The 2009 Season Begins!

Whew! The 2009 season is here! We had our first day of practice today and it went very well. I found it fairly easy to create excitement today considering the accomplishments of last year's team. Today we took care of a lot of "housekeeping" stuff - checking out practice gear, lockers, going over practice expectations, etc., but we also did a few skills and the focus was very good and we got better today. I'm always looking for 1% improvement each day - if each player can improve just 1% each day, we're on our way to where we want to be.

Today we talked about last spring - as coaches, we decided (with some advice from a University of Michigan asst. coach) that we needed to talk about the accomplishments of last year - not live them, but remember them. We defined success today and used John Wooden to help us do it. As a group we defined success as the peace of mind that comes with knowing that you did the very best you could to become the best that you are capable of becoming. We talked about one of the cornerstones of our program - working the process and letting the end result take care of itself.

Piece by piece we will work on putting the puzzle back together this year - different players, a couple different coaches, a different floor in our gym, but the same philosophies and values that have gotten us to this point. We're not going to try to defend our title this year - we're just going to try to win another one.

Hit 'em hard, run 60 feet, and turn left!

Coach Huntington

Making History

I excited and proud to be able to witness such an historical event today - the Inauguration of the first African American President of the United States of America. I will be watching coverage on television - I'm not lucky enough to actually BE there, but what an inspiring and emotional moment in the history of our nation. I hope all Americans can appreciate what is taking place today regardless of political party - I have one word to describe it, although we still have so far to go - but that word is PROGRESS.

Carpe' diem!

Coach Huntington

Facebook, revisited

I just joined the Group, Blugold Softball Alumni, on Facebook. WOW! There are a bunch of former players in the group already! It's exciting to see so many! I'm hoping this is going to be a real key for us to keep in touch with alumnae in the future. Thanks go out to Jill Janke, one of my student coaches, for getting the group up and running and to Mallory McKinney, another student coach, for adding some photos. I'd love to see more of that!

The weather this week is certainly NOT conducive to softball, as it will be -10 for a HIGH later this week! BRRRRRR!!!!! is all I can say! There are better days ahead!

Only 13 days 'til practice starts!

Coach Huntington

Facebook

Forgot to mention in last night's post that I now have a Facebook account. It's a little intimidating, but I'm using it for staying in touch with UWEC alumnae, as well as finding my old classmates from my high school and Buena Vista. It's amazing how many people I've reconnected with in less than a week! I'm still a little hesitant with it, but used the "right" way, I think it's an amazing use of technology!

Hits + runs = victory!

Coach Huntington

Belated Happy Holidays!

Hard to believe that the 2008-09 Holiday season has already come and gone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! It was a fun Christmas, as my nephews are now 7 (Cauy) and 5 (Tyler). The "big gift" this year was Nintendo Wii. I received the Rock Band World Tour for the Wii and it was played a lot right out of the box. My nephews became very skilled quickly as they played the Beginner level where all they had to do was either strum the guitar or bang on the drums - colors don't matter in Beginner mode - PERFECT for the young ones! My brother's family is very musically gifted, and it was HILARIOUS to watch Tyler on the drums, as he paid no attention to the bars on the TV but still managed to follow the beat. He's going to be a rock star, I'm sure of it! We enjoyed Christmas day at my parents' house here in Eau Claire and finished it off with the movie Wall-E, which I had never heard of before Christmas Day, but my nephews were experts on it already! It was an interesting, peculiar movie and although I liked it, I did manage to fall asleep with about 15 minutes left. :) It's tough keeping up with 2 nephews!

We are now working diligently on our annual planning for the season. We are in our Winterim right now at the University, so it's prime preparation time for spring. Needless to say, we are extremely excited about the season and we are looking forward to the challenges ahead. AND we are looking forward to less back and leg pain due to our new wood floor in the McPhee Center!!! The old tartan stuff was a killer after a couple hours of practice.

We are making a lot of progress in our planning for our 25th Anniversary alumni event in April. We are looking forward to making this a great alumni event, and something for everyone to remember. The social/dinner is going to be held at the Quality Inn on Clairemont Ave. across from Sacred Heart Hospital, and they will have a block of rooms for alumni as well, at a great rate of $49.95 per night. We will be getting RSVP cards out by mid-February, so if you are an alum, look for it in the mail. We'll have something online as well, so in case we don't have your current address, you can still find the information.

Go Blugolds!

Coach Huntington