York PA

Hi all,

Hope every ones holiday break was/is fantastic, I know you've missed reading these so it's about that time to start posting again as I sit here in our hotel lobby in York, PA. Since our arrival back on campus on the 26th we had four practices in three days before we departed for our trip this past Friday. Taking a pit stop in my hometown of Ridgewood, NJ we ate at Tommy's restaurant in Paramus:

Afterwords we went to one of my middle schools and had a light shoot around/walk through before getting back on the bus to finish up our trip. Through a mild snow storm, and some great driving by Jimmy our bus driver, we finally made it to the hotel and we prepared to take on the 12th seeded team in the country, York College on their home court. Dedicated as the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament, each team was wearing some form of pink, we were repping the pink elites:

After a hard fought battle against York, we ended up losing by one point and intend on going into our game tomorrow at 1pm with that fire knowing that we could have beat a nationally ranked team. Since we will be traveling home straight after the game tomorrow, I won't be able to blog until I get back to school; since I still have not crossed into the 21st century with technology. Definitely check out our website to get live updates and the final score if you feel so inclined. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, until next time...

Tis the Season

Hi all,
Hope this post finds you well now, and for the next few weeks seeing as this is going to be the last post until after Christmas. This past week was a very busy yet exciting one to say the least. Tuesday we had a phenomenal win over WPI on their home court, a team we have not beaten for a few years now, it was awesome; the team played and hard. Yesterday, (Friday) we had a BIG game against #22 ranked (that's in the nation) Babson College, feeling fired up from our win on Tuesday we were ready to pull out one of the biggest upsets in NEWMAC play. It was also a big day too for our Heller's Angels friends, they came to support us, play at halftime, and then enjoy a pizza party afterwords. A few great photos are shown below:

Heller's halftime game

 

 

Family Photo

 

 

We always have such a good time with them and can't wait to hang out with them again. Which reminds me, in order to help make that happen please remember to vote for us in the NCAA poll mentioned last post, here's the link again: http://www.ncaa.org/D3SpecialOlympics ... spread the news to family, friends, distant relatives, your aunts and uncles who you aren't quite sure if they're related to you or not. Vote on multiple browsers, computers, under different user names,aliases; anything at all that you could do would be greatly appreciated!

 

Back to talking about Babson, what a game. We had a phenomenal crowd as we hosted our first ever Blue Out game, we gave out free t-shirts to the first 150 to arrive and everyone there was so blue and enthused which definitely helped us out. Here are some pictures courtesy of once again John Sutyak and the second one shown is by photographer Keith Nordstrom:

 

 

 

SO BLUE!

 

With the crowd behind us and the adrenaline coursing through our veins we gave Babson one heck of a fight. We ended up losing but throughout the whole game we played so well. So well that I would even go out on a limb and say that this was one of Babson's closest NEWMAC games in quite a while. Although the cards didn't fall in our favor, it just proved to us that we are capable of beating them the next time we meet, I couldn't be more proud of my team. With that being said, that just about wraps up my last post of fall semester, when we come back we will be practicing hard and preparing for our York (PA) tournament the weekend after Christmas where we take on the York team who is ranked 14th in the nation; it is also a game promoting cancer awareness and we will be sporting some pretty cool hot pink elite socks courtesy of coach. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season. Until next time...



NEWMAC Week One

Hi all,

Hope everyone is doing well. This week was an exciting and busy week all the same with our conference opener against Coast Guard on Wednesday and playing at Smith yesterday; both being on the road. With two long bus rides ahead of us we were ready for NEWMAC play to start. On Wednesday we beat Coast Guard for our first in conference win but unfortunately Smith did not go that way. Now knowing what we have to work on in practice we're getting our mind geared toward WPI on Tuesday and then after that our culminating semester game against Babson on Friday. In addition to our Babson game on Friday, that game will be dedicated as a "Blue Out" which means everyone should come and support us wearing all blue, and the first 150 people attending will receive a free t-shirt; who doesn't like free stuff? Should be a fun time!

On another note I would like to mention, and very happily at that, the our basketball team has been nominated by the NCAA to be put in the running for the top Special Olympics Spotlight for December. To read the story that got us this bid, here is the link: http://athletics.wheatoncollege.edu/sports/wbkb/2012-13/releases/20121127nz5yox
After reading this article, or not, please go to this link: http://www.ncaa.org/D3SpecialOlympics and vote for Wheaton College (Mass.) Women's Basketball, Heller's Angels Friendship Continues To Foster option and help us receive 500 dollars towards our next Special Olympics activity!


Amongst all of this, finals week is just around the corner so I'm off to get some work done before practice. Until next time...

Thanksgiving Break

Hello again,

Feels like it's been forever since we last talked. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of good food and great company. Mine was awesome, I was fortunate enough to visit the fabulous state of New Hampshire and spend it with the Pierce's and Sarah Fitzgerald, lots of good laughs. For as short as break was, we had to get back to school to continue in our preparation for Mt. Ida which was played today. I'm happy to report that we got the "W" and it was an all around great team effort; players 1-15 participated in helping us get the victory. Here are two pictures from the game, take a look:

 This is our pre-game pump up huddle

 

This is the tip off

 

Photo-cred is courtesy of our athletic director, thanks! Now that Thanksgiving week is over, I'm sure most of you are getting ready for the holiday season rush, but us, we're getting ready for our holiday season, NEWMAC play. These next two games are pivotal as we have a stretch of four NEWMAC games before Christmas break starting with the Coast Guard Academy on Wednesday. Stay tuned for all the updates, until next time...

Week in Recap

Hi all,

Since my last post we have had a very busy week. We opened up our season against Roger Williams University on the road this past Thursday. Although the turnout was not in our favor, it gave us fire going into the practice and the weekend ahead. Having a great practice on Friday we were looking forward to hosting our Cheryl Warren-Powers Tournament where we played Lesley in the first game on Saturday. Here are a few photos from the weekend:


Cheryl's children being given Wheaton One-sie Uniforms

We even had the Norton Travel team that we mentored cheering us on!

 

 

Overall, Saturday was a huge success. We had a fantastic crowd full of alums, family, and school supporters, along with several local basketball teams who came to cheer us on (can't forget the lion). We raised a good amount of money for the cause being promoted and we played well, throughout the entire team, against Lesley to secure the win and send us into the championship game on Sunday. Today (Sunday) we played against Suny Oneonta from New York State. We were not able to pull out a victory, a victory that should have been ours, but we took it as a learning experience to not want to feel like that again. With that burning sensation in our stomachs, we head into this weeks practices before our final non-conference game against Mt. Ida on Sunday, and after that comes NEWMAC play. On behalf of the team, I want to thank those who came out and supported us in any way that they could this weekend, and we look forward to working hard and getting better before Mt. Ida. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving, until next time...

Cheryl-Warren Powers Memorial Tournament

Hi all,

I just wanted to take this opportunity to promote our home tournament this weekend, 11/17-18. Below you will find a link to our athletics page so you can further read on to see what it is all about. It's a great cause and we'll have some great competition here. We hope that you can join us for our first home games of the season! See you soon..




http://athletics.wheatoncollege.edu/sports/wbkb/2012-13/releases/20121115mbbs92

Countdown to RWU

Hi all,

Sorry this post is coming to you so late, social psychology has become my new best friend over these past couple of days. Never the less, I posted now so I wouldn't disappoint my faithful followers. This week in review has been a busy one to say the least and looking ahead it won't be dying down either; but hey, we're college students and thrive off of having multiple tasks on our plate. As mentioned last week, I gave a shout-out to our women's soccer team, well this time, you guessed it I would like to do the same and congratulate them on making it to the NCAA Sweet 16 round that will be played this weekend. How'd they get there you may be wondering, well they received an at large bid (rightfully so) which allowed them to enter based on their strength of schedule and record. Not only that but they also earned the right to host the first two rounds right here at Wheaton. Defeating an un-defeated Westfield State on Saturday and a very tough Williams on Sunday they earned a spot in the Sweet 16 and we wish them nothing but the best of luck!

Since my last post we had our final scrimmage against CCRI and we played very well against a talented team which was great motivation heading into the final week of practice before our season opener.We also had the great opportunity to work with Heller's Angels Saturday night and help host/ be a part of their fall harvest ball. Activities such as dancing, an award ceremony for the kids participation in the program, arts and crafts, and even face painting as shown below; we had a blast and as did the angels!

Laura enjoying the face painting station with some kids

After an eventful Saturday, we started off Sundays practice with team goal setting, we selected three goals that the team wants to achieve by the end of the year. That in turn set the mood for our practice and realistically the tone for the rest of the year. As mentioned earlier, our season opener is this Thursday at Roger Williams, hard to believe that pre-season is almost over which means that practice more than ever this week needs to be our best yet. With every ones excitement for the season to start, I have no doubt practice will be just that. I'm off to continue studying, until next time...

Since Last Time

Hi all,

After Hurricane Sandy did its destruction on the east coast, I hope that this post doesn't find anyone with a whole lot of troubles. I know that New Jersey got hit pretty hard, there's hardly any Jersey Shore left and my family still has no power and there is no indication of when it is suppose to return. I'm sure my two youngest sisters are just about going crazy without having any of their electronics and probably suffering through hours of board games. However, for us up at Wheaton we were fortunate enough to not get hit too hard. We experienced some strong winds and heavy rain at times which called for no school on October 29th, but all was resumed after that. Now the newest weather forecast is a nor'easter supposedly hitting come Wednesday, hopefully this is nothing too extreme.

To break away from the weather, we had our first scrimmage last week which was a lot of fun, overall things went well, our team played hard, and with a lot of energy; but there is always room for improvement. Our next one is scheduled for this coming Wednesday's (11/7/12) at home, come support if you're around. To stay on the topic of sports, I want to give a HUGE shout out to our nationally ranked women's soccer team who made it all the way to the NEWMAC championship today at Springfield College. Their game was played at 1pm and unfortunately the outcome was not in our favor however, their accomplishments that were reached this season is nothing short of amazing.

Finally, I hope that everyone had a tremendous Halloween, I know that we made the most out of it as we possibly could up at school. To put a little smile on every ones faces, below is a picture of what our freshmen dressed up as last week (picture shown with their consent, of course):

Thanks for being troopers guys

 

Before practice starts, I need to figure out the classes I'm going to take for my last semester of college (absolutely crazy). I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend, until next time..

Week Two

Hey all,

I hope this post finds everyone well as I'm sure most people on the east coast are preparing for Hurricane Sandy at anytime now, or as newscasters are calling it "Frankenstorm"-clever. Between last years snow storm on Halloween and this years expected Hurricane, the weather is surely making for some tough conditions to trick or treat in. However, to sort of back away from the glum upcoming weather, here's a shot of what campus has looked like pretty much all week:

Gotta love the fall

On the basketball side of this week, we've been having some great practices in anticipation for our first scrimmage against Worcester State on Tuesday; and I think that I can speak for everyone when I say that we are way more then excited to play. Next weeks post will have you filled in on how everything went. Unfortunately homework doesn't stop when theres a storm coming through so I'm off to...you guessed it...the library. I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween and stays as dry as possible. Enjoy Sunday football-Go Eagles! Until next time...

Odds and Ends of Week One

Hello again,

Hope this post finds everyone well since last time. This entry is going to be a mix and match of a bunch of different things that have been going on since the first day of season on October 15th as well as prior to it, and actually, what better way to start then at the beginning. Since my freshman year when I first stepped onto this campus I was quickly informed that this team has been deeply rooted in the community service aspect of society for quite some time, and I'm happy to report that that bond is as strong as ever. Throughout the month of September, our team was fortunate enough to be able to collaborate with the local Norton 8th grade basketball team and host a weekly mentoring program where we not only worked on basketball but incorporated different goal settings, fun activities like handshakes and lip syncing, as well as focusing on community service projects such as 9/11, the Little Angels of Warren Powers, DJ Dream Fund, and MDS-TeamRobin. The outcome was very rewarding, seeing the kids gradually grow into not only better basketball players but members of society as well. And since I'm all about new gear, both teams acquired jerseys that showed the connection between the two communities. Some cool pictures are shown below:

My partner and I

Priceless Expression

As you know we had our Alumnae game on October 14th which was a lot of fun, although we were only able to watch, it was a great way to kick off the season and even better to see some of our old teammates, check it out:

 

What a great looking group. Following this came October 15th, the moment we've all be waiting for (and don't worry, we all survived) and rather then giving an in depth description of all the drills we went through, attached below is a link that will take you to our athletics web page where you can check out a video shot by our coach during the first few days:

 

http://www.facebook.com/wheatonlyons

 

Finally, at the end of our busy week, we spent Saturday morning working a 5K fundraiser dedicated towards the DJ Dream Fund, more information about this can be found online at this website http://www.facebook.com/djdreamfund. Here in Easton, we cheered on the hundreds of people who showed up to participate in this 5K and by the looks of the pictures shown below, you can tell that we were having a blast:

Cheering on the participants

 

Picture with DJ's sister, Amber

 

 

Well, I think that just about does it as far as catching my loyal followers up on what Wheaton Women's basketball has been doing since last time we talked. Now back to finishing up papers for the week to come before our practice later tonight. For those of you who are Pats fans, good luck at 4:15. Until next time...







The Final Countdown

Hi all,

As many of you recall, last year Wheaton Women's Basketball had the privilege of one of our freshman, Kenzie Kuhn, writing to you every week. Now that she's no longer the baby of the group, I have been given the task of taking over her duties and giving you guys a little bit of a different perspective. My name is Gabby Barbera, I'm a guard from Ridgewood in the great state of New Jersey, and this year you'll be reading about our team through my eyes, as a senior.

In a few days my final season of my basketball career is about to begin, and honestly I never thought I would be saying that. Growing up as a child (or at least I thought) basketball was a sport that I would be playing competitively forever,  it's weird to think that all of this is going to come to a close in just a few short months. However, with all the sentimental thoughts, comes feelings of anticipation and just overall excitement. If ever there was a time to give it your all, senior year would have to be it. This Sunday starts off the mixed feelings with a scrimmage played by the Alumnae which in turn will get us all pumped up for our own first practice the following day. In addition to all this, we got some pretty sweet new gear as well. Fresh out of the cardboard boxes on Wednesday were some blue sweats, a nice change from your everyday grey or black. Also, as you'll see pictured below are our new home uniforms and fancy new basketballs begging to be dribbled and shot come Monday; take a look:

 

 

Pretty sweet, huh? Just like Kenzie had struggled with laundry last season, it seems as though the library will be my second home this year and right now, it's calling my name. I hope you enjoyed the first blog of our season and I look forward to posting more as the days progress. Until next time...