Hittin The Hardwood with Roni Hicks... Preparation
10/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Hittin The Hardwood with Roni Hicks ...
TUESDAY, Oct. 21--Preparation
Hello, I am Veronica Hicks, but you can call me Roni (Rn-). I must admit I am an amateur at blogging but I will try to make every post eventful, as well as informative. I also anticipate lots of excitement along the way. Before I get into my thoughts on the season, I figured it best to introduce my teammates as well as myself.
Since this is all from my view point I will start with myself. This is my second year at the University of Michigan and I can honestly say that I have never learned so much in one year. I learned about learning, independence, maturing, my faith, the world, playing, and just basketball in general. I have learned things from the people I've met here at Michigan: from my close engineering friends (my declared major), professors, most definitely coaches, and truly everyone from teammates to my family back home (mommy, daddy, sisters, brothers, nephews, aunts--just to mention a few), boyfriend, and best friends; I am thankful to all of you. Most importantly I am thankful to God, because He has blessed me with such great support and opportunity, and without Him I would not be here.
Now, I will give my teammates a personal shout-out!
No. 4- Jamillya Hardley, she has taken my spot as the baby of the team and we call her Jam.
No. 5-Janell Smith aka Nelly, she is probably the only celebrity we have on the team (well at least in Kalamazoo).
No. 20-Courtney Boylan, never afraid to ask questions (good and bad thing), we call her C-Boy.
No. 33-Carmen Reynolds, a right-handed-lefty (go-figure) we call her C-Rey.
No. 35-Lauren Young, our very own Cover Girl, goes by L or LY.
No. 1-LeQuisha Whitfield, who would be astounded if I did not mention her keen sense of style (lol!), she goes by Q.
No. 2-Sireece Bass, one of the loudest-quiet people you'll ever meet, we call her Reec.
No.23-Kalyn McPherson, Traverse City phenom we call her Kay.
No. 25-Krista Phillips, repping Canada and at 6'6, she's a pretty big deal. We call her KP.
No. 10-Ashley Jones, does a mean toe-touch and a fellow engineer, call her AJ.
No. 13-Stephany Skrba, peace in T{Dot}s streets, repping Canada and known as Skrb.
No. 21-Carly Benson, she is loved by all. She does some magical things with hair color and we call her Car.
No. 34-Jessica Minnfield, NOT Minnifield and she doesn't play mini either! Call her Jess.
And last but certainly not least
No. 51-Melinda Queen, Queen of the charges and represents Chicago (Oak Forest is close enough) who goes by Queenie.
These are my teammates, I am No.3-Veronica Hicks, a sophomore from Chicago, and this year is Our Year.
This past weekend was our first official days of practice. As a team we have been collectively conditioning and individually working out since classes began, but this past weekend we got to put it to the test. It was time to make first impressions and show how much we have really worked over the summer. We have been waiting so long for this season and any lack of preparation would be less than unacceptable.
"If it is to be, it's up to me" C Coach Borseth
Our coaches have given us quotes and stories about hardwork, success, perseverance, ownership, accountability and all of them speak volumes. The key was and still is that if you do what you have to do, if you give your all plus extra, if you have the right attitude, if you never "hang your head", if you get past that wall, then you will achieve and there will be no such thing as failure. This summer we WORKED, because we knew that "If it is to be, it's up to me." No excuses and no exceptions.
These first few practices we have started from this base once again. Every year, you must rebuild, no matter if you return with the same roster and a championship ring or six incoming freshman. Everyone starts out with a record of 0-0 and from this we build.
As a team we want to be hard defenders, who force turnovers and cause frustration. We're going to build off our quickness, height, and athleticism No excuses.
Well that concludes my first post, I think I covered everything I wanted for right now, actually probably more than I wanted!!
Until next time,
Ezekiel 38:7
