Basketball, Basketball, and more Basketball!

Coaching the girl’s basketball team is still one of the highlights of my ministry at Ricks. I have absolutely fallen in love with all 17 girls and truly value the time that we spend together.

We are still practicing every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (even on holidays!) at 2:00pm. The girls have made so much progress since the beginning of the year and because of that we are able to do and accomplish a lot more at practice. The warm up drills consist of lay-ups, jump shots, and free throws. Sometimes we also add in some dribbling and ball handling skills. Then we normally work on specific skills that need improvement and introduce or review game plays. Practice normally ends with a scrimmage where the team implements the new things they have learned. Practice generally ends around 3:30pm and then the team eats lunch together in the dinning hall. The girls have a break from 4:00 to 5:00, which normally turns into a team social hour in front of the school building. Conditioning begins at 5:00pm. The girls are marked late if they are not running at 5:00. Conditioning usually consists of running (about a mile and a half) and some basic strength exercises (push ups, sit ups, lunges, stairs, etc.). By the end of conditioning the girls are wiped out. Some of them come and collapse on the steps of the school building and just lay down for about 5 minutes before moving. Practice days definitely make for a long afternoon, but the hard work is paying off.

We had a game at the Monrovia Sports Commission on Thursday, against the Cathedral High School. The team went into the game confident and determined to win. All the girls played very well and the routine drills at practice prepared the team for victory. The starting five went in and lit up the scoreboard. After half time our second and third string went in for the rest of the game. They held the lead and brought home another victory for Ricks. The final score was 28-8, which makes the Lady Dragons 5-0 this year.

Last weekend Ricks hosted a school from Nimba County. They arrived very late Friday night, prepared to take on the Dragons in a series of sporting events on Saturday. The day began with co-ed sand volleyball. After an exciting match, the crowed moved over to the court for girls and boys basketball games. We played two 20 minute halves with a running clock against a newly formed team of 6. All of the girls got to play and it was exciting to watch some of them score for the first time. Although it was not much of a game, everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. The Lady Dragons pulled out a 58-10 win! Following our game, the boys also won. After lunch there was a kickball and soccer (football) game. The kickball team lost by 1 point, but later the soccer team brought home another Ricks victory!

It was an exciting week, filled with lots of fun competition. It feels good to win and to see the girls so excited and confident in themselves. We are just praying they don’t get over confident and lose sight of what has gotten them this far. It was a great week of basketball and I am looking forward to more in the next few weeks as we prepare for the high school tournament. Go Dragons!