Sara's Stanford Memories

Throughout my time as a Stanford women's basketball player, I have played in some incredible places, played for some incredible coaches, and played with some incredible teammates. I've made all sorts of memories that I will never forget, and given that this is my senior year, there is so much I will miss about being a part of this program.

One of the most memorable moments during my freshman year was the night we beat UConn at home. That was my first experience really seeing how loud Maples could get, and I will never forget going wild on the bench and rushing the court once the final buzzer sounded.

Other important games ring a bell, like our win in San Francisco for Tara's 800th and our win in Mexico for her 900th. I don't think I understood the magnitude of Tara's 800th win given that I was a still a wide-eyed little freshman caught in the headlights, but being a part of her 900th this year was really special. It shows how fortunate we all are to play for such an elite and accomplished coach.

There are many more awesome games like these (aside from the 800th and 900th) that I will never forget, but it is the people I got to share those experiences with that mean the most.

Throughout my four years here, I have made some of the best friends of my life. Each year I say that there's no way to have a better team than the last, but I've found that the next is always just as good.

I've made plenty of friends throughout my lifetime, but there's something distinctly different about the friendships made on a team like this. Spending 5+ hours together a day, we honestly become a family. My teammates have seen me at my best and my worst, and love me just the same. We go through incredible tests together, whether it's running sprints day in and day out, or even just battling whatever life challenges come our way together while we spend our time at school.

I was thinking about it on our last road trip to Fresno — that there's something super cool about the time we all spend together on bus rides. We always have our same seats but the situations are always different.

We've traveled to Italy, Mexico, Hawaii, Connecticut, and everywhere in between together. Just like anything else, you don't just remember where you end up, but the ride that got you there.

After a game, on the bus back to the hotel or whatever, the team is crazy — yelling, singing, and goofing around.

On the way to games, on the other hand, everyone's doing their own thing to get themselves ready. Nobody is really talking to each other, and most people have their headphones in, but even then, the team is together. We're all visualizing how we want to play as a team and individually, whether it's by physically reviewing the scouting report on our ipads, or just by closing our eyes and thinking about it.There are plenty of times like this — that aren't really obvious as to times when memories would be formed — but they often mean the most.

Like I said, becoming a Stanford women's basketball player has welcomed me in to an incredible family. I can name them all — Kayla, Jeanette, Ashley, Hannah, Mel, Nneka, Boothe, Lindy, Grace, Jos, Ruef, Chiney, Toni, Tay, E, Bon, Jas, Bam, Lex, Tess, Aly, Denia, Kiran, Karlie, Kailee, Bri, Lili, and Bird. Not to mention my coaches, and all the other staff members I've worked with.

Whether I end up going to nursing school, finding a job with my HumBio degree, or anything else next year, I will really miss being a part of such amazing teams.

Can't look too far ahead though — we have a job to do in 2014! Pac-12 season is here, and it's time to continue our trek to the national championship!

Sara

We've got the goodies!!

Muffins, rolls, and bread galore!
We bake, and bake, and bake some more!

In the midst of all our practices, games, and the immense amount of schoolwork that we do, we take the time to bake a few goodies every now and then. It’s always a collective effort, but Sara James or Mikaela usually organize our baking adventures.

Everybody has a go-to goodie though. Briana goes for chocolate chip cookies. Lili and Taylor are fans of cinnamon rolls. Karlie goes for brownies, and Bonnie is partial to Oreo balls or Pizookie.

But our go-to treat is monkey bread. Oh, how we make the best monkey bread. Alex absolutely loves monkey bread! She’ll do anything for it. She’ll even emerge from her mountain of homework to partake in some monkey bread, and it’s hard to get her from under that mountain. We’d take on any moms out there in a monkey bread contest, and I think we’d win.

Our team may definitely have the Pillsbury doughboy beat when it comes to making a cinnamon roll or any baked good that’ll make your head spin and your heart drop.

Jasmine

A lot to celebrate for Nerd Nation

Here is Chiney's espnW blog

A Christmas poem

It is almost Christmas time and with my teammates I am baking,
Cookies, bread, and caramels, we are making,
This morning, at Saint Anthonys, we served lots and lots of food,
Outside, it is way too cold to even think about being nude,

On this Christmas break we are free of all school,
This weekend, we play Tennessee, and it will be so cool,
We have the greatest team, always together, so close,
Our football team is now going to the big bowl of the rose!

I am so happy to be a part of this team,
Coming to Stanford and playing ball, has always been my dream,
I have the greatest of friends, Sej in particular,
I love school and basketball, not many extracurriculars,

It’s been such a great experience being a Stanford cardinal,
This week has been better than last, not even one final,
Soon we will all be home with the fam,
Opening presents, gathering round, and having pieces of ham,

Thank you for all your support, it has meant a lot,
I love this team so much, even more than I thought.

A typical travel day

Today I shall be writing about travel. Or to be more specific, what a typical travel day looks like for us.

We usually depart on a Thursday when we have a Saturday game. Typically there will be a practice before we leave for the airport, and the practice will end about an hour (sometimes less) before we have to leave the gym and go to the airport.

After practice there is a flurry of activity. Everybody needs to shower, finish packing, get something to eat from Jimmy’s, run back to their rooms if they forgot something, it’s a nightmare.

Anyway, we all have to wear the same outfit while we are traveling, the travel sweats, Stanford issued work-out shoes, and skins. Skins are a really tight pair of leggings that are made out of some sort of special fabric, their basic function is to keep our legs from being affected by jet lag, but man are they annoying to put on.

So we finish packing, grab a sandwich and a smoothie to go from Jimmy’s and we load all of our stuff into the bus. Each person generally takes a suitcase, a duffel bag (we have to take all of our game stuff carry on just in case we get separated from our luggage), and a backpack filled with homework.

The Freshman get to help carry all the managerial equipment; like the video screen and projector, and any equipment that we will need for shootarounds and the like.

So we get all of our stuff onto the bus, triple check that we have everything and we are ready to go. Eileen goes through the bus, and we show her our ID’s before she gives us our meal money.

I won’t say who, but I heard that one time an unspecified member of the coaching staff (Tara) forgot her ID when the team was taking a trip and almost missed the flight. This is strictly rumor, of course.

The players and coaches all have what they need, we check everything for a fifth and sixth time, and are off to the airport.

Tess

Bumps in the freshman road

Hey Stanford Fans!

This has been a crazy couple of months for me, being a freshman and new to the Stanford family. From summer school, to travelling to Italy with the team, to the start of the fall quarter, and now to our first games of the season, this has definitely been a very busy and exciting time in my life. I am so happy to share this new experience with my four other freshmen teammates, Kailee, Lili, Bri, and Erica (“Bird”).

Each of us have had a couple bumps on the road, whether it is Bird falling off her bike over the handle bars, Kailee locking herself out of her room without her bike key and running 15 minutes to a 6:30 a.m. lift, Lili’s bike breaking more than once, Bri losing all of her keys (her I.D., room key, bike key, P.O. box key) but luckily finding them, or me constantly getting lost and calling Bonnie to give me directions to my class or even back to my own dorm. 

Besides these minor challenges, the freshmen class and I are getting accustomed to the Stanford Way both in practice and academics. We are all very excited for what the rest of the year has in store for both us and the Stanford Team

Go Card!

Karlie

Our Trip to Italy

by Mikaela Ruef

This summer our team had the opportunity to visit one of the most amazing countries in the world. After a long summer of hard work, we were rewarded with a trip to Italy, and it couldn’t have been a more perfect trip. Thanks to my wimpy feet that forced me to red shirt my junior year, I was lucky enough to stick around one last year and make the trip. I can’t even begin to explain how lucky I feel to have had such bad luck junior year, but enough about me, and more about the trip! I can’t possibly describe the entire trip in just one short little blog post, so I’ll just give the highlights, and even then this post will be lengthy and not do justice to things I describe.

The trip started with the longest plane ride of my life, luckily there were 3 meals, extra legroom, and an endless movie selection in the seatbacks.

Our first stop was Rome where we took group tours of the Coliseum and the Vatican. It was surreal to visit both places because I’d learned about the Coliseum in 7th grade world history class and the Vatican in religion class since I was about 8, but now we were actually there at the real place in Italy. The pictures I’d seen in books and on TV I was now seeing with my eyes and my brain had a hard time comprehending that this was real life. Of course, I made sure all of my teammates and I grossly over used the saying, “When in Rome…” because how many times do you actually get to say it when you’re literally IN ROME? The craziest thing about Rome is that it is a very large modern city with highways and cars and the whole nine yards, and among this bustling modern city are ruins from a different world. Visiting Rome is like time travelling, one minute you’re in the Ancient Roman Empire standing at the base of the original Capital Hill, and the next minute you get honked at by a speeding car for walking too slow across an intersection.

After leaving Rome, we stopped in Siena for the afternoon. Siena is this quaint, relaxing, vacation getaway, and mark my words, I will return. It was easily my favorite city because I absolutely loved the lifestyle. Everything was extremely laid back, there were no cars on any of the cobblestone roads, the weather was perfect, and the scenery was straight out of a romance novel. I was sad we had to leave so soon, but I was thankful that we stopped at all cuz now I know where I’m going to live when I grow up (just kidding, but seriously, I loved it).

Next came Florence, where I did most of my gift shopping. But you can’t visit Florence without seeing Michelangelo’s David in the Galeria dell’Academia. The statue is absolutely breathtaking, I could have easily sat and just stared at it for hours. First of all, it’s HUGE and second it’s perfect, as in you can see veins popping out of his arms. It looks like Michelangelo froze a giant and then coated it in marble glaze… that good. The team got a full day to explore Florence with no scheduled tours, and everyone took full advantage, shopping for leather gifts in the markets and eating way too much gelato, pizza and pasta (I was on a diet, so I only ate 2 gelatos a day and 9 on the last day).

The final stop before heading home was Venice, which like every other city we visited in Italy, was beautiful. There are no cars in Venice, only boats, canals, buildings, and sidewalks. The water taxi drivers are truly gifted at maneuvering their boats in the narrow canals without ramming into the buildings. Driving those things is an art. After all my contemplating, I still can’t figure out why someone would look at the lagoon Venice is built on and say, “This looks like a perfect spot to build a city”, but boy am I glad they did because it’s a unique city and a great place to experience.

Oh yeah, we played basketball while we were there, I almost forgot! We went 3 for 3 with one close game. Everyone played well, especially the freshmen, who played their first official games for Stanford! The best part about the games was watching the Italian teams during the timeouts (not that I was watching because I was so focused on what the coaches were saying). Anyway, since there are Americans on the teams that don’t speak Italian, the coaches talk to everyone on the team in Italian and then pause. Then, one of the Italian players that knows English translates for the American, then stops and looks back at the coach. Then the coach says a little more then pauses and waits for the translator. It’s entertaining to watch, but super inefficient.

That pretty much sums up the trip. It was such a great bonding experience for the team and WE GOT TO SEE ITALY! I can still barely believe that we actually went and I’m already looking forward to a return trip in the future. Before I end this, I just want to thank everyone who helped finance the trip. I’m so thankful to have gotten the opportunity to go to Italy and I know the rest of the team is too. I can’t think of a better trip, or a better group of people to go with, and I look forward to great season because of it!

Benergy

This is not the first time I have promoted Benergy and it probably will not be the last. Here, at Stanford, we make constant benergy look easy. However, there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. To many outside viewers it might look like we only sit the bench and cheer on our teammates. However, I am here to give an inside scoop to the important jobs of the Stanford Women’s Basketball Bench.

The first important job of the Bench is one that none of the fans will ever see, and it is called scout team. There is a lot of work that goes into preparing for every team we play. One thing that the Bench does to help prepare our team is we run scout team. What this means is the Bench will learn the plays and general mannerisms of our opponent. Then, during practice, we will simulate our opponent to help prepare our starters for what we think the opponent will throw at us. This can mean running their plays, or simulating their style of defense for our starters to practice against. This is the first important job of the Bench.

The second important job is to be into the game. At any point on the bench you have to be ready to sub in and contribute. This means we are not just spectators. We pay attention to what is working for our team, how certain players from the opposing team are playing, and any changes our coaches have made to our game plan. Also, when stadiums are loud and it is difficult to hear, it is the Bench’s job to help call out the plays so that everyone on our team knows what we are running. This is the second job of the Bench.

The third important job is to bring the benergy. When a team’s bench is extremely excited and into the game it can have huge affects on the players who are on the court. On the Bench we do everything we can to keep the energy up from start to finish. There are a few specific things we do to bring the benergy. To start off the game, I give a speech right before tip off that is meant to initially get the energy flowing. Then during the game we shout, jump up and down, and basically do anything we can to keep our team’s energy at maximum level. For example, whenever we make a 3 Kiran runs to the front of the bench and gives high fives all the way down to the end. It might seem like a simple gesture but it gets the whole team hyped.

I must admit that I take personal pride in the quality of our team’s benergy. Everyone on our team would like to play, but with fifteen players and only five spots on the court not everyone gets in. Instead of my teammates hanging their heads and pouting about not getting to play, they go crazy shouting for the players that are on the court. That is why I love this team. People push aside their own needs for the good of the team.

Therefore, I would like to give a little recognition to my fellow teammates that push themselves in practice and cheer along side me every game knowing they might not see a minute of playing time. Some of the most dangerous teams are the ones where every player, on the court and on the bench, is willing to do anything they can to help the team succeed. That is why every game my teammates and I bring the BENERGY!

Through basketball, I can help others

Chiney  plans to go to Nigeria this summer as part of an Access to Success campaign and hopes to raise money to build a basketball court.

Click here for her espnW blog.

Click here to join Chiney's Access to Success team.

Pac-12 title game a lesson in leadership

 

 

Chiney is a champion in so many ways.

Click here for her superb espnW blog.