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Emily Jaskowiak Player Diary
| Emily Jaskowiak Player Diaries |
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| Previous Entries |
| · No. 1: 11/03/04 · No. 2: 11/07/04 · No. 3: 11/16/04 · No. 4: 11/23/04 · No. 5: 11/29/04 · No. 6: 12/06/04 · No. 7: 12/14/04 · No. 8: 12/29/04 · No. 9: 1/09/05 · No. 10: 1/20/05 · No. 11: 1/27/05 · No. 12: 2/2/05 · No. 13: 2/9/05 · No. 14: 2/16/05 |
Hello, faithful Golden Hurricane fans. I know that this diary entry is a week late, but better late than never. With that said, I better get started because a lot has happened since our last visit. We have played four games and have come up with victories in three of those four games. Our games against Fresno State and Nevada were home games, and we went on the road to take on Hawaii and San Jose State.
To take you back, we played Fresno State on Thursday, February 17. We are always extremely pumped up to play Fresno State. We played well that night and won our 15th game of the season. For me, it was extra exciting because my Dad and one of his best friends from college, Phil, made the six-hour road trip from St. Louis to see the game. After the game the three of us, plus Kyle (my fiancé), ate breakfast-type food at Village Inn. I absolutely love this restaurant because I can order a waffle with strawberries and whip cream any time of the day. Usually Kyle never wants to eat there, but I conned him into it this time. Anyway, hanging out with my Dad and Phil was really entertaining because they are a funny duo. Anyway, I really enjoyed their company, and I hope they enjoyed their trip.
Moving on, we played Nevada on Saturday afternoon immediately after the boys' game. We were behind most of the game, but went on a run at the right time and ended up ahead when the final horn sounded. Our fans were incredible for this game. I cannot express how much the crowd influenced the momentum of the game. When we hit some key shots towards the end of the game, you would have thought the Reynolds Center was wall-to-wall with fans. It was so loud!! Also, Jillian Robbins broke the single game scoring record for the school with her 38 points. Amazing! Thanks to all of the fans who supported us! We really appreciate it!
This leads me to last week's games. Traveling to Hawaii is always great fun but pretty tiring because of the hours on the plane and the time changes. We left on Tuesday, February 22 around 6:45 a.m. and arrived in Honolulu around 6:30 p.m. (central time). Because we were now in Hawaii, we were four hours behind central time. It was only 2:30 p.m. Hawaii time. Our eight-hour flight was tedious and boring for those of us who stayed awake. Don't ask Tandem Mays about that flight, or any other flight for that matter. This girl can sleep through anything. It's incredible. Sometimes it is her goal to stay awake for the plane to take off, but she rarely reaches that goal.
Once in Hawaii, we had two practices, a shoot-around and the game. When we were not playing basketball, we got to walk around Waikiki Beach, shop in the area shops, hang out with each other and eat (one of our favorite past times). The pineapple in Hawaii is terrific; it is one of the highlights for me.
On Wednesday, February 23, we had about six-hours to choose our own activities. We had our bathing beauties- Sarah, Kara, Jen, RyAnne and Dana. Our Pearl Harbor adventurers- Megan, Becky and me, and our "shop `till you droppers" - Jillian, Jasmine, Tandem, Ashlee, and Chivis. We all met up later that night for dinner and all hung out around Waikiki. Also, we met the 15-year old soccer sensation Freddie Adu that night (his soccer team was staying at our hotel). Some of the coaches and support staff traveled to spend the day at North Shore. They tell us it was pretty cool. We played our game against Hawaii on Thursday, February 24 at 7:00 p.m. (Hawaii time). We played well, and pulled out our 17th win of the season. One of our managers, Kisha Hampton, lived and attended high school on the island of Oahu. Her delightful mother, who is an islander, gave the entire team shell and candy leis. That was so kind of her to think of the team while her daughter was in town for a short time. Thank you so much!
We departed Hawaii Friday afternoon for San Jose, California. When we got there, we all ate and went to sleep. Like I said, the traveling is relatively tiring, so we all went to sleep when we got to our rooms. The next day, we ate breakfast, went to shoot-around, and then had our pre- game meal at The Olive Garden. When we were finished, we went outside to find out that our bus was gone. I did think to myself... oh no... not again!?!?!? The bus, however, was on the way. To pass the time, we played handclap, "patty cake," games with each other. Once again, yes, we are all extremely mature young ladies. Game time rolled around and we were excited and ready to play. This game had a familiar ring to it. We were winning for most of the game, and lost the lead at the time you need it the most- at the end. Upset, we traveled to San Francisco and got on the red- eye to Tulsa. We arrived in Tulsa around 9:15 a.m. Sunday morning. It was quite an eventful two weeks for the ladies of TU.
We are currently preparing for our final two home games of the season. I hope to see you Thursday, March 3rd at 7:00 p.m. for our game vs. SMU, and Saturday for our "Senior Day" ceremonies as we close out the regular season vs. Louisiana Tech.
See you there! Go TU!
Hello again Golden Hurricane Fans! Unfortunately, I have another loss to report. After one full week of practice and preparation, we lost by five points at Rice. We only played one game last week because Rice is our travel partner. This means that when teams play us on Thursday they then travel to Rice for the Saturday game. So, when you play your travel partner, you only have one game that week. The game had a familiar ring to it. We were winning the majority of the game, only to come up short at the end of 40 minutes. You can read the article on the website for more details. You know how I feel about writing about losses.
Now, I will tell you some of the other events that occurred this week. After the long road trip, most of us spent the first few days of the week catching up with our classes. In the term "student-athlete," the word "student" comes first. It is hard to learn to balance the rigors of studying and being an athlete. I know that every athlete can attest to that. With that said, a lot of the girls had tests to study for and take in the beginning of the week. A fun test I took was my practical examination in my Audiological Rehabilitation class. This class is mainly about learning how to work with hearing aids, and learning how to help people who have been diagnosed with a hearing loss. Therefore, my dear teacher had to endure 20-something students shoving different kinds of hearing aids in and out of her poor little ears. I know they must have been sore by the end of the day.
On Thursday, we had a team meeting after practice, but we had a little time in between so there was a second race between Honey and Green Army. In case, you have forgotten, those are the names of LeAnn's and Tandem's remote control Hummers. This time the race was held in the Reynolds Center practice gym. Both of their batteries were completely charged up, and they were ready to go! Megan Moody did the "countdown" and "waved the towel" to initiate the start. It was another close race, but Honey came out on top again. That makes Honey two-for-two. Tandem claims the loss is due to an alignment problem that Green Army sustained while jumping a huge curb in the parking lot. We'll have to see the result of the next race when the alignment has been adjusted.
After a noon practice on Friday, we were off to Houston, Texas. This is one of the only direct flights we can take from Tulsa. We usually always have to go through Dallas to get anywhere. When we arrived, we ate a delicious dinner at Pappadeux's, and our former assistant coach surprised us by making a visit. Coach Aisha Veasley (now Aisha Cook) looks as beautiful as ever and we were so glad to see her. After dinner, everyone was pretty tired and went to bed.
After the game on Saturday, we ate and went directly to the airport. Because the game was at 2:00 p.m., we were able to get a flight back to Tulsa the same day. However, not everyone was on that flight back to Tulsa. Dana Idlet hopped on a flight to Los Angeles, Calif., to attend the 47th annual Grammy Awards because her dad's musical group had received a nomination. Isn't that amazing!!! Dana was nice enough to write a little summary of her remarkable trip.
Where do I begin? My dad's band, Trout Fishing In America, was nominated for a Grammy this year. This made it their second nomination. We didn't come out with a win either time, but I still consider him a winner. For a musician, especially independent like my dad, making it to the Grammies is like winning the NCAA tournament. The guys had a gig the night of the Grammies, so they could not make it, but my mom, brother, cousin and I represented them. And a guy named Kevin, Keith's (my dad's partner in the band) son. I saw a lot of stars up close and it was really weird for me to see them as people, not just faces on a television screen. Just to name a few...Ben Harper, John Mayer and Zach Braff, who produced directed and stared in the movie Garden State (those three were my favorites). Other people I saw included Norah Jones, John Legend, Kanye West, Usher, J Lo, Lil John, JayZ, Beyonce and everyone else that was there. It was an awesome experience to be in a fantasy world for a night. The performances were amazing and it will be something that I will never forget.
With that, I will wrap up this diary entry. We have Fresno State and Nevada coming in this weekend. I hope to see you at the game. Don't forget, 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, and 4:30 p.m. on Saturday! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
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Happy February TU Fans! Well, February has not treated us well yet. We had a disappointing road trip to start off the month. After losing by three points, in a tough game to UTEP, we traveled to Boise State and lost a close one in overtime by four points. You already know how much I hate losing, so if you want more details about the games there are two articles on the website that will describe the games in detail. It is frightening to think that a total of seven points is the difference between two road wins or two road losses. We are trying to learn from these losses and are working on the little things that could have made up those seven points. Hopefully, we won't need to make up any points in future games. That is all I am going to say about the games this week.
There are lots of interesting things that happen while we are on the road. We left Wednesday, February 2, and headed to UTEP. When we arrived that night, we ate dinner at this restaurant that had the biggest salad bar I have ever seen. Some of the other girls and I absolutely love salad bars, specifically Jen Ormsby, Sarah Newby, and Jillian Robbins. We were all quite excited about this salad bar (you all know by now how excited we get about food). So, after we ate everyone was pretty tired and went to sleep. Thursday is usually the only day of the week that the majority of us get to sleep in during the weeks we travel. So, we got to sleep in until 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning before we got up for breakfast. After breakfast we watched some film of UTEP and went to shoot- around. After shoot- around, we ate a pre- game meal and got ready for the 7:00 tip off.
During the singing of the national anthem, which should be a period decorum, some funny things happened. First of all, the flag was hanging immediately to the left of the jumbo-tron screens at the ends of the gym. UTEP's arena does not have a big screen hanging from the middle of the court, like the Reynolds Center; but it has two big screens at both ends of the arena. So, we are all facing the flag with our hands over our hearts enjoying the singing of the national anthem when a close up of my face appeared on the screen. I mean a close up. Now, I have the utmost respect for our country and the people who serve in the armed forces. My fiancé was in the Air Force and my brother is currently in the Navy. I honestly respect our country and the national anthem.
However, when I saw my face on the screen, I noticed that my ears were sticking out shockingly far, and I looked like Yoda! So, I tried to hold in the laughter, but it got the best of me. I started to quietly laugh, while the camera was still on my face! Consequently, that caused some other members of the team to start laughing, and the laughing continued because after my face left the screen, Sarah Newby's appeared. We were not howling or anything, but we were doing that quiet, breathing heavy, shoulder-quivering type of chuckle. So, I want to apologize for our laughter during the national anthem. The soloist was great; it had nothing to do with the actual national anthem. It was the stupid girl who surprisingly resembled a famous Star Wars character, who could not stop laughing. Y ou already know the outcome of that game; so afterward, we went to the hotel and left early the next morning for Boise, Idaho.
Boise is a beautiful city. Sometimes, people give us this, "Wow, isn't Boise boring" kind of look when we tell them where we are traveling. Actually, Boise is one of the prettier cities we visit. You are almost completely surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Anyway, after practice that day, we went directly to the Red Robin restaurant. The food there was delicious, and we met this lady sitting next to us who said she wanted to come to the game. She was there with about five kids ranging in ages from 7 to 13. We told them they could come as long as they cheered for us. And do you know what???? They actually showed us and cheered for us. We thought that was really nice of that lady. Thanks for the support. You already know the outcome of this game, also, and you know where to look for more details on that game. After the upsetting loss, we went back to the hotel and most of us did homework for the rest of the night. We woke up bright and early the next morning and headed back to Tulsa.
When we got back to Tulsa, Megan, Jen and I came home to find that the inevitable had happened. Our beloved Brutus, the fish, had passed away. We knew that his fins had stopped working again, and TaTa (who is red shirting) and Chivis (who was injured in practice last week) did an emergency tank clean while we were gone on the road trip. Despite their efforts to save him, his little black, velvety body gave up. We gave him a quick memorial service and buried him next to a tree in front of our apartment. You will be happy to find out that all of the other fish are alive and well.
We are working hard and eagerly awaiting our next game against Rice this weekend in Houston. We hope to return with a victory. Until next time, Happy Valentine's Day! Take your significant other to dinner or do something nice for someone you don't know well. Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
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Diary Entry #12
February 2, 2005
Howdy from Tulsa! I cannot believe this past week went by so quickly. I also cannot believe that half of our Western Athletic Conference season is already over! This week was not as adventurous or successful as last week. We were in town all of last week and came out with a win and a loss.
When traveling, the team is together nearly 24 hours of the day. Going from an airplane, to a bus, to a hotel room not only puts us together for a long period of time, but also keeps us within close proximity of each other-- for LONG periods of time. When we are in Tulsa, we have the comfort of retreating to our apartment bedrooms or dorm rooms for the privacy that we miss on the road. However, we still manage to spend about 20 hours a day hanging out with each other. I am not kidding. We are all incredible friends.
Anyway, on Tuesday January 25th, LeAnn Upshaw and Tandem Mays held an extremely exciting drag race with their new Hummers. Well, actually it was just a preliminary race, and the "Hummers" are actually oversized remote control cars that are made to look just like a real Hummer. LeAnn has a beautiful yellow Hummer named "Honey." Tandem's Hummer is green and is appropriately named, "Green Army." They are waiting for springtime to hold the official "drag race of the century." Personally, I was unable to attend due to a class; but I heard that it was a close one with Honey oozing out Green Army this time. So sorry Tandem.
Anyway, back to basketball. I have a story from our Thursday, January 27th shoot-around to tell you. At the end of shoot-around, we held another three-point shoot off to see who was going to eat first at pre-game meal. The rules were exactly the same as the shoot-off before the Rice game. It was the post players vs. the guards. Remember, the guards pick which post they think will most likely miss and the post players pick which guard they think will most likely miss. The guards picked Becky Heidotten, and I will not mention whom the post players picked, but it was the same guard who missed the last time we played this game. So, Becky stepped up to the line. She shoots... she scores!! Now it was the player representing the guards' turn to shoot. Bless her heart, she missed again. So, the post players won the three point shoot-off AGAIN, and got to eat first at pre-game meal.
Later that night we played San Jose State and unfortunately lost. I really hate losing, and I really don't like writing about it. Extremely upset, we knew we had to learn what we could from that game and then put it behind us. We had the University of Hawaii coming in on Saturday, and there was no way we were going to loose.
At shoot-around on Saturday, we had a free throw shoot-off to determine the group that gets to eat first at pre-game. Now, the rules to this shoot-off were a little different. The guards picked which guard they wanted to shoot first, and the same for the post players. Somehow, the guards ended up winning. I know, I know . . . how did that happen? Well, I will let the guards celebrate this time, but the posts will come back strong for the next shoot-around. Anyway, we came out against Hawaii that afternoon on fire. Megan Moody and Kara Pongonis were three point machines! It was an entire team effort and we closed the day out with a win. In addition to our game, Saturday January 29 was National Women in Sports Day. Our game was packed with young fans who kept the Reynolds Center very loud! After the game, most of the other women's sports teams were around the concourse signing autographs and giving away posters. It's a real celebration. If you missed it this year, you should try to make it next year.
So, we are off to Boise, Idaho, and El Paso, Texas, this weekend. We hope you continue to support the Tulsa women's basketball team! Until next time, GO TU!
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an. 27, 2005
Hello, friends! Last week was our Reno, Nevada, and Fresno, California, road swing. Despite some traveling set backs, the Golden Hurricane returned to Tulsa with two more victories.
After a Wednesday mid-morning practice, we departed for our first leg of this long road trip by heading to Reno. The plan was to fly to Reno with a two-hour lay-over in Dallas. (We nearly always fly through Dallas) Well, we got to Dallas with no problems. However, after we boarded the plane for Reno and sat with the little stream of air from the overhead compartment blowing on us for approximately one hour, we were informed that the fog was too heavy in Reno to land that night. So, we were sent to the Bedford Inn, which was supposedly "just around the corner." We had absolutely nothing but our carry on bags with us for our over night stay. There were three busses scheduled to pick up the passengers of the delayed flight, and we rushed to get the entire team and support staff on the first bus so we could get to bed ASAP. At this time it was around 10:30 PM. So, we were all crammed on this little airport bus crusin' along on our way to the Bedford Inn. Ho hum, thirty minutes later we are STILL all crammed on the bus going to our hotel that was supposed "just around the corner." Low and behold, we looked to see that we were turning around and heading back to the airport. Could this be happening again...WE WERE LOST!?!?!? We couldn't believe it. Yes, we passed the airport again, and thought we were on our way to the hotel. To shorten the story, 15 minutes later, we were the last bus to arrive at the hotel. Imagine that. By the time we got our room assignments and our little over-night kit provided by the airline, it was nearing midnight. To top things off, we had to be ready to board the busses to take us to the airport at 5:45 a.m.
The next morning, we all put on the same clothes as the day before, brushed our teeth with the sample toothbrush and toothpaste the airline gave us, and rubbed on our deodorant that came in the form of a moist towelette. We arrived at the airport around 6:10 a.m. for our 7:30 a.m. scheduled departure. To continue the great adventure, our flight ended up being delayed until around 10:00 a.m. To pass the time, we all ate some breakfast as a team, and just hung out at the gate. Let me remind you that this is game day for us, and we were still in Dallas. When we finally got aboard the plane and in the air, everything seemed like it was "smooth flying" and we would be in Reno in no time. When we got close to Reno, the weather conditions were still not acceptable for landing so we were placed into a holding pattern. Luckily, the conditions changed after a while and we were able to land in Reno just in time to make it to a 12:30 p.m. shoot-around. Our shoot-around was originally scheduled for noon, but the Nevada graciously pushed back their shoot-around time for us. We thank you for helping us!!!
We went back to the hotel, ate pre-game meal, and prepared for the game. We tipped off at 7:00 p.m., and by 9:00 p.m. we had our 12th victory of the year. It was a team effort, and five different Tulsa players were in double figures.
We didn't have much time to enjoy the blinking lights of Reno because we were departing for our five-hour bus trip to Fresno, California, bright and early Friday morning. But, before we left for our bus trip, we got to eat at a buffet style restaurant in the hotel. This buffet had everything you could possibly want to eat. It was amazing. I won't mention names, but I'm pretty sure some of the girls' breakfasts included ice cream. Isn't that everyone's dream?
Anyway, we left Reno and began the beautiful drive to Fresno. The drive is the most beautiful right outside of Reno. The mountains topped with snow are simply majestic, and every once in a while you can see these little crystal clear streams. We arrived in Fresno around 3:00 p.m., had some lunch and then practiced. The day went by rather quickly. After practice we got dressed and saw the movie, Coach Carter, as a team, had some dinner and went to bed.
It was Saturday, January 22, and it was game day for the Golden Hurricane. We always get extremely pumped up to play Fresno State. We started out the game absolutely "on fire." We were seeing open passing lanes and making our easy shots, as well as the hard ones. There was a spurt in the middle of the game where we were not playing our best basketball. However, we picked up the pace toward the end of the game and came out with another big road win. We were very excited to get these two road wins and did a bit of celebrating in the Fresno State visitors' locker room.
We immediately left for a three-hour drive to San Francisco where we were to catch a red-eye flight to Dallas. I won't fail to mention the fact that we did get lost, yet again, on the way to San Francisco. The Japanese call this the Year of the Rooster, but the TU women's basketball team calls this the Year of the Lost Bus Drivers.
We made our flight and arrived in Dallas around five 5:30 a.m. central time. Of course our flight to Tulsa got delayed as well, and we made to Tulsa around 10:00 a.m.
Overall, I feel like we made some lemonade out of lemons this weekend. We did not have the normal traveling routine, but as a team and staff, everyone pulled together for two road victories.
On a more personal note, LeAnn Upshaw bought two gerbils this weekend and named them Salt and Pepper. They are really cute, and you know we are always excited about a new pet member of someone's family. Also, Tandem Mays received two Hermit Crabs for Christmas. And in case you think I have forgotten about the fish tank, I haven't. All five of our fish are alive and well. We are looking forward to adding to our fish family soon. Ill keep you tuned in.
Another important event also occurred. Wednesday, January 26, was Australia Day. I understand that this is equivalent to our Independence Day. So, we would like to extend thanks to all of our Australian fans, especially Mick, Mary-Anne, Andrew and James Moody- the family of my Aussie roommate/teammate, Megan Moody. Happy Belated Australia Day!
We have our last two teams for the first round of WAC play this weekend. I hope to see you at Reynolds on Thursday and Saturday when we take on San Jose State and Hawaii at home.
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January 20, 2005
Hello friends, family and fans of the TU women's basketball team. I hope you all had a wonderful week. This past week for the Golden Hurricane was the first week of second semester classes and our fifth Western Athletic Conference game.
To me, it seemed like our winter break was exceptionally short this year. That could be because I am getting old, and every older person says, "Time goes by faster the older you get." It must be my advancing age! With the beginning semester, we all have a required window of time to buy our books. We then look for the unlucky winner of having the most books. Well, this year was no contest. Miss Jenny Ormsby, who is a nursing major, had the most books by far. As a matter of fact she has 10 books FOR ONE CLASS! That's more for one class than most us have for all of our classes. WOW. Anyway, with books in hand, Becky (Heidotten) and I started our last semester of undergraduate studies. Hurray!
Thursday, January 13, we had our "Pack the House" game against Rice. In past years, Rice has always been a tough and closely played game for us. We were all extremely pumped up to play and get a win against this team. At shoot-around earlier that day, we had a 3-point shoot off - the guards vs. the post players. The rules were that the guards picked which post they wanted to shoot, and the posts picked which guard they wanted to shoot. The position (guards or post) that made the shot would get to eat first at pre-game meal. So, the posts wanted to pick the guard whom we thought would most likely MISS the shot. That guard will remain nameless, but we love her! The guards chose Dana Idlet to represent the posts. Well, the designated guard shot first and barely missed. Then Dana stepped up to the three-point line and shot... SWISH!!!! We (the posts) were so excited! We're so proud of our freshman, three-point shooting post player! Anyway, back to the details on the game. After pre-game meal, we all went home and prepared for the game. We were ready to go when game time came around. The first half was pretty close, but we came out with authority in the second half. We won the game to give us a WAC record of 3-2.
On Friday we flew to Corpus Christi, and practiced when we arrived around 6 pm. Our hotel was right on the beach! Although it was too cold to truly appreciate the beach, we did enjoy looking at the waves crashing against the sandy shore. It was very scenic. But we weren't there to look at the Gulf of Mexico. We were there to play against Texas A & M-Corpus Christi. The arena we played in was very nice and large. It was also very cold. We swore that we saw our breath a couple of times. Anyway, we tipped off to a very "cold" first half performance. We made a tremendous surge in the second half, and although we were only one point behind with one minute to go, we ended up losing by five points when the buzzer sounded. Once again, we were extremely disappointed with our loss. We need to learn from our mistakes in this game and come back strong at the University of Nevada-Reno on Thursday.
Lets take a glimpse into my personal life. I know I have mentioned that I am getting married this May. My fiancé', Kyle, and I took this FOCCUS (Facilitating Open Couple Communication, Understanding and Study) test as part of our pre-marital meetings with our priest. This is a standardized test where we are both asked the same questions. It is designed to inform us of any areas of commonality and disagreement. Well, on Tuesday, January 18, we met with the priest and got our results back. I am such a dork. It was really exciting for me. Nothing showed up that the two of us have not already discussed - which was a good thing. We did score a perfect 100-percent agreement on readiness issues. This means we are both 100-percent ready to get married. I guess our "short engagement" (so far one year and six months and total courtship time of three years and six months) has given us time to warm up to the idea of getting married. Ha Ha Ha. So, that was a pretty exciting part of my week that I thought would be nice to share with you.
I hope you all keep cheering, and I will talk to you next week about our road trip to Reno, Nevada, and Fresno, California. Go TU!
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Happy New Year TU fans! Since we last visited, our WAC season has started and we are already four games into it!
We opened the conference season with the Louisiana Tech and SMU road trip. Because these schools are geographically closest to Tulsa, we make it a "real road trip" by driving. Usually, lots of intriguing events happen on the bus that I deem diary worthy. On the way to Louisiana Tech, Jen taught Sarah, Kara, Becky and me how to knit scarves. While Sarah, Becky and I knitted for a while and then got distracted, Kara turned into an absolute knitting factory. She was like an elf in Santa's workshop making scarves for Christmas. Not only did she finish one really, really, long scarf; but also got half way finished with her second one. Anyway, we got to Ruston in time to eat some dinner and go to bed. The next day we rested and prepared for our game against Louisiana Tech. During the first half and the beginning of the second, the score remained close. Then Louisiana Tech went on an offensive run and we suffered a loss. After the upsetting defeat, we practiced the next day and began our drive to Dallas.
When we arrived in Dallas, we changed our clothes and went to a New Year's Eve Dinner at P.F. Chang's. It was so delicious. We all ordered different entrees in groups and shared so everyone got a taste of everything. Thank you coaches for a terrific New Year's Eve dinner! At 11:45 the team met in the lobby by the piano to have our own countdown to the New Year. We did our "not so accurate" countdown, and at approximately 12:05 we all screamed . . ."Two, One, Happy New Year!" The talented Dana Idlet played "Auld Lang Syne" as we hugged and acted very silly. By 12:15, we were all back in our rooms and in bed awaiting our game against SMU.
The SMU game went much like the Louisiana Tech game. The game was close until about halfway through the second half, and then SMU went on an offensive run and we relived the La. Tech ending. Extremely disappointed, we drove home 0-2 from our WAC debut.
The next week was a very serious and intense week of basketball. Our coaches do a great job of preparing us for our opponents, and we came into our second week of WAC play eager to snag some wins. Also, on Tuesday, January 4, TaTa Wagoner had surgery on her knee. She will be missed on the court at practices, but her encouragement on the sidelines is awesome! Please get well soon Ta!
Thursday, January 6, we played a tough Boise State team. Thankfully, this time we had the offensive runs that surpassed the opponent. Also, on Saturday, January 8, we played a big UTEP team and came out with our second win for the week. Both games were aggressive and because of the outstanding play of Jillian Robbins, she was named the WAC Player of the Week for the THIRD TIME this season. Congratulations Jill!
On Sunday, our team decided to have a dinner party to kick off the second semester (which started Monday). I was quite proud of our team for the cohesive effort and delicacies brought to the dinner. This is our potluck menu and the "chefs" for each dish:
Megan and Jen- mashed potatoes, corn, and chicken Emily (me) - green bean casserole TaTa- cream cheese pie Jillian and Tandem- cupcakes Chivis and Jasmine- macaroni and cheese LeAnn- jambalaya RyAnne and Ashlee- drinks and garlic toast Becky- party pizza and cake
I don't know exactly how well we would do on the USDA food pyramid or a low carb diet, but it was a tremendous celebration. I bet you didn't know that our team was full of world-renowned chefs!
Lastly, I would like to thank all of the people who donated to the American Red Cross Tsunami Relief Fund at our home games last week. Every little bit counts and we, the American Red Cross, and the victims of the Tsunami greatly appreciate your contributions.
Until next time, don't forget to catch our game Thursday, January 13 against Rice. PACK THE HOUSE! See you there!! Go TU!!!
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Dec. 29, 2004
Hello everyone and Happy Holidays! Sorry I couldn't get a diary entry out last week. We were on the road and Christmas was right around the corner so there just was not enough time. But, don't fret; I will not omit anything that happened in the past two weeks.
To begin, we had our long road trip to Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, Texas. This is tough to write about because it is our first loss of the season. We had been so fortunate to pull out seven wins in a row. It hurt a lot to lose that eighth game. The game was extremely physical and fast-paced, and at the end of 40 minutes of play, we were not ahead. We had to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps, learn from our loss, and prepare for a three-point gunning Santa Clara team. We had three days to prepare for Santa Clara and had great experiences and even more interesting "road stories."
Sunday, December 19, was a day filled with traveling. On the flight from Dallas, Texas, to San Jose, Calif., LeAnn Upshaw and I had the privilege of sitting next to this 77-year old man from Comfort, Texas. He actually sat in between LeAnn and me, but was pretty much surrounded by TU basketball girls. And, I must say, we are not too inconspicuous and can draw quite a bit of attention on a plane (sometimes we tend to be a little loud). Anyway, this is a long flight, and I had plenty to do. Amid talking to other girls on the team and working on planning my wedding, this man and I had quite a few interesting conversations. We discovered that we had a couple of things in common: one being that his wedding date and my upcoming wedding were in the same month. Another commonality was one of his daughters had a similar surgery to mine. As we were deplaning, he stood up and started to look in his wallet. I thought he was going to show me some family pictures. Instead, he reached in his wallet and gave me $50 and said, "I want to be the first person to give you a wedding present." He refused to give me his name, and told me he did not want to know my name. He simply wished Kyle (my fiancée) and me a wonderful life together. I was so touched by his gesture that I was nearly in tears. I have never witnessed, let alone been the recipient, of such a random act of kindness. It's good to know there are people like this mystery man out there.
Later that night, as a team, we planned to walk across the street to a movie theatre to see "Ocean's 12." Well, the theatre was a little further away than we initially thought. We had already walked a fair distance when we came upon what I will call a "killer fence" which stood between the theatre and us. When we got to "killer fence" we noticed that we could walk all the way around or just climb over it. Having a couple of farm girls, and some people from Arkansas (ha, ha, ha), we decided to climb it. Coach Neighbors was the first to go and he soared over it flawlessly, a perfect "10" on the landing. After seeing him do it, we all pretty much had the confidence to climb it ourselves. A couple more girls went, and then Coach Calip decided to go. I place Coach Calip in the "farm girl" category because she grew up on a farm. Maybe it has been too long since she has been home because she was a little rusty when it came to scaling this fence. She reached the top of the fence just fine, but it was the decent that had its own unique form. Let's just say she didn't land on her feet, but barrel-rolled down the other side. Luckily she wasn't hurt and bounced up laughing. But, we will NEVER let her forget her tumble over the fence.
After the movie, we all could choose our own eating venues. Most of us chose the conventional IHOP and got "safe," familiar food. However, Sarah, RyAnne, Jen, and Dana ventured out and were a bit more daring and ate Sushi with the coaches. For a couple of them, it was their first time eating Sushi. They will probably add that to their scrapbook of new experiences.
Also during our Santa Clara trip, we took half of a day and went to San Francisco's Pier 39. We were allowed to go wherever we wanted as long as we had a "buddy" with us. Here were some of the girls' favorite spots in San Francisco:
"Eating at Benihana's. (A Japanese Steakhouse) - Megan Moody "Going over and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge" - Ashlee Anderson "Seeing the Sea Lions at Pier 39" - Becky Rose Heidotten "All of the stores to shop in and going to the Golden Gate Bridge"- Tandem Mays "Eating the cotton candy I bought at Pier 39." - Jillian Robbins "I just love California so much, it's too hard to pick a favorite"- TaTa Wagoner
Despite all of the fun we were having, we were also spending time watching game film and discussing playing about our next opponent.
When game time arrived we were "on the ball"- no pun intended. We had a game plan and we executed it very well. We had trouble in some areas, but this time at the end of 40 minutes of play we were ahead. We were extremely happy to close out this road trip with a win.
So, we are back on track and getting ready for another road- swing against La Tech and SMU. I hope that you all had a wonderful Holiday! Keep on cheering!
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December 14, 2004
Happy Holidays from the TU campus! With the holidays rapidly approaching, finals, and some big games, the TU girls have been quite busy. This week started with our first road game (where we had to travel and stay in a hotel) and an extremely wacky trip. Also, we played our last home game until after the New Year against a strong Georgia Tech Team.
Let's start off with our trip to Kansas City to play the Kangaroos. We departed Tulsa Monday, December 6th. We ate at Fuddruckers on 71st Street as a team, prior to our departure. That was lots of fun because Fuddruckers is where Coach Miller hosts her radio call-in show. Fans were out supporting women's basketball while we enjoyed delicious Fuddruckers' cuisine.
The trip to Kansas City went smoothly and we arrived in the late, late evening ready for bed. The next day, however, didn't go as smoothly- travel wise. It all started on our way to our pre- game meal. When we are out of town, we usually eat our pre-game meal at the Olive Garden. And, yes, we do love the Olive Garden. Well, a 10-minute drive ended up taking us about 45 minutes. With the extended trip to the Olive Garden, we were already behind schedule when we returned to the hotel to get ready for the game. Now, here is where it really starts to get interesting. Our tip off time was going to be at 7:05 p.m. Therefore, we left the hotel at 5:40 p.m. to make our three-mile journey to the gym.
It should be noted before I truly begin this story- that our hotel was, literally, adjacent to The Plaza (a super neat shopping area in Kansas City). After about 10 minutes, the girls in the back of the bus (where I sit) started looking around saying "Shouldn't we be there by now?" But we had faith in our bus driver, and we kept on truckin' (well, I guess I should say, "bussin"). About 15 minutes later, what do we see? The Plaza! Hmmmm, I think that is where we started. So, we all figured we got lost, but now we were going to get back on track. Driving on, we started seeing the same landmarks we had seen on the previous loop. Low and behold, 20-minutes later, we were back at The Plaza! We had made, yet another, loop around Kansas City. Then, we ended up going back to our exact starting point- our hotel. We didn't get off the bus or anything; I guess the driver wanted to get point A again before we would finally get to point B. I know what you're thinking; we got to the gym after that- no problem. WRONG! Yes, people, we did ANOTHER loop around Kansas City, passed The Plaza for the third time, and still were not at the game.
At this point we were really starting to panic because it now was around 6:45 p.m. Luckily, we got the game postponed and pulled in around 6:50 p.m. We had about 30 minutes to warm-up, and despite the delay; tipped-off our sixth win of the season. It wasn't the prettiest win, but it got the job done. We showered and were back on that dreaded bus in no time.
Once again, the back of the bus was having a great time, playing word association games and such, but I'm not sure what was going on in the front of the bus. After an hour of driving, we discovered we were heading the wrong way on the highway. No, I'm not kidding, this all really happened. So, we turned around and headed in the correct direction, and saw The Plaza for the fourth time. We ended up getting home around 3 a.m. We hope our driver finds the website for Map Quest in her holiday stocking. What a trip!
Happily, we had the next day off to catch up on some sleep. We then turned our focus to an athletic Georgia Tech team. We had three tough practices to get gear up for this game on Sunday, December 12.
On game day our shoot-around was not until 11:30 a.m., so we got to sleep in a little. After our pre-game meal, we all did our own things, but most of us went to the gym to catch some of the guy's game before we had to get ready. Congratulations to the men's team for their big victory. After their game was over, we only had 30 minutes, again, to warm-up. We were extremely pumped up! Every point was intense, and the score was close throughout the entire game. In the end, it was TU who had more points, and we had our seventh win of the season. We were ecstatic! To have such a big win on our home floor was wonderful. We really appreciate the band for staying for our game, and all of the fans who supported us! You really make a difference!
Well, that's this week in review. If you haven't been able to make it to one of our games, they are quite entertaining! You would have fun, and we would value your attendance. It's a win, win! Well, that's all for this week and in the words of Porky the Pig, "Aba-dee, aba-dee, aba-dee, that's all, folks!" (Please note: I only quote from the most literary sources of inspiration!)
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Dec. 6, 2004
Rumors have been flying that people are actually reading the diary entries that I have been writing. They could just be rumors, but if not I am so glad that all of you Golden Hurricane fans are getting involved with the team. I try my best to keep you updated about the team. Anyway, allow me to tell you about this week.
The week started off great with a big V-I-C-T-O-R-Y over our cross-town rival Oral Roberts University on Tuesday, November 30th. This was yet another exciting game in which the Hurricane chalked up as a win. ORU is an extremely talented team, and although we are rivals and competitive with each other, we wish them the best of luck for the remainder of this season. The TU-ORU game decides who will get to keep the "Mayor's Cup" for the year. It's ours for the second straight year!
After the win against ORU, we were ready to fully prepare and focus on our game Saturday vs. the University of Oklahoma. This has been a game our team has been looking forward to since the last time we played them two years ago. They are a tough Big 12 team and we knew that we could beat them if we focused and prepared, which is exactly what we did.
The morning of Saturday, December 4 was extremely busy for us. We had our delicious pre-game breakfast bright and early at 8 a.m. Immediately after, the girls who needed to get treatment on their injuries went to the training room and let our trainer, Sydney, go to work. For me, this left little time to get ready. Because I am injured and cannot play yet, I get dressed up for the games. I had the cutest pair of red pants that I had been dying to wear, so I thought I would make my fashion statement for the big game. Now, I didn't think wearing red pants was a big deal (red is OU's color), but I was wrong. All day people were asking me, "Why are you wearing an OU color?" Well, apparently it didn't matter what color my pants were because after a long and hard fought game, we came back and beat OU! It was, once again, such an exciting game! I was exhausted from cheering and jumping up and down on the bench. I can't imagine how tired our players might have been.
Looking up in the stands before the game, all I saw was a sea of red. But, let me tell you, when that final buzzer sounded, I looked up and saw nothing but our fans dressed in their blue and gold standing and cheering their faces off. They were so loud! You would have thought the entire arena was filled with TU supporters! Thank you all of the fans for coming and supporting us! We appreciate it so much! It would also like to acknowledge Jillian Robbins for her stellar performance. She was selected as the "Bertha Teague Classic Player of the Game." Congratulations Jill!! WHOA! That was a big time win.
We were still pretty excited on Sunday. We had practiced in the morning and most of us started on our homework that night. I will not divulge who did not! This was our last week of classes before finals start. Consequently, most of us have been extremely busy finishing projects, writing papers, and studying for upcoming finals. Kudos to Becky Heidotten for being Student-Athlete of the Week. With that said, I better crack open those books and prepare for my final. It's been great chatting with you all this week, and hopefully you'll tune in next week when I tell you with stories about our games against UMKC and Georgia Tech. Until then- happy holiday shopping!
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Nov. 29, 2004
Hi everybody! (Just a reminder, I broke my hand so writing my diary has been challenging in a cast designed to totally immobilize my fingers). However, this entry is brought to you by the technological wonder of dictating this over the phone to my mom in St. Louis, who will email it to me. I would like to give special thanks to Becky Heidotten and Jillian Robbins for being guest writers in the diary last week. I hope you all enjoyed the new voices in the diary.
We had a really busy week starting off with a great game against Southwest Missouri State on Wednesday, November 24th. For those of you who didn't attend the game, it was one of the most exciting games I have been apart of with this team. The score was back and forth the entire game, and the crowd and bench, was as intense as our players. Thanks to some big shots down the stretch and accurate free throwing, we were able to pull out a win against a very strong SMS team. The win on Wednesday night put us all in a great mood for the next day, Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!
On Thanksgiving, the team typically goes their separate ways and enjoys some family and friend time. For example, Becky Heidotten's parents were in town so they enjoyed a celebration at Becky's apartment. Chivis Merriweather prepared a wonderful Thanksgiving meal at her apartment with the help of Jasmine Irving and Megan Moody. Five members of the team enjoyed those festivities. For me, Thanksgiving was not spent with my parents. With my older brother heading home from the Persian Gulf on a destroyer and my younger sister playing basketball at USC, my parents were home alone. (They told me they baked a turkey, watched television and played with our cat, Fat Lucy). I spent my Thanksgiving with Kyle (my fiancé) and his family in Claremore. Interesting, I had a cast on my arm and Kyle's mom, Linda, is recovering from a knee replacement. So between us, we had one good set of appendages. This made for an interesting culinary experience because Kyle, Tammy (Kyle's sister) and I did the food preparation, with the able assistance of cooking tips from Kyle's mom. Surprisingly, we got the food on the table right on time. It was even edible, despite the chefs.
On Friday and Saturday, everyone came to practice with full tummies and mind's set on our game two days away against the University of Texas-Pan America (UTPA).
Sunday, November 28, was game day for UTPA. The day started off great with shoot around followed by our breakfast pre-game meal. As a team, we really love eating, in case you have not noticed. We all showed up for tip off at 2:00, but didn't actually wake up for the game mentally until about 3:00. Our first half was not too stellar, but we really picked it up in the second half and went on to a decisive victory against a competitive UTPA team. I have been accused of being the source of our first half faltering due to the fact I forgot to do "rally lights" before the game. "Rally lights" is when I walk into the locker room before the game starts and flick the lights on and off while screaming at the top of my lungs and jumping around. This has been a pre-game ritual for the past two years, and I just forgot. Another possibility is that Megan did not wear her game day undergarments (Megan has certain specific garments she ritually wears). We just stumbled in being attentive to our pre-game superstitions. We do know these do not really impact our play, but we can pretend and conveniently use it to make excuses for that first half play. At least it is worth a try!
For me Monday, November the 29th was a big day because I got my bulky blue cast removed at 8:00 AM. Now I am wearing a splint and am vigorously trying to rehab my hand trying to get back on the court. Also, we had practice at Oral Roberts in preparation for our game on Tuesday. Because we had to leave the gym earlier than usual, some of the girls didn't get to eat lunch, so our coaches got us smoothies from ACAC. They were delicious . . . thanks!
That is the week in review. I hope to see you at ORU on Tuesday and on Saturday, December 4th for a big game against the Oklahoma Sooners!
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November 29, 2004 - Hello everybody! We've had an exciting week, which included the last of our exhibition games and our home opener for the 2004-05 season. However it's been a wacky week for me. Unfortunately the hardwood of the basketball court and my hand didn't get along this week. On Tuesday November 16th I fell in practice and broke a bone in my left hand. So after surgery on Thursday, I'm stuck with a large blue cast, covering my fingers, hand, wrist and forearm. Besides the obvious fact that I will not be in uniform for the next couple of weeks, this also takes its toll for all the diary fans out there! Because I can't use my left hand to type, I have enlisted the help of my fellow teammates. This week Jillian Robbins and Becky Heidotten helped me out by writing guest entries for our marvelous diary. So they'll take you through their personal stories and perceptions of this week's activities. (This was all typed with the assistance of my wonderful Aussie roommate, Meegs!!)
The following was written by Jillian Robbins- I, Jillian Robbins, am subbing in for Emily for this journal entry. We just played our second and final exhibition game and while it is only an exhibition it is still very important. We played Everyone's Internet. This team was extremely tough. They were full of WNBA players or extraordinary college players that should have played in the league or did for awhile. Although we went into this game with high hopes, sadly we were unable to pull out a win. But we did see some good things. Our guards are shooting the ball amazingly well and the posts have so much depth that we can throw any match ups at our opponents at anytime. And that is something I don't think we have ever had. I also found out that two of my teammates have the same love for Whitney Houston that I do. And prior to the game we were singing and enjoying the vocal stylings of Whitney. And if you have never experienced her, you should. But if you really want to treat your ears to some goodies have TaTa (Wagoner) sing for you after our next game. Tata is going to be next American idol. Watch what I tell you.
The following was written by Becky Heidotten... Monday night was our first `real' game, and the team was hyped and ready to go. We had a shoot-around in the afternoon at 2 p.m., where we spend time going over the other team's plays and doing some position work to get ready for the game. Shoot-around was pretty interesting today. At the end of every shoot-around the guards and the posts compete by shooting free throws to see who gets to eat first at pre-game meal. As you can imagine it gets pretty competitive, especially when food is involved. So after the first round, we were all tied up, the posts were 4/7 and so were the guards. Then we had to choose a manager to represent our position, and again, we were tied. Next our respective position coaches shot. Coach Neighbors was up first, of course it was money. Then Coach Calip stepped up, with jacket on and all, and knocked it down under pressure. Since we were still tied, it came down to the sophomores, who finally did break the tie and the guards won. The posts are out for revenge on Wednesday, so guards- watch out!
After our extensive free throw competition and, of course, a little trash talking, we made it to our pre-game meal at 3 p.m. After we ate, we all went our separate ways and have our individual pre-game rituals, which consist of many different things. Some like to take showers, others take a nap or some read the scouting report. It is different for all of us. I personally change mine about every year, so I don't think you can really call that a ritual.
We all got back to the gym and ready to go by 6 p.m. Many of us got to the gym about 5 p.m. in order to be ready in time. Several of the players receive treatment before games and a number of us like to get on the court a little early to do some extra shooting. Finally, game time arrived at 7:05, and nothing is more exciting than the feeling of running out of the tunnel as the crowd cheers for the first game (or any game for that matter). It gives me chills all over. In the first 10 minutes of the game the score went back and forth as neither team could pull away. Then about halfway through the first half we went on a huge run and took the lead. Thanks in part to Tandem Mays who gave us a huge spark off the bench and ended the game with a career-high 21 points. We were up by nine points at halftime, but didn't have a great second half start and Texas-San Antonio made a run at us. However, we held them off and withstood their run by matching it with our own and increased the lead to 18 points with about eight minutes remaining. We won by 18 points, and it was definitely a whole team effort. We had to play around some foul trouble and some "not-so- great" calls, but we played above it all and rallied around each other to come up with a victory. The team has high expectations this season and we are looking to improve in each and every game to achieve those goals.
It feels great to start off our season with a big victory, and especially at home in front of all our stellar fans. The official countdown has begun. One of our goals this season is to get 20+ wins, so the current count is 19+ to go! We're looking to lower that number as we take on Southwest Missouri State on Wednesday night at 7:05, hope you will be there to cheer us on.
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Entry No. 3
Nov. 16, 2004
Greetings from the University of Tulsa Women's basketball team! I'm glad you decided to tune in for this week's diary entry. I will quickly recap this week's events.
For me the weekdays absolutely flew by. We had practice every day this week except for a scheduled day off on Sunday. Practice this week was pretty interesting and very competitive. We put in a few new offenses, in-bounds plays and worked on the zone defense. At the end of the week, we gave the new offenses and defense a whirl at an intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday. Without any games, unfortunately, very little happened during basketball that I deem "diary worthy."
Instead, I will write about the fish tank that the inhabitants of my apartment purchased. Megan Moody, Jen Ormsby and I share the same apartment, but we count TaTa Wagoner as an inhabitant also, because she is here ALL OF THE TIME. Anyway, if you are asking yourself why I chose to talk about our beloved fish tank, you must understand that we think of our fish more as friends than pets.
The tank, which we purchased in early October, holds 10 gallons of water and came with a heater, filter, light and hood, which are good for tropical fish. Yes, this tank is the real deal. So, we thought you could just buy a tank and some pretty fish and be finished with it. Well, we were in for quite a surprise. After trying to purchase some fish and being rejected, we knew we had some research to do. So, we went home, set up our tank and began reading the information materials the pet store gave us. We learned that you have to let your tank run for a couple of days to create the correct type of "tank ecology" before adding fish.
So, after a couple of days, we figured our tank had the proper ecology and we were ready to add some fish. We read that you should only add a few fish to the tank at a time, so, TaTa, Megan, and I went to the pet store, money in hand, ready to purchase our first perfect tropical fish. I chose a Black Molly, which is a tropical fish that is about 1-1/2 inches long. It is all black and the scales look like velvet, rather than shiny scales of a goldfish. I named my fish Brutus because I thought he was going to be the bully of the tank. TaTa and Megan had no clue what type of fish they wanted. TaTa saw a mini shark that she wanted desperately, but it was labeled as semi-aggressive, which means it does not live well in the type of tropical fish community we had chosen for our tank. As a matter of fact, it eats the type of tropical fish we had chosen for our tank. Because TaTa could not buy the four-inch shark, she chose a one-half inch baby Zebra Danio, who she appropriately named F.S., which stands for Fake Shark. Megan ended up choosing the most colorful fish of the lot, a Tequila Sunrise Guppy. It is about one inch long and she named it Flamingo, because of its colorful orange and yellow tail fin. Excitedly, we returned home, placed them in the tank, and then watched them swim around, literally, for hours. We were mesmerized. We were so excited, and they looked beautiful with the turquoise rocks, hot pink plants, and purple anemone.
As it turns out, Brutus, much to my disappointment, is not the bully of the tank. Yes, it is F.S., the smallest fish, who rules the water, not to mention, Flamingo, who is a fin nipper; it bites at the tail fin of the other fish in the tank. Brutus needs to learn to throw his weight around more, like a post player.
Actually, for a couple of days, we thought Brutus was not going to make it. We would come home to find him lying on his side at the bottom of the tank. But we would tap in the glass and he would begin to swim around. Then his tail fin stopped working. It just drooped as he lugged the rest of his body around the tank. We were really worried for the little fella. Somehow, he made a miraculous recovery and is currently swimming vigorously away from Flamingo, who is constantly trying to nip at his tail.
A couple of weeks ago, we thought it was time to add a couple of more fish to our darling tank. Once again, TaTa, Megan and I headed back to the pet store to purchase two more fish. This time we chose a Teal Tailed Guppy and a Ghost Catfish. The Guppy is the same length of Flamingo, only its tail fin is about three times the size of Flamingo's. And although it is called a Teal Tailed Guppy, its tail looks purple to us. Anyway, we let Jen adopt this fish (even though she did not go with us to pick it out). Because of its large purple tail fin, Jen named it Sir Mix-A-Lot after the writer/rapper of the hit 80's song, "Baby Got Back". The Ghost Catfish is about two-inches long, and is interesting because you can see through it. We named this fish, Ruth, after the ghost that my fiancé, Kyle, thinks dwells in his house (I don't ask).
So far, all of our fish are still alive and have managed to survive numerous encounters with adversity. For instance, a Coke and silverware were put into the tank as "added decoration," and poor Brutus was snatched out of the tank by a tennis player, who threatened to eat him. Of course, none of these horrendous events occurred while one of the inhabitants of our apartment was watching over the tank. Can you believe our super fish survived such trauma? So now you know about our fish tank, and I will keep you updated on any fish tank news.
More importantly, let's talk about basketball quickly. We have our second exhibition game this Wednesday against Everyone's Internet. It has been about a week and a half since our last exhibition game, and we are fervently waiting for Wednesday so we can get back on the court in front of our wonderful fans. I hope to see you there!
PARTING SHOTS:
Because this week's entry was mostly about our new "pet fishes," I asked the girls to tell me about any pets they have loved at one time in their life. Here is what they had to say:
"Cougie Woogie and Zali Bali are my two "fluppy" dogs in Australia." -Megan Moody, Junior.
"I have Tri-Pod, my 3-legged orange cat, Fred the goat, and Tinkerbelle, the Great Dane who could be described as a "little slow." -Dana Idlet, Freshman
"Jax, or "Jaxi Pooper" as we like to call him. He is a Black Lab puppy." -Sarah Newby, Senior
"I have a mechanical dog named Rufus, a real dog named Puff, and a Giga Pet...but he died recently." -Jillian Robbins, Sophomore
"I have two little kitty cats named Milo and Mercedes." -Ryanne Ridge, Freshman
"I don't do pets... except for F.S" - TaTa Wagoner, Senior
"I had Sam the dog, but we called her Sammy- may she rest in peace." - Becky Heidotten, Senior
"R.I.P. Chip and Dip, my two dogs." -Leanne Upshaw, Junior
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Entry No. 2
Nov. 7, 2004
Hello again! The University of Tulsa Women's Basketball Team had an extremely exciting and productive week. It started with a great day off on Tuesday, followed by a surprise birthday party, our first exhibition game and two more days off!
Tuesday, November 2, was a day off for the Golden Hurricane. These days give our bodies a chance to recover from the prior week's work, and we usually fill our days off with naps, extra credit opportunities, and meetings with our professors.
For me, my "day off" was packed from the time I woke up until the time I fell asleep. I have three classes on Tuesday's and the total time I'm in class is 6 hours and 15 minutes. For a college student, that is a pretty long time to be in class. In-between classes, I had a meeting with my advisor and a meeting with a priest. You're probably wondering why I had a meeting with a priest. Well, the meeting with the priest is because I'm getting married this May and my fiancé, Kyle, and I had our first marriage preparation meeting. Horray! So after all of my meetings and classes, I was pretty tired but still had one major task to accomplish. We were having a surprise 21st birthday party for Megan Moody on Wednesday, and I had an eight-foot banner yet to paint.
In the wee hours on Wednesday, November 3, I finished the banner, got a quick night's sleep and woke up for 8:00 am class. Wednesday was a special day at practice because it was media day. This is a day where most of the local news stations and newspapers come and get their interviews for their season predictions. The real reason it is special is because this cuts into our practice time, so we actually get an extra half hour or so to goof around with each other before we actually start practice.
After practice we all raced home and got ready for Megan's surprise 21st birthday party. I should tell you that it is a pretty darn big deal to turn 21 in Australia (Megan's home). Megan had already received a home video from her family (still in Australia), but she had no idea that her mother and our administrative assistant, Marti Lord, had secretly planned a party! The party was going to be held at Marti's house in Owasso, and according to Megan, she was going to Marti's for a small dinner with Becky (Heidotten) and TaTa (Wagoner). (Megan actually invited me to go with her, but I told her I had other plans. Let's just say she wasn't happy with me for standing her up on her birthday!)
Anyway, all of us who did not have class arrived at Marti's house with plenty of time to find a hiding place to surprise Megan. Now, let me tell you some of the hiding spots my brilliant teammates discovered. Sara (Newby) and I hid under a blanket behind the couch - pretty traditional. Dana (Idlet) and Jasmine (Irving) took a pillow and a scarf and covered their face while they stood in the middle of the room. Despite everything, Megan was still surprised and busted out her famous smile. Marti and Coach Calip had prepared a wonderful dinner for the evening. Included was a leg of New Zealand Lamb, pork ribs, rice and broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, and tons of dessert. It was a wonderful evening, and I would like to thank Marti for hosting the event and making it a huge success. Megan wanted to tell everyone, "It's amazing to think that my 21st birthday away from home and without my family, could be so special and such a great time. Thanks to everyone who was involved, and I love you all."
Thursday, November 4, was the day of our first exhibition game. We all seemed to have an extra bounce in our step. We all were so anxious and excited to play in our first exhibition game. We have been preparing for the beginning of this season since last spring. After classes and an afternoon shoot-around, we enjoyed a delicious pre-game meal prepared by ACAC. (If you can't tell, our team sort of loves food!!) We were prepared and eager to play Cameron in the evening.
The game went extremely well. We fought and played hard and came away with convincing 99-52 victory. And you better believe that we desperately wanted one more point. Could you imagine a 100 points game? If you want more details on the game, you can check out the article on the web page.
After the game, our coaches were pretty proud of the way we played, and for the first time since I have been a student-athlete at the University of Tulsa, Coach Miller gave us the next day off, completely out of the blue !!! We were so excited to have a Friday all to ourselves! Thank you coaches so much!!!!!
The weekend went pretty quickly. We had Friday randomly off, practice Saturday, and a scheduled day off Sunday. But we did make it to the Reynolds Center for the men's first exhibition game on Sunday! Congratulation to the boys! They won handily with a score of 100-55. Way to go guys!!!
So, another week has gone by and more memories were made. I hope you continue to support The University of Tulsa Women's Basketball Team- Building Tradition.
Parting Shots: Since I didn't mention any fun Halloween times in last week's diary, this week I asked some of the girls what their favorite Halloween costume was as a child. Now, can you picture us as little girls dressed up in these crazy costumes:
"A 50's girl on roller skates." - Jen Ormsby, Sophomore
"The invisible man." - RyAnne Ridge, Freshman
"A vampire, because I love vampires."- TaTa Wagoner, Senior
"A punk rocker." - Sarah Newby
"A skunk." -Emily Jaskowiak, Junior (me)
"A bumble bee."- Tandem Mays, Sophomore
"A turtle." - Jillian Robbins, Sophomore
"Punky Bruster." -Becky Heidotten, Senior
"A clown." - Chivis Merriweather, Sophomore
"A Razorback." - Kara Pongonis, Junior
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 Emily Jaskowiak Player Diary |
Nov. 3, 2004
Hello everyone! I'm Emily Jaskowiak and I will be writing diary entries every week this season to account for nearly everything that happens with this crazy and incredible team. Actually, I think a better word to describe our team would be extraordinary. I will share with you all of the funny, interesting, and inspiring stories that occur throughout this season. For my first entry, I think I will give you guys and gals an overall idea of what has been going on this summer and the first few weeks of practice.
For those of you who live in Tulsa, you know what a great, cool summer we had here. I would like to use the "Cover Girl" advertisement motto to describe our summer. It was an "easy, breezy, beautiful - Tulsa girls" type of summer. Every single player stayed on campus to take some classes and to work out together. That is amazing! Even our three freshmen came for the second half of the summer. This is the first time that has happened in the three summers I have been here. WOW! Each girl's schedule went something like this: go to weights/conditioning together, go to class, play pickup together, and hang out together.
Now, for my mother's sake, who would ask me every week "What's pickup?" I will explain; it is an unsupervised form of scrimmage. We usually play about five games and the winner is the first team to score 11 points. All baskets count as one point, and there are no free throws. It is a very simple way for all of us to stay in shape and work on our skills, as needed. Actually, because some of the girls this summer were injured, we had a solid group of boys who would play with us. They challenged us every day and helped us tremendously. We really appreciated their help this summer. We also worked the women's basketball camps during the summer. It's a great way for us to meet young fans and for them to get to know us.
Besides our schoolwork and basketball, the summer time is for hanging out with each other and having fun! I wanted to let you know about some of our summer excitement.
In May, Miss Sarah Lundberg became Mrs. Sarah Newby in a beautiful, traditional wedding with an outdoor reception. She looked absolutely amazing in her strapless, A-line, mermaid cut wedding dress. It definitely was an affair to remember.
In June, some of the members of our team became friends and began hanging out with some of the offensive linemen from the football team. For the first time in a while, our "big girls" didn't seem so big.
Also in June, Apartment 1516 (Megan, Jen and me) and Apartment 1518 (TaTa and Chivis) had a food/flour/water/fireworks fight. Our apartments' front doors are conveniently located directly across from one another. I don't remember how is started, but I do remember opening my front door and having Chivis and TaTa throw water and flour on me, Megan hitting Chivis on the run with an egg and Chivis crumbling to the ground like she had lost her leg, smearing bananas on each others' door knobs, and secretly lighting firecrackers under each others front doors. Oh, yes, we are mature young women!
July 11 is my birthday so, of course, we had a small get-together to celebrate the joyous day of my birth. This was not a regular birthday party. We decided to make it a "special hat" party! When is the last time you can say you attended a "special hat" party? Anyway, it was lots of fun.
August rolled around and so did a new year of classes. The beginning of a new basketball season started up and our new strength and conditioning staff was prepared to get us is great shape; I believe they did. Our pre-season consisted of lifting weights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; conditioning on Monday and Friday; and agility drills on Tuesday and Thursday. We also played pickup Monday through Thursday. And on top of that, we had individual workouts twice a week. As you can tell, the pre-season is an extremely busy time for all of us. But we survived and on our last day of pre-season workouts, we enjoyed a celebratory game of flag football.
This leads us to the beginning of official practices on October 16. This year, we did not mess around with non-contact, learning-type drills. Our coaches felt our off-season work enabled us to begin with game-like drills and "live play." Since October 16, we have been scrimmaging, doing position work, and any other game-like drill to prepare us for this up coming season. And trust me, all of us have been practicing hard and making each other better players. We are anxiously awaiting our first exhibition game, which happens to be this Thursday, November 4. Be ready to see a fast and physical team TU on the court. It should be an exciting game and you should come and watch Ashlee (Anderson), Becky (Heidotten), Dana (Idlet), Jasmine (Irving), Tandem (Mays), Chivis (Meeriweather), Megan (Moody), Sarah (Newby), Jen (Ormsby), Kara (Pongonis), RyAnne (Ridge), Jillian (Robbins), LeAnn (Upshaw), TaTa (Wagoner) and me - The University of Tulsa Women's 2004-05 team -"BUILDING TRADITION."
PARTING SHOTS . . .
I asked my teammates to recall something memorable from the summer or pre-season, and here are some of their responses:
"The only thing I remember from the summer was 6:00 a.m. weights."
-Jen Ormsby, sophomore
"I got my braces off, look at my pretty teeth!"
- Tandem Mays, sophomore
"I got 'abs of steel' from our three-part abs workouts this summer, look at my pretty abs!"
-Becky Rose Heidotten, senior
"I simply cannot squat any lower. This is as low as I can squat and I am in the hole!"
-(speaking of our new squatting technique) - Megan Moody, junior
"All I wanted to do was go to the drive-in movies."
-(We never actually made it to a drive-in movie) TaTa Wagoner, Senior
"I had a lot of fun water-skiing with Jen at the lake."
- Chivis Merriweather, sophomore
"I like cheesy fiesta potatoes- minus the chives." (I really don't know what she is talking about)
- Dana Idlet, freshman
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