April 25
With finals just around the corner, this will probably be my last blog of the semester. As I’m sure all of you are, I’m looking forward to the summer for some time to get my mind off school work and due dates and test dates and work and learn and...Must I say anymore?
This summer, some of my teammates and I will be playing in a summer league against some other college teams. It’s going to be a good experience and it’ll give us a chance to stay in touch with each other a bit over the summer. We will also be given a summer work out plan to perform. As we’re transitioning into the Division II level, we all need to get stronger, faster, and better. Our coaching staff also gave us some simple shooting workouts that will go a long way if they are done the way they should be. I am very excited to improve in all aspects of the game.
I wish you all the best summer and am happy for those of you who are oceans away from home and get to reunite with your families, friends, and, of course, your beds!
April 6
POSTSEASON. It’s that time of the year, folks. The Lady Lions started the first week of postseason workouts this past Monday. Workouts are Monday through Friday, nearly every day beginning at 6:30 a.m. and wrapping up around 8:30 a.m.
Mondays and Wednesdays are individual workout and lifting days. Tuesdays and Thursdays are HIT Center and shooting workout days. Friday is a little bit of a treat for us—we get to sleep in an extra hour and begin lifting at 7:30. And believe me, that extra hour is worth it (no sarcasm intended).
I don’t mind the early morning workouts too much anymore. It’s nice having practice at the same time every day and it’s convenient to get it done early in the morning. When we started the 2011-2012 season with early morning practices, it was tough initially. I think we’d all say that getting up early is worth it, though.
It teaches an individual a lot of discipline, for one. It also helps individuals get ready for the real world (as we’re all so used to hearing). Really though, it does.
Anyway, I’m excited to work hard over the next four or so weeks to improve for the upcoming season.
March 14
I can’t believe it’s already time to start signing up for Fall Semester 2012. My first two years of college have absolutely flown by. I guess hearing all those people tell me, “Your college years are going to go by fast; take in every moment,” wasn’t as big of a lie as I thought. I never believed it when I first heard it, and I probably still don’t fully understand the meaning of that statement. People are always telling me, “They’ll be the best years of your life, enjoy every minute.” I still don’t agree with that statement, but I’m sure one day I will.
Right now, I feel like these are the busiest, most stressful, most responsibility-enduring days of my life: anywhere from two to five hours of homework and studying a night, basketball practices and workouts, team study halls, work and learn, club meetings, attending classes…plus trying to have some time for entertainment and time with the family, friends, and the boyfriend. It seems like I’m constantly go-go-go.
But I won’t sit here and complain, because it’s like I told you a couple weeks ago, there are people out there who have it much worse. In fact, there are people out there who would do anything to be in my position. “Hard work and a busy schedule? I’ll take it.” That’s not to say, though, that college isn’t tough, because it is. It takes a lot of dedication, commitment, hard work, and perseverance.
Several things keep me going, though. Two weekends ago, I went to a funeral service for my high school coach’s mother. Coincidentally, her name was Grace. She passed away in her nineties with some health complications. She was a very dedicated and refined woman. At least a hundred people looked up to her for her big heart, her accomplishments, and for the very life she lived.
The pastor spoke some pretty inspiring words, words I took to heart. He laid out Grace’s life as if it were a race. In his words, Grace was running a race her whole life. Every decision she made, she did so in the eyes of God. Grace, the pastor said, lived an amazing life—raced an amazing race—because she kept her eyes on the prize.
So that’s what I want to do. We’ve only got one life to live, so why not live it to the fullest? Take something out of all the studying, all the classes, all the work and learn, and the practices. After all, you take out of it what you put into it. To take from some of the quotes I’ve read and heard over my twenty years of life…
1.) Don’t dwell on the past. Learn from it and move on.
2.) Make the best out of every opportunity.
3.) “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”
4.) “Live, laugh, love.”
5.) “One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.”
6.) Put yourself in their shoes.
7.) It’s now or never.
8.) Don’t let failure intimidate you. Let it encourage you.
9.) Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
10.) Never give up.
March 4
After ending our season 17-10, the Lady Lions are already looking to improve for the following season. Because of the lack of a postseason tournament, we will be practicing for another week to get ourselves accustomed to the length of a Division II season. Starting Friday, March 9th, we will have about three weeks off to relax and get our minds off the game for awhile. We are very thankful that coach understands that we all (himself included) need the break.
However, there have been several comments from the team about how excited we are to get stronger, healthier, and better. Division II ball will be a different game of course, but with the current roster and the players we have coming in, I think we will be very well off. Our coaching staff has high expectations for us, and we look forward to meeting them.
The offseason will be filled with weight lifting, HIT center workouts, open gyms, and individual workouts focusing on post/guard split. We will also continue to get together for team study hall once a week throughout the remainder of the year.
While I am looking forward to a break from everything, I am also excited to make myself into more of a well-rounded basketball player. I’d like to improve in a few parts of the game and help my team have a great next couple of seasons.
February 25
This past Thursday, the 23rd of February, a game was played for a lot more than a simple “W.” It was played for the fighters and survivors of cancer and in remembrance of our lost loved ones. Thursday’s game against LU-Belleville was the “Think Pink” night for Lady Lions Basketball. My teammates and I were decked out in pink accents including pre-wrap for our hair, pink warm up shirts with an awesome design, and pink shoelaces. Shirts like the ones we wore were for sale at the ticket table before the game.
It felt good to support the fighters and survivors of cancer. I know of a few who were in the stands and some who weren’t able to make it. Coach made it pretty clear that after everything those people have gone through and continue to go through, we don’t have it so bad. So what if we have to get up early for practice or go to school the day after long road trips? Who cares about the little stuff, when things much more serious, more threatening even, are going on around us each and every day?
Things like “Think Pink” nights really make you take a step back and look at life. After hearing Coach talk about all the turmoil that cancer victims and their families go through, it made me realize just how lucky I am.
Although seemingly difficult to do, it’s always good to remember that no matter what you’re going through, there’s probably someone else going through something a lot worse.
February 16
What better way to spend the last road trip of the year than with a nice wakeup call on the bus ride.
Picture this:
We’re headed to Oklahoma with the men’s team for a two-game road trip. We’re about two hours into the drive, riding on the interstate (it’s been a smooth ride thus far). We’re watching a movie to keep us occupied.
I normally have a pretty hard time falling asleep on the bus, but this time I was pretty tired and I was just getting ready to fall into a steady sleep. My breathing was getting heavier and the dreams were beginning to play, when suddenly…
I hear a loud thud followed by a shatter. I spring my body up from my seat and look at the front of the bus. What do I see?
The entire right side of the windshield, shattered from top to bottom, and a turkey with its neck and head poking through.
I won’t get too graphic, but I will say the turkey was still alive for some time after the impact, its head still moving as if it was taking in the view of the bus. Poor thing. Its feathers were floating through the air inside the bus, and glass was scattered on the floor. Luckily, nobody was hurt, so it can be a pretty laughable story (aside from the loss of the turkey which we’ve yet to name; Gerald and Gertrude are currently pending). A few mentioned it felt wrong not to have a proper burial, but I suppose that was a little out of the question.
The impact resulted in a long delay for a new bus, so we had some time to grab lunch and wait. Men’s post player, Efkan Eren, was a little worried that perhaps all this was a sign of bad luck for him, being that he is from the country, Turkey.
Take that for a wakeup call.
February 6
Keeping up with studies on the road as a student-athlete can be challenging, but it can be done. Luckily I have a coaching staff that cares more about academics than winning games. They allot time for doing homework throughout the trips. Even for people like me who have a hard time reading and writing on buses because of motion sickness, there is still time to work on homework and study. I’m taking 15 credit hours, which is about the average amount of credits to take in a semester. Depending on the classes and the levels of those classes, it can be challenging, but it isn’t impossible. In fact, there are a few players on my team taking between 20 and 22 credit hours and they both have very good GPAs and do a good job of keeping up with their homework and studying while we’re on the road.
Coach Francis, our head coach, informs everybody who considers playing for Lindenwood how important academics are to our program. For him, academics come first. Actually, he sets a GPA goal for us to achieve and maintain as a team to ensure we work hard in our classes.
We just traveled to Ohio this past weekend for two games. We left Wednesday afternoon and got back Saturday around 9 p.m. We’re told that we will be missing classes well in advance so that we can inform our professors and get the homework and other assignments that we will need to make up. We have a team study hall scheduled every Monday for an hour. For longer trips, we usually have an additional study hall to get our work done.
With hard work and dedication, a student-athlete can easily earn and maintain good grades. In my opinion, playing a sport in college can actually be a huge benefit to your GPA because you have more people that you want to make proud.
January 31
Hey guys, as you learned from my video my name is Cassie Bluemner. I’m a sophomore basketball player majoring in English with a creative writing emphasis. We are over halfway through our season with a record of 12-7. We’ve done a lot of traveling this year which has been very enjoyable.
I’m from Collinsville, Illinois, a city of about 20,000. It’s about a 40-minute drive from Lindenwood. I feel that it’s just the right distance—not too close and not too far away. I’ve played basketball for as long as I can remember and I’ve always dreamt of being a writer. I strive to write books the way famous authors like Nicholas Sparks and Jodi Picoult do. I’m interested in young adult fiction.
I look forward to blogging for you all over the course of the spring semester. I’m very excited about this project and think it is an exciting step for Lindenwood to take. I will blog about things like our morning practices, campus food, traveling as a student-athlete, some of the course studies, and things to do on and around campus.
Once again, I’m very thankful for this opportunity and hope you all enjoy reading everyone’s blogs.
