Varsity During Summer

On the varsity level, we had 13 girls start out playing on the varsity and finished with 14 playing on the varsity. We chose not to have any girls sit out games, so all 14 rotated in and played with the varsity. We had 6 seniors- Jessica Lieber, Sharron Diggins, Allison Mangieri, Rainee Sibley, Dani Teel, and Chloe Anderson. There were 4 juniors- Micayla Eisele, Katee Lingafelter, Hannah Smith, and Carley Weigand. 2 sophs were involved- Sabrina Clay and Casey Williams. And 2 frosh played with us- Sami Thompson and Lexi Daniels. 

They have been a very committed group. Only 2 players missed any camps, practices or games during the entire summer, and that involved a total of 3 practices and 3 games. At the foundation of team chemistry is a sense of trust. This tremendous commitment to each other has built a strong level of trust, loyalty, and positive chemistry. 

I am always amazed the number of players who choose to play with an AAU team during the summer instead of their high school teams. We had one team cancel all their games this past week because four of their players were going to be gone playing AAU. I am all for kids looking for ways to improve and get better, but sadly most of the kids/parents who get invested in the AAU circuit in this area are being mislead. Many parents/kids think they are DI players and the AAU coach feeds off this. So you often have kids who are at best DIII players going all over the country to be seen by DI coaches. The reality is if a player is a DI prospect, the college coaches have observed and found them long before the AAU circuit. 

At Galesburg, we have had no trouble having our players who had the ability to be seen by DII and DI coaches, and to earn scholarships at those levels. As a DI coach told me once- "Trust me, if a player has DI ability, we will find them." This past week at our Summer League, we had 7 college coaches come thru to watch players- some were NAIA, some DIII, and some Juco. 

As we wrap up league, I have been very happy with the improvement our players have shown. Winning and losing is not a big deal in the summer, but being able to show improvement is huge. In the first week of our league, we lost 3 games. And 2 of the games were to 1A and 2A teams. We did not look good. Since then in our trip to Wisconsin, to ND, and in summer league over the last four weeks, we lost a total of 3 games. Again, the winning is not the point, but it illustrates we have improved. 

The most exciting thing about this team is how much they seem to enjoy each other. Our seniors have done a really nice job of making our younger players feel important and part of things.