Graceketball

The aftermath of some losses are much harder to take than others. Yesterday Woody had one of those extremely tough losses. This one she wanted, badly . Storm has never before lost in our own gym. Storm has never before lost to Christ The King. Storm has never before been eliminated before the Championship game. The Hudson Storm's stated goal at the beginning of the season was to once again reach the Long Island Championship and this time, to win it. Not this time, not this year. Coach had a great game plan and tried to get them prepared. Things went down pretty much as had been predicted. CTK has been very good at getting our bigs in foul trouble in the past and that is exactly what they did. Just couldn't get it done this time. GraceAnne, for her own part, played one of her best games. She fouled out with a couple minutes left after scoring 7, rebounding 12 and blocking 8. Went HARD to the hoop whenever she got a lane. She left everything she had on the floor. None of this...

Tryouts for Game7 6th grade AAU team went well on Tuesday. All the Storm girls did well and there were several other good players that seemed like they would compliment any team. Woody did her thing. Practice tonight and Saturday, down to Princeton Sunday morning for training, Big Game Sunday at 2:00 then straight to Game7 for training. Kid would do more if I let her... starting to wonder how I keep up with her.

So yeah, we're crazy. Last Wednesday at practice we started talking about taking a trip down to Princeton for another workout with the Director of Basketball Operations for Princeton, Megan Griffith. The girls had a great time last time they went down, learned a lot and they always get so much out of the experience. Megan was fun to work with and got the girls thinking about the game. Working, training, intellectualizing, having fun all at the same time. Seems like a rational plan of action on the face of it. Kim & Allen Hudson wanted Tristyn to join Stone and Woody so we had to find a time that worked for everyone.... annnnd we had a game, training, practice, various sibling games and practices, etc., etc.. The only thing that ended up working for everyone was an 8:00 am workout at Jadwin Gym on Saturday morning, that way we could still head back and make our 12:30 Super League game at Island Garden in West Hempstead. What does this all mean? Well, if we reverse engi...

Just in case anyone is wondering where hard work, determination, mental toughness and a positive attitude can get you, check out these fantastic pics of Anna McLean in her first professional season in the very tough Polish league. Grace knows Anna through training at Game7, work hard and this is what's possible! Anna played for Freeport High School, went on to play for Iona and is now playing in Poland professionally for Utex Row Rybnik (coincidentally, that's the same Polish team Ketia Swanier , who Grace worked with when training w/ Brittany Hunter, used to play for, wonder if Anna and Ketia know or have faced one another in Poland?). Grace worked with Anna at the Game7 Rockville Center camp as well as at the Game7 Winter Bootcamp just last week. Go hard, work on your game, stay tough and focused. This game can take you places you may have never even thought about!

Last weekend when we attended the Princeton v Penn game we spoke to Megan Griffith about training Woody and Stone, this weekend we went down for our first workout. Megan is very smart, motivated and enthusiastic, both Grace's responded very well and worked extremely hard for the full 90 min and beyond. Megan Griffith was hired as the Director of Basketball Operations at Princeton in July 2010.  She is a 2007 graduate of Columbia University and a four-year letterwinner for the women's basketball team. She captained the Lions for three seasons and was named All-Ivy League in 2006 and 2007. She averaged 10.1 points per game during her time at Columbia. During her junior year, Griffth ranked 22nd in the nation in assists, averaging 5.5 per game, while chipping in 15.2 points per game. She was twice named Academic All-Ivy and was a member of the Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Team two straight years. Following graduation, Griffith played three years of professional ball in Europe. ...

Thursday Grace's CYO team lost to St Agnes for only their second defeat of the season. Tough game with the opposing coach screaming his head off every time Grace touched the ball and some adults in attendance yelling at her from the stands. Pleasant folks. Anyway, she played well scoring 6, grabbing rebounds and blocking shots in spite of early foul trouble. She and Stone were the only two that scored and that's never good. Things got better from there because we traveled down to Princeton for Grace Stone's Birthday on Saturday. Watched the Tigers beat Penn Quakers for their first league win of the season. They should win the Ivy League again in spite of Niveen Rashid's ACL injury. Devona Allgood played really well which I especially enjoyed. She's great in the post, works very hard, and I always make sure GraceAnne is watching her and paying attention to what she's trying to do. It was also fun seeing Alyssa Baron the phenomenal Penn Quakers freshman. The...

Things slowed down in December but we're now picking up the pace a little bit. GraceAnne's most recent CYO game was on December 5th and it was a loss to St Patrick's, the same team she lost the Long Island Championship to last year. Since the loss we have not had a practice but we have played two Super League games both of which were losses. The team looks pretty confused. Very little ball movement if any at all. Tonight is a practice at St Hyacinth, tomorrow night a CYO game against St Agnes. On Saturday Grace Stone is celebrating her 11th birthday by going to the Princeton v Penn game at Jadwin Gym in Princeton. She invited GraceAnne to go and I am going too, looking forward to it! On Sunday Grace's CYO team has its last regular season game against St Elizabeth. St Elizabeth has lost every game this season. Seemed like very nice kids last time we played them. The first session of Game7 Winter Bootcamp is at the same time as her game. Considering asking coach Hud...