More safe travelers arrive! :)

For anyone who was wondering, here is a picture of part of the Tyson Events Center. All the NAIA Women's Basketball Tournament games are played here:

I would like to inform our blog followers that Russ Rose, Megan Peters, and Aaron Sagraves landed here in Sioux City, Iowa safely. Russ and Megan landed late last night after a long delayed flight in Grand Rapids due to fog. Aaron just got into Sioux City around 5pm CST and was able to join us for our pre-game meal at Panera! :)

• We are relaxing for the next hour


• Meeting in coach's room at 6:45pm for quick Cardinal Stritch film session.


• Leaving for the Tyson Center around 7pm.


• GAME at 8:45pm!!

The DAN will be on air around 8:30pm for the pre-game show and keeping everyone listening to the game details.

Some pictures from last night!

We went to breakfast at Perkins, absolutely delicious! Here are a couple of pictures from last night:

The team huddle right before the starting line-ups

Abby Neff, Leah Sevcik, and Raina Chambers working the defensive end of the floor.

Coach got a 200 win cake last night at dinner; since he actually has won 201 games after last night, he made the last "0" to a "1"...

We're relaxing at the hotel until our pre-game meal at 4:30pm. Panera Bread is about to have a huge rush of good looking women basketball players! Then back to the Hilton for about an hour. Then leaving to get ready for our warm-up at the half time of Briar Cliff and Cedarville.

Game time is at 8:45pm CST/9:45pm EST

Game News...

We are still here so obviously we won and we are staying another night here in Sioux City, IA! Tennessee Wesleyan brought an amazing fight and we definitely had to work for every possession. Although we did not bring our "A" game but we pulled out the win. The final score was 85-72, with all 15 of us seeing some playing time. *possible bad news* -- #44, Kate Cousins fell down late in the game playing defense; she hurt her ankle and needed help walking off the court. I will keep everyone informed with any new news I receive. After eating dinner with our families and sponsors, we went back to the gym to watch who we play next. Cardinal Stritch outplayed their opponents, College of Idaho (College of Idaho is staying in our hotel, but now it's our hotel for the rest of Nationals)!! Stritch showed a dominating performance throughout the entire game. Tomorrow's schedule is as follows:

1. wake up sometime early
2. leave for breakfast around 10:50am
3. shoot around after breakfast
4. probably chill at the hotel or go watch games at the Tyson Center
5. Pre-game meal around 4pm
6. GAME at 8:45pm CST

I'll talk to you all in the morning and hopefully we will have some pictures to post by then!

Pre-game

We just got back to the hotel from our pre-game meal at Kahill's. We went to the Tyson Center after breakfast to watch some teams on our side of the bracket play. Staying at the gym for over 2 hours, I would infer that we all learned something new today! Nervous but ready, we are all anxiously waiting for our game tonight, starting at 5:15pm CST. Our trainer for the week, Jeff Harmsen made it safely here as well as some more family and friends. However, there are still people traveling to come cheer us on, so please keep them in your thoughts today. The DAN will begin covering our game starting at 5pm CST/6pm EST, so tune in and follow the game. We leave for the game at 3:20 to get ready because we have to warm up at half time of the game before us. Wish us luck and be looking for updates about the game! :)

*Believe*

We just got done with our team meeting before going to sleep for the night in our coaches room. Our coaches are getting wake-up calls for us around 9:30am for breakfast. After breakfast, the plan is to head to the Tyson Center to watch some games and view the competition. Pre-game meal is going to be around 1:15pm, then GAME TIME at 5:15pm!!! I do not know for sure where we are going to eat, but of course, I will be filling everyone in sometimes tomorrow!

• The JV team did get here safe and sound before we left for the Opening Ceremony. They were full of energy and looking rested from the 10 hour drive from Michigan. Obviously we enjoyed seeing some more familiar faces.

We Believe! We have five-one game seasons left for this year; it's one game at a time and yes, we are believers!

• Keep our family and friends in your thoughts since not everyone has made it to Iowa. Some are leaving tomorrow throughout the day and some flights are delayed due to too much fog. Let's keep them all safe! :)

Talk to you all in the morning. I am going to bed, 9:30 will come extremely quick!

Pictures from the visiting classrooms and Opening Ceremony

We really enjoyed working with the kids. Some of them had drawn pictures for us and wrote down some questions to ask us, as well some facts about there own lives. The kids were overjoyed to see the team and to learn more about the game of basketball. The kids wished us good luck and hopefully some of them will be cheering us on tomorrow night at 5:15pm CST.

Karlee, Britt, and Mary-Kate listening to a girl tell Karlee that her dad knows who Karlee is... Come do find out, the girl's dad knows a different Karlee.

Picture of the Kindergarten class we visited first.

Jeannie Closson chatting with a student.

Brittany Lyman telling some children about basketball and her life.

Raina Chambers learning about her girl she was teamed up with.

Singing with the 1st graders in Music Class!

Carrie, Julie, and Bree having fun on the bus on the way to Opening Ceremony.

We had to line up shortest to tallest to walk out for Opening Ceremony; these are the "tall" girls on the team.

What a long day!

After another wonderful breakfast, we went to watch Aquinas play; the game was a close one with Aquinas beating the #2 seed Saint Francis in overtime 67-65. Following the game, we left to go to the local elementary to visit the classrooms there. We hung out with the Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders for about an hour, taking pictures, answering questions, and tons of laughing. Going back to the South Sioux City High School to practice, we lost one van but eventually we all made it to the gym alive and well! At about 3pm, we went to Bev's Resturant located at our hotel for lunch. Right now is our freetime before we get ready for the opening ceremony at 6:30pm. There will be pictures posted after the ceremony from today, but right now I am going to take a nap so I will talk to you all soon! :)

Good Morning All

Hello and good morning! I forgot to add that our JV team left this morning at 6:30am EST to come and join us in Iowa. They should be here before the opening ceremony which, I believe, starts around 6:30pm CST. Keep them in your thoughts on the drive here so they arrive safe and sound... we are getting up for breakfast now, then leaving to watch Aquinas. Also there are some parents and family members of teammates driving or flying today as well, so please keep them in your thoughts for safe travels. Thanks and talk to you soon! :)

Banquet Dinner! :-)

The Banquet Dinner was a great success! We had some amazing speakers and delicious food. We got to the banquet around 6:30pm and made it back to the hotel round 9:30ish after a wonderful snack, which I am not going to state!! :)

This is a picture of the ice sculpture. I wonder how long it took to carve?

Our funny family portrait in front of the stretch Hummer limo.

Some of the girls at the dinner table.
Kallie Benike, Carrie Grubius, Karlee Despres, and Kristi Boehm.



Kristi Boehm, Bree Swartz, and Abby Neff holding onto our signed basketball balls that we were giving to our sponsors at dinner.




Kallie, Jeannie, and Julie Janish waiting for the shuttle to escort us to the banquet.


Another team picture in front of the limo.
Back Row (Left to Right): Abby Neff, Julie Janish, Brittany Lyman, Kristi Boehm, Barbara Clayborn, Leah Sevcik, Karlee Despres, Jeannie Closson
Front Row (Left to Right): Kate Cousins, Bree Swartz, Kallie Benike, Lauren Malinowski, Carrie Grubius, Janelle Bagneski, and Raina Chambers



Some of our "bling" given to us at the banquet! :)

Bree, Janelle, Lauren, and Abby riding in the shuttle bus on the way to dinner.

Janelle and Bree taking time from eating dinner to take a quick picture!

The band who played for the entertainment after the banquet was over: Rockestra

Abby, Raina, Leah, and Bree got a picture with the Prairie Dog/Groundhog/Squirrel before leaving for our surprise snack... (we couldn't figure out what this thing was).

After the banquet, we got into our comfy clothes and spent some team bonding time watching our opponents, Tennessee Wesleyan, play in their conference finals game. We learned a great deal about their personnel and will work our magic on them Thursday.

For now we are going to bed so we can get up early (9am) for breakfast; we are going to watch our fellow WHAC members, Aquinas College compete against the Cougars of Saint Francis University out of Indiana. Once the game is over, we will head over to the elementary school to talk with and visit 6 classrooms grades Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd. After visiting the elementary school, we are going to practice at Briar Cliff University.

I will not be online to post until after our shoot around/practice, so I apologize ahead of time for the future delay of activities tomorrow. Have a good night and talk to you tomorrow! :) Go DU!

Pictures of from Today (3/9/10)

Here are some pictures from the airport last night. Half the team flew out at 1pm and the rest of us flew out at 7pm. Our last flight landed in Sioux City around 11:15pm CST. We got to sleep in this morning and had an amazing breakfast from our hotel. (They have amazing french toast).

This is our family from the late flight last night! :-)

Left to Right: Brittany Lyman, Jeannie Closson, Lauren Malinowski, Abby Neff, Janelle Bagneski, Barbara Clayborn, Raina Chambers. Front Row: Coach Kelly Wandel and Coach Shannan Rose.

Just the girls, waiting to fly out of Minneapolis.

A couple of the girls on the way back to our hotel (The Hilton!)...

The freshmen: Lauren Malinowski, Kate Cousins, and Leah Sevcik

The coaches with our team support/sponsor: Shannan Rose, Kelly Wandel, Mark Youngs, and Mike.

Sitting on the bench at the Tyson Center.

Behind the Press/Media Table

Picture of where the NAIA National Tournament takes place (Tyson Center).

Walking into the Tyson Center, checking out the floor we are going to take on our opponents!

2010 NAIA Nationals

Hey all, this is Coach Youngs behind the computer screen. All the girls got here (Sioux City, IA) safe and sound. We had a very good practice today and are now enjoying pizza and sandwiches at our hotel. We have the Tournament Banquet tonight at 6:30pm and then we will come back to the hotel to watch video on Tenn. Wesleyan, our first opponent. Tomorrow's schedule is as follows: 930 breakfast, 1015 watch Aquinas play, 1230 visit a couple of elementary schools and exchange stories with the children there (always one of the best highlights of our trip). We'll have a practice some time in the afternoon and then the official opening ceremonies are at 6:30pm tomorrow night.

Junior post player Barbara Clayborn will be our "team blogger" for the trip, and I'm going to let her get after it tonight. I'm hoping for the best :) Go Panthers!