2/12/12

What is going on, EmVisionistas? I hope you all are doing well, as I am. I am currently watching the Grammy Awards right now. I love music so I always find myself really enjoying everything that the Grammys has to offer. And speaking of music and legendary voices, I just want to keep Whitney Houston's daughter and the rest of her family in my prayers. "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" is one of my favorite songs. I just wanted to take some time to remember her. On a brighter note, and especially for us proud UMass students and alum, Victor Cruz just handed out a Grammy and did his salsa dance on big time television. I will be done blogging about television right after I tell you guys about one of my favorite new shows that I just started watching this season... it is called The Voice! I'm sure you've heard of it before, but if you haven't and you want to see what it is all about, it's on Monday night at 8 p.m. on NBC. Check it out. It's in its second season, I just never watched it during the first season, not because I didn't like it, just because I didn't really discover it until the end! I am so happy I caught the season premier.

So remember how I told you guys about getting popped in the lip and having to get a stitch and being sick during the game against Fordham last time we talked? Well I might have one-upped it this past Wednesday during our game vs. St. Bonaventure. Let's just say I didn't even finish out the game. I didn't even stick around the Mullins Center for very long. The game starts and I'm feeling fresh, feeling good. So I think it's about 17 or 18 minutes into the game and I decide to drive in the lane and draw a foul to get to the line. While I am going up for the layup I get poked in my right eye with so much force and I fall to the ground immediately. OUCHHHH! I am telling you it's one of the worst pains I have ever felt! I was on the ground rolling just trying to gather myself because I hate looking weak. Unfortunately, I didn't even get a foul called (don't ask me why they didn't get a call, but I wouldn't have been able to shoot the foul shots anyway). Lacy comes running out to me but I manage to pick myself up, and I try to look around but I'm seeing two of everything and in an incredible amount of pain. I'm ready to get back on defense and start the game again, but of course my dear and beloved trainer, Lace, just couldn't let me keep playing at that moment. I sit on the bench and Dr. Little comes over to check it out, but I having so much trouble keeping my eye open for him, so they take me back into the training room at halftime and Doc puts a couple numbing eye drops in there so he can open it up and look. So interestingly enough, the pupil in my right eye wasn't a perfect circle like my left one. It was shaped funny and it just wasn't right! I feel like everyone kept looking at it and saying, "Yep, that is definitely NOT a circle!" Unfortunately Dr. Little couldn't let me go back into the game because he was really worried about my misshapen pupil and there's no messing around when it comes to vision he says. I missed the entire second half and Dr. Little took me to the eye specialist right away. I ended up having an abrasion and inflammation of my eyeball and I also tore my iris a little bit (my iris is the green part in my eye). I have some eye drops that I'm using and I go back to the eye doctor tomorrow morning to get it checked out again to make sure it's healing up! Unfortunately, I have a new biggest fear: getting poked in the eye. I have gotten so many injuries during basketball games, including breaking my collarbone during a game my junior year of high school, and I have never felt pain like this on the court my entire career. It is truly an awful, awful pain. Protect those eyes, people!

I am starting to get a little bit sleepy right now, so I'm going to wrap it up. Today was Danielle Montgomery's 22nd birthday, so shout out to her! She's getting up there! Happy Birthday Dee, I hope you had an awesome day! Valentine's Day is Wednesday, and I hope my Valentine's gift is beating St. Louis! Seriously, what is a Billiken anyway? No one knows. I hope you all have a great week this week! Tune in next week!

Em

2/6/12

Hello everyone! I'm finally back and ready to blog to everyone! A lot has been going on but if you aren't aware I have been seemingly traveling non-stop these past couple of weeks. I don't really like bringing my laptop on long trips where we have to fly. The first reason is that I hate taking it out of my school bag and putting it in its own tray to go through security. Why do I hate this? Well, my computer is going on 5 years old (I got it in September of my senior year of high school) and it's really heavy and inconvenient. Five years isn't very old for most products but if you understand anything about Moore's Law, you should know that computers (and a lot of technological products) are different and age much faster than pretty much everything else. Moore's Law = the overall complexity of computers will double every 18 months with no increase in cost. Not to worry though, I am back and I am ready to blog!

So the New York Giants are the 2012 Super Bowl Champions. Congratulations boys. More importantly, UMass alum Victor Cruz is a Champion! He was a big factor for the Giants in getting to the Super Bowl. The Patriots defense was on him like white on rice last night. (I'm not going to lie, I feel like that too in some games.)

Two Saturdays ago we played Fordham at home. I have a funny story about this game, I had such an awful day (obviously it wasn't funny at the time, but now I can look back on it and just shake my head with a smile.) The boys played St. Louis at 2 p.m. that day and we were set to take the court at 5 p.m. right after them. I woke up Saturday morning SICK as a DOG. I had the chills, my throat and chest were burning they hurt so bad and I was so lightheaded that every time I got up to walk around I truly believed I was either going to pass out or throw up, either one. Oh yeah not to mention I also had a headache and I looked as bad as I felt. Shoot around was at 11 a.m. that morning so I somehow drove myself to the Mullins Center, talk about carsickness, so Lacy (I am sure you guys know who she is by now, but if not, she's our trainer) could take my temperature and basically nurture me until I felt good. I had a fever, and Lacy said that is what was making me so nauseous, so the first task was to get my fever down. It took a few hours but by about 2 p.m. we accomplished the first mission. Keep in mind I stayed in the Mullins locker room all day because I really didn't want to get back in my car. My parents brought me soup to eat for pregame instead of the usual chicken parmesan from The Pub. Lacy also got me some nausea pills from the doctor and I took one of those around noon and fell right back asleep on the locker room couch. I hydrated like crazy before the game, drinking three blue PowerAdes and two bottles of water all before 4 p.m. I only warmed up for about 20 minutes; I was trying to conserve my energy. As the game started, I was just doing my thing, playing like usual and then with about 12 minutes left in the first half I busted my lip open on some girl's head. Ouch, that hurt. I didn't think anything of it until the ref says, "Number 2 you've got a little something on the lip." He was right, it was blood. Non-stop blood I should say. Lacy once again is superwoman and rushes over to the rescue. It wouldn't stop bleeding so Dr. Little (team doctor) comes over and checks it out and sure enough I have to get a stitch put in at halftime to be able to finish the game. Halftime comes around and Dr. Little is ready for me in the training room, he had an assistant with him too and that guy let me hold his hand while Doc was putting the needle of numbing stuff in my lip, so I appreciate that a lot. The stitch got put in and I still had time to listen to the rest of Coach Dawley's halftime "speech." Speech isn't really the best word for it, it's more like strategizing and just regular communication with us. Sick, fat lip, stitch; can't get any worse right? Wrong, we lost the game by two with a buzzer beater by Fordham. I rested up on Sunday, felt awful but needed the day to sleep and I started my internship on Monday!

My internship is really cool. I get my own cubicle! It's at the Town of Amherst Leisure Services and my title is the sports marketing coordinator intern. This week I am making flyers for the local elementary schools and sending out emails. It should be a productive week.

Anyway, speaking of busted lips, our game this last Saturday at LaSalle, Meg busted her lip too. She looks like she has a Botox injection. She didn't have to get a stitch but I really hope this busting of the lip stuff doesn't become a pattern with all my teammates! Our next game is at home on Wednesday against St. Bonaventure, we just call them Bonnies for short. We would really appreciate if you guys came out to support! It's a double header with the men's team who happens to be doing very well this year! Shout out to them! I hope everyone has a great week. The weather is amazingly, yet surprisingly, nice today in Western Mass. I didn't even wear a jacket over my sweater today, AND I got to sport my D&G shades, so I'm in a really good mood. I hope you enjoyed EmVision! I will be back for more fun next week!

1/12/12

Hey guys! I've missed blogging to you guys, but the truth is, I had nothing exciting to say. Today is different! We won our first Atlantic 10 Conference game last night against the Rhode Island Rams. Since it's honesty hour, I'm going to be truthful: it wasn't the prettiest win, but hey it was a W in the record books so that's all that matters. Meg had a ballin' game, so I was proud of her. It was obviously a team effort but I think she had like almost half of our total points (at least it seemed that way!) so she gets a lot of the credit. Saturday the Richmond Spiders are coming to visit the Mullins Center. I hope it's not a fun visit for them if you know what I mean.

My life right now is pretty relaxed. There's no school right now because UMass is still on winter break. I eat, sleep, and play basketball. It works for me. To give you a little taste of what it's like, I'll just tell you what I did today. So last night I got home from the game at URI at about midnight and I went directly to sleep, so this morning I woke up at about 9:45 AM, ate some Trix and went to the Mullins Center to get treatment from my buddy Lacy (best trainer ever). Mother Nature surprised me this morning when I left my apartment because I immediately got pelted with miniature balls of ice as soon as I opened the door to outside. It was a mini ice storm, so I drove really slowly to the Mullins Center. It takes me about five minutes to get there, but this morning it took me about fifteen or twenty minutes. Anyway, after treatment we had practice at noon. It was a shortened practice, but we worked on some different things, I won't tell you what we worked on because it's a secret! Actually, I don't know if it's a secret but I don't want any of the other teams to know what the UMass lady ballers plan to do against them (I like to pretend that the other teams read my blog to try to get inside info, although I know that's nonsense.) After practice, we had to go lift so I could tend to my guns. Finally the team had lunch together at a little café called the Newman Center that's on campus. It was delicious! I came back to my apartment and took a nap. Then I got a spark of productivity and decided to clean my room! It doesn't matter how old I get or how much I mature in my life, I always seem to struggle with cleaning my room. Exhibit A: I got distracted because Spongebob was on my TV. Spongebob is a great show! I don't care how snobby any of you are being when you watch it, if you watch that show you are going to giggle at least once. I fought through the temptation to lay in my bed and just keep watching until the end of time. My room looks really good now. For dinner I made some eggs and I had a bagel. Not a big dinner because lunch filled me up. I watched a little bit of basketball. Purdue ended up getting beat by Wisconsin, who happened to be 1-3 in the Big10 before that game, I was a little surprised. Another shocker in the same conference was the fact that Minnesota is beating #4 Indiana. They're up by 9 right now so I hope they pull the upset because I am not a fan of the Hoosiers. My family has Kentucky Wildcat roots (grandparents were HUGE fans) and my brother's blood is UK blue (he actually attended the University of Kentucky), so it wasn't a pretty sight when the Hoosiers upset the Wildcats earlier in the season. OK, let's get back on topic. SO that was my day and right now I'm sitting here in bed just hanging out and giving you guys a little sneak peak of EmWorld.

Let me also share with you a funny story about my coaches Al and JMac. We have team dinners at Arizona Pizza Company every so often like usually the night before games and stuff like that. Last Friday we ate there and Al wanted to pre-order our meals so they were ready for us when we got there because we are so fancy. She texted and asked what we all wanted and since JMac had just said how her buffalo chicken pizza was "amazing," I decided to give it a try. Al texted and asked what size I wanted and I obviously just said a small since I am just one individual I though an individual size would make the most sense in my case. So the team gets to Arizona Pizza Co. and we all are there before Miss Al and Miss JMac show up. Everyone has their food and I'm looking around for mine and I see two pizzas: one small yummy buffalo chicken pizza and one big nasty-looking, jalapeno smothered chickenish pizza. This was a no-brainer to me, I was like, "yum, heck yeah, the small delicious one has got to be mine because I asked for a small!" So Al and JMac finally decide to come and crash my party because apparently the big, nasty, jalapeno pizza was somehow supposed to be mine and I ate JMac's. I don't know why the same exact pizza in two different sizes would be made in completely different ways. JMac got stuck with the jalapeno pie, she hated it. Lesson learned! Now we all know to only get the small buffalo chicken pizza. I guess if you are a fan of jalapenos then you should get the medium.

My cat is begging me for attention right now, she's just meowing at the wind! I don't know if I told you guys this yet but my cat, Kaya, knows how to play fetch like a dog. She's a dog in a cat's body. She has this little plastic ball with a bell in it and she brings it to me, I throw it, she chases it, and she brings it back, we continue this process until I decide it's over because for Kaya she never wants to stop. She's so quick, I wish I had her catlike reflexes on the court.

Okay everyone, I hope you had a goodtime reading EmVision! I hope everyone has a good day. Until next time folks! Bye! ☺ p.s. tomorrow is Friday the 13th! Dun Dun Dunnn. Creeptastic!

Em

1/1/12

Happy New Year!! It's a brand new year for everyone, and for me being a senior it's going to be a year of many changes! No one should worry about me though, I love new adventures, and the first adventure is my UMass Minutewomen taking the A10 Conference by storm in 2012. I promise all of you reading that this is going to be the year for the UMass lady ballers. You heard it here first on EmVision. It's a fresh new year so I am not going to talk about the past today. All I will say is that our basketball team is GOOD. If you want to know exactly how good, I guess you're just going to have to come to a game. Is this is a challenge you ask? Why, yes, yes it is.

Right now I'm watching some Sunday Night Football, the Giants and the Cowboys. You guys have probably guessed that I am a big NFL buff (I'm sooo girly). My two team managers, Jake and Alanna, are at my apartment watching with me right now; they are huge Giants fans. Giants fans are running rampant in my apartment right now. I'm also rooting for the Giants, and with that I would LOVE to give a shout out to UMass alum Victor Cruz!! The Giants first touchdown came from Cruz tonight and it was beautiful. He is so fast, and it's awesome that he is repping UMass Nation. Right now the score is 21 to 0 at the half. I might not stay up for the rest of the second half seeing as I have to get up kind of early to get treatment before practice from my buddy Lacy (our trainer that I told you about a few EmVisions ago). I'm confident that the Cowboys will be losing this game, and I have no sympathy for them either. In other NFL news, the Bengals, although they lost today, will be going to the playoffs! The Bengals are my team, and I am so hype that I get to cheer them on for at LEAST one more week against the Houston Texans. If Andy Dalton and AJ Green have anything to do with it, the Bengals will be victorious.

Tomorrow the team is exchanging secret Santa gifts. I wonder what gift I will get! I hope everyone has a really good year this year. I don't necessarily believe in "New Year's Resolutions." I just like to call them "goals" and I believe that you should constantly make goals for yourself all year long and to strive to be the best person you can be. Every day is a new day, if you don't like what you did yesterday then you can change your attitude today. All it takes is want and will and a little help from friends! ☺ Em signing off. Catch you guys later!

Em

12/22/11

It's getting extremely close to one of my favorite holidays of the year, Christmas!! Three days away to be exact! All the players and all of the rad peeps that work with us get four days at our respective homes to do whatever we want (while obviously still getting our workouts in!) I am blogging from my parent's office right now in their home in OHIO. The lighting is kind of dim in here; maybe I'll get them an extra lamp for Christmas. I didn't bring my laptop home from school because it's the holidays, which is a special time to spend with my friends and family; I don't need to be surfin' the web or doing whatever it is that people do on laptops. I don't know if everyone is keeping up with my UMass lady ballers, but we are on a three game winning streak. Coach Dawley likes to call it "turning corners." We are turning corners left and right these days and I have no qualms about it.

The lady ballers and I made a little season's greetings video if you will. I'm working on getting a link to it right now to post on here, anddd oh shoot my parents already have it like favorited on their computer, how easy was that? Here it is! ← for those of you who are NOT technologically savvy just click on where it says "here it is" and enjoy the show from the UMass Women's Basketball Team.

NOTE: Do not read this paragraph UNTIL you have watched the video! WARNING: IF you haven't watched the video yet, there will be spoilers in this segment!! Anyway, how awesome is that video? The best, right? Shak and I obviously steal the show, even though I have troubles reading the words and Shak was hogging the mic. It doesn't surprise me because we have done our own music videos in the past, and we have more on the way... But anyway, how cute was Ronnie in the video, and the rest of the freshman holding it down. Just so you all know, we sang that song without the music when we were filming. It was not a simple task. I also find it interesting how we each have our unique ways of doing EVERYTHING, and how each of our personalities shine through. And of course, I don't want to pick on Kiara (the Aussie) too much, but what was that accent girlfriend? It somewhat moves me to invest in some vocal lessons for you for Xmas! (only kidding!)

After our nice long break over the holidays, we get back to work on the 26th down in Virginia. We have a Christmas tournament, and I am hoping to keep the streak alive! Anyway, some of my hometown buddies just gave me a buzz, so I'm going to go catch up with them right now and hang out. Hope you enjoyed EmVision Christmas Edition! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and any other holiday I missed! Feliz Navidad ya'll.

Em

12/11/11

HELLO!!! I'm blogging fresh off of a win today. I am super excited to feel this feeling. It's all smiles and giggles when a game is won, nothing can bring me down... except for maybe the fact that it's finals week. The radio guys after our game said that this win came at a great time right before finals week and asked me how it would affect our mood for finals, I didn't really know how to answer that question so I basically just said that I would be getting A's on all my tests this week solely because of the win. (And I guess a tad bit of studying helps too). On to another studious topic, I suppose I have some explaining to do for missing last week's EmVision entry. I have a good reason for that! I had three projects and two presentations due last week and last Sunday was a HUGE grind time for me. Sunday is when I type up my blogs because it's perfect just before the start of the week but I guess I just couldn't handle the EmVision pressure last week! My sincere apologies!

I have to share this story with you guys because it intrigues me in a special way and makes me want to tell all of you something. So I was in one of my classes this week, Product Strategy to be exact, and it was the last class of the semester. One of my classmates comes up to me (remember this is the LAST day of this class) and he tells me that he does posters of our team and he knew who I was when I walked in the class on the FIRST day! I said, "And you waited until NOW to tell me this?!" I didn't say it in a mean way, but in a joking manner. Me and this guy could have been great classmate buddies, but he waited so long to say something! I mean I was kind of extra smiley that day and I probably looked more approachable than usual, but this was a lesson to me that maybe I'm not as approachable as I think (granted, there are some days where I don't necessarily want to be approachable). And also with that, I respect him for actually saying something to me. I am sure most people wouldn't, I don't think I would. This little story has meaning to me, it's funny how the littlest things can make you think. But I enjoyed that class a lot, particularly the before-class-convos I shared with all my classmates. Facebook me peeps. I also had a 40 minute presentation I had to do on Monday all by my lonesome in one of my classes, Marketing Management. I've done presentations before, but never that long. You really have to find ways to make sure the people you're presenting to don't fall asleep, thus the invention of multi-media! I showed like three videos and I got through it like a champ.

By the way, our strength and conditioning coach, George, has been dying to get into my blog so here it is. I'll also give him a few compliments while I'm at it. He is so awesome and really makes us super strong. Since he's been our trainer I feel like I'm in the best shape I've ever been in and he has helped tremendously with that. Not only is he making us into basketball beasts, he truly cares and I appreciate it. I'm a little upset that I only get to spend this last year with him, he's the man! (George, let's talk about those chain squats though).

I have a lot more to say but I'm going to wrap it up for now. I hope everyone has an awesome week. Wish all the students at UMass good luck as we take our final exams this week. I know the lady ballers are going to do well; they are always talking about studying. We have more nerds on the team than usual, so it's a plus in the academics area. Talk to you guys later!

Em

11/27/11

Hello EmVisionistas! I am typing this from my bed right now, and I am OH SO comfortable! I'm watching one of my favorite shows right now, it's the Iron Chef Super Chef competition (I don't know if that is exactly what it is called, but it's in the ball park). It's one of Dee's favorite shows too so we can talk about it with each other and gossip about the "super chefs." Basically this show is trying to find the next Iron Chef for the show Iron Chef, obviously. If you have never seen the Iron Chef show, then you are missing out! It's an hour competition where some of the best chefs in America have one hour to cook an amazing meal using a special ingredient for the judges and whoever cooks the best meal wins. They cook the most amazing things and it is worth a watch if you happen to be flipping through the channels and come across it.

So yesterday we played Ole Miss, they're a good SEC team and unfortunately we lost. I would say it was bittersweet. It was bitter because we lost and like I've said before, I don't take losses very easily. It was sweet because it feels like the pieces of our team are finally starting to come together. Together is the key word. Working together, playing together, having fun together, playing defense together, and just basically coming together. A team with togetherness and a tough work ethic is a team to beat. I believe it. The past week of practice has been one of the most fun and one of the most intense. We have been competing, and if you aren't on the winning team, you better believe your butt is on the line running sprints. Competitive games in practice are the best. This week we have a game at Quinnipiac on Tuesday and another game at George Mason in Virginia on Thursday. It'll be quite the trip but we are doing it TOGETHER! I'm curious to see what Wednesday brings since we aren't doing anything but traveling and practice that day, so what else are we going to do? I guess we'll find out! I request naptime in the hotel beds.

Anyway, today was a day off from all the hard work (in a basketball sense). I was still doing very hard work, just on the opposite side of the spectrum. I would like to let everyone know that I was at W.E.B. Dubois library today from 11AM to 6PM. I hardly step foot in the library, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Since there is only two weeks until the end of the semester AND we are going to be away essentially most of the week this week, I had to get my grind on. I truly didn't mind it, because once again I am going to let you guys in on one of my weird preferences. I would rather constantly be doing work and being productive for seven hours in the library than going to and sitting in class any day of the week. I feel like I am not getting anything accomplished just by chilling there in class, whereas when I am actively doing work I can let the creative juices flow and do what I do to get the grades. Yes, I am a weirdo and a unique type of nerd, but I guess that's just me.

SO! I hope that all of you have a good week this week. Be productive! It really does improve your mood and make you feel a lot better about your existence in this world. At least that's what I believe. And while you are being productive, try being really positive about it, then you will feel twice as good! Everyone wish our team safe travels this week as we are going to bring home a couple dubs. Promise.

Em

11/20/11

Hey guys! I am very tired this evening. I am currently kicked back on the couch watching some Sunday Night Football. The Giants and the Eagles are playing, and I am rooting for the Eagles! My roommate Alanna probably won't like that because she is a huge Giants fan, but not of Eli Manning which surprises me. I just got finished doing some schoolwork, and I will probably hit the hay really soon. I know you guys are curious about why I am so tired. I'm most likely not the only one that is a little wiped, I am sure all of my teammates, coaches, managers, trainers, and the media crew are feeling the same way. Well guess what? I'm going to tell you why because that is what I'm here for!

As you might know, we played against Miami (OH) yesterday at 2 PM. The game was in Ohio (which is my home state by the way, so I was happy to be able to visit the homeland). Our adventure started off on Friday at 4:45 AM when we departed Mullins on a bus for the Hartford Airport, which is the closest airport to us folks in Amherst. So we get there and everything is running smoothly through security and even boarding the plane. As we sit on the first plane waiting for take-off, the pilot comes on the speaker and says that we have to wait forty minutes to depart because there was a flock of seagulls on the runway when we were supposed to take off. This is nerve-racking because we had 10 minutes to get off the plane, find the shuttle to terminal F in the Philadelphia Airport (where our connecting flight was) and board the next plane. We were certain that we were going to be extremely late, but to our surprise and slight glee, the next flight was delayed just a little bit so we ended up being perfectly on time. Well that was the last of our pleasant trip. We boarded the plane and drove around (the passengers thought we were headed to the runway, we were wrong). The pilot of this flight comes on the speakers and says that we needed a mechanic for the plane and that we have to park back at the gate and wait for the mechanic. Trust me, I was fine with this because I don't want to be in the air in a faulty aircraft. We de-board the plane and all sit around while we are waiting for the mechanic to fix the plane. All of the sudden, the lady working our gate comes on the speaker and says that our flight was completely cancelled because they can't fix the plane. Pandemonium! There were fist fights everywhere (I'm obviously kidding). But people were getting stern with people and it was like watching a soap opera right in front of my face in 5D. Anyways, Coach Al and Coach Dawley to the rescue because they find us two flights to good ol' Cincinnati. The first flight was for all the players, Lacy (my awesome trainer), Coach Mo and Coach D. We had to go first because we had to try and get to practice at Miami by 7 PM, now keep in mind that we have been up since 4 in the morning this day. Everyone else came on the next flight to Cincy. We ended up getting to practice around 7:45 and we practiced for about 2 hours. As tired as we were, and probably slightly dehydrated, we did well and were focused. That was the extent of the way there.

On Saturday, we played our game finally. It was unfortunate because we lost after all the effort of traveling. I never enjoy losing games no matter what the circumstance. There is nothing much to say about that. But after the loss, we went to my parent's house to have dinner that they had ready for us. The only thing that could have made it any better is a victory, but you have to take life as it comes. I love going home and seeing my family and the people I love, it's very refreshing and comfortable to me. We stayed and hung out for a few hours and then went to stay in a hotel near the Dayton Airport (where we were flying out of). This time we only had to wake up and be on the bus by 5 AM, so it wasn't as bad as the first day. We got back to Amherst by noon. We are a little pooped as in sleepy, so I am going to pass right out tonight.

There is one thing that I would like everyone to do when they read this, and that is to pray for the families and team of the Oklahoma State University women's basketball head coach and assistant coach who tragically died two days ago. Please pray for them, as I will also be praying for the University and the families and players. Thanks for reading! I plan on writing about some wins next weekend.

Em

11/13/11

So I cannot wait to tell you guys all about the SEASON OPENER we had today! Shout out to some field hockey girls, softballers, and men's bballers that were there to support (and of course the parents who could make the game, including mine!) We won, and we defeated some very talented Boston University Terriers in order to do so. It's been about six hours since our victory and I am still grinning from ear to ear. Am I corny? Possibly the corniest, but I don't care because I am in sheer bliss. Our girl, Shak, had an amazing game scoring 22 points for us and Meg was seriously doing some of the best shooting I've seen from her, making it splash with 17 points. Carolann was a point guard if I've ever seen one. As you can tell, I am very proud of my teammates. I don't like to do this but since it is MY blog, I will brag just a little bit:

There is this "heart jersey" that one person gets after each game. As you probably have guessed, the player who played with the biggest heart (figuratively not literally) is awarded the "heart jersey" to wear around where ever they decide and they are required to wear it to practice. I wish I had a picture of it, it is so picturesque. Well, yours truly got the "heart jersey" to wear around. I think I got it for being a defensive monster or something like that, so I might just wear it around campus and random places because I am POSITIVE that it is a great conversation piece. There is a little heart on the front and a big heart on the back. People will definitely want to ask things about it. (By the way, I am totally kidding, I am really not weird enough to wear a jersey with big red Valentine's Day hearts on it around campus). But I am proud of myself and am going to proudly be sporting the "heart jersey" in practice and doing it up!

Anyway enough bragging, I'm starting to make myself blush. But I have my creative juices flowing so let's see what else I have to tell you guys... So my parents were here this weekend and funny as ever. They really are hilarious, I'm hesitant to say this on my blog that they read because they might get cocky and start telling bad jokes. And also, huuuuge shoutout to my trainer, Lacy for giving me the best tape jobs in the game yesterday and today. I get both of my feet taped for some weird condition called "Metatarsalgia." Forgive me Lace if I butchered the spelling of that. But I get this crazy tape job that takes about five minutes each foot, a.k.a. ten minutes of Lacy brutally tending to my foot needs. It really puts Lacy through the fire when she does these tape jobs because they are really intensive, and I am convinced that her many years of schooling were meant for giving me the most complicated tape jobs ever. Why so complicated you ask? Because if done right, my feet feel like clouds of paradise, but if one thing is out of place my feet feel like I've been walking on scalding coals in ballerina shoes that are much too tight. (Lacy I hope you are reading this, I am seriously giggling while writing this.) Lacy gets like 87 thumbs up if this were Facebook.

I am having a great night. I hope everyone feels this feeling at least once this week. You don't have to necessarily win a college basketball game, but I hope that something for everyone goes right this week and it makes you feel all fuzzy inside. Yes, like I said before, I am the corniest. Have a good week!!

11/7/11

Hey guys!! This past weekend was our first exhibition game against AIC. We won! Things are coming along for us as a team, it's very exciting. I know that my last post was extremely long, so I am going to keep it short and sweet this week. Next week I will make sure I give you readers some good details since I'll be blogging after our first game and home opener against Boston University this Sunday at 2pm. Mark it on your calendars!! Do it! I am also very excited for this weekend, not only because of our first game, but because my mom and dad are flying up all the way from Ohio for the game. During the season I never feel too far away from home because my parents make most of the games, especially the ones on the weekends. The games during the week are hard for them to come because they work, but of course I love to see them (and no I am not just saying that because I know they are reading this!) I truly mean it.

I have a lot of school work this week, so I will literally be playing basketball, going to class, doing errands that have to do with class, playing basketball, studying, eating, and playing basketball. There is no room for anything else this next couple of weeks. This is called THE GRIND. Once The Grind is over, then everything goes back to normal again. I always need a grind every once and a while to keep me honest and guessing. It's kind of like guarding a penetration in basketball. You can't just mozy on defense the whole time, you need to make sure you are on your toes and ready for whatever. Maybe some of you don't understand this analogy but what I am trying to say is: I need The Grind in my life because if I didn't have a busy schedule every now and again, my life would be pretty boring and it would be like I was just muddling through life with no purpose. Oddly enough, I am the type of person that functions better when I am extremely busy, and I enjoy it. As a student-athlete, you guys might think I am already very busy, but sometimes for me it's just not busy enough. Now that you guys officially think I am weird, well guess what? To some of you it's going to get a little weirder, but to my Ohio readers it's going to get a little more awesome:

Shout out to the Cincinnati Bengals for being 6 and 2 this year! Much improved from last year and with an amazing rookie quarterback in Andy Dalton and rookie receiver AJ Green. Keep it up. I would love to see you guys in the Super Bowl this year! Give me something to get hype about other than the commercials during the Super Bowl.

Okay, enough of my rambling. Like I said before, it's time for me to get some schoolwork finished. I hope you enjoyed the random thoughts in my brain today. Next week you guys will get great coverage of the first game. I am so pumped, and I know my lady ballers are rearing to go as well. Thanks for tuning in! Everyone have a great week and I hope you get everything accomplished this week that you need to! P.S. I am also ordering the new iPhone 4S tonight. Slighty enthused for that as well. Bye everyone!

Em

11/1/11

Hello!! It's the first day of November today. So let's kick it off right! The entire western part of Massachusetts had an insane Halloween weekend. If any of you guys are not from the area and don't know what went on this past weekend, guess what? I am here to give you firsthand knowledge of the craziness of the Halloween Blizzard that swept the East Coast. Oh and in case you are wondering, I am un-concussed. In my previous entry I told you guys how I was out for the week from a concussion, so I just want to keep my EmVisionistas updated on my well-being. But anyways back to the story!

So... Saturday was our scrimmage against Fairfield. Speaking of the scrimmage, our team is coming along very well. I wasn't completely ready to jump right in since I had just gotten over my concussion but it was okay because the other lady ballers did a great job. But the scrimmage was at one o'clock and when we ran into the locker room at halftime there are doors to where you can see outside; well it was snowing extremely hard. When the scrimmage ended and our team took showers, it was snowing awfully hard (even for if it was actually wintertime, let's keep in mind that it is Halloween weekend a.k.a October which is technically still fall and the leaves haven't even fallen yet). It took us two hours to get to Fairfield and because of the snowfall on the way back to Amherst it took what felt like almost four hours. It took me a while to comprehend that I was actually in a snowstorm in October. I was in denial for the longest time that this snowfall was a terrible blizzard until I saw trees and power lines laying on the ground all over Amherst and Hadley the next day. It hit me even harder when I found out that my power was out. I had stayed at North Apartments with the rest of the team Saturday night because it was too bad to drive home that night. (I was hanging out with the team, so therefore I went over to where they all stay). My power had actually gone out Saturday night when I wasn't home and never came back on the entire next day until 9:45 p.m. There are still people without power at this very moment while I'm typing this. I'm one of the lucky ones that got my electricity back so soon. Since I was out of power, me and my roommate, Alanna, who is one of the team managers, decided to hang out at North again all day because UMass campus was basically the only place in what feels like the entire half of the state that had plenty of power. I have never been out of power for so long in my whole life (my dad who works for a power company in Dayton usually takes care of that situation pretty fast if it ever happens, not bragging or anything). I found out the next day that the two flashes of green light that lit up the sky on Saturday night was the result of two transformers (the electrical ones, not the cars that turn into robots) blowing up. I had just thought it was lightning and the world was ending at the time. Good thing I was wrong. Surprisingly after all of this happened, and so many people are still out of power, we only got Monday off of school. If this was southwestern Ohio and this debacle was to happen, Ronni will vouch for me on this one, I truly think we would have had like two weeks off. This stuff just does not happen in real life, or so I thought!

I also want to tell a little side story to all of this. Remember how I told you my power came on at my apartment around 10 p.m. Sunday night? Well before the power had come on, me and Alanna (my roomie if you had forgotten), decided that we would go to over our locker room. We were there taking showers and doing homework when we get the news that our apartment now has power. I did a victory dance for whatever reason and decided to head back and sleep in my own bed. We park and get out of the car once we get to our place and walk to the door where we go in meanwhile hearing the fire alarms going off inside the building. I open the door and all I see is water and a massive amount of steam just coming out, which I thought was smoke at the time. I look at Alanna and go, "Uhh," and just let the door go from shock and bewilderment. My first thought: our building is on fire. Reason: everyone was probably burning candles and someone fell asleep and stuff got weird. This was NOT the case, thank goodness. But one of our neighbors slightly told us what she thought was going on, I can't remember what she said but in my mind this is what I heard (it won't make sense), "The pipeline burst and the heater boiler exploded and there's some toxic smell coming out of it, kind of like a fungus." Yes, I understand this is definitely not what the girl said, but that is what I heard in my confused mind. As you can imagine, as soon as I heard the word "toxic" I was like, nah I'm going back to the locker room because whatever is going on just does not seem safe. But just so everyone knows now, everything is fine with my apartment, it was just the pipeline that burst in the hallway and that's where the steam and water came from. And I was also very worried about my little fur ball Kaya who was in imminent danger at my first thoughts. Kaya is my pet cat by the way. She is awesome.

What an intense weekend I had. Sorry for being a little bit dramatic this week, but this situation is all new to me. Power outages happen because of terrible thunderstorms or tornados (this was my belief). This was so outside of the box for me that I just couldn't comprehend all of it in a timely fashion. Some of the situations I found myself in this weekend were humorous, but most of all I felt like I was in a big bubble of confusion. If any of you guys were wondering why my EmVision was a couple days late, I think you have your answer. This Halloween weekend goes down in history and I will never forget it. Some of my coaches still don't have power and our trainer, Lacy, doesn't have her power yet either. Like I said, I am one of the lucky ones. Anyways, for those of you who don't have power and can't read this anyways, I hope all of you get your power back soon within the next few days. And those of you readers who are in sweet bliss because you didn't have to experience the drama, I hope you enjoyed the story. My lesson learned this weekend: ANYTHING is possible. Take note lady ballers... ANYTHING is possible. Thanks for tuning in. I'll be more prompt next week!

Em

10/23/11

Hey everybody! Hope you guys had a good week and great weekend. I am just sitting here watching some Sunday Night Football. It's the Colts and the Saints. I'm not a fan of either of the teams but just for my own entertainment's sake I am choosing to root for Indianapolis. The only reason is because I favor them geographically; Indianapolis is around an hour of where I'm from and also I never even acknowledged the Saints until they won the Super Bowl that one year. I'll probably fall asleep before it ends anyhow.

Anyway, I had an interesting week at practice starting on Thursday. I actually got a concussion from getting rocked in the head at practice. I got hit so hard that I fell down. Now here's the thing, I didn't get "knocked out" or anything, I thought I was fine, but according to Lacy (our awesome trainer) and Coach D I wasn't acting myself after the blow. Therefore, Friday and all weekend I have just been relaxing and getting over my headache! Little side story: My dad, back in the day, played college football for Ohio Northern University. He was the quarterback and since he played some college athletics I always ask him things about when he played and advice and stuff like that, so I asked him if he ever got a concussion and his response was classic. He says, "Yeah, I think I got a concussion once. I got hit real hard and they said my eyes were all glossy." I say, "Well, what happened? What did they do with you?" He responds, "They just told me to get back out there and play. Things weren't the same back then as they are now." It wasn't exactly the response I was looking for, but it made me laugh and I think there's a saying that goes something like "laughter is medicine for the heart" or something like that, I don't remember. Thanks Dad. My headache is gone now thank goodness, but I had a lot of time on my hands this weekend with nothing to do...

...I decided to keep myself busy with movies this weekend, so that's why I will be giving you guys and girls movie reviews in EmVision this week! (Shak and I found this place in Amherst called DVDen that sells used DVDs, 5 for $25, so we of course took advantage of the opportunity and we each bought 5 movies each.) I only watched 3 of the 5 movies I bought and I also watched Juwanna Mann. It's amazing how much funnier a movie gets if you haven't seen it in a while. I suggest everyone watch Juwanna Mann and laugh at all the parts that you didn't appreciate before. (Note to self: That's a movie we need to bring on the road with us this year.) The first movie from my purchases that I popped in the DVD player was called When In Rome starring Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel. It was sort of a zany romantic comedy. I'm not going to give too much away because I think all these movies should be enjoyed by my readers but the character played by Kristen Bell puts some kind of love spell on like five guys who fall in love with her. Meanwhile, Josh Duhamel's character really does like her and she refuses to believe it because she believes he is part of the wacky love spell. It's pretty quirky, so I'm gonna give it 3 out of 5 stars. The second movie I watched was called Valentine's Day. I really enjoyed this one and there's so many good actors and actresses in this movie like Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner, Jessica Biel, Julia Roberts, and Jennifer Garner just to name a few. I never saw this movie in the theaters because I thought it would be uber corny, I mean it is titled "Valentine's Day." It basically shows the trials and triumphs of many different couples as well as individual people through different lenses. I was pleasantly surprised and I thought the high school couple that Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift portrayed was golden. I'm not the biggest fan of Taylor Swift, but it really encompassed what a high school couple is like and I thought it was hilarious. This movie gets 5 stars from me. The last movie I watched was called Rumor Has It with Jennifer Aniston. I'm not going to say much about this movie because I really don't want to give anything away in it. This movie has twists and turns and is about a girl trying to figure out the big secret (or not so secret) in her family. I give this one 4.75 stars and if you haven't seen it, go check it out. I hope I gave you guys some good movie suggestions for a rainy day or if you have a concussion and need to lay low.

Basketball practice has been going well (except for Thursday a.k.a. concussion day) but all the UMass lady ballers are working hard and getting ready for our upcoming scrimmage next weekend. Midterms should be coming up for some of the girls, especially the younger ones so I hope they study hard and do well; I am sure they will. As a marketing major, I don't necessarily have midterms anymore, but instead I take smaller tests and have case studies, team projects, and presentations... lots of presentations. If anyone out there reading this had midterms, good luck! Everyone else, have an amazing week! Oh and the Colts are losing right now, 28 to 0. I might change who I am rooting for. Bye!

Em

10/16/11

Hey guys! Welcome back to EmVision. This week is going to be short and sweet because I'm actually studying for a test right now! (I'm taking a little break writing this, if you couldn't tell already). It's a marketing management class if any of you were wondering. I have had a productive day of homework also today, but unfortunately I didn't get my laundry done like I had wanted to. It's also that time of year where my allergies are kicking in! It happens every year here at UMass when the leaves start hardcore falling off of the trees. I never had fall allergies until my freshman year in Amherst; obviously by now I've gotten used to it. Enough about me and my awesome life (I know, homework and allergies are just SO exciting), let's talk about the rest of the lady ballers.

As I said last week, we were going horseback riding on Monday. I have never ridden a horse before, and I was a little bit nervous because they are actually really tall. Therefore, I chose to ride the short and stubby horse named Dozer. I just took Dozer for a little walk in circles and that was fine with me, but we also had some experienced riders on the team. Aisha handled her horse like a pro, and so did Shak. Millie's horse on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with Millie's commands. As much as Mill kicked and kicked her horse to go faster, Zoey (the horse) was not having it. I could tell Zoey was getting upset because I think I saw her shake her head "no" one time. I am sure Millie is usually a pro, so I think Zoey was just a little tired and didn't feel like listening. One other thing about horseback riding: It made my hips so sore for an entire half of a week. I thought I was golden until I had to practice, and that's when I felt the soreness. I've been playing bball for over half my life and have never gotten sore in those areas due to a game or practice so I knew it had to be from the horse.

I also want to quickly point out that Meg and I have finally figured out our Halloween costumes and I must say that they are going to be EPIC. Definitely better than last year, which was Batman and Captain America. I can't tell you what it is yet, but I will have to make sure I get a good picture up here of the costumes after Halloween

Practice has been good this week. It was really weird also because we had one of our worst practices and one of our best practices all in one week. They were back-to-back, actually. Looking at the bright side of a terrible practice is that it is an example of what never to do. So now we all know to never practice that way. We came back with one of our best practices and showed our resiliency which I think is notable of the UMass lady ballers. We have a couple weeks until our first scrimmage, and all the girls have made comments about how excited we are to finally start. Everyone have a good Monday. The team and I will be getting back to it tomorrow.

Later!

Em

10/9/11

What's up EmVisionistas?! I hope everyone had an amazing week. Today is a special day because I am blogging straight from my home in Ohio! Our coaches gave us three days off from practice this weekend; a nice little break before we really get into practices every day and scrimmages towards the end of the month. I especially appreciate it because I got to have a much needed visit home to spend some time with my family. I treasured every minute of the time I spend with my mom and my dad. Not to mention the intense bicep and tricep workout my brother put me through after my run yesterday; my arms are still feeling a little woozy. I feel refreshed with a clear mind and ready to get back into the action tomorrow. I'm ready to be with my UMass lady ballers, getting at it in practice.

I believe tomorrow is Columbus Day and we have NO SCHOOL! Hey hey hey! Even though I have no school I do have a lot of school work that I need to get done and I'm sure it's the same for all of my teammates. Usually what a day off from school really means is "must study and try to get everything done in one day so I can enjoy the rest of the week." Obviously that never happens, but that is exactly what we are all thinking in our minds. So since we have no school tomorrow we actually get to do something particularly unique with the team: after our practice and lift, we are going horseback riding. Now I know what you're thinking, last week Olympics and this week horseback riding? Umm... Yeah doggies that is right! We are going to turn into some regular Annie Oakleys tomorrow after practice! (I'm assuming Annie Oakley rode a horse). I'll tell you guys ALL about it next week in EmVision.

Last week we had our first day of practice like I reminded everyone last Sunday. It was awesome! I like practicing every single day during the season much better than preseason. Reason being is that it is two and a half hours of pure basketball. Conditioning and preseason workouts must be done to get prepared but they are in no way as fun as an actual basketball practice. Everyone's energy was high and I could tell that everyone was working hard. We are going to have a bright season this year and I'm ecstatic.

Before I leave you all this week I want to share a quote from Theodore Roosevelt with all of you and especially my lady ballers. I actually found a book that my parents got me when I was sixteen called 100 Great Principles to Live By and when I saw this quote I fell in love with it:

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat; who strives valiantly; who errs and may fail again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who does know the great enthusiasm, the great devotion; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who as best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worse, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory no defeat."

-Theodore Roosevelt

So, in closing of EmVision this week, everyone keep this in mind while you are doing what you do. You can't accomplish anything if you don't at least try, and try your hardest at that. Thanks for reading! Have a good week everyone!

Em

10/3/11

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a good day today. My Sunday has been super relaxing; I finished all my homework, Skyped my parents, made some spaghetti for dinner, and now I'm just watching some TV while sharing some EmVision with you guys. I don't know if any of you have heard of ESPN's 30 for 30 series (they are sports documentaries), but that's what I'm watching right now. This particular one is about Wayne Gretzy getting traded; now I don't know much about hockey but it has me enthralled (and keep in mind my attention is not easily kept). I have the entire series on blu-ray this is just the first one I've watched, so I have a long way to go. Anyways, let's get back on topic.

Friday, Coach Steve had a barbeque at his house, and not only did we eat hotdogs and hamburgers but we had OLYMPICS. Yes, I said Olympics. There were five different games, but there ended up being six games for the tie breaker, I'll get into more detail on that in a little bit. We had four different teams, and each team had to come up with uniforms and a name for themselves. My team was the "Wrastlers" (with an "a", that was not a spelling error). My team consisted of me, Kim, and Aisha a.k.a. A-Rod which is short for Aisha Rodney if you were wondering. The events were mini basketball, hillbilly golf, homerun derby, football toss, and the game where you put an egg on a spoon and race. Our team dominated in all of the events accept for hillbilly golf, where we were 1-2, and the egg race. I think we actually came in last during the race. My team was in the lead the whole time, BUT because of this terrible loss, we ended up tied with another team which consisted of Meg, Shak, and Kiara. Therefore, we had to have a tie breaker and the tie breaker was the dreaded egg toss. To make a long story short, the other team dropped their egg like three times and it didn't break (I'm convinced they were playing with a boiled egg), but of course I actually catch my egg in my hand and it cracks immediately. We were ultimately defeated. It was extra bitter because of Meg, Shak, and Kiara's team "uniforms" if that's what you want to call them. Let me tell you what these ladies wore to our Olympics: they had on little boy superman underwear with a red t-shirt tucked into the underwear and a blue sequin studded cape. It was kind of funny, I can't lie, but talk about a confidence crusher for us losing to a team dressed like 5 years olds during Trick-or-Treat. They get creativity points.

Something I'm looking forward to is Tuesday. Why am I looking forward to Tuesday? Because it's the first day of official practice. Thank goodness!! We train and train and train, and stay on campus year round just to prep for the season and it's finally here. I know my teammates are looking forward to it to, let the party begin! I'm going to get to bed; I have a big week ahead of me as do the rest of the lady ballers! Time to get the practice grind on! I hope everyone has as good of a week as I'm about to have. Start your Mondays off on a positive note!

Em

9/25/11

Greetings EmVisionistas! (That is what I will call my readers, a.k.a. you guys). Today is actually a very special day, because today is the day that I was born exactly 22 years ago. In other words, it's my birthday! And naturally, I feel extra special today because of the hundreds of "Happy Birthday" comments I received on Facebook. Notice how I said "hundreds", that might be an exaggeration. Thank you Facebook friends. In other news in EmVision, the lady ballers had a VERY productive week this week.

As far as our conditioning went this week, it was a very exciting adventure for us. Usually we just run, run and run some more. The typical cardio for a basketball player is sprints, of course. So, Tuesday we show up for individual bball workouts and after that we have a conditioning session that usually consists of court sprints. We were all ready to run the usual sprints, but this day was different. We weren't doing the regular sprinting workout that we do, which are termed "Metabolics," we did a "defensive" conditioning workout. Going through all of our heads when we hear this (especially returners because we know Coach Dawley) was, "Oh boy we are in for it." And we were. The burn I felt during that workout was deep, and yet satisfying because I knew it was going to help for the first week of practice. My "buns" if you will, were so tight on Wednesday morning. Not to my surprise, the fun didn't stop on Tuesday; Wednesday was a very interesting workout as well.

Wednesday morning, the lady ballers and myself all presumed that we would be on the track running typical 200s and 150s, but no, this was not the case. I got a text at 9:53 a.m. from Mo (Coach Morgan) that said, "Hey we r doing a pool workout today at 330 instead of dry land conditioning. You can wear what u wore to lift." Oh no. I am much better on land than in sea. And just for the record, Mo is tough when it comes to workouts. So the day wears on, I sit through three classes and have a lift, as you probably know as indicated by Mo's text, and finally it was time for the pool workout. I've done pool workouts before, don't get me wrong, but they're usually like just float around the pool and try to get yourself to breathe a little bit harder than usual. A little background information: I am not a strong swimmer, I am very slow and I don't have the best form; I just like to stay above the water to get to where I need to go and I need to use all of my limbs to do this. We start off in the shallow end, so I'm feeling really confident besides the fact that the water was freezing. Then we start doing some kicks while holding on to the wall and still, I am feeling like I'm owning this workout. The moment when I started feeling stressed was when we headed to the deep end, without floatation devices might I add. I went under a few times, and I fought for my life the whole time, but good news: I survived! The looks on my teammates faces during parts of the workout was priceless and I'm proud of all of us for getting through it. And I would love to give a shoutout to Mo for giving us one heck of a workout.

The team is still working hard and preparing for the first day of practice, which will be here in 10 days exactly. This week is the last week of preseason conditioning and workouts, although it is not the last week of conditioning because we will continue to do plenty of that all season long. I hope you've enjoyed hearing about the Minutewomen workouts in EmVision, have an amazing week! Whether you are a student, or a full-time employee, or whatever you are, do it the best you can! (A little Monday motivation for you guys).

Em

9/18/11

Hi everyone! So my name is Emilie and this is the very first blog post of many that I'll be throwing your way. Why am I the author of this blog, you ask? Well earlier this week, JMac (a.k.a. Coach Jen) asked me to blog on the website to talk about the Minutewomen ballers and obviously my reply was absolutely! Not to mention this is way more fun than doing homework. Side note: I tend to use nicknames for a lot of people, I'm sure you faithful readers will catch on right away. Every week I'm going to give my blog readers updates of what the lady ballers are doing in my own point of view... Let's just call it EmVision.

Anyway, now that I have given you some background information, how about some EmVision of what happened this week. This past week as you may or may not know was our first official week of preseason. We are doing lots of conditioning and training. If our team isn't in shape by the end of this, well, I don't even know what to say because we will be in great shape. It was also our first week of getting through what I like to call the "sore muscle grind." This is where everyday your muscles are sorer and sorer everyday yet the workouts stay equally intense from Monday through Friday. Stretching a lot is the key to success during this critical period. As a senior I would like to give a shoutout to the entire team for working as hard as they can this past week and I know it's just going to get better. As much as our bodies our aching, we are ready for more and just want to do everything we can for October 5th (first day of official practice).

Yesterday, our team traveled to Holyoke to participate in a walk for Alzheimer's disease. We went to show our support for the cause and also our beloved secretary, Katie, and her dad, Wally. It was awesome. There were so many nice people there wishing us luck and asking about the team. The team of course had a blast... and not to mention all the free cookies and candy. It's okay though, everything we ate will be sweated out this week at workouts!

There's a couple of random things I want to share with everyone. One being that our new headshots are up on the roster for this year. And let me tell you, we are lookin' good. If we play as good as we look, we're going to be ballin'. Also, the schedule is up, so start marking the calendar! I'll try not to ramble on so much in my future blogs, but the Minutewomen were busy this week and I just had to try to get it all in! Tune in next week for EmVision... Hope everybody has a great week!

Em