Getting stronger by the day!

6:00 a.m. workouts have begun!  The girls have been really energetic this week with getting up so early.  We ran eight suicides in eight minutes on Monday, and we started our first day of lifting weights.  I've been really impressed with our performances in the weight room.  I can tell that most of the players lifted this summer.  We also had a team dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, and that was a lot of fun!  10 percent of the sales between 7:00 and 9:00 that evening went to our program.

Yesterday we went threw a series of stations of basketball movement drills, cardio drills, and core work drills.  For the first time to do stations, the kids really picked up on them quickly. 

Today we ran a 100 yard suicide.  You sprint to the 10 yard line and jog back to the starting line, then sprint to the 20 yard line and jog back.....you do this all the way to the 100 yard line!  Think that's tough?  Well it's not over!  Once you're done with the 100 yard sprint, you go back to the 100 yard line and jog back and go backwards.  Sprint to the 90 jog back, sprint to the 80 jog back, 70, 60.....
It was a great cardio and mental workout! The girls lifted day two in the weight room after the 100 yard suicide.

I am looking forward to a great ending to the week!

Week one is in the books!

We have our first week of the school year under our belt.  The freshmen have gotten their first taste of college life--dorms, classes, books, workouts, cafeteria food, etc.  We got the first Buc lap done yesterday afternoon, and it wasn't so pretty but then again a Buc lap is never pretty. The newcomers experienced their first beep test this morning.  They are probably going to be sore after two days of testing in different strength and conditioning exercises.  We had some strong performances in some of our preseason testing:

*Gabby Hernandez ran a 14:22 Buc Lap and got to level 11.7 on the beep test
*Adrienne McKay bench pressed 145 pounds as a freshman!

I look for even stronger performances next week when we start a full week of strength and conditioning, individual workouts, open gym, etc. 

The season is finally underway!

Friday morning the freshmen moved in to their apartments and dorm rooms.  Their decorating style sure is much different than ours was a few years ago.  Their apartments and dorms look nice and livable and ours looked more like,well college apartments! 

Sunday night was the first official team meeting of the year.  It was great to have the team together.  We got all the expectations of class and how to handle ourselves out of the way.  We start preseason on Thursday afternoon.  I hope they are ready.  Tune in for the blog that day...I'm sure it will be interesting! 

Today is the first day of class.  The hustle and bustle of trying to buy books, getting finalized, learning where classes are, and getting class syllables is evident around campus.  It's so nice to have life on campus. Although it is a hectic time of year, I welcome it with a smile and open arms! 

Here's to the start of a great season!

The Old Ball Coach

Yesterday I got to spend the afternoon with my CBU coach, Todd Schaefer.  We had lunch with the men's basketball staff at The Deli.  After lunch we had the opportunity to talk about basketball for at least two hours, and it was great for me.  He gave me some great advice and ideas.  It's pretty awesome how we have maintained such a close relationship throughout my playing days and now my coaching days.  He has been an excellent resource, but most importantly an excellent friend.  I strive to have the same type of relationship with my players as I did him.  I hope I'm having lunch years from now with former players like Todd and I did yesterday and will continue to do for years to come.

Epic Staff Meeting

Last year I experienced my first staff meeting as a coach here at Christian Brothers University.  I knew it was going to be long because we ordered in lunch for that day!  Today was the day of our annual back to school staff meeting, and I thought it might be shorter than last year because we didn't order lunch.  Boy was I wrong!!  We went a full three hours, and then we had to go get our own lunch!

Even though it was a meeting of epic proportions, I still got excited about the meeting because it means school is right around the corner.  We learned some new things and shared new ideas for the upcoming year.  I will be sharing some of the new things that will be happening in the days to come.  Stay tuned.

Countdown to players' return

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of our basketball team to campus next weekend!  We have five returners and nine newcomers.  They have been buying things to fix up their dorm rooms and apartments!  It's a very exciting time for them, and for our basektball team.  I can't wait until campus is alive with students and athletes!  There is only so much Nienaber I can take in the summer!  Haha!