University of Richmond Athletics
A Players' Perspective
10/28/2003 | Women's Basketball
Oct. 28, 2003
Editor's Note...The Spiders' women's basketball team enjoyed a record-breaking 21-11 season in 2002-03, which included two wins in the NIT - the first postseason victories in the program's history. Sophomore guard Araceli Gil was an intregal part of the team's success - earning Atlantic 10 All-Rookie team honors. She was one of three Spiders to play in every game, and capped her freshman season with a career-high-tying 17 points in an NIT victory over Georgetown.
How do the Spiders prepare to build upon last year's success? Araceli's weekly diary will provide some answers as she takes us to the weight room, the track, the dining hall, the campus, and finally - the court - with several other stops along the way.
Week 7...
Basketball season is here!!! After practice on Saturday, I congratulated the freshman for making it through the first week of practice. The Thursday and Friday before our first practice were very enjoyable days for the team returners. It was amusing seeing all the freshman talk about how nervous they were for Midnight Madness and the first day of practice. They kept asking questions so that they could get a better idea about what to expect. "Is it going to be like 3 hours of straight sprints?" I heard one of them ask. I just laughed because I can look back to a year ago and I remember thinking to myself, "If I can get through today's practice, then I'll only have to worry about tomorrow's." It's amazing to see how a year's experience has completely changed my mentality going into each practice or workout. I think it's safe to say that none of the freshman are going to have any major breakdowns this season; they are all handling the adjustment to college basketball extremely well.
One of the biggest differences from high school to college basketball is the amount of intensity that goes into team defense. On the first day of practice, Coach Boyle reminded the returners and introduced the freshmen to the Richmond Women's Basketball team defense philosophy. Basically, we could have gone through the entire practice without any basketballs because we played defense the entire time. My most memorable defensive drill was the one when Coach told us to get into our stance while she read our defensive statistics and A-10 standings from last year. I would say that we were probably in our stance for a good five minutes, with our hands up. After about one minute my legs were shaking uncontrollably and the pain continued to increase. By the time I got to five, I couldn't really feel my legs, but somehow I was still in my stance when she told us to get up. Everyone stayed in her stance the entire time, so luckily we got to move on to yet another defensive drill. I might be making it sound worse than it really was, but we did cover offense in our other practices.
Although basketball season has started, we still had time to support our favorite athletic teams throughout this last week. After practice the last two Saturdays, we went to cheer for the football team which won both games. We've attended several soccer games, a lacrosse scrimmage, and we've even had time to do all of our homework. This Monday, the 27th, we celebrated DeUnna's 19th birthday after practice with our favorite Ukrop's cupcakes. And every week we each go out and take part in some community service around town. Several of us are part of the "Adopt-a-Grandparent" program at St. Vincent's Little Sisters of the Poor, some tutor young children at a church, and others help with basketball leagues around town. I am involved with the grandparent program, so I go visit my "Grandma Jones" once a week. She's a 93-year-old woman who always has so many stories to tell me about what things were like growing up around the area. It's a great way for all of us to get off campus and meet new people every week. Now it's time to go relax in front of the T.V ... there's always time for that. |
