LOOKING BACK BEFORE MOVING FORWARD

Almost Memorial Day and as the VFMC Women's basketball coach there's been a good deal of time to  reflect on in looking back at the past season. It really had to be done for there are a critical decisions to be made. The experience in putting in a strong foundation for VFMC's women's basketball program was what it looked like it would be when I took on the job last July: an exhilerating once-in-a-lifetime learning experience filled with challenges and surprises that called on all those who were part of it (players and coaches especially) an intensity of focus and zealous commitment. The truth is there were times it seemed the odds were against achieving the kind of success against which benchmarks were set early on:

Could we put together a team of nine or ten players out of a total college female enrollment of just 33 students?

• yes...even if it did not seem possible, especially as it was not until the first week of November that we were able to have more than five players at practice...due to the players'other commitments (volleyball, soccer, band, choir, military obligations, and of course studies, etc.)

Being for all intents and purposes "a start-up" college sports franchise--whose schedule was in flux almost all the way thru the season, during which too the women lacked their own dressing room--would we be able to maintain the players' enthusiasm even with what was logically assumed by just about everyone would be a losing if not totally winless season? 

• yes...to the credit of my assistant coaches and the players the team never lost their desire to play...and did so surprisingly competitively for at least the first half of almost every game save for three or so...during which the other teams' talent and depth clearly trumped enthusiasm....even though only three of our team members had had substantive high school basketball experience, and one of those three left school at Christmas break. 

With our obvious lack of depth, could we "survive" the inevitable spate of injuries and the other unanticipated but not unexpected off court dramas most intercollegiate programs encounter?

• yes...we had them all...off court and on court...and yet still had something in the tank to give it our very best, even in our final game that had been delayed for a week due to the unprecedented snow storms of this past winter.

The VFMC Women's Basketball team's most memorable moment?

• Easy:...the final buzzer of the first game: the hugs and smiles.. the looks of disbelief..amidst the ear-splitting cacophony of cheering from the crowd that had come out of curiosity to watch, but having become caught up in wnhat turned out to be an extraordinary Hallmark Hall of Fame-like moment, literally willed our team to an amazingly improbable victory...the first ever by any women's team of any sport at Valley Forge Military College...It was an extraordinary moment...matched closely by our second win in the last second of the return game played against the same competitor, played this time on their court a couple of months later...Another incredible drama...where life and competition and good sportmanship all intersected...and we came away one basket up victors for the second time.

Our biggest disappointment?

• there were several...but as with all disappointments, they were learning experiences

My proudest moment as Head Coach?

• to be sure, there were several which I will never forget...but one off the court that was memorable,  gratifying and humbling...being invited to give the guest sermon ON SERVICE at the VFMAC's weekly chapel service...which was video taped and can be seen seen on YOU TUBE at 01-31-10 VFMAC Chapel Service.mp4 (INTRO begins at 23:30...the sermon at 28:18)