Immeasurably More

Published: Thu, 03.12.2009

Today was frustrating to say the least.  Anyone who has ever seen us play can agree that our performance was not what we planned on or expected of ourselves.  What is even more disappointing is the fact that we beat ourselves.  We struggled to pull it all together and come out on top. 

Thoughts of sadness and utter disbelief overtook me as I sat in the locker room to hear Coach's concluding remarks on our season.  And then, the inevitable happens - we pray.  I thought I would hate this moment.  I was so frustrated because God gave us such a great opportunity and we just screwed up.  But it was in this moment where clarity began to creep into my mind.  As we all stood there, holding hands, with tears running down our faces, I began to experience a peace that transcends all understanding. 

You see, our team verse this year is from Ephesians chapter 3 and talks about God doing "immeasurably more" than all we could ask for or imagine.  It was our goal to believe this throughout the year, and we did, and God honored our faith.  With such a young team, who experienced multiple setbacks throughout the year that could have caused us to crumble, we did SO much more than any of us expected. 

No, we did not perform how we wanted to today, on a day where you cannot play below your best, but we cannot take away from God the amazing blessings and favor that He has shown us throughout this year.  It just wouldn't be right.  And as the days pass and I begin to really understand what it means for my career to be over, I know that God will show me enough grace to sustain me and to help me to appreciate more and more every day what an amazing career I've had here at Taylor - not because of personal achievements, but because of His ability to take something I love and to use it for His glory, and as a tool for me to better understand and know Him.  Because of this I have no regrets.  This team has no regrets.  Nikki and I could not have asked for a better group of girls, or a more dedicated coaching staff, to end our careers with.  We also could not have asked for more support from the Taylor students, fans, and administration.  What a blessing to be supported by such an amazing university.  Thank you all SO much.

On a lighter note - we ate at Red Robin and I had an AMAZING banana milk shake, Julie - the hall director from English sent us a SWEET care package :) , Tasha played some sweet pranks with a whoopee cushion (until it exploded), and we get to sleep in tomorrow.  Love you all and good night.

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A Full Day

Published: Wed, 03.11.2009

Our day started off with breakfast in our hotel, and then we headed to the Tyson Events Center for Special Olympics. The only thing I miss about Indiana right now is the 60+ degree weather - it was about 15 degrees with freezing rain this morning, so the weather kept a lot of kids from showing up. We were still able to play a huge game of knockout, teach the kids our 4 corner passing drill, shoot-around, and do some dribbling relays with them. Toward the end of the session, Huntington's team showed up and did the dribbling relays with us as well. Despite our loss to them in the MCC Championship game, it's nice to see another MCC team all the way out here in Sioux City, Iowa - the center of the GPAC (the Great Plains Athletic Conference, which includes nearby Northwestern and Morningside).

Following the Special Olympics session, we headed to Morningside College for our final practice before our first round game tomorrow. It consisted mostly of shooting, along with going over some of the game plan for tomorrow. After practice, we stopped at Wendy's to grab a quick bite to eat before heading back to the hotel for some downtime.

Tonight was the banquet for all 32 teams that made it into the tournament. Before the banquet we had praise and worship and listened to some testimonies (including that of our very own Paige Rudolph). One thing that really stood out to me from that was something an assistant coach from Bethel said. She encouraged us to play the game with freedom, because we are all free. We should not have any fear of failure or disappointment, because if we do then we aren't playing with freedom. That is my prayer for this team tomorrow - that we can play with a freedom: freedom to have fun, freedom to make some mistakes (hopefully less mistakes than the other team), a freedom that glorifies God and allows others to see something different in us.

After the praise and worship we then went to the banquet, which had a Mardis Gras theme. Upon entering the banquet hall, my senses were overwhelmed by guitar music, giant costumed mardi-gras people, Mardis-Gras masks and hats, kazoos, basketball maracas, Mardi-Gras beads, and basketball pins with flashing colored lights on them. Each place setting was made complete by a piece of caramel cheese-cake or chocolate cake, and it probably comes as no surprise that we couldn't wait until the meal was served to try a bite. I was then once again reminded how multi-talented our team is upon hearing Reece and Kaycee playing a duet with their kazoos. Each team in the 32-team field was then introduced along with the Champion of Character from each team, with Paige representing our team.

Once all 32 teams were announced and the banquet concluded, the team gathered in our hotel room to briefly talk about the game tomorrow before then heading to bed early to get rested up for tomorrow's game... so excited and ready to finally just play.

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Eat-Practice-Eat (Repeat)

Published: Tue, 03.10.2009

Let me first just say that it is so exciting to finally be in Sioux City!  To the average person, it might look like a grey and rainy city in the middle of the plains of Iowa, which is the truth, but to this team, being here is a dream come true.

Our day started around the lobby of the Fairfield Inn in Iowa City, where players and coaches came to grab some breakfast.  The blueberry bagels were the breakfast food of choice for most, but some went the good ole fashion powdered donut rout.  The morning convo's ranged from talks of crazy dreams to a shared dislike of the small practice shorts that we all had to wear. 

After breakfast, we hopped on the bus and made our way to Kirkwood Junior College for our last full out practice.  The practice schedule was complete with partner shooting, defensive sets, specialty plays, and transition.  We continued to go over and tweak our game plan for Wednesday.  Following practice and a delicious lunch at Arby's, we got back on the bus for the final stretch to Sioux City.

Upon arriving in Sioux City, we immediately saw a billboard promoting the NAIA National Tournament followed by the sight of the Tyson Events Center.  As we walked into the Clarion Hotel, we each received a box of Girl Scout cookies from our tournament sponsors and treat bags from Mo's Mom.  If you know anything about our team, chocolate is definitely a way to put smiles on our faces!

After we showered and got settled in, we made our way to Pizza Ranch for dinner.  Pizza Ranch is no ordinary pizza buffet; it also serves roasted chicken brought all the way from Canada-haha!  Morgan's dad is the vice president of the restaurant chain, so she has been talking all year about the need for us to get to Nationals so she could come home, and we could all experience this pizza.  The food did not disappoint!  I'm pretty sure no one left hungry.  Following the meal, we watched game film on Concordia, took some pictures, told some stories, and then headed back to the hotel. 

This week continues to get better, but I don't think 30 minutes goes by before one of my teammates mentions how excited she is to play on Wednesday!

1 more day...

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Practicing at Kirkwood C.C.

Published: Mon, 03.09.2009

With a day of travel behind them, the Taylor women's basketball team took time out for a Monday morning practice at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  The team will complete their trip to Sioux City this afternoon with an ETA around dinner time. 

See below for pictures of today's practice:

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On the Road...

Published: Sun, 03.08.2009

Today was a great start to our trip.  We arrived at the gym and got really nice embroidered blankets, our bus was decorated like crazy with balloons and clever snap-shot posters, and we received the biggest treat bags I have ever seen!  These things were great, but it was the parents, friends, and administration that showed up to support us that reminded me why I love Taylor -community. 

I cannot even begin to describe the support I felt from those around us as we bowed our heads and Dr. Bedi asked God to watch over us and bless our efforts.  It is in these moments that I continue to realize that basketball is about so much more than basketball - it's about working as the body of Christ.  Whether we're a coach, player, parent, or athletic director, it's a beautiful thing when we can support one another and the endeavors we approach.  Thank you all for your support.  Parents especially, we "thank our God every time we remember you" (Phil. 1:3).

On a different, more comical note, the bus ride was eventful to say the least.  I slept for a couple of hours and then was unexpectedly awoken by Tasha screaming bloody murder in the seat in front of me and Ballard jumping up from the seat behind me to pull down the roof's emergency exit door.  It was so windy that this door kept getting caught and lifted up by the wind, causing an enjoyable gust of freezing air to blow into our faces. Every time it happened I thought someone had turned on Twister and Helen Hunt was chasing tornadoes and strategically dodging cows. 

We stopped and ate, then had about two more hours to continue observing Iowa's beautiful landscape (and people say Indiana is ugly - no offense Achterhoff family).  The team understandably got restless and eventually decided to evaluate each other on our abilities to make certain animal noises.  Sometimes we try to apply ourselves off the court too.  We discovered that Nellie does a really good whale call, Moe does an excellent horse, and Ballard, well let's just say that her and her dog used to howl a lot together.  We are multi-talented to say the least.

We finally arrived at our hotel and are taking it easy.  Tomorrow we have practice and will finally reach our ultimate destination - Sioux City, Iowa!!!!  Sweet dreams.

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Getting Ready for Departure

Published: Sat, 03.07.2009

After talking with professors, turning in assignments, and making all the necessary arrangements to be gone for a week, it feels great to finally be able to focus on basketball.

We had our last practice in Odle Arena today, and it was a good one. With all of the excitement surrounding the national tournament, it's easy to get caught up in that and forget that we still have a game to play. That's why it's so important that during practices we are able to focus and work hard for 2 hours; I think everyone did a good job of that today. We definitely aren't satisfied yet - we know we still have a job to do and some games to win. So it's important that we continue to utilize our practice times to help us prepare and stay focused on the task ahead of us.

On the list of things to do for tonight: LOTS of laundry and packing. I'm not worried about forgetting anything, thanks to Courtney's packing list that she sent to the whole team. This list has everything on it that we could possibly need, ranging from ankle braces, to vitamins, to high-heels. One thing not on the list that we definitely don't want to forget is movies - we've got to have something to keep us occupied while on the bus for 12 hours. Of course, that is only when we're not in the middle of an intense game of catch phrase, trading (and sometimes fighting over) candy and other items in our treat bags, singing Disney songs, playing with glowsticks, or discovering weird talents of our teammates.

Let me tell you, even off the basketball court, our team is pretty talented. Just some talents we have discovered so far this year on bus rides include: Nellie blinking her eyelids so rapidly that you can barely tell they're moving, Reece saying the alphabet backwards faster than I can say it forwards, I can do a pretty mean Stitch impression (from the Disney movie, Lilo and Stitch), and if I didn't know any better, there have been times that I would have thought we had a pig on the bus, thanks to Alissa's pig impersonation. I can honestly say there is NEVER a dull moment with our team. 

So I am so excited for tomorrow for so many reasons: to meet all our parents and everyone who comes to Odle Arena to send us off, to find out what exciting things our parents have put in our treat bags this time, to discover some new weird talents of my teammates, but most importantly, I'm excited to start our journey to Sioux City and see what God has in store for us next! 

[Editor's Note: Bethany Ballard is a junior forward on the Taylor women's basketball team.  She is an Exercise Science major from Indianapolis.]

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