Guest Blogger- Carly Grenfell

I guess I don't know why I'm ever surprised how fast time goes as soon as season hits, because it happens every year! Two weeks from today we hit the floor runnin'!! To sum up practices I'd say they have all been heavily learning-oriented, yet competitive and energetic. But I promise you we are catching on! Not to toot our own horn, but our team does, afterall, have a 3.3 GPA. Even if we weren't learning an entirely new system, in my mind the growth portion is what it is all about. That's how average teams transform into great ones. We are taking every mistake for what it is worth- and moving forward. One experience that especially stands out was one of the first days of a full team practice. To make a long story short, we had to run because of the bruises on Coach Jennie's arms that we apparently gave her. Between you and me- I think she was just bitter she couldn't hang with us in drills. But the point here is to not beat up on your head coach, because you will have consequences. Simple as that! No matter how serious the mistake, it always comes down to how you respond. Even the best players in the world mess up.  That is something I definitely have to remind myself on occasion! The awesome part about basketball is how dynamic of a game it is. If you can't shoot one game, you can always rebound or be a lock-down defender just to name a few options. I don't want to say you always get a second chance, but you can definitely make up for slack in one area by controlling your attitude and effort. The more you play, the more you realize these types of things. We are a young team, but a smart team. We couldn't be any more excited for this season! The learning curve continues day by day, but so does our excitment to grow into the team we know we can be. That's all for now, folks. GO BULLDOGS!!

CG 

First day of practice is today.  We waited until a little later than most programs to start official practice.  We could have started last week, but with this team being young, starting a little later can will be more effective as the non-conference season can drag on for younger players. 
I know there is always this excitement about the first day of practice, but over the years I've come to see it as just another day.  I think players should already be working hard and 'the 1st practice' shouldn't be a reason to all of the sudden start focusing and being energetic more than usual.  Trying to avoid relying on external things motivate is something today's players don't do.  They need music to lift.  They rely on someone to tell them they are doing a good job.  They need someone else's quotes to get them 'pumped' for a big game.  We are losing the desire to just outwork people, to beat someone else simply because that is what we enjoy doing.  When you rely on external things to motivate you, you lose control of how you act. You give that power to your external devices and if they are not there, then what?
The first day of official practice does change what we are allowed to do as a team, but it should not change how you are and what you do as a basketball player

9/11

Today is obviously the anniversary of what will always be the biggest day of our lifetime.  I slept in since I didn't have a sub job that day.  I was driving to West High to go start breaking down film and I remember hearing Peter Jennings on 102.9 in Iowa City and thinking it must be part of a morning show prank.  It was a short ride when I got to school I went and found a TV to see exactly what had happened.  By then the first tower had already gone down.  I watched the second tower go down while sitting in my old 9th grade American History teacher, Mr. Davis's, classroom.  While he and I were talking about it, the magnitude of this whole thing was slowly sinking in.  Obviously there was a lot of speculation as to what happened and who was involved, but it was becoming more apparent that America was under attack.  I went to go check in with my boss and I remember seeing other teachers teaching their classes and wondering why they weren't letting their students watch TV.  I hung out at school for a little bit and then went to my other job at Bob's Your Uncle restaurant.  There was no one there so myself and some of the staff just sat around watching TV.  From there a couple of us went back to my apartment to continue watching TV coverage.  The whole day was just surreal as I watched what was happening and trying to comprehend how and why it happened.  As much as we try to step up safety measures ande everything else, you just can't stop crazy all the time.
It is important to remeber those people who lost their lives on 9/11.  Remember the indviduals on United 93 that prevented even more loss with their own sacrafice.  Remember those who stepped up and volunteered to go fight back against those who attacked us.  They had a choice, and chose sacrafice themselves for us.

First workouts are coming

We had our first team meeting last night.  We were supposed to have it today and then start workouts on Thursday.  However, as a Twitter person, you start to read about how all the other programs who started school last week were starting workouts.  As a new staff, I think we were also anxious to get to work with our kids, so we moved everything up and will start workouts today.  I couldn't be more excited.  This is the part of being a basketball coach that I love the most.  We've planned and met.  We've met and planned.  Now we get to start working on the season.  I know the players are excited as well.  That's the easy part.  It will be interesting to see who rises to the occasion and who shrinks from the challenge.  Our goal is to raise the level of expectation the players have for themselves.  Our job is to push them individually to the next level, which in turn, pushes are team to the next level.  The real challenge for them is to fight through the uncertainty.  They don't know what to expect from us.  They don't know what the next level feels or looks like.  The more the players trust us, the quicker we will get to where we need to be as a program

Welcome

Well, tomorrow our in-coming freshmen will be arriving on campus for orientation.  Our returners will be here Sunday.  We will have a little team meeting and then the 2012-2013 season will officially begin.  Our staff has been meeting over the last 2 weeks to hammer out a schedule for workouts.  Its been really interesting.  One of our staff's strengths is that we all come from very different backgrounds both playing and coaching.  Trying to bring that all together has been entertainging, to say the least, as we all have different opinions and lingo for even simple basketball actions.  Hopefully we don't confuse our kids too much.
We will have a lot of work to do over the next 2 months as we get ready for our first exhibtion game on November 2 and our first regular season game on November 11 vs. South Dakota in the Knapp Center.  This blog will be updated around 3-4 times a week.  Most of the time it will be me with updates and thoughts.  Some times the players or other coaches will be chiming.  I hope you enjoy and hope to see you at the Knapp Center this year to cheer on your Bulldogs!!