It all started when…
I was working the high school volleyball game and Gowan came up to me and told me to apply for the middle school girl’s basketball position because he was not going to continue coaching. I said sure, I’ll go down to the district office and fill out the application the next day. I asked why he was stepping down, he said because he was going to a football game down in Alabama for a few days when practice would start and in December he and his wife were taking a vacation to Mexico during the season.
Here is some background information.
Gowan knew about his vacation in April. He told Pollard then that he needed to find someone because he wasn’t going to come back and coach. Pollard waited until the last possible minute to find someone, literally two days before practice started I had my interview. (I’m not sure if he waited until the last min or he had some circumstance he had to wait for). I had no idea who my counterpart was going to be. That made me especially nervous. It could go really well and it could go really horrible. I was hoping for a great year.
So started the interview process.
I went down on a Thursday and saw Darla, the district office lady, gave me the application to fill out. That evening I got a phone call from Pollard asking me if I wanted to come in for an interview on Friday, the next day, at 1:00 p.m. I told him that would work and to see him on Friday. The weird part was, he said that he had my name written down as a possible applicant, because someone or someones had mentioned my name to him. I thought he was going off of the application I filled out the previous day and in fact he didn’t have that in front of him or had no idea I filled one out. I had to tell him I already filled out an application. He told me thank you and I was on my way.
The beginning.
I went in for my interview on Friday afternoon after work. That was the second time I have been in the middle school since it has been remodeled. I waited until they were ready for me. We went in the conference room. My interviewers were Beckman, Frunz, Pollard and Garchow. They seemed to have already made up their mind before the interview that they wanted to hire me but we had to do the interview anyway so we did everything the right way. The questions were pretty straight forward. They asked me which position I was applying for and I told them any of them. We got started. I used a lot of my experience as a high school fastpitch coach and it helped answer my questions they asked me. I told them I haven’t had a lot of basketball coaching experience but I have worked with the high school JV the past two summers. I was pretty happy with my interview. Pollard gave me a call Monday morning to tell me I got the assistant coaching job. Beckman said that they hired me for that position because I didn’t have any head coaching experience and that it would be good experience to start out as an assistant. I was ok with their decision. They asked me to come in that afternoon to meet with the girls and the other coach. That worried me even more…what kind of person did they hire? Were they similar to me? Would we get along? Would they let me do anything?
Meeting the other coach and the girls.
On Monday I went in and as I walked down the hall to the library to meet the girls I met the head coach. He was not what I was expecting. I was hoping for someone closer to my age. He appeared to be a nice guy with my first impression of him. We went into the library to meet the girls. I knew only one of the girls because I had worked with her this summer. We brought up a few middle schoolers to fill out our high school JV roster while we were at the team Colfax summer camp. Pollard had them sign a piece of paper and the head coach took roll to see who had showed up. He introduced himself and went on and on and on about the same thing. He then asked me to introduce myself. Mine was short and sweet and to the point. He continued to jabber on. You could tell the girls were done listening since most of them started fiddling around and talking to each other. After we sent them back to their last hour of school he wanted to talk to me about practice. He mentioned something like having tryouts the first two days. I thought we were going to run the “tryout” like a running, fundamentals, drills and see what the kids can do type of tryout. That was the image that was going through my mind for tomorrow. We went up to the uniform storage area in the weight room and went through practice jerseys. He talked the entire time. I just wanted to get it done and leave.
Being prepared.
I would like to say that I was prepared for the season. I had a binder full of drills, fun games, offenses, defenses, press breakers and out of bounds plays I wanted to teach them. I know for a fact that you needed to have an array of different activities to do with them because at that age group they would get distracted and bored easily. I was once a middle school girl so I had that going for me. I applied for the job because I wanted the girls to have the same experience I had in middle school. I had fun, my coaches were awesome, I learned a lot about basketball and we were successful. Most of my coaching style was from having great coaches in middle school and in high school like Rita, Shane, Cris and Dan. In fact, most of my stuff came from them. The head coach didn’t allow me to do any of those things. I was treated like my opinions and ideas didn’t matter. There was no collaboration at all. I tried and he resisted majority of the time.
Not being familiar with the Rainier School District.
He tried changing everything. I mean everything. The locker room, the bench area, the weird rules he applied to the girls, and the strictness he had on his managers…I really don’t think he knew the rules and regulations for middle school basketball. That got him into trouble at the end of the season. He would store the basketballs, the extra practice jerseys and uniforms and the med bag in the boy’s locker room. He might have let the girls shoot maybe five times before practice started the entire season. All the years I’ve played basketball that’s what you did before practice started, you shot around. He didn’t agree. Instead, we sat in the boy’s locker room for 30-45 minutes talking about the same thing over and over again. It didn’t start out like that, about four weeks into the season he started doing that. He parked his car on the side of the building where the boy’s football team went in and out so I never knew if he was here or not. I didn’t even know what kind of a car he drove until after our first game. He communicated poorly with me about practice and what we were going to do for practice each day. I showed up several times not knowing what we were going to work on. Due to the economy, we weren’t supposed to stop after every away game but we did anyway because he wanted to. During the parent meeting, the parents were serious about only stopping at the last away game rule. I brought a dinner in my lunch box anyway.
First weeks of practice.
The first two days were “tryouts” whatever the heck that meant. We did some pretty mindless drills. I stood there thinking how I can improve the drill he was having them do but he didn’t want my input. If I gave my input he always politely shut it down or told me we could do it later, which we never did. The first week of practice historically at Rainier or anywhere else for that matter, was conditioning, fundamentals and drills. We did not do that, ever. The third day he made up his mind on who was on Varsity and who was on JV. We had a girl quit the third day because she insisted that she was a Varsity caliber player. Her mom came in after practice and raised her voice to him and he told her exactly what she wanted to hear and we never saw her or her daughter the rest of the season. If I was in charge, I would split the team up ability-wise about the ninth day of practice and that’s when they would get their uniforms. The next five practices we practiced split up with the curtain down. He would get most of the players while I had barely five. Some days he would give me players he didn’t want. What do you do with three or four girls? Especially ones who had no skills? I went back to basics. Dribbling, jump stops, triple threat, passing, shooting and basketball lingo. A lot of the girls had no idea what the key was. A few of the “curtain” days I had Ashley come in and work with them. One, she was one of the high schoolers so she was cool and it was exciting, two, she could teach them some of the high school drills I had no idea about and three, she could be my witness of what was going on. I honestly had no idea why we weren’t practicing as a team doing drills, fundamentals and conditioning. What were they thinking when they hired him? He must have told them what they wanted to hear. I really wanted to split the team up into guards and posts and have a couple high schoolers come in and teach them some moves, never happened. Chelsea came in a few times and helped out. She could not stand the man so she and Ashley split and never came back. Stephanie even came a few times to help out, he treated her like a manager so she stopped coming. What was it about this guy that people couldn’t stand? I found the answer out a few days later. He was a psychology/councilor major. He argued with you in a nice way, he told you what you wanted to hear until you figured out what he was really doing, he put you down subtly, they way he put you down really hurt your feelings (the girls coped with this by not caring anymore and just showing up physically), he really didn’t yell at you, he scolded you in a way that might look like yelling. The curtain lasted about a week and a half until Pollard decided to do away with it because we weren’t getting any progress done. I have no idea what really happened on the other side of the curtain. I asked one of the players, so what did you guys do over there today? The same play for an hour and a half until we did it exactly right. Wow, really? Does he know you’re all middle schoolers and need change about every ten minutes? She said, I guess not. We’re not happy; he’s ruining basketball for us. Everyone wants to come to your side of the curtain because we know you’re teaching the JV drills and fundamentals.
We never saw his family and we didn’t know if he had a job or was retired. We heard several different versions of how many kids he had. I still think he has a daughter and a son, the girls told me he said some other combo. He always told us that we were his friend and that he was a citizen who paid his taxes and that he was a part of the community and that he wanted harmony. We heard that just about every day and on some days more than once. I learned about halfway through the third week to tell him what he wanted to hear. It’s what got me through the season. He tried to make non funny things funny, which bothered me a lot. It also made it kind of awkward. None of what happened this season was funny. He had the need to control things. If he wasn’t in control, that’s when all the unnecessary talking began.
Save questions until the end of practice.
There was one week, I think it was the second and third week of practice, where he thought questions should be answered at the end of practice and not during because it wastes time. One, what if we needed to correct something then and there? Two, they’ll forget by the time practice is over and three, you’re the only one who has wasted practice time. We spent a good 40 minutes of practice time sorting that issue out. He allowed them to ask questions during practice. Why couldn’t we just ask questions from the get go? We could have saved that part of our life that we’ll never get back.
Parent emails, phone calls and meetings.
Not even the first week went by and we already had angry parents. If I had a kid on the team I would be angry too. We had parents come by to watch how awful practice was. Pollard came by to see how things were going and I think even Garchow and Beckman came by. The new high school girls basketball Coach Kindle, came by twice but you could tell he really didn’t want to be there. There were several emails written to Pollard and the Superintendent Garchow. There were meetings held about the situation and the ruling was that they were going to give him a chance since it was the beginning of the season. From there it just got worse…more angry emails, phone calls and more scheduled meetings. Eventually they agreed upon a volunteer parent coach to kind of build a bridge between the coaches, the administrators and the parents. Coach Beth was the newest member of the team. I like Beth. She’s an alum of Rainier, she had some of the same coaches as I did and she actually played basketball. We got along great and our coaching styles were very similar. She soon found out how bad it really was. The girls also had several meetings throughout the season with Pollard about the head coach.
Uniforms, Warm Up Jackets and Pants.
We gave out uniforms on the eighth day of practice. It was so unorganized. I was so stressed out that I stopped caring who got what as long as everyone had one of each thing. I still have no idea where those warm up jackets and pants came from. He told me that he found them in a box with the middle school stuff. They were hideous warm ups but he insisted that we wear them. I didn’t have indoor coaching pants and I was not about to dress up for games so I wore the warm up bottoms. The girls complained about them all season. Their zippers broke, they were too big or too small for them, and we just didn’t have extras to be swapping out or trading. On game days he was very particular about how far up they should be zipped before going out and warming up. He actually scolded a girl for not zipping up all the way which in fact the zipper broke.
Team Pictures.
He made them wear them for our team picture which none of them wanted to. They just wanted to wear their uniforms which I totally agreed with. It probably would have brightened up our prison photo too.
Bus Rides.
Every bus driver is different. Some are strict, some are lenient and some are a mixture between the two. I know you’re not supposed to move from seat to seat or walk down the aisle while the bus is moving. I tried telling him that but he did it anyway. He had us coaches sitting in the back of the bus so we could watch what the girls are doing at every moment, which made sense if you were suspicious of them, but I wasn’t. I would rather sit in the front like I was used to. On the way to the games he would have the “captains” come sit in the back with us and we would talk about the game kinda. He would have every girl come to the back of the bus and tell them what we would be running offensively or defensively in the game and if they understood their job or not. He had a strict no talking or texting on you cell phone while going to the game. Me, I honestly didn’t care if they did or not. Only on the way home he let them use their cell phones to call home and to text their friends. We only had one issue on one of the bus rides. He disrespected one of the bus drivers. There were two points of view on it but that’s another story.
The one time I almost got to teach them something.
We got called several times in the first few games for illegal screens and picks. I took it upon myself to teach them the correct way since he wasn’t about to do it. I got them all on the sideline and I explained to them why we use a screen or a pick. I demonstrated how to do them the correct way and then I was going to have them each practice them correctly. I didn’t even get through the first girl when he rudely interrupted my skill learning and went off on something else for the rest of the time. I couldn’t believe he did that and I didn’t even get to finish. Throughout the season Beth and I were constantly telling, showing and repeating ourselves to them on how to do the simplest fundamentals all season long. None of them knew how to jump stop, there were no ball fakes, some of them barely knew how to dribble or cross over dribble. He focused on the stuff that you worked on after you learned the basics. Of course they didn’t do it the exact way you wanted it, they don’t have the basic skills! He robbed them of their fundamentals and he didn’t seem to realize it. He would always ask me, Coach Val, why aren’t they listening and doing it right? I said, maybe because they don’t know how or we didn’t set aside the time to teach them? He then said, that’s not my job, they should know some of that stuff already; they’re 12 and 13 year olds. I could not believe what he had just told me? Not our job? It is our job to teach those fundamentals regardless of how old or what level they’re at. College and Pros still work on fundamentals.
You’re not getting the last word, I am.
Stop talking
Ok
You don’t have to say ok after everything I say.
We’re used to doing that. It’s to let whoever’s talking to us know that we understand what they’re telling us.
Here we don’t do that; just stop talking after I do.
Ok
You’re not going to have the last word.
Ok
What did I just say, just stop talking.
Ok I will.
You’re not having the last word.
Ok.
This went on for several minutes until she walked out of practice and didn’t come back. She turned in their stuff and quit the team. She was completely done with him. A grown man deciding that a teenager will not have the last word in the middle of practice. How childish is that? He should have just dropped it after the first ok and didn’t let it bother him.
The pitiful warm ups.
I have no idea where he learned the warm ups that he taught these girls how to do. They were awful. I would never teach anyone how to do those. Basic warm up for middle schoolers: Lay ups from both sides, alley drill, 2 on 3, free throws and shoot around. We did none of those. I don’t think I’ll be able to explain the warm ups he made them do. You had to be there to see them.
He used JV as a punishment and Varsity as a reward.
During conference week, we used the new gym because the old gym was being used for conferences. It was hard for the girls to get to practice and be picked up by their parents when they work. We had practice from 1 to 3. Some girls were late and others decided not to come. He was upset that no one called him or emailed him. The reason was that the parents and the girls didn’t want to talk to him. So they told me and I told him. He didn’t like that he wanted to know straight from the girls and their parents. I was like who cares who they tell as long as they let one of the coaches know where they were or if they weren’t coming. The first Tenino game he punished some of the girls. Some Varsity players played on my team and some of the JV players played on the varsity. I was not happy when he told me. I told him he shouldn’t do that. His answer to that was, well, we need to reward the players that were here on time and here at practice. I told him well, that might not be a reward for some players, you should think about that. He did it anyway. One of those JV players who played Varsity was scared to death and cried after the game. Her parents were so mad at him for doing that to her. There is a reason why certain players play for one team and not the other. After that game he never did that again because it wasn’t an acceptable way to handle it.
Running laps instead of lines.
I told the coach that we need to be conditioning the girls (I’ve been saying this since the first day of practice but he ignores me) because the opposing team’s biggest girl is beating our girls down the floor every time. About the fifth week into it he started making them run laps. What good are laps going to do? They need to be running lines. Basketball is a back and forth game. I asked the girls one day, do you guys every get sweaty during practice? All of them replied, no, because we don’t do anything during practice to be sweaty. I got the answer I was looking for.
Everyone can be a captain.
No, you only need one or two, max.
The scorebook is not my job.
Yes it is your job. As head coach you need to have them ready before each game. It’s our responsibility to find someone to do it during our away games. He says, that’s not my job. It’s Pollard’s. No, it’s not. We’re the coaches, it’s our job. Then he proceeded to tell me that the scorebook was a petty thing and we didn’t need to worry about it. What are the coaches for next season going to do when they don’t have the stats? It’s not my job. Wow, that just happened. We’re missing at least four games in our scorebook.
Going over and over the same thing.
There was one time I came to practice and no one was in the gym. I thought well, maybe practice was moved to the new gym for some reason. I went over there and the high school boys were in there warming up. I went back to the old gym and went into the boys locker room, since he changed it, and they were all in there talking about the same thing we have been for several weeks. One day we were in there for over 45 minutes. Just asinine. The worst part was I had no control over the matter. I felt so bad for these girls. What a horrible middle school experience. They basically lost a year of basketball and it will reflect on us when they’re in high school and have no skills.
Five minute meetings turned into 30 minute meetings. This guy had no sense of time. When we were doing our so called drills, he would lose track of time and they would be doing it for more than they needed to. We did this block out drill (which was terrible by the way) for over an hour one day. One practice a few girls sat on the floor while the rest of them ran the same plays over and over and over again for an hour and a half. I wish I could have stopped it. Before we started each practice we would do our beginning of the game jump ball routine. We had two plays off of the jump ball, 1 and 2. I don’t know why he had them do it over and over every day. We did that for at least a half an hour. The jump only happens once a game, why do it over and over and over again. Also during practice, we would go over what happens after the game is over, you know when the buzzer goes off and you shake the other team’s hands? He was anal about that too. Oh and when we do a team cheer he is extremely anal about that. Bring it in…hands…and then a team cheer, it changed from time to time. When they did it wrong they would spend the time doing it until they did it right. Which sometimes took about 10 minutes. Another practice we spent a good chunk of practice learning how to check in and when to stand up during timeouts and end of quarters. It was ridiculous. He was really gung-ho on the water bottles too. We wasted a lot of practice time with the water bottles. He also told them that he would let the girls have input about practice, games, drills etc. He started out well with the suggestions but slowly turned into what he wanted.
Telling them that they are 7th and 8th graders and they can’t do certain things.
Lots of practice was spent subtly putting the girls down. Telling them and reminding them that they were 7th and 8th graders, 12 and 13 year olds and they weren’t capable of performing certain things on the court or doing that physical skill. I remember when I was in middle school we had some very hard and demanding practices. They didn’t treat us like 12 and 13 year olds but like athletes, preparing us for high school. During some of the practices I did some of the offenses and defenses with them. He pulled me aside after something I did and he told me, I know you’re good but these are 7th and 8th graders they aren’t capable of keeping up with you or catching your passes. I was like I don’t care if I’m good, I’m not here for me, I’m here to make them better. I was always taught if you want to get better at something play against someone better than you. I played against boys a lot while I was in high school. I wanted to make my girls better. I know they were capable of some of the stuff I was throwing at them. One of them spoke up and said, we like what she’s doing with us. He just ignored her and told me to play like a 7th and 8th grader. You know some of those middle school girls are beasts. Some of them are bigger and faster than me. Throughout the season he constantly reminded me that they were just 7th and 8th graders.
Petty things.
Scorebook, discipline, being late, forgetting gear, bad grades, not coming to practice were all considered petty things to him. These were the most important things to address and teach responsibility over and over again not your anal unnecessary obsessions you have the girls’ waste time doing over and over again at practice.
Managers Quitting.
We went through five managers during the course of the season. I have never been around a team where a manager quit. This was a new experience for me, let alone five of them quitting. They didn’t like his strict manager policy so one after another they decided to not come to practice anymore. I don’t blame them. He wanted them to follow him around with his dry erase board, his keys, and his binder the entire practice. That would drive me crazy having someone follow me around like a puppy.
The games.
I was embarrassed at our Varsity games. I didn’t even want to sit on the bench with him. I didn’t have to worry during my games because he had them in the locker room probably talking their ear off about the same thing over and over again.
Our first game with PeEll went okay. One of our girls got hit in the face and had a fat lip.
Our game at Mossyrock was bad.
At Tenino one of the parents yelled out we’re going to get creamed. That’s exactly what happened.
The first game with Onalaska went pretty poorly.
With Morton-White Pass, this was the game where a parent yelled out make a change. He didn’t drop it. He kept bringing it up every day.
Thank God for snow. We didn’t have to see him for over a week. Rochester game was scheduled for December 16. That made our season a week longer.
Second Tenino game was awesome. He actually let me use a new offense and a new defense against Tenino and we won a game. However, he wouldn’t let me tweak the offense so it would work better. He also wouldn’t let me keep the names that they were already given. He thought they were stupid so he renamed them.
When we went to Morton-White Pass, again a parent yelled something out from the stands, again, he didn’t drop it. We lost this one too.
We lost our second one to Onalaska because he wouldn’t listen to me. We did make a come back after being down 20 points in the fourth quarter only to lose by 11.
During the season my JV kids did better than the Varsity. My team went 4-5. Varsity went 1-9 after being 9-1 last year. I wonder what the difference was…hmmmm.
Rainier vs. PeEll
My JV kids did pretty well. They got better. Some did things at the end of the season that they were afraid to do in the beginning. Our last game, two of them made their first baskets, they played defense really well and one of them actually moved on offense and defense. I think everyone had a least a rebound or two. We didn’t win but the score didn’t matter, they all had personal victories and that’s what I wanted out of them.
Varsity game was another story. It was 12-6 going into the 4th quarter. It was very winnable, only six points right? It all went to hell. I’m not really sure what happened out on the court. We ended up losing 25-10. We gathered our stuff and went into the locker room, he said his piece, we had a team break and that’s when I grabbed my stuff and got the eff out of there. I knew something was about to go down, you could feel it in the gym after the game got over. I stood on the court right outside of the locker room. One mom went in there and raised her voice, telling him she was taking her daughter and leaving. Then there was an argument about someone being childish and so on. I didn’t actually hear the words but the noise. Then another mom went back there and took her child and then another mom went in there and did the same thing. My guess was that the parents were done with him and the embarrassment. A few minutes later, Beth hustled by really upset. I ran after her. She wanted out of the locker room, away from him and out of the gym. While all of this was going on, Pollard was taking the cash register back. I stood in the hallway with Beth while she told me what happened. When the first mother came in, she was trying to distract and hurry up the kids so they could get out of the locker room. The part that made her upset was that he used her as the middle man. Basically, "go take care of this because I don’t want to." He was using her so he didn’t have to do certain things. We talked for a few more minutes, when he came poking around the corner. I just told him we were talking about something so he would leave. About five minutes after that Pollard came back and wanted to talk to us. We went down to Mr. Beckman’s office and talked about our problem for an hour. We went over everything. Pollard was pretty upset and needed to make a decision soon because the last game was on Thursday.
Mutany.
After the game from the night before, I received text messages about a rumor going around about the girls all quitting. They said they wouldn’t quit if he walked away and didn’t come back and I took over the rest of the season. He was too hard headed to do that. I came prepared for practice, whether we had it or not, and I saw all the whole team dressed in their street clothes as I walked into the gym. The girls really felt bad for their decision they made when they saw me. I had no control. It was their decision. I know it’s bad to quit something but from the season that just happened; I didn’t blame them. I had no idea where he was. One of the girls told me that he was talking to Pollard and that it would be a few minutes until he got to the gym. He showed up a few minutes later from near the boys’ locker room and asked to see me for a few minutes. I knew what story he was going to tell me. I just sat there and stared at the wall while he told it. I was so tired of him telling me the same thing over and over again. So glad that would be the last story lecture I would get from him.
We came out of the locker room and the girls walked over to him in a large group. None of them were going to back down. He tried to convince them to stay but they had made up their mind the night before. He said he would stick around the next three days just in case they wanted to come in and go over plays. Why would we go over plays? Why would they come if you were around? All but four walked away and went home. The four who stayed had to stay because their parents knew they’d be at practice until 5:20. So they just dinked around for a bit while he figured out what just happened. He then convinced those four girls to go over warm ups, those sorry, sad warm ups. He then tried to recruit random players to play the game on Thursdays. Wasn’t he in for a surprise. Beth and I sat in the corner watching this all take place. Pollard walks in a while later and asks what was going on. We told him he was trying to recruit players so we could play the game on Thursday. He had no clue that was against the rules. Pollard walked on over, pulled him aside into the locker room and told him the season was over as soon as they walked out of the locker room. Pollard came up to us and told us that the season was over. However, since there are two days left of the so called “season,” I could come in and have an open gym to who ever wanted to show up. No one showed up because they thought he would be there too. Oh well, it was a learning experience for everyone involved. I still feel horrible that the girls didn’t learn a thing and they will be moving on to high school ball with a year wasted. I really hope they turn out for high school ball and don’t let this experience ruin their basketball careers.
Post Season Wrap Up.
I came in twice that week to talk to Pollard about what had transpired. He told me he was truly sorry for how the season turned out. I signed some paper work and he asked me if I was interested in coming back next year. I told him I was really interested. He said we would talk about it in February.
Quotes Throughout the Season.
Whew! The "Season from Hell" for the MS Girls BB team is over! Thank goodness! Feel bad for the girls tho...they're gettin' crap from people for "quittin" at the end-but we're proud of 'em for standing up for what they believe in - NOBODY deserves to be treated the way they were treated by that sorry excuse of a "coach". Anyhoo.. it's all over.. the guy they hired to coach the MS girls BB team was a complete tool!! –Dana Spivey
The WORST coach I have ever seen at Rainier schools...he degraded the girls, disrespected them, disrespected us parents and his assistant coaches...it's been so awful for these girls who LOVE basketball... and he just wasted their whole season! - At least it's over now... time to move on... :o) - Dana Spivey
Was at every game but one and the guy was bad. Just sucks the powers that be let it get to the point were 12 and 13 year olds have to make that decision. says a lot that they were brave enuff to make it. There is some really talent on the team would love to see what they can do with a real coach. –Terry Zupan
Yahoo!! The Rainier MS Girls BB team won their first game last night against T90!! It was a great game... ALL THE GIRLS did a great job! (Even the JV won! Yay!) - Good job girls, and also 'Great Job' to "Coaches Beth & Val" - you guys are awesome! Thanks for 'hangin in there' for the girls!! :o) -Dana Spivey
It’s just been the "season from hell" for these poor girls... the new 'head coach' (not Val or Beth) has been a nightmare! We're all just countin' the games down, until the season is over...which is so sad - considering how much my Morgan and the other girls LOVE to play BB! :o) -Dana Spivey
Come on girls there is one game left and like two practices seriously don't quit yet!!! ): -Rebecca Reichel
Well, walked out of practice. Turning my stuff in tomorrow unless someone is really good at persuading. Sorry team, really am...but this has gotten ridiculous.. –Hailey Adair
Well of course we lost.....that wasnt fun at all! Sorry that I left you girls hanging; I quit. Well at least I wont have to worry about it all anymore. –Elizabeth Harrison
Well that practice was fun....not! Cant wait for this to be over! -Elizabeth Harrison
Lost our game......hate it SO much!! Why him out of all people did we have to pick to be head coach??!! Anything else I am doing wrong? I'm sure he will find something! -Elizabeth Harrison
Two more games:) It's sad everyone is looking forward to the last game... –Morgan Spivey
Ohhhh my gosh!!! WOW! Basketball should not have to be this difficult! It's gonna be a long season. –Morgan Spivey
So glad to be done with basketball!! So done! Ready for everyone to stop giving us crap about the way the season turned it wasn't our fault! Ok? -Elyssa Champlin
Yahoo!! You girls did do awesome!! - It was a great game to watch!! So proud of ALL YOU GIRLS!! (This includes Coaches Val & Beth!!) :o) -Dana Spivey
Basketball is a complete joke.. It is so embarrassing. –Elyssa Champlin
Really praying that basketball gets better, and maybe we will win and have some fun. –Elyssa Champlin
Wow..... Basketball is so much fun.. Not... We don't need to talk for four minutes about me improving over raising my hand or not over a drill because I forgot something... –Elyssa Champlin
