Graceketball

Grace is having a good varsity season and the team is doing well. Right now they have a 4-3 record. A couple girls have been out with injuries which is making it interesting. Grace has been playing out of position most of the time she is on the floor at the 4 and even the 5. She still manages to score and has been blocking shots and defending well but she's been picking up lots of fouls and her rebounding has suffered a bit. Can't really track her individual stats, whoever is keeping them uses quite a bit of creative license. It will be interesting to see this team when it is intact, hopefully by the end of the season. They run a lot of full court press and man to man with some of the girls playing big minutes. The starters are exhausted by the end of the fourth... it looks like it is supposed to be a trapping half court defense. Frankly, I don't understand the defenses that are being run and it looks like there is quite a bit of confusion on the floor. It doesn't look ...

GraceAnne's second varsity game against Westbury tonight at 6:15... won their first in a blow-out. Stone's LuHi team plays Southampton at LuHi at 6:00. Carrie's Creighton BlueJays play Nebraska at 7:00 in Omaha. Megan's Tigers play Hofstra at Jadwin at 7:00. Kim and Melanie's Wolverines play Illinois State in Ann Arbor at 7:00. 5 wins would be nice!

Fantastic weekend! Grace had a really good week last week and it all culminated with a wonderful last weekend before her first varsity game. In three scrimmages Grace averaged close to a double/double. More importantly she played hard and smart on both ends of the floor. On Saturday after her 8am practice Woody accompanied her buddy Grace Stone to her very first varsity game for Long Island Lutheran. Stone is a 7th grader playing varsity for what is an extremely competitive team with a very challenging schedule. Not only did Stone get in the game, she played decent minutes and ended up scoring seven with a number of assists! Congratulations to a wonderful kid who has worked extremely hard for this moment! More great things to come for Grace Stone. From St John the Baptist in W Islip the girls went to St Dom's in Oyster Bay to catch another couple games. First we watched Kellenberg beat Smithtown West handily then on to the main event. We were really in the building to see t...

Respect is an interesting concept. “It’s not so much the journey that’s important; as is the way that we treat those we encounter and those around us, along the way”   What is respect? 1.  A feeling of appreciative, often deferential regard; esteem.  2.  The state of being regarded with honor or esteem. 3.  Willingness to show consideration or appreciation. 4.  respects  Polite expressions of consideration or deference: pay one's respects. How do you get it? Most would agree that respect is earned . So, how do you earn respect? You give it, sounds weird right? Give something away in order to get it... it's like a boomarang. You first and foremost have to respect yourself , nobody will respect someone that doesn't respect themselves, that is a fact. Give yourself respect. Now, here's the hard part, you then have to respect others , you must value, accept and acknowledge those that you wish would respect you. Here is an explanation...

On 12/3/12 at 6:15 GraceAnne will play in her very first High School Varsity basketball game. She's been busy training in preparation for the big event. She did a nice preseason clinic with Long Island Lutheran coach Rich Slater. Been working with Laura Barry at St John's Taffner Field House. In addition she's been working hard at Buckley Country Day School with Jay Hernandez and Pro-Hoops. So far the team has had some very good practices and a 3 way scrimmage in which they played very well. Today they will scrimmage against Manhassett at home. Grace and I also went to see LuHi scrimmage over the weekend. Faster, bigger, stronger girls. A very fun team to watch. Been hearing a lot about Daniel Patterson possibly going to LuHi lately. That would be fun! Grace got a chance to play against Daniel a number of times when she was with the NYC Bulldogs, very nice player.

GraceAnne's aunt Lisa, my sister, is a brain scientist (neurobiologist). She and her husband are currently working on finding bio-markers to detect autism. This study has the potential to lead to a test that would find autism very early on in a child's life. This   is important because studies have shown that the earliest possible interventions in autistic children lead to better outcomes and better quality of life. The earlier it's detected the earlier you can intervene. If you want to be a part of helping autistic kids and their families, participating in the crowd funding of this project is a very good way to do it. ALL the money donated goes directly to supporting the research, in this instance the purchase of software vital to the study.  At least check out the video and website and see what you think.  http://www.rockethub.com/projects/11806-autism-and-protein-markers   It would be pretty cool to look back in a few years at early detection leadi...

Yup... not even basketball was safe from Sandy's wrath. 8 days without power but GraceAnne was still able to get some training in thanks to Jay Hernandez. Jay was nice enough to open the gym for a few days of Pro-Hoops Academy in spite of the fact that he went without power for 10 days. What a mess! Something nice about being in a gym when life gets complicated, seems to simplify things. Varsity basketball meetings and tryouts postponed. CYO playoffs canceled. Northsport fall league playoffs postponed to this Sunday. Life goes on. Rim is still 18" wide and 10' off the ground. Grace will get back after it this Sunday.

Can't say enough good things about GraceAnne's experience with Jay Hernandez and Pro-Hoops. For the past six weeks Grace has been working out four nights a week at "Pro-Hoops Academy" for between 2-3 hours. Around one hour of "shoot-around", where she gets to do her own thing, an hour, more or less, of skills, strength, agility or whatever they are working on and an hour of playing the game... One on one, three on three, five on five. All the while guided expertly by Jay. It has been a great experience for GraceAnne to work so intensely with such a great bunch of older girls. I think the next youngest are the three sophomore girls, Mei Lyn, Jordan and McKayla from St Mary's.... ALL the girls have been GREAT to her and for her game! Very nice opportunity for an 8th grader preparing to play varsity for the first time. And, it's right here in Glen Cove only 5 minutes away! Jay has been fantastic for her game, skills, strength and conditioning but, m...

Sunday was a beautiful day for a breast cancer walk at Jones Beach. Woody, Amara & Samara Things are happening fast and GraceAnne continues to put it all together. Played very well in three games this past weekend. Last game she went to the line seven times, almost all on drives to the basket. Training hard is translating into playing hard and staying focused.   "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear." ~Samuel Clemons  Woody is pushing herself hard enough that she is willing to make mistakes. Big breakthrough there. She's always been too concerned with screwing up. She's been told by Marc Von Essen time and again, you can't be afraid to make mistakes, you have to push yourself, Go Hard Every Time and you'll make mistakes. Mistakes have generally upset her in the past and she ends up losing her focus... no time for that now, moving on too quickly to the next thing.  Right now the momentum is looking good leading up ...

Grace had one of those weekends you wish you could bottle up and save a little of... sprinkle a bit out every once in a while when you need it. Friday, great practice, very physical, banging with Moffit and Jasmine for rebounds. Saturday Woody went into Brooklyn with Grace Stone to check out her Rose Classic games with the Baldwin team at Bishop Ford. Ran into a bunch of old teammates. Came home and played really well in a loss against a tough Saint Vincent DePaul team... mostly Floral Park and Sewanaka varsity starters as well as Kaela Hillaire from LuHi.... Kaela is a small, very quick freshman pg who transferred from Floral Park this year. In the past week and a half we have seen her play in five games with three different teams.... she's young, so she has some growing to do for sure but she is going to be a good one. Very fun to watch. Sunday started out freezing cold with the Pancreatic Cancer Walk at Jones Beach.... straight to LuHi for a pre-season bootcamp style clinic ...

Grace has a CYO game tonight against St Rose in Massapequa... she'll have to miss her workout to do that. She missed last night's open gym with Glen Cove varsity coach Gus Sirakis so she could try out for Jazz Band, she plays tenor sax.... hope she did well and makes it! She did get to her Pro Hoops workout with Jay Hernandez after the try-out. That has been going extremely well, she likes all the girls and has been enjoying the experience tremendously! She's the youngest in the group and has to work very hard to keep up with the others, all very talented girls. Jay always keeps it very positive and you can see an improvement in her confidence already. Friday she has CYO practice, Saturday she has a home game for CYO as well as a game at Northsport... at the same time. It's the only conflict this season so she'll have to figure out what she wants to do. Sunday she is doing a walk for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Jones Beach then attending a clinic at LuHi. Coach ...

Great weekend! Won one lost one, went to see Stone in the Rose, best workout with Laura EVER and lots of good news going forward.... nice to be winning.

Family had a wonderful day Saturday at St John's Dribble For The Cure! Grace raised over $300 this year for pediatric cancer research. Beautiful weather too! Grace Woods & John Starks This is the second year that St John's has done Dribble and Grace has been there for both events. Last year she raised over $350. Got to meet John Starks which was pretty cool... he asked Grace "You a baller?", "yep", "How old are you?", "13", "Thirteen? You're not even done growing yet! Look out!". Nice guy and very friendly. Really wanted to get a picture of her with Coach Carnesecca as well but couldn't get over to see him in time. Got to see our buddy Laura Barry and chat for a little bit. Also spoke with women's head basketball coach Joe Tartemella who is definitely a good guy. A very nice day and a great way for Grace to be involved in fund raising for a worthy cause. Important for young people to get involved, fee...

Got things cookin'!

Busy, busy, busy. RVC G7 camp was great! GraceAnne had fun and worked hard all week. Friday night we went straight to the city from camp for her CAS Panthers "Say No To Drugs" Summer League game. Absolutely poured down rain so we had to play indoors on a court about the size of my living room. No joke! Spectators were a good foot into the action on the sideline, I considered going for a steal at one point on an opposing player. Backcourt violation was the opposite endline. Had a lot of fun playing against her old team Game7 Hudson.... yup, all the way to Harlem to play a team from around the block in a teeny, tiny gym while it's pouring rain outside... LOVED IT! Only lost by 7 which was pretty good considering it was a very good team and we haven't had a stable line-up or any practices. Play well against good competition and you get better... that's what it's all about! GraceAnne attended Lightning Elite (there's that word again) Camp at Island Gard...

GraceAnne is attending Game7 Girl's Camp in Rockville Centre this week. She is having a blast! This is the third year she has done this camp and there is a good reason she keeps going back... it's fun and she gets better ! Nicole Capurso is running the camp this year and doing an excellent job. They have some great instructors including Grace's buddy Moose from the Globe Trotters and Corinne Turner, her JV coach from last year. I don't have to ask her how it's going or what she did in camp. She comes home tired but excited and tells us ALL about it. Molloy/E Rockaway playoffs cancelled.... not a very well run league. They moved to E Rockaway from Molloy, E Rockaway had a flood due to plumbing problems... cancelled what was left of the season. I think we would have advanced through the semis to the championship game... no way to know. Grace did get to play against Catapano Lightning in the Freeport league for Mary Lepore though... lost but a fun game. Grace pla...

Before going I wasn't really into the CAS Panthers summer tourney at Frederick Douglass Houses... sheer laziness...  but, it just goes to show... you never know. Sometimes opportunities present themselves when you least expect them. Ended up having a BLAST at Say No To Drugs Tournament at Children's Aid Society in Manhattan! Great atmosphere and a very nice way to spend a Friday night. Outdoor basketball under the lights is electric, add the neighborhood feel and all of the enthusiastic, loud, cheering, encouraging parents, friends and neighbors.... lots of fun! The format encourages offensive aggression. 8 minute quarters, running clock, officials "letting them play" with pretty much only reaches and contact on drives being called. GraceAnne played well... the style suited her game with lots of ball movement and getting out on the break. She really shined defensively shutting down a pesky point guard and then the two with aggressive on ball defense. Looking forwa...

Summer leagues are both wrapping up. Glen Cove High School Varsity made the playoffs and won their first round game against Valley Stream South to make it to the semi-finals. They will play Lynbrook on Monday at 6:30. Mary Lepore's Lights Out team improbably made it into the playoffs as well beating Freeport by 2pts in the final game. They will play Grace's buddy Grace Stone and Tom Catapano's Baldwin team in the first round. Unfortunately the Lights Out game is Monday at 6 as well and Grace can't be in two places at once. She'll have to decide which she wants to do but I'm guessing she'll do the Glen Cove game. She has a lot more responsibility on that team and it's also the team she'll be playing with during the school year. Tonight we're schlepping into Manhattan to play in the CAS Panthers summer league. Five games on Friday nights at Columbus and 104th Children's Aid Society Frederick Douglas courts. This is a Kevin McCo...

Please join me in my fight to end pediatric cancer! Even small amounts can make a BIG difference. Please make a tax-deductible contribution to my effort to help the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation eliminate pediatric cancer. PCRF funds ground breaking research in pediatric oncology. Your donation will improve the quality of life and survival rate of children with cancer. Thank you for supporting Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. Your contribution is greatly appreciated. Follow this link to donate now! Join me at Carnesecca Arena on the campus of St John's University on Saturday September 22nd for their second annual Dribble For The Cure! YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

GraceAnne is attending the Freeport Game7 basketball camp this week at the Freeport Rec. Mostly boys and they DO NOT PASS, at least that is what I have been told by Ms. Woods. She says that they are weak players and that weak players don't pass.... especially boys. I'll go with that, I like that theory.   Full day of camp, 5pm game in Freeport Summer League, 6:30pm game at Molloy Summer League, sleep, back to Freeport Rec for the second day of camp..... I'm having fun watching this.... kind of like a self imposed basketball gulag. Me, "So, did you get better today?" Woody, "Yep..."

I love summer league! No pressure. Doesn't matter if you win or lose as long as you play hard. Lots of kids that know one another and have played with and against each other. Kids having fun. I think it's the first time that GraceAnne really understands it's just about getting better, that's it. Pretty simple. So far so good. Won their first two games in Freeport HS JV League. Won their first game in Molloy College Varsity League. Grace had a 13 point explosion in the first half of her Lightning Lepore game last night. Sat for a lot of the second half and ended up with 18.... which is actually pretty funny for me too bad for her since I promised her nike IDs if she scores 20. HA! Went straight to Rockville Centre and got 13 and 8 assists for Glen Cove Varsity. Played a lot of point. I didn't get to see it but her mother seemed quite pleased while keeping me updated via txt. Wish I could have seen how she handled the point, must've been interesting. Two games...

Workout with Glen Cove Varsity to a workout with Nicole at St Mark's on Thursday. Workout with Laura Barry at St John's on Friday afternoon and then again Saturday morning. First day of Joe Tartamella St John's camp Monday followed by the first Freeport JV summer league game with Mary Lepore's Lights Out team. Dropped her off for the second day of St John's camp this morning. She looked a little tired. ;o) Joe Tartamella seems like a very genuine, very nice guy. Hope he does well in his first season. Nadirah, Shennekia, Amber, Gena... all the big guns, were there. Also, our buddy Laura Barry is coaching so Grace is having a lot of fun. St John's camp the rest of the week. Varsity practice this Thursday is a two hour late practice so we won't get a chance to see Nicole this week. Next Freeport summer league game Monday at 5. First Glen Cove varsity game in the Molloy summer league will be Monday at 7:45. Had an interesting conversation with...

Roller coasters and basketball! Can't beat that combo! Very fun weekend at USJN in Harrisburg PA. Team went 2-3 but visiting the park and spending the whole weekend vacationing and finding things to do was great! Lots of fun at the park with rides and roller coasters. Great bunch of kids and parents.

Seven games in three days over the weekend. Game7 McCombs went 4-3 at the Riverside Hawks Summer Tip-Off. Dunno how Kevin picked up the extra games but he did. If they had played the way they are capable of they would have gone 6-1. Two games Fri at Northsport, two games Sat at Interstate Sports Academy in Sayville, two more games in Sayville on Sunday morning followed by a Sunday afternoon game in Northport. I was tired, can only imagine how tired she was. In the two Friday night loses they came out very slow, dug themselves a big hole in the first half only to come storming back in the second half getting within seconds of overtaking their opponents before the final horn. It was too bad because they played extremely well after both bad starts. GraceAnne played well all weekend. Got tired and frustrated in the seventh game in a loss against what is a very good Catapano Lightning team. Scrimmage against Bethany Lesueur's Coast to Coast 8th grade team Tuesday, Lepore Lightning...

Five games this weekend with Game7 McCombs at the Riverside Hawks Summer kick-Off. Two tonight at Northsport in Northport, the rest are at ISA (Island Sports Academy) in Sayville. Hopefully the team will play aggressively, when they do they're tough to beat. GraceAnne has finals this week. She's been doing a LOT of studying and had a math test this morning so it was nice to have an opportunity to hit the gym at mid-day before she went back to the books. BIG science test today. She's done very well academically this year but I'm sure she'll be glad when school is finally out for summer.

Fun weekend for Grace! She played extremely well in all six games. Style of play for the two teams she played on were very different. She likes the ball movement and transition offense of her G7 team which presents her with more scoring opportunities. She is also meshing well with her Lightning Lepore teammates and becoming more confident and aggressive. On offense she was driving and taking shots with confidence knocking down several jumpshots, drew lots of fouls and converted most of her free-throws. She has also become a very capable defender at all five positions. Haven't seen her asked to defend the point much prior to this weekend but she did an excellent job when asked to do so. I have never seen her block as many shots as she did this weekend, never . She is learning to control the ball after the block and on several occasions just grabbed the ball out of the air on the shot for a steal rather than block. She went down hard a few times especially on a play where she at...

Six games in three days playing for two different teams. Hoop Mountain at Island Garden, everything close to home so should be a fun time. Open gym with Gus Sirakis and Glen Cove Varsity today at 4 then straight to FST in Westbury for a practice with Lightning Lepore at 6. Game7 training in RVC with Nicole on Thursday. Friday night a game against GraceAnne's good friend Grace Stone's team then a game against Kevin McComb's Game7 team that Woody has been guest playing for. She's playing herself. Saturday she plays against Stone again, this time for Kevin's Game7 team. Sunday she starts the day playing with Game7 in the first game, changes uniforms and stays on the same court for Lightning Lepore in the very next game. Finishes at 4 on Sunday again with Lightning. GOT THAT? Should be interesting! Trying to find a gym so she can work-out with Carrem Gay a few times and see what that's like. Also trying to get her up to the Boys and Girls Club here in Glen Cov...

Commotion by the Ocean was fun! Won two close games, lost one very close game, won one blow-out in the finale to go 3-1 for the tournament. Grace played extremely well in the first three games but seemed like she couldn't get into the flow in the blow-out. Had enough time to see and do a few things in Rhode island while we were there as well. Love Rhode Island! Got a chance to see Water Fire in Providence on the way back to the hotel from the gym on Saturday night. Kids enjoyed it. Very nice family weekend!

Team stayed in both games the whole way to the buzzer. Lost the first by two and the second by 18. How do you stay in a game down by 18? Keep your head up and keep fighting, defending, going strong, looking for open teammates, setting screens and moving the ball. Outcome might not have been what they wanted but this team has heart. Best I've seen them play and if they keep progressing they will be beating these same teams in no time. Coach Lepore deserves a lot of credit for keeping these kids positive and working hard. GraceAnne only played two games over the weekend. Did her thing though. Got to play against her old team and I think she was very satisfied with her effort and her play if not the outcome of the game. Had numerous blocked shots... with bad intentions. Also went strong to the rack and drew a bunch of fouls, didn't shoot well from the line. One play she went coast to coast and did a full speed euro-step to get past a very good defender (Ashleigh Sheerin who abso...

Turns out our friend Melanie Moore is heading to Michigan to be Assistant Coach to Kim Barnes Arico. Congratulations Mel! Going from one great coaching staff to another, I have a feeling the Michigan program is going to be a serious powerhouse very quickly. Our buddy Megan Griffith, the Princeton DOBO the last two years, has been hired as Assistant Coach to Courtney Banghart. Congratulations Meg! I'm sure Melanie will be missed at Princeton but Megan is so smart, such a hard worker and a huge asset to any program. Hoop Group Tournament this weekend in Northern NJ. Woody gets to play against her old G7 team for the first time. I'm sure it will be awkward for her but I can't wait. G7 is stacked and she can't expect to win although I'm certain she'd LOVE to. She's been playing up to her ability and regaining her confidence the last two months so I just want to see her face her fears and play hard. "Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain....

Got tons of shots up, lots of offensive moves. Went to the park afterward just to mess around a bit, go through some of what she worked on to keep it fresh in her mind. Mango, Pomegranate fro-yo reward afterwards. Nice morning together hanging out and a great workout too... Laura is the best! Straight training vid, not edited, not high-lites just HARD WORK!

This is getting to be a habit! We had another wonderful weekend of hard fought games, this time with Lightning Lepore. What a FUN bunch of kids and parents! These girls are really getting under my skin! Mary has them playing hard and having fun at the same time. Morgan & Erin All the other kids with the pumped up kicks! The week began with Woody having to miss practice Monday night due to Jazz Band. She made up for it by practicing with Mary's older girls Wednesday which is a really good thing. She was nervous for some reason but playing with the older girls is a great opportunity for her if she is going to play varsity in Summer League as well as next HS season. Friday the team was invited to a pool party in Rockville Center as a season kickoff. Everyone had a great evening and it was a really nice way to start the weekend. Thanks Teresa and Don! What gracious hosts! Grace Stone played for Mary this weekend and it was fantastic to see her and Woody working ...

The team went one and two but the games were all hard fought and Grace had her best weekend in a long time. You can see her game improving and her confidence building every time she plays. She probably averaged a triple double with at least 10 blocks in each game. The final game went down to the last possession after G7 fought back and rallied in an improbable second half comeback. This team has heart. If these girls stay together and work on help defense they are going to be extremely tough to beat. They are basically running a transition offense and man to man D with no set pieces at all. A couple of the guards have incredible court vision and everybody shares the ball, lots of ball movement and nobody being left out of the flow. Some nice finishers as well. Woody scored on beautiful put-backs and some impressive drives where she either made a move to beat her girl, blew right past or drew contact to go to the line. Friday night started at Fundamental Sports Training in Westbury ...

Grace had to miss a practice Monday so we tried to make up for it with some extra time in the gym later in the week. On Wednesday she worked out at Taffner Field House with Laura Barry, St John's Graduate Assistant. Last night she worked with Nicole Capurso, Marie Malone and Kaitlyn Loper of Hofstra at St Mark's in Rockville Center. Tonight her coach Mary Lepore has set up what looks like it should be an interesting clinic at Fundamental Sports Training in Westbury. The program is called Sport Mindset and it is run by Aja Parham who played at Boston College. She's been at the playground working on her shot as well. Her first lacrosse scrimmage is this afternoon. That should be fun! Bronx Lady Hawks Tournament this weekend with Game7 McCombs.

April 20, 2012 QUEENS, N.Y. - On Friday, 10th-year coach Kim Barnes Arico announced her resignation as St. John's women's basketball coach. Barnes Arico informed her team and staff of her departure at an afternoon meeting. Associate head coach Joe Tartamella will serve as interim head coach, while a national search for St. John's next women's basketball coach will begin immediately.  Barnes Arico has accepted the head coaching position at the University of Michigan, replacing Kevin Borseth. Bye Kim! We are really going to miss you! We had a lot of fun watching the team progress and working with you at camps & clinics. Thanks and Good Luck in everything you do!

Grace went to an open gym at St Mark's last night. Jourdin and Stone were both there and so were some other G7 girls and kids she knows from other teams. Got to see Coach George Moore who we hadn't seen in a while! George is a good man and did a great job training Grace a few years back, always makes me happy to see him! George is an assistant coach at Nassau Community College now. Nicole did an extremely good job of talking to the girls about college, what her experience has been like, and running some drills while also giving them an opportunity to figure things out for themselves. Nice couple hours in the gym.

  Had a nice weekend. Grace played with her Lightning Lepore team and they won three of four games in the Long Island Lightning Coach's Choice Tournament. On Thursday night Stone and Woody reunited for a workout with Laura Barry at St John's. It was very nice to see them working together again. They always push one another and seem to raise their level of intensity when they work together. It was the first time we got to see Laura in a while. She had been on the bench for St John's run to the sweet sixteen and then went to Denver to see the Final Four. Nice to be working with Laura, we're going to try to see her again this week. Grace n Amara Wanted to get over to Rockville Center on Sunday to see Nicole and Marc for their shooting clinic but GraceAnne had a party. She was very excited to be going and she got to dress all girly rather than in the sweats and nikes. Next tournament with Lightning will be in May but Grace has been asked to guest on the McComb...