain. Once we got buckled in she started pulling on the yoke saying "it's broken."

Finding Nemo-AWESOME for all ages. Would have been a better first ride for Justin as he thought he was going to fall out on the Space Mountain ride.

Walking & Waiting. Grabbing and holding, making sure we don't lose anyone. The names and numbers we wrote on the kid's arms that morning had already smeared off. Great idea in theory.

Eating ONLY for nutritional value as food is not Disneyland's strength. Ironically Brooklyn ate very well.

Pirates of the Caribbean was the longest line but worth standing. Isn't it funny that you lose all sense of sanitary thinking when you get tired? We sat on the ground, leaned on anything stationary, and who knows what we touched. Once on the ride though Brooklyn realized it was more intense than Astro as we dropped like a roller coaster and she screamed. As a concerned mother I leaned over thinking she would be scared and she said, "mommy, we dropped and I said awww!" she loved it.

Finally for Justin, only asking the seventh time of the day when we get to go on the Indiana Jones ride, we at got to go in the store. He was now in costume, Brooklyn had her Princess Hat with Micky Mouse Ears on, and the group was ready to go find the Lost Ark. Mainly because Brooklyn fell asleep in the stroller.

Nana and Papa hung out with their grandchild and the rest of us sprinted over through the "fast pass" lane to see Harrison Ford. It was exciting, entertaining, and frightening as my sister ducked when she thought the boulder was going to actually hit her. Justin was so excited that he......didn't want to go on the ride again. I guess it was scarier than we initially thought.

For a 2 year old and a 7 year old, the day could have easily been done around late afternoon, but being the frugile parents that Todd and I are, we decided to get our money's worth. So we fed them cotton candy and that second wind caught right up to our 12 and 17 year old niece and nephew.

We raced to Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear, Toon Town, saw Micky's family in the parade.  I found out that my sister is actually a secret spy after her ride on Star Tours which explains a lot.

As our feet got tired, we waited it out for one final push down Splash Mountain, and then had two children crash on me for the fireworks. I lost count of how much money was spent because when you go to Disneyland, it really is the land where dreams come true.

So I didn't really spend $10 on a cup of macaroni for my kid.

Coach Bin