Last Saturday morning, we continued our annual women’s bball tradition of partnering with Portland Parks for community service.  It was the 6th straight year for our team and second in a row that we worked at  Johnson-Tidewater Creek Park along the Johnson Creek Watershed.  This year we climbed a hill with ‘loppers’… tearing, cutting, pulling, and removing invasive ivy species.  Occasionally, we also took a coffee and donut break. Rumor

Halloween was an exciting, jam-packed weekend for L&C and our players!  We jumped from women’s volleyball Friday night (go Marg!) to the NWC Cross Country Meet & Pio Patrol on Saturday and ended with our first scrimmage of the actual season on Sunday.   Thanks to Christina, Kristina, T, Caitlin, Spence, Emily, Sara & Jodi for helping work the XC meet.  After watching the end of the two race’s all the down-backs in basketball didn’t look nearly as bad!!   

Pio Patrol was a new event this year, hosted by SAAC, where our student-athletes went into the area neighborhoods and helped with safety while passing out candy to trick-or-treaters.  Our team split up and ended up running into professors in the neighborhoods and a major Halloween party complete with the giant “jumping tent”.  Spence and Caitlin spent a lot of time “helping” at that house! 

Finally, after gaining an extra hour of sleep on Sunday, we headed north for our scrimmage against Lower Columbia Community College.  It was great to see the progress since Canada and figure out where we still need a lot of work.  The evening ended with dinner at Coach Deichsel’s house!!!  IT WAS AWESOME!  Thanks to the Deichsel family!!!    

Now it’s back to the grind preparing for our next exhibition game vs. Oregon State and then opening day, Nov. 15th!

L&C Athletics Department is preparing to roll out a brand new, major, huge promotion!!  

Want a hint?  

Like more of this???

Our first 4 home games will give 10 contestants each game a chance to be the ‘daily game winner’ and qualify for a chance to win big, big dollars on Nov. 30.  Will you be one of the lucky 4 winners who has a chance at major money?

More details to come and promotions will be everywhere!

5 Home Games:

1. Sunday, November 15   2:00 pm vs. Evergreen State

2. Tuesday, November 17   7:00 pm vs. Warner Pacific

3. Saturday, November 21    7:00 pm vs. Northwest

4. Tuesday, November 24   7:00 pm vs. Concordia

5. Monday, November 30    7:00 pm vs. Corban

Who says post players can't do pullups!?!

1. 5 Miles     Bench Press   Leg Press    Pull Ups     Bar Dips       Squats      Military Press     Quick Feet

… and then practice.

That’s how Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday started.  Running, 3 maxing stations and then up to the gym.

This past week marked the 6th Annual “welcome to women’s basketball”  at L&C!!  Of course there is a lot of gym time, but the week also marks a week of pride in their personal development over the summer and their dedication to each other.  They have taken it upon themselves to lift, run, and improve physically and then they get to show off their preparation and quite possibly have their name go in the record books. 

And this year, the group came in prepared and knocked off many records including 3 brand new names to the 1.5 mile run!  Congrats to all and know our basketball staff was very, very impressed.

Guest Writer: Coach Tal (Check out the Pictures!)

Blog Guest Writer ..and super fast!

Day 4:

Early morning wake up call today in Victoria …. after 3 days of non-stop on-

Very Unusual Pre-game Meal

the-go activities, 7am came really early today.  Coach Em, Coach Fulks, and myself shuffled in and out of the bathroom and downstairs just in time to see the ladies looking just as tired as we were.  But the good news for me was we were headed for coffee …

Breakfast of champions today was Safeway bagels, bananas and peanut butter!  We found ourselves in high spirits in the Safeway Cafe for over an hour,  talking about anything from Megan Spence’s hometown distance from our current location (apparently we need to work on map education) to Paige’s Grandmother who was coming to attend our game.

With game 4 on day 4 and playing in the morning, we had to get a move on to University of Victoria (UVIC) for our last scrimmage.   As we pulled into campus, we noticed how quiet it was due to the Thanksgiving holiday being tomorrow.  Most people had already left to spend the holiday with family and friends.  However, there was a women’s field hockey game going on when we got there which most of us wished we would have had time to

On the schedule!

watch and support like our sportsmanship at the hockey game yesterday.  No such luck, apparently we were there to play basketball still

UVIC was very similar to SFU in terms of the size of campus, but with not too much time to spend looking around, we hustled to the gym after noticing they had placed us on the official 2009-2010 schedule on the wall … pretty sweet for us to see as it lined their athletic office hallways.  We had 5 official fans at this game!

Thanks to our fans!

Megan Spence’s mom and sister, Paige Dinnie’s Grandmother, and Christina Herrings parents who made the whole trip with the Pioneers.  Thanks so much to those of you who were able to join us and take part in our international adventure!

Our scrimmage against UVIC was another very good chance for us to get better, playing against much bigger girls than we have played against in the past, getting us ready for our Exhibition Game against Oregon State.  The refs were very helpful and allowed us to call time-outs from our bench this scrimmage, helping us get used to our style of play.  In fact, they even let Coach Fulks make a few calls for them …!

After our first game, we talked about things we did well and things we needed to work on individually; and we saw these improvements throughout the weekend and in our final game.  It was very exciting to see these improvements from our players, as they had not only come together as a team socially, it was transferring to the court as well.  We couldn’t have been more proud after only 10 days of practice and 4 full days together.

We had to hustle to the ferry station as it was a smaller ferry than our first one and had to ensure our spot so we could make it back to US Soil.  There was a marathon in downtown Victoria this morning, so that created a bit of

Our ride home..

chaos for us as we crawled along the downtown streets, but allowing us to see a bit more of Victoria on our way.  Once we parked at the ferry station, we were greeted by humorous US Custom Officials who made jokes with us and helped continue our good spirits on our long stretch home.  After a bit of hassle with Paige, whom they almost didn’t let come back with us, we got her just in time to pull onto the ferry and run (we literally ran) to the food counter upstairs.

After food, ice cream, and chit-chat, some girls started in on homework, others slept, and some of us played card games to pass the time.  Coach Em

Is this one?

was the group’s ring-leader in a card game called SET that I made her sit out a round so the rest of us could have a chance at winning.  As soon as we were about 30 miles from Port Angeles, cell phone service regained and a lot of the girls were checking back in with family and friends.

Once we docked at Port Angeles, we were on tunnel vision to get back to Tacoma, Washington where we would meet Coach Whitesel.  My van sang songs and told jokes, led by Freshman Tiffany Wang, and closed out the trip with the Alphabet Sign game.  I heard the other van came up with new games called: Dedication, Karoke, and Talk Show (shout-out to Max’s mom)

The trip to Canada was a success!  Not only did the girls have a blast, so did the coaches. This allowed many of us an opportunity to visit places we had never been to, nor might we ever not have visited.  Quite the experience for those who haven’t ever visited another country and may never get to experience Canada again.  Thanks to CANADA for their hospitality and UBC, SFU, VIU, and UVIC for an opportunity to play against some of the best players and teams in Canada.

The Pioneer’s have this week to recover before we can start official practice and plan for the upcoming season.  We are hoping to rid the colds and catch up on the sleep we need to be back at 100% next week.

Don’t worry Canada … we’ll be back.

Guest Writer: Coach Tal (Check out the pictures!)

Human Canada Sculpture!

Day: 3

Greetings from Vancouver Island, Nanaimo Canada!

We're On A Boat!

Today started like any other day so far on the trip, where Coach Fulks says ‘Morning Canada’ as we both scurry around gathering up the Pioneers for our day’s adventure.  Today embarked a new journey for us, as we were taking our first ferry ride of the trip over to Nanaimo for our game against Vancouver Island University!  Good news …. we fit on the Ferry with about 2 inches to spare above the van to the roof of the ferry car park. Phew!

This was going to be our first ‘exhibition game’ as the first two were scrimmages against UBC and SFU…  so the girls were very excited to put on their black Uni’s today and play hard! Our ferry ride took us a good 2 hours to get to the island where we had a plethora of things going on while floating across the big blue pond.  Some girls slept, some played cards, some did homework, and some watched film with Coach Fulks and I, during a mini film session in one of the vans.  We went through a few things that we did well the previous night against SFU and some opportunities for us to improve on for our game tonight against VIU.

As we docked in Nanaimo, we all noticed the scenery was a bit different from Vancouver.  The island was more spread out, less metropolitan influence, and many more trees; looking very much like the NorthWest we

Happy and Well Fed

were used to.  We pulled through downtown Nanaimo and found a spot to feed the hungry girls and coaches.  A hungry coach is NOT a happy coach  Our waitress at the Modern Cafe gave us a few suggestions of things to do since we had about three hours to use before game time.  We walked along the Seawall on the edge of town peering in and out gift shops,

Skills on the SeaWall

walked along the water,  and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.  Our-in house dance team, Neva Houser and Jodi Snider, Salsa danced for us along the seawall while a local played the guitar;  some of us pretended not to know them, although they did a fairly good job!

After our trip to the Seawall, we scoobied up to the VIU campus.  From the very top of campus you could see for miles! It was BEAUTIFUL.  We also noticed the Nanaimo Ice Center in the distance, so we hopped in the vans and decided to see what kind of trouble we could get into there.  Of course it wouldn’t be a trip to Canada without a HOCKEY GAME!  We filed into the rink, feeling

Hockey!!

like little kids with all of our eyes sparking and big smiles on our faces because there was a women’s hockey game going on right then!  Because we usually cannot go anywhere without laughing and having a good time, we were all coaching both teams by the end of the first period.  Clearly, we thought we knew what should be going on more than the girls on the ice!  We started the wave, cheered for the losing team, and yelled to let the girls out of the penalty box.  Now that I think about it, it’s probably a good thing we don’t have a penalty box in basketball, as I don’t know if we could keep a full 5 people on the court.

Game time came and we were warmly welcomed from the VIU staff.  They were very helpful, kind, and genuine.  After a very intense back and forth game, we were able to pull away with a victory in our first game! The girls

Game Time!

played VERY well after 2 scrimmages the two previous days.  Senior Talerra Rich finished with 16 points and led the Pioneers in rebounding.  The other piece of good news,  we didn’t have to learn any new rules this game, as we had learned them all the hard way the previous two days.  The girls were exhausted but very excited to have our first ‘W’ under our belt for the weekend.  VIU even helped our Canadian, Paige Dinnie, feel at home as every time she went in, or took a shot they commentated and played the OH CANADA tune.  After the game, we re-grouped in the schools ’squash’ room (which to most of us is a racquet ball court) where the school provided us with pizza before our next van journey.  Thanks to VIU and their amazing Canadian Hospitality.

Before we knew it, we were out of Nanaimo and on our way to Victoria for our game tomorrow.  Some girls slept, others chit-chatted about Halloween costumes, while the coaches just plugged along the dark road into Victoria.  Arriving at our hotel around 10pm, our night could not be complete without a quick team bonding game where we shared a room full of laughs

Sat in the wrong spot...

and hysterical activities.  Thanks to Neva and Jodi for being such good sports tonight!

After day 3 down and 1 more to go, I am wondering if I can be an honorary Canadian if I start throwing some ‘eh’s’ into conversation?

Guest Writer: Coach Tal   (Click here for more pictures)

Day 2:

Eh! Troops …
 
Well … we made it through Day 2 in Canada, and it turned out to be just as eventful as the first!
 
After a late night last night, some extra hours of sleep this morning, and a trip to the local coffee shop, we were ready to give Day 2 in Canada our best efforts.  Our day started with a trip to Stanley Park which is like Vancouver’s version of Central Park.  We spent the morning looking at the Totem Pole Park, Lions Gate Bridge, and walked along the water that surrounds the city.  It was breathtaking to say the least and I am trying to figure out how I can managed my next trip back here.   Apparently Megan Spence spends every summer at Stanley park with her family … so she gave some insights from the peanut gallery along the way.  Caitlyn Relyea also let us know she had tandem biked around the park before with her family … not something she made sound like anything relatively fun, so not something I will be adding to my next trip.  Thanks Cait.
From there we went to Granville Island where they have an on-going farmers market, lots of local tourist shops, cafe’s, and art galleries.  It was packed! We have been trying to figure out why everything has been so busy this week and come to find out … its Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday ~ who knew.  Apparently Paige failed to mention that tp me before now.    Because of this, there is a lot of hustle and bustle throughout town right now; and not to mention the city is very much getting ready for the Olympics that will be here this winter.    Our players have found themselves quite fond of the 2010 Olympic Cartoon Characters, again … who knew.  
 
We had just enough time to snag a pre-game meal,  re-group before our game, and set-off for our next destination.  Simon Fraser (SFU) sits on the East side of the Vancouver in the Burnaby area.  As we were pulling in, we decided that the buildings looked something like the Pentagon; concrete, low-rise horizontal buildings.  Although sterile, it was beautiful scenery and they have top notch facilities.  Once we arrived in the arena, we were welcomed by the Canadian National Anthem for the first time … Paige couldn’t have been happier. And quite frankly so were the coaches, they actually had a player sing it for us.   Their coach also informed us that SFU will be joining the NCAA DII in 2011 as part of the Greater Northwest Atheletic Conference (GNAC).  They will be playing with American Rules vs their own as well as having 4 year eligibility athletes  vs the 5 years they do now.  This will be a very big change for them moving forward.  The Pioneers came out strong after spending some time off the court today against the Reigning National Champs from FSU…even won the first quarter 22-21.  We  played to our strengths and continued to show signs of improvement and athleticism. 

We bolted back to the hotel after the game after a team vote for Pizza.  A nice way to get back right away and rest up for the next two days … or so we thought.  After an hour and a half of waiting for it to be delivered, Coach Fulks ‘hit a wall’ and called to find out where it is.  After she very kindly told the person on the other end of the phone that we hadn’t received our order yet, we eventually got fed and only paid half the cost.  I am sure those ‘kind’ words had something to do with it.  After pizza, we were able to spend a bit of time learning something new about all of the players and the coaches.  Everyone had sent in a text message to Coach one thing others did not know and we all tried to guess who each item fit.  Let’s just say, we have players with a fake tooth (Jodi Snider), a former gymnast (Coach Em), yes really,  even a former Homecoming Queen (Coach Fulks).  Many laughs later, everyone scurried off to bed for an early morning wake up call tomorrow.   
Tomorrow marks a new adventure for us as we will have a 2 hour Ferry Ride crossing to Victoria for our next two games at University of Victoria and Vancouver Island.  This should be interesting as we are not too sure if the vans will even fit on the boat!  (Coach Fulks and Coach Sexton (golf/assoc. AD) believe they will!)
 
Happy Friday!

Guest Writer: Coach Tal

I thought I would give a go at the blog this week as we are underway on our very first International trip for the Pioneers!

We made it to OH Canada today, home of Senior,Paige Dinnie, with all 11 players, three coaches, and two 12 passenger vans in one piece.  Step 1 – Check!  

 There were a few initial things to get used to right away, like the speed limit.  Canadians measure speed in KM’s, so when it said 80 KM’’s I got a little nervous realizing i was driving about 20 mph over the speed limit.  Thanks to Coach EM, who let me know underneath the mph on the speedometer, it is KM’s.  Learn something new everyday – thanks EM.   When it came to distances though for freeway exits, everything was measured in Meters.  That one, well, we all just gave up on right away since we didn’t want to do the math, and our ‘in house’ math wiz student, Kristina Williams, was in the other van. 
 
We played University of British Columbia today, that has somewhere in the realm of 30,000 students.  It is a massive campus, set right on the hills of Vancouver.  And of course the oldest building on campus is the GYM.  We weren’t quite sure we were ever going to find our way into the gym, as one student told us it was on a different side of campus, and every door we seemed to try to open was locked.  Once we finally made our way to the gym, a female UBC athlete was walking out and Coach Fulks leaned over and said,  ”i sure hope she is on the volleyball team” since we were basically looking at her knee caps at eye level.  
 
The UBC Thunderbirds had 13 girls suited up for our scrimmage. We played 4, 10 minute periods vs 2 halves.  We had 8 seconds in the back court and a 24 second shot clock vs our no back court time line and a 30 second shot clock.  We played in the trapezoid key, and went to the bonus every period after 5 fouls a period.  Since breathing in Canada seemed to be a fould, we were in the bonus for every period which did not help our cause.  The Pioneers came out strong and showed some major headway for the up-coming season.  After a very long day in the car and on the court, the girls were more than ready to catch up on some much needed sleep. 
We are staying in downtown Vancouver tonight and tomorrow night.  I was pleasantly surprised to see what an amazing city Vancouver really is. Very new architecture, lots of trendy downtown living, great independent restaurants (thanks to the Cactus Club Cafe for a great dinner), and some bright neon lights reminding some of us of New York City.   To get into the city we took a large highway bridge over a  beautiful bay at sunset that crossed into the heart of the city which looked just like something out of a magazine; high rise buildings with mountains tall behind them, and water surrounding everything.  Vancouver, the best kept secret in the NorthWest … after Portland that is.
 
Plans tomorrow include sleeping in and coffee for the coaches, and thats as far as we have gotten.  We will be doing some sort of sight seeing tomorrow, since our evening plans will be playing Simon Fraser.  The REIGNING NATIONAL CHAMPS of Canada. This game will too, follow the same rules and will be in the same scrimmage type format.  We will head to Victoria on Saturday for our game that day and Sunday.    
 
Looking forward to what tomorrow in BC will bring!

Talia Hristou

Birthplace of Paige Dinnie

Tomorrow marks the beginning of our four day adventure into the homeland of senior, Paige Dinnie and the first outside competition for the 2009-10 pioneer squad.   We’ve asked lots of questions about Canada over the years… some funny, some educational, some not-so-smart.  We’re hoping that this four day expedition is “Lewis & Clark” style and includes lots of exploring as well as visiting 4 Canadian Universities.   On the docket are the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University (reigning Canadian National Champions), Vancouver Island University, and the University of Victoria.    Additionally, we will have a few ferry rides that hopefully double as ‘whale watching’.  We’ve spent 10 days prepping and are ready to go! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsYE-FPu59M

P.S.  Paige -  in honor of this adventure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwDvF0NtgdU

Check back for daily updates and lots of pictures…

The first week of practice is officially in the books and week 2 hits off today!  Week 1 included 4 practice days, lots of shooting… and bring on that defensive footwork!

Reach Step Ladies!!

Additionally, the team got started with a wide range of motivational hits as the coaches surprised them with a CD of all their fav’t workout songs.   It’s hard work but if it wasn’t hard- everyone would be doing it!   Check out more photos from the first week!