January 22, 2024: Preparation Is Key ( 10 hours)

After a tough loss yesterday everyone came in today feeling down. Even though the other coaches and I were frustrated with the way our team performed in the last game it’s our job to pick their heads up when we see them hanging. I woke up early today at around 7:00 a.m. because team breakfast started at 8:30. I had a lot on my mind from re-watching the game film yesterday so I didn’t have much of an appetite. Therefore, I decided to get Starbucks to hold me over until lunchtime. Once breakfast was over we headed to the gym to get ready for our 10:00 practice. Usually, we practice light the day before a game, but we need to gain back our confidence and fix our mistakes and the only way to do that is to go up and down the floor. Tomorrow is a very big game for us. Only the top 6 teams make it to the playoffs. Right now we are battling Farmingdale St. for that 6th spot so we need this win to solidify it. We went over our scout and talked about the keys to winning the game. We split up starters and reserves to practice defending their offense and as well as trying to score on their defense. Practice went well and we were excited for tomorrow's game. Practice ended at noon and then we started individuals. We went light for individuals and just worked on shooting and free throws. After individuals we headed to lunch at 1:00. We had sandwiches again which I didn’t mind. We let the girls go back to their dorms and rest for a bit while we went to the office to do some work. We spent about 3 hours trying to figure out how we can solidify a win tomorrow. Once 5:00 hit we ordered baked ziti for team dinner. We needed our rest for the big game tomorrow so we all headed home at 6:00.