Today was our last full day of camp. It was a unique schedule today, one that involved more down time than the girls were used to in the last few days.
From breakfast the teams moved off into their individual gyms in which they were to take part in a “situations” tournament. The U17’s were in the top division consisting of 5 teams while the U15’s were in the division right below us with three other teams in good ole Graves gym.
How this small tournament works is that each team is asked to execute various different various late game situations against all the other teams in our pool. For example: The Falcons are up by one with 10 seconds left. They have one free throw left to shoot that would increase their lead to two. We rotate to play against each of the other teams in our pool, repeating the same situation every time and recording who wins. The team who is leading after time expires, wins.
Both teams really played hard and did their best to execute what the coaches were asking. In the situations that required our teams to be on the defensive, or execute defensive schemes off of a free throw, the ladies ability to switch and contest shots really made the difference in preventing easy looks at the basket. Unfortunately our teams also struggled to score consistently and so our results are probably somewhere in the upper middle of the pack in both pools. Shout out to our all-stars Jordan and Shannon for being our go to free throw shooters in numerous overtimes.
After situations and lunchtime it was off to play our games in the format of a challenge tournament. Basically every team is seeded in their pool (so in our league 1-9) and then you can challenge other teams to play. If you beat them then you take their spot in the standings, something that is used to seed all the teams for the tournament bracket that will take place tomorrow.
It was an interesting format to compete in and both our teams played very hard. The U15’s used both their challenges on teams three seeds higher than themselves in an effort to move up in the seeding.
Unfortunately the girls were very flat in their first game and then lost their second challenge by 1 to a team that they have played very close several times. Since you can only use two challenges, and they lost them both, the U15’s were done for the day, heading into the seeding round at the bottom, but with the reputation of a very difficult team to beat.
Amy’s leadership and toughness really shone through today. She attacked the basket hard, showing a willingness to take the hit from the bigger players and get to the free throw line. Her versatility on defense has proved crucial time and time again, guarding big tall post players all the way down to point guards. Her hard work to prepare her body to take the physical pounding of a week like this is clearly paying off.
Cala has been the ultimate selfless team player this spring season, and this week has proved no different. While she spent a lot of time this season learning the intricacies of a new position (moving from guard to wing), she never made much fuss about it and set herself to the task of getting the job done. She has learned how to use her body in order to shield the ball from defenders as she slashes to the hoop and is finding her voice in the locker room as a positive influence on those around her. Well done Cala.
Getting back to the challenge tournament, the U17’s had an interesting run as well today coming into the rounds as the 3rd seed. Our goal was to stay somewhere in the upper half of the bracket and we were prepared to be challenged often during the course of the day from teams wanting to move up to 3. With that in mind, it was little surprise to us when Raymond (yes, that Raymond) challenged us in the first game of our seeding round. We were ready for them, and even held a slight lead for the majority of the beginning of the game, but couldn’t hold on and ended up losing, thus dropping to the sixth seed.
It was then that a little north western Christian school challenged newly 3 seeded Raymond in order to see if they could move up to the 3 spot. Well by golly challenge Raymond they did and they won a tight one, with their point guard scoring 13/15 points for their team. As the challenges came back around we thought that it made the most sense to try to catch the newly 3rd Christian school on a back to back. We prevailed against their tired legs and regained hold of the three seed in the bracket. The drama continued as Raymond used their last challenge to try to repeat their earlier victory over us in their first challenge.
We came at them ready once again, this time proving to be more resilient and coming up with big time plays at the most crucial moments of the game. With 15 seconds left Shannon caught the outlet pass and pushed the ball into a high screen and roll play, lofting a perfectly placed pass over top of the defense for a basket by Allie to tie the game. We played 59 seconds of a scoreless 1 minute overtime period before Jess made a great driving move to get fouled and made 1/2 free throws to secure a victory. It was an exciting way to end what was an unconventional set-up of the day.
After dinner and games was All-Star night. We got Shannon and Jordan over to all-star practice at around 6:30pm where they met their new teammates. The rest of camp headed over to the field house for a scrimmage between the honorary all-stars (kind of like a warm up game before the real camp all-stars come to play). The honorary all-star game was a nice way to recognize the younger players in the lower leagues for having a really successful week. Two years ago we had a player in the game who did really well, but this year, because both of our teams are in League 1, we both had all-stars in the full game.
After the honorary game, the all-stars had a quick warm up and prepared to face the female camp councilors. Jordan got the honour of starting the game, which was pretty neat, and Shannon came off the bench to hit one 3 late in the game to pull within 10 of the camp councilors. Both girls played hard and were unselfish with the basketball and their style of play (something that can often get left behind in all-star games). We were very proud to have them represent us and it was nice to see Shannon hit her first three pointer of the week.
After the all-star game it was off to the evening program where the theme of the night was “True Hope”. The girls were asked to reflect on questions like: what/who gives them hope? How do they do that? What is the thing that people do provides us with inspiration and determination?
Not surprisingly many of our girls said they turn to family and friends for their sense of hope. Multiple ladies expressed thankfulness for their parents willingness to drive them to all of their sporting events, to sit in the stands and cheer and encourage, and to give them cool opportunities like this one we are wrapping up very soon.
After evening program we grabbed a few pizzas and took them back to our spot on the third floor of the dorms. Pizza time was followed by journaling where the girls were asked to reflect on their mindset for the week. Questions such as: what were you feeling/thinking at the beginning of the week? What are you thinking/feeling now? What changed or how did it changed. The girls were honest in their reflections and it was nice to hear them sharing with one another about how each experience has been somewhat unique, even if we are all here together.
We wake up tomorrow at around 7am in order to get to breakfast and coaches meetings at around 7:45am. After breakfast we’re in the seeding round in the 3/6 game as well as the 8/9 game of a double elimination tournament. Lose twice and we all go home. We’ve come too far this season to go home without a fight. Tomorrow we aim to give that tournament all we have before we hit the road.
Thanks so much for all your support in reading the blog this week. Our players and coaches owe everyone at home a huge debt of gratitude for their support and trust in sending their daughters to camp this week. Thank you so much for this opportunity. You’re awesome.
From breakfast the teams moved off into their individual gyms in which they were to take part in a “situations” tournament. The U17’s were in the top division consisting of 5 teams while the U15’s were in the division right below us with three other teams in good ole Graves gym.
How this small tournament works is that each team is asked to execute various different various late game situations against all the other teams in our pool. For example: The Falcons are up by one with 10 seconds left. They have one free throw left to shoot that would increase their lead to two. We rotate to play against each of the other teams in our pool, repeating the same situation every time and recording who wins. The team who is leading after time expires, wins.
Both teams really played hard and did their best to execute what the coaches were asking. In the situations that required our teams to be on the defensive, or execute defensive schemes off of a free throw, the ladies ability to switch and contest shots really made the difference in preventing easy looks at the basket. Unfortunately our teams also struggled to score consistently and so our results are probably somewhere in the upper middle of the pack in both pools. Shout out to our all-stars Jordan and Shannon for being our go to free throw shooters in numerous overtimes.
After situations and lunchtime it was off to play our games in the format of a challenge tournament. Basically every team is seeded in their pool (so in our league 1-9) and then you can challenge other teams to play. If you beat them then you take their spot in the standings, something that is used to seed all the teams for the tournament bracket that will take place tomorrow.
It was an interesting format to compete in and both our teams played very hard. The U15’s used both their challenges on teams three seeds higher than themselves in an effort to move up in the seeding.
Unfortunately the girls were very flat in their first game and then lost their second challenge by 1 to a team that they have played very close several times. Since you can only use two challenges, and they lost them both, the U15’s were done for the day, heading into the seeding round at the bottom, but with the reputation of a very difficult team to beat.
Amy’s leadership and toughness really shone through today. She attacked the basket hard, showing a willingness to take the hit from the bigger players and get to the free throw line. Her versatility on defense has proved crucial time and time again, guarding big tall post players all the way down to point guards. Her hard work to prepare her body to take the physical pounding of a week like this is clearly paying off.
Cala has been the ultimate selfless team player this spring season, and this week has proved no different. While she spent a lot of time this season learning the intricacies of a new position (moving from guard to wing), she never made much fuss about it and set herself to the task of getting the job done. She has learned how to use her body in order to shield the ball from defenders as she slashes to the hoop and is finding her voice in the locker room as a positive influence on those around her. Well done Cala.
Getting back to the challenge tournament, the U17’s had an interesting run as well today coming into the rounds as the 3rd seed. Our goal was to stay somewhere in the upper half of the bracket and we were prepared to be challenged often during the course of the day from teams wanting to move up to 3. With that in mind, it was little surprise to us when Raymond (yes, that Raymond) challenged us in the first game of our seeding round. We were ready for them, and even held a slight lead for the majority of the beginning of the game, but couldn’t hold on and ended up losing, thus dropping to the sixth seed.
It was then that a little north western Christian school challenged newly 3 seeded Raymond in order to see if they could move up to the 3 spot. Well by golly challenge Raymond they did and they won a tight one, with their point guard scoring 13/15 points for their team. As the challenges came back around we thought that it made the most sense to try to catch the newly 3rd Christian school on a back to back. We prevailed against their tired legs and regained hold of the three seed in the bracket. The drama continued as Raymond used their last challenge to try to repeat their earlier victory over us in their first challenge.
We came at them ready once again, this time proving to be more resilient and coming up with big time plays at the most crucial moments of the game. With 15 seconds left Shannon caught the outlet pass and pushed the ball into a high screen and roll play, lofting a perfectly placed pass over top of the defense for a basket by Allie to tie the game. We played 59 seconds of a scoreless 1 minute overtime period before Jess made a great driving move to get fouled and made 1/2 free throws to secure a victory. It was an exciting way to end what was an unconventional set-up of the day.
After dinner and games was All-Star night. We got Shannon and Jordan over to all-star practice at around 6:30pm where they met their new teammates. The rest of camp headed over to the field house for a scrimmage between the honorary all-stars (kind of like a warm up game before the real camp all-stars come to play). The honorary all-star game was a nice way to recognize the younger players in the lower leagues for having a really successful week. Two years ago we had a player in the game who did really well, but this year, because both of our teams are in League 1, we both had all-stars in the full game.
After the honorary game, the all-stars had a quick warm up and prepared to face the female camp councilors. Jordan got the honour of starting the game, which was pretty neat, and Shannon came off the bench to hit one 3 late in the game to pull within 10 of the camp councilors. Both girls played hard and were unselfish with the basketball and their style of play (something that can often get left behind in all-star games). We were very proud to have them represent us and it was nice to see Shannon hit her first three pointer of the week.
After the all-star game it was off to the evening program where the theme of the night was “True Hope”. The girls were asked to reflect on questions like: what/who gives them hope? How do they do that? What is the thing that people do provides us with inspiration and determination?
Not surprisingly many of our girls said they turn to family and friends for their sense of hope. Multiple ladies expressed thankfulness for their parents willingness to drive them to all of their sporting events, to sit in the stands and cheer and encourage, and to give them cool opportunities like this one we are wrapping up very soon.
After evening program we grabbed a few pizzas and took them back to our spot on the third floor of the dorms. Pizza time was followed by journaling where the girls were asked to reflect on their mindset for the week. Questions such as: what were you feeling/thinking at the beginning of the week? What are you thinking/feeling now? What changed or how did it changed. The girls were honest in their reflections and it was nice to hear them sharing with one another about how each experience has been somewhat unique, even if we are all here together.
We wake up tomorrow at around 7am in order to get to breakfast and coaches meetings at around 7:45am. After breakfast we’re in the seeding round in the 3/6 game as well as the 8/9 game of a double elimination tournament. Lose twice and we all go home. We’ve come too far this season to go home without a fight. Tomorrow we aim to give that tournament all we have before we hit the road.
Thanks so much for all your support in reading the blog this week. Our players and coaches owe everyone at home a huge debt of gratitude for their support and trust in sending their daughters to camp this week. Thank you so much for this opportunity. You’re awesome.