Kayla's life as a tweener

On the Stanford team, we have what are known as Littles and Bigs. In position work during practice, the Littles go to one end and work on guard skills and the Bigs/posts stay on the other end.

Everyday at this point in practice, I find myself asking the same question, “Tara, where do you want me?” I’m not technically a guard and I’m not technically a post, despite my height. This is what makes me a tweener.

A tweener is a player that can play basically any position on the floor. They shoot the three, hit the pull-up, post-up, rebound, bring the ball up the floor, run the floor... you get the point. We have three tweeners on our team: Jill, Michelle, and me. Jill plays the 1-4, Michelle plays 2-4 but mainly 3 now, and I play 2-5 (2/3 are basically interchangeable).

I love being a tweener. Tweeners can play anywhere on the floor which makes it a lot of fun because this versatility and flexibility allows us to experience every aspect of basketball. In practice, I normally switch between the 3 and 4 in position work. So as the posts practice lay-ups, I get to shoot with the guards. As the guards are working on zone defense, I get to work on my high post skills. It’s a win-win situation.

The only downfall is not knowing what position I play. Most players get security in knowing their role at all times, but I like to embrace this mental challenge. So, wherever Tara puts me is fine; I just want to play. And if you are wondering what position I will play on any given night, keep in mind that even I don’t know


GO CARD!!!
Kayla

Ashley is a fan of old records

Usually on a typical day off, I try to catch up on my sleep and do any work that I may have gotten behind on. But on our last day off, I did something a little different.

Hannah and I love music and have similar tastes, and we started to take an interest in collecting old records. For Christmas, Hannah got a really cool record player, and we had wanted to go searching for some new records. So on our day off, after classes, we searched the Internet for a record store close to campus, and found one called The Record Man in Redwood City.

We got directions, and prepared for our adventure. I didn’t try to get my hopes up, just in case the record store was a disappointment, but when we got there, I was amazed.

When we walked into The Record Man, there were various rooms of records, including rooms dedicated to Rock, Hip-Hop, Reggae, and Classical records. The walls of the store were lined from the floor to the ceiling in all these different rooms with thousands of records and there were various listening stations throughout the store. We could have spent hours in the store searching for all types of records.

Fortunately, we went into the store with certain artists in mind, so we wouldn’t be there forever. I ended up getting records by Fleetwood Mac, Lenny Kravitz, and the Eagles and Hannah got Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and Led Zeppelin records. It was a really successful trip, and the records have been on rotation in our room ever since.

If you happen to be a fan of listening to old records, I highly recommend checking out The Record Man. You won’t be disappointed!

Go Card!!
Ashley Cimino #24

HAIR!

Hello Peeps!

The topic of my blog today is: HAIR!...

Let me start by saying that hair is very important to our team. You may be surprised on how hard it is to keep your hair nice, fresh and styled during season. Some of us struggle, but a lot of us also make it a high priority when we have the time.

You can only imagine the amount of product that we have in our locker room, mainly because of Grace Mashore. One of her father’s friends decided to send her a gigantic box of hair product. We are definitely set until we are seniors! Thank you Grace!
I will now give you some insight on our hair…

Well, recently I have had my hair cut and highlighted! I was in much need and I finally gave in to my sister’s phone calls every week to get my hair done. Yes, I know my style is very similar to JJ Hones, but what can I say! We are pretty much sisters! Also, Jayne has updated her hair getting more highlights so it’s a little bit blonder and getting a nice trim. JJ also gets her hair cut and highlighted frequently.

Jillian Harmon and I have very similar hair, except hers is dark. We both have so called fly aways, wispies, wings, baby hairs, whatever you want to call the little curls that occur around our face and hair line, especially during games when we get sweaty. With that being said, I don’t mind my little baby curls. I like them!

Jill on the other hand is not a big fan. So if you haven’t noticed, her fly aways have flown away. Recently, Jill got her hair Japanese straightened, which means she paid a good amount of money to have it chemically straightened for like 6 months. Whatever makes Jill happy, makes us all happy!

Another hair update is Nneka’s newly done hair. We can always count on Nneka for some sort of good hair surprise. Considering, last week in practice she had an amazing huge afro! It was great! Nneka attributes her nicely done hair to her mother. If her mom comes to a home game one week that is a great sign that Nneka will have new hair the next week. Also, Nneka has inherited some of her mother’s skills. Nneka is Melanie Murphy’s own personal hair stylist! Without Nneka, Mel tends to struggle with her hair. We all appreciate Nneka’s talent.

We are still waiting on Hannah to do something with her hair. She has by far the longest hair on the team. She has very nice, long hippie hair but she uses on average 5 hair ties just to put her hair in a bun for practice or games. We all feel bad for Hannah when she stands in the bathroom for 20 minutes after taking a shower untangling the knots in her hair. It’s a shame. Hannah admits her need of a haircut but she is having a hard time trusting anyone other than her friend at home to cut it. Which is kind of surprising, considering her friend is her age, how much hair experience can she have?

As far as the rest of the team goes, there isn’t anything drastically new. When we had our short break, I believe almost everyone got their hair trimmed and styled, in some way or another. We have the girls that belong to the regular pony club. That includes Sarah, Kayla, Ashley, Ros, Morgan, Michelle, and Grace. Jeanette is a member of the group as well but she has definitely toned down her hair and going for a much speedier look than last year. If you can recall, she had the super long pony whip that would smack her and her defenders in the face during games.

I think our team has started to rub off on our coaches as well. Bobbie has made time to get her hair done recently. Her hair is one of her highest priorities on game days. But I must admit that it looks very nice. Also, Kate is beating all of us players with how often she gets her hair highlighted and cut. She most definitely wins any hair competition for number of different styles and colors. We can really tell what kind of mood Kate will be in by the way her hair is. As of late, our team has been trying to talk Amy into growing out her hair. We really think that her ball of curly hair could really turn into some nice long locks. We are still waiting though.

So now you see that hair is really a big deal to us. You can’t blame us for always wanting to look cute!

Well that’s all for now. I could tell you many more facts and superstitions about hair and our team, but then I would have to hurt you! Just kidding. But really I can’t tell you, just know that with every hair style there is a reason and purpose.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my blog! See ya around!

Go Card!!!
Lindy La Rocque #15

P.S. Tara has had the same hair style for 30 years! But things wouldn’t be the same if she changed it.

Melanie's Video Blog

Mel brings a personal, inside look at how she prepared for a game. Brought direct to you by Melevision.