Graceketball

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!