Graceketball

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...

Lots of changes for GraceAnne in the last couple weeks. We've been going through the process of finding a new team for Gracey and it's been a very interesting and productive experience. Grace was given several opportunities to work out with teams, get to know the coaches and girls and even guest play in a couple tournaments. All the coaches and the kids have been fantastic! I've been amazed at how welcoming the girls have been but also their families. Grace seems to get along easily with everyone and a lot of the kids know her from camps and playing against her in the past. Got a chance to meet some really good coaches who turned out to be very fine people as well. Everybody seems to be looking out for Grace, want her on their team and have her best interest in mind. Makes me very optimistic. Two weeks ago Grace guest played in the NJ Shore Shot Tournament with Long Island Lightning Lepore. Very nice group of girls, wonderful families. It was great to see Grace having f...