Notes
about the Event
The
Photos
- The gym was extraordinarily dark, so I ended up adjusting
the images to within a pixel of their lives. If they seem
a little grainy or blurry, that's why.
The
Gym
- Lake Washington High School is a big place and seems to
be a nice school. One thing - their mascot is a kangaroo.
This on its own is of course not a problem. The problem is
the very lifelike 30' kangaroo head that is painted on the
west wall of the gym. It was creeping us out.
The
Turnout -
I tell you what, having an reasonable staff during the offseason
is paying off for the Storm. Not only are their events better
than last year, they are obviously getting the word out because
they have easily doubled the attendance to the preseason fan
events. By the end of the practice, not only are the lower
bleachers full, but a good portion of the upper bleachers
are too. Compare this to the 75 or so that came to last year's
Open Practices. And, Karen Bryant tells us that the first
preseason game is sold out. True, it is Girl Scout night (Coach
Dunn promises to find her Girl Scout pictures) and the Key
will be full with 5,000 squealing pre-teens, but so what.
Sold out is sold out.
UCONN
vs. Tennessee
- I've already touched on this, but even thought the players
aren't admitting to it, you know that in addition to the already
intense competition between our guards for roster spots this
rivalry has to be adding a little pepper to the mix. The fact
that fans are wearing blue and white or orange and white can
only be pushing the issue. I would bet that the absolute drumming
that UCONN gave the UW Huskies a couple of years ago isn't
too far out of Jamie's mind either. Let's not forget the Takeisha
(Louisiana Tech) and Lucienne (Old Dominion) are probably
bringing a little smack talk baggage with them too. I love
it.
Intense
Play
- Lest anyone think that women's basketball is not a full
contact sport, I submit to you the black eye delivered to
Adia Barnes courtesy of Quacy "We don't need another"
Barnes' elbow, the bone jarring collision between Jamie and
Michelle that left 3M sprawled on the floor, and the audible
slaps, smacks and oofs as the scrimmages played on with no
fouls being called.
Coach
Carrie Graf
- We get to see her in action today and whether or not you
think she has been hired as a security blanket for Lauren,
Carrie knows her business. Coach Dunn has Coach Graf running
most of the drills while she stands back and watches the action.
As the head coach for the WNBL champs, a member of the Australian
national team's coaching staff, and as an assistant in Phoenix
for the last 2 or 3 years, Carrie could very well be a full
on WNBA head coach in her own right. She is very active and
it appears that the players respect her. It's also cool (for
us dumb Americans anyway) to listen to her yelling with an
Australian accent - it kind of fit nicely with Coach Dunn's
southern drawl.
Everyone
is so damn nice -
I know this may be a Seattle thing, but we like all of our
new players. They are nice. Felicia is a little reserved so
far and Beth is more intent on staying on the team than doing
PR with the fans, but the rest of the players have been talkative,
approachable and funny. We will be sad when the inevitable
happens.
Fan
Challenge
- At the end of the practice, Coach Dunn has Semeka and Sue
each select a fan for a shooting contest. Semeka chooses a
woman wearing a Tennessee shirt and Sue picks a little girl.
The Vol fan keeps trying to really bank in her jumpers, while
the little girl (with group help from Simone, Sue, Jamie and
Elizabeth) just has to lob the ball in. I think Semeka's fan
wins, but the little girl gets the fan response. I'm not sure
what they won, but it was worth some comedy.
Speaking
of Comedy
- For one of the the ballhandling drills, the players paired
off and dribbled up the court one-on-one. For most of the
players, it was a real drill. Let's face it, even most of
the forwards aren't so tall that they can't also be decent
ballhandlers. Not so for Simone and Quacy - that was funny.
The
Pancakes
- After the practice, the Storm feed pancakes and sausages
to the season tickets holders in attendance. Not bad, but
Angie and I were having some nasty high school lunch room
flashbacks. The players joined us after they cleaned up, although
it seemed only the rookies ate the food. Jamie came by our
table and I told her that she needs to go back to the hairdo
she had at the Fan Fest. She said no way, and said that we
can't put any photos up on the site. Sure, I said (fingers
crossed). We also decided that we need to make some "Jamie-on-a-stick"
signs for this season using a picture of her with the hair.
i'll keep you up-to-date.
Let's
Get Our Bowl On
- Semeka is hosting a celebrity charity bowling tournament
on Saturday, June 8 from 5-8 pm at Spin Alley in Shoreline.
The cost is $500 for four bowlers (tax deductible), and each
team will be joined by a Storm player or celebrity bowler.
Semeka says that her average is about 100 and that Coach Dunn
has already been practicing in order to beat her. Proceeds
benefit YWCA and the Sonics & Storm TEAM Foundation. Contact
Sarah Childs at 206-272-2736 or schilds@sonics-storm.com
for more info.
Other
Stuff -
This is the eighth day in a row the team has practiced. Billy
McKinney, the Sonics and Storm Executive Vice President, joined
the drills and was really harassing Charmin Smith on some
one-on-one plays. Slick Watts, a former Sonic great, came
in towards the end of the practice and watched for awhile.
Coach claims to have scored 42 points in the last game she
played in back in 1962 - anyone want to confirm that (Jamie
Redd DOES NOT believe a word of it).
<
Page 2
|
