Graceketball

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!"

Basketball Under the Lights is a nice little program the Department of Parks and Recreation puts together for the City of Glen Cove. The kids come down to Stanco Park on Tuesday and Thursday nights, choose teams and play pick-up games. The abilities of the kids and their ages are all over the place which is actually very cool. It's just like the playground pick-up games we all used to play as kids, well, without the fighting. GraceAnne and her buddy Tristyn Hudson have to play with the boys and they still dominate. The park and its location is very beautiful, though it's been let go to seed just a bit. Real close to the water so there is usually a breeze and the sunsets have been pretty spectacular. Can't think of a better way to spend an evening! Check out Tris and Woody cracking up while they get to humiliate a bunch of the local boys! Woody turned her ankle a little and it still hurt this morning. I asked her if she still wanted to go to Game7 camp and she said she...

Coach Allen Hudson held an open gym for the girls last night at Glen Cove High School. All the Lightning teammates were there as well as a few friends and one Storm teammate. The girls ran a full court scrimmage and seemed to have a lot of fun. These are some of the things they really need to do. When they play so many organized games it's good to see them have to figure out some things on their own. It was fun to watch and it looked like everyone was having a good time. Hopefully we can do it again soon! GraceAnne was a little banged up from playing with boys at the Game7 camp all week and she took a few shots last night as well. Seemed ok this morning but she has her little tues/thurs playground game tonight after a full day at Game7. We'll have to see if she wants to do it or not.

Game7 had a basketball camp scheduled for Glen Cove Middle School this week that got canceled. We were bummin' a bit because GraceAnne had planned to attend. The camp got combined with the Game7 Port Washington camp which we didn't think she would be able to attend because wifey and myself have to work to pay all these camp bills. Can't be in two places at once! Turns out Grace Stone and Grace Brady are going and so Grace Woods was able to get a ride! So, this morning Rikk Stone and three Grace's headed out to the Game7 Port Washington camp. Interested to see how it goes. Also, contacted Kim Barnes Arico and Megan Duffy of St John's via email about training the girls and they haven't gotten back to me. They seemed into it when we spoke to them in person. Emailed Courtney Banghart, Milena Flores and Melanie Moore of Princeton about training, same thing no response. I know it's the heart of the recruiting season (evaluation period) for college coaches so ...

The girls ended up having a great time this past week at the Kim Barnes Arico camp! Coach Arico was fantastic and extremely generous with her time at the close of camp this afternoon. She seemed to like the way the girls play and was very encouraging. We got a chance to talk a bit about finding a trainer for the girls and it sounded as if we may be able to work something out. That would be great! A 1/2 hour to St John's sure beats the 2 hour commute to Princeton!

The Grace's have been attending the Kim Barnes Arico camp at St John's University in Queens this week. Kim Barnes Arico is the head coach at St John's, the team that beat the Princeton Tigers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year. The girls like it. The first day they whined. Typical of every camp they've ever attended on the first day. After day three on Wednesday the reports were a bit different, "hey dad I won two games!", "I'm the scorer on my team which is great, we're having a lot of fun!", "Oh! Let me take this txt from my new friend at the St John's camp she is soooooooo nice!". When I was there Monday afternoon it looked like the girls were having a blast and it was obvious that Kim Barnes Arico was very hands on and involved with all that goes on during the day. She was coaching and encouraging the girls and working directly with them. That's a great thing! At some other camps the person actually ...