Graceketball

Great Day! GraceAnne, Remi, Blake and I went to the Maggie Dixon Classic yesterday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. It is the second year we've gone. Last year we Saw Brittany Griner, Kim Mulkey and the Baylor Bears beat Boston College in the first game and Pat Summit, Kelly Caine and the The Tennessee Lady Vols beat Rutgers in the second. This year was even better than last! The #1 ranked UConn Huskies played the #11 Ohio State Buckeyes in the second game for their 88th consecutive win, a collegiate record. In the first game the #8 ranked Texas A&M Aggies blew out the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. It was VERY cool for us to be there to witness history and for GraceAnne to see some of the girls that she has worked with play in such an important game. Tiffany Hayes was just amazing scoring 26 points on some absolutely spectacular driving layups. I never thought about it before but Tiffany, a junior, has NEVER lost as a Husky. Lorin Dixon got big minutes subbing out Bria Hartle...

Had a great time last night at the St John's v Seton Hall basketball game! GraceAnne and Grace Stone watched intently while the Red Storm rolled over the Pirates. Getting the girls out to games like this is great for them. They learn a lot but they also get a love and appreciation for the game and the hard work that goes into becoming a good player. Coach Duffy and Coach Arico both waved to the girls from the bench which was very nice. Makes them feel like they are a part of things. On Monday we went to see the Glen Cove varsity girls play. They beat Sewanhaka and both the Glen Cove eighth graders, Taylah Hudson and McKayla Hernandez, had good games leading the team in scoring. McKayla led the team again last night with 17 points in another win but... Taylah broke her pinky finger. Hoping for a quick and painless recovery, very nice kid, great player.

Interesting week so far. On Saturday 12/4 GraceAnne worked with Brittany Hunter. It was a lot of fun to watch Brittany take her through a whole progression of post moves, jab steps, pull up jumpers, reverse layups, etc.. I recorded enough so that Grace will be able to do the workout on her own. Brittany explains everything in a very clear and accessible way that Grace seems to understand easily. Its one thing to be told to do something, execute a move, and another to understand why you are working on what you're doing, why there is a right way to do it and why it matters. I'm kind of amazed at how much of what Brittany is teaching Grace she immediately applies in a game. Hard to know if she's thinking it through or if the repetition and muscle memory just kicks in, probably both. Whatever it is its great to watch. Later Saturday we came back to Glen Cove for an open gym with Storm teammates at the high school. Only four of our girls showed up but it was the core playe...

Monday evening Grace's Hudson Storm CYO team played Christ The King of Commack. Very good team, well coached tough, aggressive players. Grace had a very good game especially in the second half. She got into foul trouble very early which took her out of the game for a bit but recovered nicely playing most of the second half with four fouls. She eventually fouled out with a little over a minute and a half remaining. Storm won by 3 in a back and forth game with a number of ties. Storm is now 9-0 and has a tough St Pat's team this Sunday 8:15pm in Smithtown... yes, 8:15 at a gym an hour away on a school night. Great practice Wednesday night. Bigs got a lot of work in. Coach Hudson is trying to get them to be more aggressive around the basket. The team also had an opportunity to scrimmage the 7th-8th grade boys team. That was lot of fun to watch! Grace was very aggressive and really banged around with the bigs, grabbing rebounds, blocking a couple shots and scoring twice. Tomorr...

GraceAnne, Amara, Tristyn Hudson and Ashleigh Sheerin put a team together for this past weekend's St Dom's 3 on 3 tournament. They did really well! I wasn't sure if Grace was going to do it or not but on Friday phone calls and emails started flying around and it all kind of came together on its own. Once we got to St Dominic's in Oyster Bay it took the girls a little while to get the hang of things. In pool play they won enough games to get to the playoffs, that's where they really got going. Woody seemed to enjoy banging some of the bigger boys around, totally held her own on the inside. The great thing about 3 on 3 is that there's absolutely nowhere to hide, you're either beating your man, shutting them down or you're getting beat, being shutdown. The halfcourt seems "bigger" and you HAVE TO rely on your teammates. You are forced to pass, forced to defend or you are exposed. Totally had the right mix of girls. Lots of defensive switches,...

Two of the UConn Huskies that GraceAnne was fortunate  enough to meet and work with this fall have taken on HUGE offensive roles so far this season.  Tiffany Hayes scored 32 points against Holy Cross the other day. She scored 30 in the first half, let me say that again, she scored 30 in the first half which is the highest score by any individual in UConn basketball history. Kelly Faris is averaging 7.3 pts 7 rebounds over three games and led the team in rebounds against Holy Cross and Georgia Tech. UConn is 3-0 beating Georgia Tech and 2nd ranked Baylor as well as Holy Cross. Grace and I watched the Baylor game together and it was a lot of fun to see so many of the players Grace met and worked with over the summer get big minutes. Lorin Dixon also played well and Heather Buck did a really nice job late in the game against one of Grace's favorite players Brittany Griner. We'll be going to the game where UConn is expected to tie the record for most consecutive wins in co...

Grace had one of the best games I've ever seen her play this past Monday night. No gaudy statistics but an extremely solid all around game with a few minutes in the third where she just took over the game. Those few minutes really showed me what she just might be capable of doing on a consistent basis. 13 rebounds, 5 blocks, 9 points, 2 assists and 3 steals. But those few minutes... you could see she was feelin' it! If she didn't score or get an assist she went to the line on four or five possessions in a row over a span of maybe four minutes. Coach had her getting the ball on the press break in the back court so she would either advance the ball to the front court and find the open girl or she would take it to the hole. Didn't have to rely on her teammates getting her the ball and you could just see she felt unstoppable. She also had to deal with a skilled girl bigger than herself which is what I'd like to see every game.

Nice week. Weren't too overwhelmed with basketball stuff. GraceAnne played well in a win on Monday night in her CYO travel league to bring the team's record to 7-0. The team they played probably shouldn't be in the A division but they were very nice kids and played hard all the way to the end. It gave the second unit a lot of time on the floor and they really played well. Wednesday the girls practiced hard but only for an hour. On Friday Grace got a fantastic report card with all 90s and most grades in the high 90s! Teachers had lots of nice things to say about how hard she works and what a nice kid she is. Sooooo, to celebrate on Friday night we went to see the St John's women's basketball team absolutely crush the Columbia Lions. Megan Duffy, Coach Kim Barnes Arico's assistant coach, was nice enough to leave tickets for us so the whole family went and we had a great time! We met Coach Duffy when Grace attended St John's camp over the summer and she was ...

Super League at Island Garden in West Hempstead starts this weekend. Knew it was gonna be soon. Storm is playing up in the 7th grade division this year. Soooooooo, looks like; Thursday 10:00am Storm Practice at Glen Cove High School Friday 5:00pm Open Gym at Glen Cove Middle School Saturday 11:30am Training with Brittany Hunter at Newtown Youth Academy in CT Saturday 7:30pm Super League game v Lightning Prisco at Island Garden Sunday 3:45 Storm v St Anthony CYO at St Hyacinth in Glen Head Monday 7:00 Storm v St Elizabeth CYO at Stimson Middle School in Huntington Station Help! What have we done?

The St Hyacinth Storm is 5-0 and the girls are playing really well. This year they don't have to worry about doubling or playing illegal zone and they are able to press. What we parents call "real" basketball. They are a fast break, pressing team, very quick with the ball, jumping into passing lanes on the defensive end so the rule change has suited them well. The scores would indicate otherwise but there haven't really been any blowouts, which is good. All the girls are getting minutes which should help them be a deep team when they get to the playoffs. They do seem to start out very slowly which is kinda weird, much different from the last couple years. Teams have been keeping it pretty close through the first half. I would say Grace's play has been a little uneven. There are things she does very well and some lapses too. She naturally wants to go to the post and expects to get the ball there... which she won't other than by rebounding. She needs to become m...

Carrie Moore Time for a Carrie post. Carrie Moore is someone very special to GraceAnne as well as to me, Grace's dad. The past two seasons Carrie was the Director of Basketball Operations at Princeton University and we were fortunate enough to meet her when GraceAnne attended the 2009 Princeton camp. Last year Carrie worked with GraceAnne and Grace Stone to improve their game and got some wonderful results. At the same time we got to know Carrie. Once while walking through Jadwin Gym speaking with Courtney Banghart, the Princeton coach, Courtney turned to me and asked "Do you know how lucky you are to be working with Carrie?" I think I might have said something like "Um, I think so?".  As I got to know Carrie,  I came to realize I had absolutely NO CLUE at that time how incredibly lucky we were to be working with someone as competent, caring and as special as Carrie Moore. With the impending opening to the NCAA women's basketball season just a few...

GraceAnne will be attending Glen Cove High School varsity open gym for the next two weeks. The open gym is an opportunity for Coach Gus Sirakis to get some of the varsity players together and see where they're at for the upcoming season. Grace is a good kid, smart enough to stay out of the way and besides, pretty sure she can hang with these girls. Amara is attending too so they will probably partner up and keep to themselves. Registration for Game7 Winter Boot Camp is now open. I think it's time for Woody to do the 7th 8th grade version. If you're reading this and thinking about training for your child, do Game7. Totally worth it. The coaches/trainers are all passionate about the game, they all care about developing the kids and do their best to get the most out of them. When you see your child's improvement after the 6th session you'll be left wanting more and wondering why you hadn't put your kid in this program earlier. Link below takes you to the regist...

Grace played well in a two point win over Christ The King. Had a bunch of blocks, knew where to be on the floor, played very aggressively in the second half, scored a crucial basket and had some very, very nice defensive plays. Full Game

Ketia Swanier, GraceAnne Woods, Brittany Hunter Grace had a great time on Saturday working with Brittany and Ketia Swanier. She is really starting to understand using angles and cutting off her defender. She had a game later Saturday and told me she found herself making moves that Brittany had her working on earlier in the day without even realizing it. Brittany really makes things fun while getting soo much accomplished at the same time. Grace is having a great time working with her and, as a bonus, dad and daughter get to spend a few hours together chatting on the car ride back and forth too. Very cool. Ketia played for UConn with Brittany, plays pointguard for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA and is planning on playing in Europe for the upcoming season. She is also a super cool person, very, very nice... told Grace she needs to dunk, chatted about some of her own experiences as well as about NBA and bball in general. Kind of amazing how it seems like everyone Grace meets through...

The girls all had a great time and learned a lot! Lots of good information from coach Brian in this clip. Can't wait 'til the winter bootcamp!

All the girls played well. GraceAnne had 7 pts, 2 assists, 10 blocked shots 14 rebounds and generally intimidated anyone trying to score close to the basket. She played a lot of "help" defense which resulted in too many blocked shots and fouls. Hard to do and still cover your own girl. Good to get the first game over and done. Practice Wednesday, Brittany workout at NYA in Newtown CT Sat. morning then Christ The King in Commack Saturday evening. Open gym for GCHS girl's varsity starts next week, Gus Sirakis is the coach also Grace's guidance counselor and a super nice guy. Storm defeated St Anthony's 34-18.

The girls had a fantastic time doing Game7's fall bootcamp this year! They learned a lot, worked on their skills, improved their game and came away with a lot more swagger than they had when they came into the gym. They are better players and we're a better team no doubt about it, hard work pays off! Coach Jason was there yesterday and had sooooo many good things to say about the game and how the discipline and skills you work on during training and practice apply to school and your whole life as well. It was wonderful to hear and so closely mirrors the way I feel about the game and the reason kids should get involved I was amazed. Coach Brian, Coach Anthony, Coach Jason and Coach VonEssen all do a tremendous job of pushing all the kids, being demanding and insisting the kids demand the best from themselves, keeping them honest with high expectations and at the same time somehow knowing when to step in and give them exactly what they need when they need it. All the tools...

So, some are saying that GraceAnne Woods aka "Woody", aka "Wood", aka "Serious Business", aka "Bizzy", aka "Big Headed", aka "Bizzy Bighead", aka "G-Biggie", aka "G-Big", aka "G-Sky", aka "The Mysterious Floating Eidolon" is working out with ex UConn star Brittany Hunter. Some would be right. Very, very happy and excited to see Grace working with Brittany! They had fun, worked hard and learned a lot! Grace is really starting to think the game.

Great Game7 video this week. Speed and agility, ball fakes, v-cuts, dribble moves. Marc talks about working on your game. Jason Fraser shows how to seal your defender, power dribble into a drop-step. Really, really good stuff! Go hard, pay attention, take to heart what they teach at Game7 and your game is going to another level!

Some of the swipes cut my photos up but the vid is still ok-ish. Maybe I'll fix it when I have more time. This is video of the girls' experience at the Pursuit Beyond basketball clinic in Newtown Connecticut last weekend. Thanks again to Brittany, Gianna, Tiffany, Kelly and Kyra (who is going to be a star someday soon! ;o) ). The Grace's had a great time, loved every minute and learned a lot too! Gianna showing Wood a crossover Brittany and Tiffany Hayes Gianna, Brittany and Kyra Britt and GraceAnne Pursuit Crew Kelly Faris, Wood, Stone, Tiffany Hayes

Crazy girls had fun and worked very hard. Amara had great footwork! You can see Evangelia's confidence improving as she works hard and keeps getting better. Dyasia is a hard worker and gets extra attention. GraceAnne needs to keep up all the hard work and work on getting her footwork straight outside of training and practice. They are all developing very good work habits by attending this bootcamp. It will be great to see them bring that same positive attitude to the floor during games this season!

WOW! The girls had a fantastic time at the Pursuit Beyond clinic and the whole family had a wonderful day Saturday checking out all the sights in Connecticut. Really beautiful area with almost too much to do. Blake and Remi are checking out deer in the hotel parking lot right now. Both girls absolutely killed it during scrimmages. Woody with great defense rebounding, shot blocking against a bigger older girl, some sweet passes/assists too. Stone with ballhandling and relentlessly taking it to the rack. Fun stuff to watch. Unfortunately missed the Friday night session due to insane traffic. Left LI at 3:15 didn't get to our destination until after 8:30... "a three hour tour, a three hour tour". Didn't matter Saturday more than made up for it! I have vids and pix that I'll have to put up in a later post but let me just say the kids had FUN! Brittany Hunter and Gianna Smith are the BEST! Current UConn Huskies Tiffany Hayes and Kelly Farris were helping out and the...

GraceAnne and Grace Stone will be heading up to Newtown Connecticut this afternoon for an evening session with Brittany Hunter, Gianna Smith and some UConn Huskies. Pursuit Beyond is running a Friday and Saturday evening offensive skills clinic. The girls had such fun last time and learned so much I figured they would enjoy doing it again. Hopefully we can make it up to the Newtown Youth Academy in time for the 5:30 start time. Brittany Hunter was the #1 ranked high school prospect, went to Duke, transferred to UConn. Unfortunately got hurt but showed tremendous heart and determination in coming back from her injury.     Gianna Smith #1 all time leading scorer for Adelphi University as a forward (worth mentioning since it's usually those pesky guards, not bigs, that get all the scoring glory). "Gianna Smith (Hempstead, N.Y.) was named to the All-Met Division II Women's Basketball First Team by the National Invitation Tournament and the Met Basketball Writers...

GraceAnne's CYO team the St Hyacinth Storm is certainly shaping up, things are quickly coming together in practice. Just got the season schedule and the girl's are ready to go. First game the weekend of Oct. 23rd, can't wait! Another great practice!

Grace's CYO team the St Hyacinth Storm is getting ready for their upcoming season. They are something like 45-1 the past three regular and one summer season, their only loss was in the Long Island Championship last year. They need to go hard all season if they want to get back and avenge their loss. The championship is theirs to win this year!

Marc was at a bootcamp he was running in NJ this afternoon so Brian and Anthony ran the training session today. They did an awesome job! Dyasia, a new Storm teammate, is now attending and she is much less experienced than the other girls. Both Brian and Anthony saw right away that she needed a little extra attention and they were right there to give it to her. These guys are that good! Every single kid in this program gets all the tools they need in order to succeed. They're not going to baby you but they're certainly going to support you if you put in the effort. It was a tough workout centered mainly on ballhandling... the girls LOVED it!

Evangelia, Amara and Woody went back to bootcamp at Game7 with Marc VonEssen this past Sunday. Can't think of a better way to get ready for the upcoming CYO season than to go hard at Game7. In this clip Marc talks about the importance of being strong with the ball, staying low and ripping through.

GraceAnne will be attending Game7 Fall Boot Camp starting this Sunday. Game7 has been great for her and after such a great experience with the Rockville Centre Camp and the Ganon Baker Clinic this summer we are expecting big things from these training sessions!

GraceAnne will be attending the Pursuit Beyond Offensive Skills Clinic at Newtown Youth Academy in CT on October 8th and 9th. See if Brittany Hunter will show her some low post moves.

GraceAnne's CYO team had their first practice on Wed nite. It was great to see all the girls together out on the floor again working as a team! Looks like coach is going to run some simplified variation of a dribble drive motion offense in the halfcourt. Had the girls in a set where the floor was spread in a 5 out and the guards attacked the seams. Great offense for ball handlers, jump shooters and point guards that have good decision making abilities. Very little to no post play and very little screening, no pick and roll, all these things clog up the middle. We'll see if this is where we are going but if so the function of the bigs becomes cleaning up (which is what it has been up until now) and receiving dump passes from penetrating guards that can't get to the rim. Kinda a weird offense when we have two of the best bigs we have seen anywhere but we'll have to see. We'll have to find some other way for GraceAnne to develop her post play if this is the case. ...

JB, Emma O'Conner, Marc, Stone, Woody The above clip is Marc VonEssen speaking at the St Agnes Ganon Baker Clinic.

Looks like a really good camp and GraceAnne has nothing but good things to say about it. Got a chance to check it out for a few minutes this morning. GraceAnne had a chance to work with Emma O'Conner on some low post moves. Pretty cool to watch.

Dropped GraceAnne and Grace Stone off at Rockville Center Rec this morning for a Game7 girl's camp. Place was filling up already and we were pretty early. Marc Von Essen was there and said hello to the girls when they arrived. They likely know a couple of the campers and Jenna Brown is going as well so they should have a good time. Poor Amara was going too but she klonked her head yesterday and is recovering today. Be interested to hear how it went when GraceAnne gets home. Marc makes them go hard and I know Woody was tired, she slept in the car on the way there. She'll have to get it together later in the week because they will be going straight to a Ganon Baker clinic from Game7 on Wed-Fri. That should be to-orture for them! Ganon Baker is no joke. Once this week is done she is finished with camps and all the other intense basketball stuff for awhile. She'll have at least a month before she'll be doing the regular CYO season with her Storm team and maybe a Game7 b...

Just a little bit of last night's open gym. GraceAnne was a lot more aggressive than usual, driving the length of the floor and taking layups, something I've kinda been waiting for. Tristyn has been hitting crazy jumpshots for weeks now, she's on fire! Can't wait to see the Storm, should be good. Next week she will be doing the Game7 Rockville Center Girl's Camp with Marc VonEssen, that should be a lot of fun. Stone and Jenna Brown are going too.

Gianna Smith from Pursuit sent me some nice photos of the girls having fun at camp. Good stuff! Hope they do more in the future!

Tris and GraceAnne on the same pickup team?.... too, too much, not fair. I guess the boys are getting themselves an education anyway. The video missed the part where she was laughing as she was blocking their shots and taking the ball from them. Evil! At one point she just kind of stood flat footed with her hand on the ball while a kid tried to take an impossible shot. She put the ball on the floor a lot more than usual and made some great passes, still not going strong to the rack as often as she can. Not making the offensive moves she's been working on. Having fun though.

Last Wednesday Coach Allen Hudson had another open gym that GraceAnne attended along with a bunch of teammates and some local girls. Once again everyone had a lot of fun. Check out AJ one minute in on this video, this one is for you Blake! GO MANGO!

Wow! Really great experience for GraceAnne, Grace Stone and Amara. Brittany Hunter, Lorin Dixon, Grace Stone, Sam Brigham, Kaili McLaren, Mel Thomas, Gianna Smith, Amara Phillip, GraceAnne Woods, Heather Buck, Jaquie Fernandes Yesterday I spent the day in Newtown Connecticut watching Grace and two of her teammates have an absolute blast at the Brittany Hunter, Gianna Smith Pursuit Beyond Basketball camp. All of the coaches seemed to be having so much fun it was impossible not to laugh and enjoy yourself right along with them. I think all of them being players themselves really gave a wonderful feel to the whole experience. Fun and games aside they also managed to pack a tremendous amount of instruction into a day that seemed to fly by very quickly. When someone like Brittany Hunter, Heather Buck or Kaili McLaren instructs you on your footwork or how to execute a ball fake to go under your defender THESE GIRLS LISTEN! It makes a HUGE difference having people that have been there,...

Here is a txt GraceAnne just sent me from the Game7 camp she is attending in Port Washington. "OMG!!!!!! I just touched the backboard!!!! I'm awesome!"