"Courtside" with Effran Bryant

Who can believe it? The time has come for the 2009-10 basketball season to get started. After seeing all the support from the student body and the Stephenville community the other night at Midnight Madness, I know this is going to be a very exciting year for this basketball team.

The crowd brought so much excitement to Wisdom Gym on Wednesday night. The Sound and the Fury marching band was in attendance keeping the noise to extreme levels. With every dunk and shot made the crowd went crazy. I just know with support like that, the wins will come so much easier in our schedule.

The way they changed up the structure of Midnight Madness this year was both fun and humorous. It was the first time we have ever had a little competition between the Texans and TexAnns. Sonya Sundberg and I competed in an old-fashioned, three-point contest. The audience got behind both of us, but what can I say, she got the best of me on that one.

I am happy the fans finally got to see firsthand the new transfers and freshmen the coaching staff brought in for this season. I am very excited to know the intelligence and enthusiasm these newcomers have brought meet the standards and pride of the returning nucleus from the 2008-09 basketball team. And with the experience of our coaching staff, this could be one of those special years at Tarleton State.

Coach Chris Reisman and Coach Jabarr Adams have worked very hard with us this preseason. The coaching staff changed a lot of things this year because of school starting later in August. We have showed in the first couple of practices that we were more than ready to start Coach Reisman’s two weeks of basketball boot camp. All the credit - and I must not lie here – goes to working with Coach Rod Cole in the weight room. That has helped all the players change their body structure and become better athletes in the strength department.

October is almost gone and November 17th isn’t that far away, but we still have a lot of work to do before we start worrying about the season and home opener against Dallas Baptist.

More next time…

"Courtside" with Sonya Sundberg

Well, Midnight Madness has come and gone. Last night we kicked off the season with… a little dancing... and of course some basketball as well. We spent the day preparing for what we were going to do when we came out and that is what we came up with. If you weren’t there, we came out in two's and met in the middle and did a little dance routine with our partners, then with two groups on the opposite side we came together doing the Remember the Titans walk. It was a blast and just proved even more to me how fun this year is going to be. Our team chemistry is great and just continues to grow every day. After a little fun dancing we were introduced and played a little 5 on 5 scrimmage. The guys took the court and we cheered them on as they dunked and danced.

After the guys were introduced and they scrimmaged, we had a special event for the first time ever, a three point contest between the Texans and TexAnns. One member from each team was chosen to represent the team. There were fifteen balls each, five balls on each rack with the last ball being the money ball. Effran Bryant shot for the Texans and I shot for the TexAnns. I got the pleasure of going first and made seven. Poor Effran was having a bad shooting night and came up just short. It was a lot of fun and hopefully will continue to be a tradition that is passed on throughout Midnight Madness.

With Midnight Madness ending around one in the morning we woke up about 5 hours later and had our first practice this morning. It was great to get the entire team out there working together for the first time this season. We are really going to be something special this year if we continue to work hard!


Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us at Midnight Madness! We appreciate you all so much and can’t wait for the first exhibition game to get here November 10!

Go TexAnns!
Sonya

"At the Net" - with Shay Gracy

WE WON!! WE WON!! WE WON!!! It is such a great feeling, being able to walk away with a win and know that we earned it!!! As you can see, we won Saturday against Southwestern Oklahoma!! We beat them in 3 sets!! We played hard and never let down!!! The atmosphere on the court was awesome!! Everyone was talking and having fun!! Like I stated earlier we made a pact to talk and hold each other accountable, and I think it worked. We are 2-2 in conference now, and still have a long season in front of us!! Saturday's win was what we needed!! It got our confidence back up and refreshed our memory of what it feels like to walk away with a win!!!!

We have practice this week before we travel to Topeka, Kansas!! The practices this week are very crucial and we need to be in tip-top shape when we compete in Kansas. I know we can do it - we just have TO do it!! We will be facing two teams that we have played and did not walk away with the win!! This time it’s going to be different!! We have come along way and we are a better team now!!!

Outside of the volleyball court, school has been a little stressful for everyone!! We have been traveling a lot and trying to stay on top of our work, but it can be difficult at times!! Therefore, whenever we have any free time it turns into study time!! Which of course, its not a bad thing!!!

Thanks for all the support from everyone!!!


Shay

"At the Net" - with Shay Gracy

Well its about 9 p.m. on Friday night and we just got back to the hotel from eating supper. Everyone is getting ready to call it a night since curfew is at 9:30. We had practice tonight and it was filled with a lot of emotions. We worked hard like we do every other practice, but there was something special about this practice - WE HAD FUN!!! We have all come to realization that we are not a successful team when we do not enjoy ourselves out on the court and when we have a limited amount of talking.
Therefore, with that being said, in the middle of our practice we all came together to talk things out. We all decided that instead of looking too much into ourselves about what we can do better individually, we are going to look to one another... and that talking to each other is going to be the key. So, we made a pact and the pact was to talk consistently - no matter what the circumstances are. The last two games that we have played, out on the court it has felt like we are stranded out in the middle of the ocean on six different islands. I know it sounds goofy, but that’s what it felt like and I what it looked like.

So, tomorrow we face Southwestern Oklahoma and they are 3-0 in conference. They beat Kingsville in 4 on Thursday night. SWOSU is on high right now and we are going to have to show up to play to win this match. If we can get all six cylinders going on the court we will be just fine. So our biggest challenges are to all have our killer instinct game faces on with the consistent talk that is much needed.

I am personally excited and ready for this game. It’s a big game and I want to prove to people that we aren’t a fluke when we come away with a win. We have the most talent in the conference - it is just taking a little extra effort to get it all out on the court. Therefore, I am simply ready to play. I believe with my heart that we can do it!!! I tell the girls every game day that we are going to have to earn it, that its not going to be given to us, and I think it is really starting to sink in.

Thanks for everything!!!

Shay

"Court Side" - with Sonya Sundberg

We are almost there! With midnight madness right around the corner, the team is getting very anxious to start the season. We have had a tough off-season this year from running sprints and long distance to working hard in the weight room and most importantly in pick-up games and individuals. It will all be worth it when it pays off in the season.

We have high expectations for ourselves this year, but we know other teams do as well, so we just have to keep working hard. On the downside, we have had a few injuries and people out due to sickness the last few weeks. However, we would rather it have happened now than during season, so we are thankful for that. Everyone is slowly coming back and hopefully we will all be back and healthy ready to go by October 15th.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone at Midnight Madness!!!

Go TexAnns!
Sonya

"Going the Distance" with Jared McNeil

So we finally had our first meet this past weekend in Joplin, Missouri. We raced an 8k in which all seven guys ran a personal best and the time gap from our number one through five was only 58 seconds.

For the first meet of the year - and it only being September - we are all really excited about what's to come this season. The only down side to the weekend was that three of the four teams that beat us are in our region and only three teams go to nationals from each region. We wont see any of those teams again until November, so until then, we will be working hard and getting prepared for the North Texas meet on the 2nd of October.

"At the Net" - with Shay Gracy

Once practice started today, I could finally stop replaying the last point of Saturday's game in my head. I have tried everything to come up with some realization of what happened. I have analyzed and broke down what I could have done differently to keep that ball in play. I can’t take back what happened on Saturday, but I can take ownership, move on and get ready for Thursday's game. If you couldn't already tell, we did not win on Saturday against Commerce. We played hard, tried hard, but just couldn’t stay consistent. Consistency was the key to that game and that was why it ended up the way it did. We can't dwell on the outcome of that game it is in the past now. All we can do now is prepare to take care of future business and see what is in store for us down the road.

We leave Thursday morning and head to Edmond, Oklahoma to face Central Oklahoma. Central Oklahoma is 0-2 in conference, but that still does not mean anything. The ball is in our court and we have to take care of it. Our conference is so tough that every match can belong to either team. Once, we play at UCO we will head to Weatherford, Oklahoma to face Southwestern. Southwestern is a team that is 2-0. Therefore, once again the ball is in our court, we just have to take care of it.

Today’s practice was a good practice. The girls came back ready to practice and get better. Everyone was in good spirits and ready to earn two wins this week. We have two more practices this week before we head to Oklahoma. We regrouped today after the loss on Saturday, so we can only go up from here.

Thank you again to everyone who supports us. We appreciate it greatly!!!

Go Texanns!!

Shay