Skout & Me

Hey all!

Well, the team and I just returned to sunny California from our road trip in Oregon coming home with 2 W’s! I think the team played very well against Oregon and Oregon State, making some good progress towards our obvious goal in winning the Pac-10 regular season. We’re playing more up-tempo, aggressive basketball, and if we continue along this road there should be no doubt that we will come out on top!

Now, of course I could spend valuable homework time writing my blog solely about basketball, but I’ve decided to take a different route (haha).

Recently, teammate Sarah Boothe and I enjoyed seeing the movie Marley & Me, and probably surprising to most of you is that I actually didn’t cry! Not to say that I didn’t think it was sad, but I somehow I held back the tears.

The point to this is that it got me thinking about my amazing dogs back at home, especially my 3-legged dog Skout (aka Tripod). Skout lost her leg my sophomore year of high school after being hit by oncoming truck. Although being quite pudgy throughout her mid section these days due to lack of mobility, Skout is happy and healthy.

What’s profound about this experience, however, is witnessing how much perseverance this little animal has. I remember very vividly the day she came home from having her leg amputated. All wrapped up in heavy bandages, and down one leg still could not hold back her joyful spirit as she showed the same excitement when seeing us for the first time as she would’ve had no accident occurred.

Reminiscing about all the challenges I have faced, and still face, throughout my ACL injury, I could not hold a candle to how this little dog fought through such adversity, as to lose an entire leg and still be as happy as ever. I feel that through Skout’s example I have come to learn that happiness goes much deeper than any physical attribute.

Happiness is being around people you love, sharing special moments with those who truly care about you, and relying on that love to literally become the extra leg that carries you through. I certainly miss that dog everyday, sometimes conspiring to steal her away and keep her out here with me .

I’m just grateful for the small, but invaluable life lessons that she has been able to teach me, and I’m also glad that I get to share it with all of you!

GO CARD!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michelle Harrison

The True Player Bios

Rosalyn Gold-Onwude

Hello Everyone! Glad to be this week’s blogger! I write my own blog called The Rhetoric of RosGo and I’d like to share something from one of my more recent blogs that I’d thought you’d enjoy! Here’s a little more information about the players on our team that you won't usually find in the media guide!

#0 Melanie Murphy… is from New York. I think that speaks for itself.

#1 Grace Mashore … looks like she is 14 years old. Grace takes hair gel very seriously. She doesn’t just use any kind of hair gel either. She has her parents air ship boxes on top of boxes of hair gel across country to our locker room. Seriously… she does.

#2 Jayne Appel … is a 6’4 Paris Hilton. A social butterfly by nature, and Pi Phi by pledge, she can be counted on to know what’s happening on and off campus on any given night. One thing to watch out for: Be careful if you happen to be around her before games. When excited, she sometimes hits.

#5 Michelle Harrison … is from Utah. That CERTAINLY speaks for itself.

#10 JJ Hones … went out like a G. She balled out in our game against Rutgers before she sadly tore her ACL. After hanging out with her this summer in Oregon I also discovered her hidden talent: JJ is really good at doing the Moonwalk!

#14 Kayla Pederson … puts the Responsible in Responsible. This girl has been here before. Kayla was a fifth year senior in a past life. She came to Stanford as a freshman knowing all the plays and what time the bus leaves.

#15 Lindy La Rocque … likes to shoot threes. That’s all I really know about her.

#20 Hannah Donaghe… is the team’s resident hippy. Hannah still has a flip top cell phone. I think that speaks for itself.

#21 Rosalyn Gold-Onwude… is the person who is writing this blog! To find our more about me check out this YouTube video clip.

#23 Jeanette Pohlen… is the type of person who knows all the words to every song ever made and practices dance moves in the mirror. She especially loves any song that was made by a group of 3 or more people.

#24 Ashley Cimino… enjoys awkward conversation about Maine. In her free time she works on her deadly three point shot, otherwise known as “The Ashley Special”.

#30 Nnemkadi “Nneka” Ogwumike… was last year’s Gatorade National H.S. player of the year. It’s probably just a coincidence that she always has a hotel room with a view.

#31 Morgan Clyburn… enjoys movies that make her cry. Also, Morgan is studying to become a biomechanical engineer. That is so Stanford of her.

#33 Jillian Harmon… is a smooth operator. Things just have a way of working out for Jillian. She’ll charm you out of a house and home if you’re not careful.

#42 Sarah Boothe… is the most adorable 6’5 person you might ever meet. She also looks like Liv Tyler.

## Kerry Blake… is hands down the best manager ever. Nothing funny about that.

Yup, this team is full of characters! Hopefully you like us more now that you know a bit more about us! See you at the games!

Reading Frenzy

For my blog this year I would like to talk about something that has recently caught a lot of people’s attention on our team: a book, rather, a series of books. If any of you have heard of the Twilight series that is out there, then you will know exactly what I am talking about when I say how addicting those books are.

There are some of us who started reading these books a while ago, but it has now become a huge interest within our team. Over winter break is when people really started getting into them. It’s kind of funny because a bunch of us (I won’t name any names) will just read them anytime and anywhere. For example, on the way to practices and games, on the bus rides, sitting in the hotel, in airports, on planes, and just walking in general are many places and ways that these books are being read on our team.

People just want to know what happens next! Also, people wanting to talk about the characters and different situations in the books now dominate conversations. This can be a problem sometimes though because many people are at different stages in the books and “don’t want to hear” what’s going to happen next, so the conversations end up becoming two person discussions.

One amazing thing that has come out of this reading frenzy is that we seem to gain more and more followers as we go. (we have even managed to somehow suck Mel into this group). You have to cut us a little bit of slack though, we rarely get to read books that we actually want to read, so I am all for this. So, if you haven’t heard of these books or have heard of them and thought they were not worth reading, they are worth reading!

Just ask almost anyone on our team.

Go Card!
Jeanette Pohlen #23