July 14, 2009
After a tough month of workouts and classes in June, our team had the option to go home in July. Many players went home to be with their families and enjoy the rest of the summer. During this time in July and August is the longest break we get all year from any organized team activities. Although many players chose to go home, six of us stayed to take another four weeks of class, to workout in our weight room and to enjoy the New Mexico heat.
Jessica Kielpinski and Valerie Kast are two of the players that stayed for another four weeks. Being our two most experienced post players returning, both have been working extremely hard this postseason and summer. It is fun to see my teammates covered in sweat, pushing each other, and getting after it in the weight room. It motivates the rest of us to want to work hard and get better.
The players that went home don’t get off easy either. They have a workout from strength coach Aaron Day that consists of weight lifting, running and agility training. They also have a workout from Coach Flanagan for shooting and ball handling. Both workouts combined take about two hours a day to complete.
As my teammates have been working hard improving their game and getting stronger, I have been working hard rehabbing my ankle. As you may have heard, I had minor ankle surgery on July 2 to clean things up. I have been working with our athletic trainer Queenie Soriano everyday, and the rehab and recovery are going really well. It won’t be too long until I will be back on the court, working to get better. In the meantime, we are really trying to strengthen my ankle so that I can dunk this year. I figured if I can touch the net, I can’t be too far away!
Our coaches have also been working hard, traveling around the country, recruiting. July is a busy month for them because there are so many summer basketball tournaments. They are in a different state of city almost every week, trying to convince recruits how great the University of New Mexico is and what a special program we have here for women’s basketball.
I can’t believe how fast this summer has gone. In a little over a month we will be starting school and our preseason workouts. Our preseason workouts are always very intense and they really prepare us for our season. We are all excited for this year, excited for the competition and excited to get back playing in the Pit in front of the best fans in the nation!
Continue to check www.golobos.com for live chats from some of the players, prize giveaways and more stories about the UNM women’s basketball team.