Senior Stephanie Rainwater's Blog On The Women's Basketball Team's NCAA Tournament Experience
Piedmont College women's basketball fans will be able to get the inside scoop about the PC's basketball team's trip to Kentucky for the upcoming NCAA Division-III National Tournament through a daily blog from senior Stephanie Rainwater. Stephanie, who hails from Pendergrass, GA, is in her fourth year as a member of the PC women's basketball program. She has volunteered to write a daily blog (journal) to give fans an inside look at the team's preparation, travel, and other behind the scenes perspectives of the team's second consecutive NCAA tournament appearance.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Shoot around went well yesterday, and we were all very optimistic about the game. Unfortunately, we did not win. Oglethorpe played very well, and jumped to an early lead, which we could not overcome. It was an uphill battle the entire game, one we just could not win. We had some people play very well for us. Beth did amazing, scoring some 20 points, and Mandy Beasley played exceptional, giving us crucial minutes in the post. Our season is over though, but it has been the best of my career. The team got along better than any other team I have ever been on, and we won conference and made it to nationals, again. Something we had set our minds to early this season. We set team goals at the beginning of the season, and accomplished many of them. We did want to make it past the 1st round of nationals, but it was not meant to be. I am taking it upon myself to speak for the rest of the seniors, but we will all truly miss this group of girls, and we will treasure every memory from every game and trip this season. This team is a rarity and will always be remembered as something special on and off the court. As a side note, it was been snowing since early yesterday. We have played in it and taken many pictures, but now we are stuck at the hotel, waiting to leave. It has been fun though, getting to play in the snow. It is more snow than many of us have ever seen, so that is an extra bonus to this trip.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Today was the travel day. We left Piedmont a little after 10:30 AM on a charter bus. We had a few extra travelers this trip, which was not a problem because our bus is so big. Dr. Lee, John Dzik (Athletic Director), and Matt McKinney (Assistant Athletic Trainer) were the additions, but we were all very happy to have the extra support. We only stopped one time and that was to eat, but the trip still seemed to take forever. We watched three movies and most of us slept some to try to pass the time. We arrived near 6:30 PM and checked into the hotel. We are staying in the Hyatt, and it is an extremely nice hotel. Everyone has their own bed and we have 42" flat screen televisions in each room. It is by far the nicest hotel we have stayed in on a basketball trip. After we checked in, we went to Thomas More and had a shoot around. We had a practice at 9:00 AM before we left, so this was just a chance to get used to the gym. We shot for about 30 to 45 minutes to get accustomed to the rims. The gym is big, but it was not what we were expecting. It is not a huge facility, which helped us to not be as shocked or uncomfortable. After shoot around we ate at TGI Friday's, which was delicious. When we finally reached our hotel after we ate, it was after 10:00 PM. We always have a 10:00 PM curfew the night before games, so we all had to go back to our rooms and go to bed. This day was the most fun so far, but we are looking forward to tomorrow with enthusiasm and anticipation. we are ready to make a name for ourselves.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Practice today was good. It was our usual "day before the day before" practice, as we call it. We did a lot of shooting drills and went over some plays and defenses. We are working very hard to prepare for this weekend, and we are looking good. We are having one more practice tomorrow before we leave, then having a 30 minute shoot around when we get to Thomas More. Everyone is very excited and we are all willing to give it everything we have to win these games. Also, after today's practice, the Toccoa television station (WNEG 32) came to interview Coach Childs-Purdy, Nikki, Beth, and Sheena. The reporter asked about the excitement level of of the team, how we were going to beat Oglethorpe, who the the seniors were, how losing Sarah affected the team, and many other things. It was an exhilirating experience for those involved. We are leaving at 10:30 tomorrow morning and we cannot wait to get to Kentucky and make our mark in nationals.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Today we had practice at at 2:00 PM. We found out we are not flying but driving to Kentucky. That is alright with us, even though we were all looking forward to flying, it is way too expensive, nearly $1,000 a person, so we are happy to drive. We went over a lot of the things Oglethorpe does as far as defenses, which is not unsimiliar to anything we have seen this year. They play mainly a man to man defense, and we have a lot of good plays that can beat that type of defense. We are looking good, we have had some really good practices, that were very intense. Although the time in-between practices is a little rough on us. It is spring break week, so there are no classes and we have a very limited amount of thiings to do. Our time at school this week is consisting of practice and eating, very much like our time here over Christmas break. However, we are excited to be here and we are looking forward to our trip. We still have a hard time believing we are going to nationals for the second time in a row, and we are back to back conference champions.
Monday, March 3, 2008
This morning coach Childs-Purdy sent us text messages a little before 10:00 AM telling us we would play Oglethorpe in Crestville Hills, KY on Friday, and that we would find out what time later. Oglethorpe, Thomas More, and Greensboro were the other teams in our bracket. We were excited to know we would play Oglethorpe since we had already played them once this season; although we were worried because they were one of our three loses. We had also played Greensboro last year so the familiarity with the teams was a relief for us. At practice we did not find out much more information, although we did have a good motivational speech. Coach reminded us we were a completely different team than the one who played Oglethorpe earlier this season. We have had a lot of people step up and play great as the season has progressed, and we would not be easy to beat. We were all very excited to play and we had a great practice. We also learned we might get to fly, which was very, very exhilarating for us. We are looking ahead to this game with anticipation, and we are poised to redeem ourselves from our earlier lose this se ason and advance farther into the tournament than last year.
