Saturday, August 29, 2009

Judgement Day

Friday was Judgement Day for Iona Women's Basketball. We had Eric, Mike and Jim, from The Program, come to our campus and put the girls through 4 quarters of intense obstacles that tested their endurance, teamwork, leadership and ability to overcome adversity. The girls seemed a little hesitant after they realized what was going on, but once they got through it, there wasn't a single player that didn't think it was well worth it.

Eric Kapitulik, the founder and CEO of The Program, said that he was extremely impressed with the team's leadership, teamwork and tenacity throughout the whole day. Although there were SEVERAL girls he was impressed with, he was most intrigued by Anna and Marissa's ability to take his teachings and apply them in such a short period of time.



Anna lead the team in jumping-jacks; while she was supposed to finish the quarter with a set of 6, she went to 7...replying to Eric's questioning with "We need to do 'One More'". "One More" is The Program's trade marked phrase, to emphasize the importance of pushing yourself to the limit everyday to get better. While doing the log and sand bag quarter, Marissa was quick to realize that each team needed to line up in ascending height order. Eric later told us it sometimes takes military teams up to 3 months to understand this concept. Way to go girls!!

Overall, it was a great experience and we all enjoyed a nice team dinner at Posto 22 afterwards. We want to thank everyone from The Program for coming and helping our team. We look forward to seeing how this will help us in the future...Let the season begin!!

If you want to learn more about Eric Kapitulik and The Program, visit http://www.theprogramathletics.com/aboutCEO.htm.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Welcome Back!!

Wow...the start of another year is here! All the girls are back on campus and are settled into their dorms, apartments and houses. Kara, Sarah and Robin graciously volunteered their time on Sunday to help move the freshmen class into the dorms. (Not just the basketball freshmen, but the entire class of 2013!!) I'm sure they got their workout in for the day :)



We had our first team meeting on Tuesday (Aug 25th) and it was great to see everyone together again! All of the players look great and they seemed excited to be back. The biggest surprise--Milica got a nose ring...who would have guessed!! A bunch of the girls went to the Luau on campus Wednesday night...they said it was a great time...looks that way from the pictures! We are glad to see the freshmen (Sam and Haley) getting comfortable with their new college life!







We have our team event this Friday, which is "hush-hush" until Friday comes around, but we know it's going to be a great experience for the girls. We will be sure to take good pictures and video so everyone can see how it went.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

First year of Girls Summer Camp

We couldn't have asked for a better turnout for our first year of Girls Basketball Camp. We had about 42 campers...all of whom were eager to learn more about the game of basketball, play lots of scrimmages and win tons of prizes. The prize that all the girls wanted the most (besides the NY Liberty tickets) were the signed basketballs...who would have thought they'd be such a hot commodity! We also had signed Media Guides, NY Liberty t-shirts, NY Liberty tickets, Iona WBB bags and Iona WBB t-shirts.

At the end of each day, we all went down to the pool for our "Swimming Cool-Down", which was much needed after all of the hard work they had put in during the day. The campers also impressed us with their enthusiasm to participate in the "Spirit Theme of the Day". Monday-Support Your Team Day...Tuesday-Crazy Sock Day...Wednesday-Crazy Hair Day...Thursday-Mix-Match Day...Friday-Maroon and Gold Day. We gave some individual prizes for campers who went the furthest with each theme...some of those socks were CRAZY!!


We also gave out a few trophies on Friday during the Awards Ceremony. Most Spirited for the Week...Most Outstanding Player...Most Enthusiastic Player of the Week...Hustle Player of the Week...Sportsmanship Award.

We all (coaches, players and managers) had a great time running the camp and were so excited that the campers had such a good time throughout the week. We hope to see a lot of the faces from camp at some of our games this season and back at camp next year!!