Basketball Part III: I'm the Head Coach Going Forward

I have written a few times about my involvement with the NU Women's basketball team.  The opportunity to work with the girls has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my involvement at the university.  In this post I will detail some of the exciting developments from the spring, including our results from the two tournaments we played in, as well as the future going forward.

3 on 3 Tournament

In early March there was an announcement that there would be a student/staff 3 on 3 tournament on a Saturday morning and afternoon.  Brett and I, along with one staff member from Brett's school and one of our players, Dinara, decided to enter.  Our goal was to win the whole tournament.   Each team could have 4 players, but play 3 at a time.  Dinara had to leave after we played our first two teams, so we were playing every game with just the three of us.  We won all of our games - five - and then played in the championship.  The team we played used five players and played all five at some point during the game against us.  It was a bit of cheating that we were upset about, but it happened.  One of their players got really hot from the three point line and all of their points came from long 3s.  We lost by 1 point when he hit his last long 3.  It was a bitter pill.  You can see from the photo of Brett and I playing how much fun we had together.  Getting to know and work with Brett has been awesome!

Commiserating with Brett during or after a game.  What a great friend.

League Season and Tournament

Brett, who has been the coach for the past three years organized a league with four other teams.  The league included 3 other universities and the "B" team from NU.  The "B" team is new this year.  We had so many girls who wanted to play, that when we selected the team in September, they decided they wanted to practice.  They spent their own money to pay for sports passes and practiced twice a week, often with the help of one of the girls from the main team.  When one of the teams dropped out of the tournament, we gave them an opportunity to play.  They didn't win any games, but they had a good experience, which will help for next year.

Action shot of our girls playing against the Agrarian University team - this team ended up in 4th place in the tournament.

The season was arranged so that each team played each other.  Each week for four weeks we had two games a night on Thursday evenings.  Our girls won all four of our games, and so we received the top seed in the tournament.  In the first round of the tournament the 1 seed played the 4, and the 2 and 3 seeds played each other.  We also won the first game of the semi-final.  In the final game we played our main rival in the city: for the second time in the tournament.  We won the championship game in a hard-fought victory - which meant that we went undefeated in the season and the tournament.

League and tournament champions!

Top 3 teams.  The team on the left is our main rival!

That was the culmination of the years efforts.  A few weeks later we were told at the last minute that the Ministry of Education and or Sport would be holding a tournament at the university.  This is the tournament that our girls took third place in last year - a vast improvement over their previous results.  This tournament was very poorly organized, but our girls took part.  Our first game was against the team we had beat for the championship in our tournament.  The game was hard-fought again, but we won.

Our second game was against the 3rd place team from the tournament we played in.  That game was one of the ugliest games we played in all year.  Nothing that we shot went in, but in the end, we held on and won.  We played in the championship against a team that didn't participate in the league and tournament that we put on.  By the end of the tournament we were the bad guys - all of the girls and fans from the other teams were cheering against us.  It was a very different feeling from that of being underdogs in the previous years.  The team we played was strong, but we held on and won.  They scored 13 of their 17 points on free throws - we scored four of ours on free throws.  We were up by two points with a few seconds left to go and one of our girls hit a long two point shot at the buzzer to seal the victory.

Qualifying game during Ministry Tournament.

Champions again! With medals and certificates to prove it.

It was a fine way to end the season.  7 of the 13 players on the team are seniors and will graduate in June.  They started the team with nothing and worked hard for three years and were able to attain a degree of excellence.  One of the biggest compliments that we received is from the father (and coach) of the star of our main rivals.  He said that we are now the example of what a team should be and that we are helping to bring respectability and professionalism to women's sports.  That is what we are trying to do for sure.

Social and other Activities

Yulia and I hosted the team at our house for an end of year banquet and awards ceremony in between the two tournaments. Our most valuable player was going to Milan for a work internship before the school year ended.  It was a very emotional ceremony as Brett said goodbye to the girls as well.  He accepted a job in the States beginning in August.  I became the head coach officially after our tournament.

Handing out awards at the end of the season.

Notice how dressed up the girls get - much different from boys basketball in this respect!

A fine group.  It is bittersweet to be a part of the changes in the next year.

Besides the end of the year banquet, we had a dinner at a restaurant after our second tournament win. The next week we had a dinner and get together at the house of one of our players who had a birthday during the tournament.  Being a part of the team means a lot of extra fun social interaction as well.

Going Forward

This year has been one of the most rewarding of my life.  The opportunity to be a part of the team has been one that has been very good for me in a number of ways.  I am a bit apprehensive about the prospect of being in charge of the team next year, but am also looking forward to the challenge of rebuilding the team after 4 of our starters and our two main bench players graduate, and of carrying on the legacy of success that the team has built in a few short years.  I am also excited for my girls to have as role models these excellent scholar athletes who dedicate themselves to a game that they love while continuing to have great success in the classroom and in life.

Basketball

I have always loved playing basketball, but haven't played really competitively since early in high school.  When I was in the Army, I played three times a week in the mornings with a crew from the armory and from the neighborhood.  While I was in Iowa and Las Vegas, I played a bit at the church.

One of our first weeks at church we met the Craigs.  Brett teaches communication at NU and has been here for three years.  He has been coaching the girls basketball team on campus (actually he does everything for them: scheduling, procuring uniforms and equipment, etc.)  He was quite famous around campus because the girls had some success in the spring at a city-wide tournament.  They invited us over for dinner and while we were there we talked a lot about basketball.  One of my friends from the Army is also here in Astana and he told Brett how much I like playing.  While we were at their apartment, Yulia said that if Brett needs any help I would love to be an assistant coach.

I wasn't so sure how much I would love being an assistant coach.  I was still trying to figure out a new job, a new city, and an entirely new situation.  I was intrigued, though, and the opportunity to play and to be around basketball was appealing.

Game 1: 11/12/2014 - Getting back on Defense.

So I showed up to tryouts.  And I've been going to basketball practice three times a week since then.  We have great students at NU, and the girls on the basketball team are no exception.  Most of them had very little experience, but what they lack in experience we make up for in conditioning and preparation.  I have lost over 30 pounds since I've been here in Astana, thanks mostly to the running that I do with the girls at practice.  I still have a ways to go, but progress is progress!

Game 1 - 11/12/2014

Anyway, the past three months of practice culminated in us playing two games against other universities from Astana last week.  Our first game was a bit of a disappointment.  The girls came out a bit listless, trailed throughout the game, and lost by six points.  The second game was more exciting.  After some tough talk by Coach, the girls resolved to play with the intensity we practice with.  The result was a 29-4 victory over the team that we played.  The team came from the university that won the city-wide tournament last year, but they just sent their freshmen.  Now they are on notice that they need to send their A-team to play NU.

NU Vs. BC Astana Management

On October 7, the local professional basketball team used the NU sports complex to announce this year's roster.  NU was their biggest supporter last year.  As part of the announcement, we had a friendly game between NUs faculty and staff and the management of the basketball club.  The team president is named Valeri Tikhonenko.

The NU and BC Astana Management Teams after the game.  #9 is Tikhonenko - he's about 6-11 and big.  Look at him next to fluffy old me!

The NU team poses after victory with some members of the NU girls team and other fans who came to watch the game. Brett, the girls coach, is on the left holding his youngest son.

He played for the USSR gold medal team from 1988 and was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in 1987. He played for the management team.  He was tall - about 6'11" and even though he was nearly 50, he was still a gifted athlete.  He kept their team in the game, but our ragtag bunch of professors and staff was able to win the "friendly" game.

After the game in my NU team uniform. 

One of the things that we told ourselves when we came to Astana is that we would remain open to new opportunities and adventures.  Helping to coach the women's basketball team has been one of those adventures.  It has been one of the most rewarding and fun things that I've done here so far.