Numbers look like trouble for the Gordon women's basketball team as it prepares for the winter season. The roster lists just eight players, zero seniors and only one junior. Coach Julie Brown sees the upcoming season as a challenge, but does not loose heart over the young team. Though small in numbers and experience, the women’s basketball team, according to Brown, “Has huge potential.”
Coach Brown, a 46-year-old former division I Basketball coach at Florida State University, came to Gordon to coach the women’s team last year. When she arrived in July of 2010, she had just three returning girls on the roster, plus few seniors planned on returning after quitting two years prior, because they didn’t want to play for the previous coach. The team needed some help and Coach Brown was ready for the challenge.
“I love building something,” said Brown, “I love all of it: the game, the players, the coaches, the strategies; it’s like a giant puzzle.”
Just days into practices, the mainly freshman and sophomore team is just beginning to gel. When asked what strengths and weaknesses the team anticipates for the year, Coach Brown couldn’t give a definite answer.
“I’m still learning my team,” she said. “It’s going to be a different game than last year, with different goals and strategies. We need to take it one day at a time, focusing on being one percent better than yesterday. It’s going to be a challenge, but we need to focus on now.”
Coach Brown said that adjusting to college ball is tough for a young team because it’s so different from high school. She said that it is emotionally and mentally more draining, the players are bigger and faster and it takes a lot more work.
After spending the majority of the 2010-2011 season on the bench due to multiple injuries, 20-year-old Laura Cande ‘13, the sole returning upperclassman contemplated not coming back for the 2011-2012 season. However, love of the game kept her from giving up.
“I personally chose to come back because I adore the game of basketball and because I love Gordon Women’s Basketball,” said Cande. “I love my teammates and they are my family. To be honest, the thought of leaving the team because of the potential for adversity and the challenges that could happen this season didn’t even cross my mind.”
Coach Brown values Cande as the oldest player, recognizing her leadership and experience. Cande also sees this as an opportunity to influence the underclassmen on the team.
“I see my role as one of quiet leadership,” she said. “I do have a responsibility as the oldest member of the team to be a strong and consistent example to my younger teammates. That means encouraging them on and off the court, being available for conversations and playing as well and hard as I can consistently.”
The women’s basketball team has been preparing for their season since September 1st. On and off the court they have been engaging in drills, games and devotions together. Over quad break Coach Brown took the women to New Hampshire for a retreat in order to plan, strategize and bond.
Cande said the retreat helped the team set goals and commit to them together. “We also grew a lot closer as a team,” she said.
The women’s basketball team may seem to have some disadvantages, but this does not seem to faze Coach Brown or Cande.
“People are going to write us off and think that they can walk all over us,” said Cande. “If we work hard and come every day with the mentality to get better, I think we will surprise a whole lot of people.”
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