Coach's Corner With Sue Doran

Christmas Greetings from FRIARTOWN!

The FRIAR women's basketball players, coaches and support staff wish you and your family a very happy and blessed Christmas season.

When I last left you, we were headed to Long Island, NY for a game against Stony Brook on December 11th. That game see-sawed back and forth for 39 minutes and 56 seconds before we finally took the lead "for good" with 4 seconds in the game on a lay-up by Keisha Blackwell off an out-of-bounds play underneath our basket. This was a big win for us because it came on the road and road wins can be tough to come by. The win certainly made our 4-hour bus ride home a lot "jollier"!

YES -- we survived the exam period!!! We had several late night practices and a few early morning practices, and in between, the players took exams and the coaches made recruiting trips to New York, Washington DC and a local game or two! We are ALL happy this period is behind us!

****************Santa came early to the women's basketball program****************

As of December 15th, we have portable goals on our Alumni Hall game floor! The drop down goals were removed from the ceiling of Alumni Hall and replaced with Hydra-Rib goals! A special thank you to our Athletic Director, Bob Driscoll, and Assistant Athletic Director, Jill LaPoint, who shared our vision that this was important for our program; and to Assistant Athletic Director, Carl LaBranch, who coordinated the removal of the old goals and the installation of the new goals - in record time. The installation of the Hydra-Rib goals on our playing floor is a major indication of the support for FRIAR women's basketball and another step forward in our growth.

We celebrated Christmas together as a team on Sunday, December 21st, at the home of Mary Ellen Wallick, our Operations Manager. She and her husband Michael opened their beautiful home to the team and we had a great time. We ate and ate and ate some more, and then we exchanged our "Secret Santa" gifts. On Monday December 22nd, we got back on the "game floor" and played Harvard. We were obviously disappointed with the outcome of the game - losing by 14 points. Our goal is to come back after Christmas and re-group quickly as we head off to the LaSalle Tournament on the 28th. Some of the players were able to head to their homes immediately after the Harvard game. The remaining players and staff headed out on the morning of December 23rd -- we all will return the evening of December 26th. We have two practices on December 27th (lots of turkey and Christmas cookies to work off) and will practice early on the morning of December 28th before hopping on a flight to Philadelphia for a tournament at LaSalle University. We play on December 29th and 30th, fly back to Providence on the 31st; fly to Blacksburg, VA on January 3rd for a game against Virginia Tech on the 4th, return to Providence on January 5th; play Boston College at home in Alumni Hall on Wednesday, January 7th; catch a flight to Pittsburgh on January 9th for a game against Pitt on the 10th, then return to Providence on January 11th. And then...spring semester classes start on Wednesday, January 14th! It is going to be a hectic 3-week period for us. As a staff, we look forward to this period of time because the players are able to concentrate on basketball without the stress and time demands of classes. It is also great to make these road trips and have the players not miss any classes or have assignments to make up upon return to campus.

BIG EAST season is fast approaching. We play 4 conference home games in Alumni Hall in the month of January:

January 7	Boston College	7:30pm
January 17	Syracuse	2:00pm
January 20	Miami	7:30pm
January 31	Seton Hall	2:00pm

We look forward to seeing you in Alumni Hall...
GO FRIARS!

Providence College Athletics

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