Today's post is written by Danielle DeVader:
My playing career, which lasted 5 years due to multiple knee surgeries, felt like an eternity! As a result, you might think I would have story after story to tell you about my teams, coaches, and teammates…and you would be right, I DO!! However, that being said, it is so hard to put my 5 years at
Those of you that met me after high school will probably find this hard to believe but entering Southern my freshman year, I was as shy and reserved as humanly possible. Coach Hubbard always enjoys telling the story of the official visit I took to Southern during my senior year of high school. Every time the coaches asked me a question, I looked at my mom in hopes that she would answer for me. It was so bad that I even whispered a question in my mom’s ear that I wanted her to ask for me! I just wasn’t totally sure on the whole “moving away from home” idea. By the time my senior year rolled around, I was about as outgoing as it comes. I blossomed into a vocal leader in our program, both on and off the court. I grasped what the coaches had been telling me all along and went with it…and I have never looked back!
Today I find myself blessed with an amazing job. I am an elementary physical education teacher for the Joplin R-VIII School District and coach 7th grade volleyball and Junior Varsity Basketball. Next year I will be teaching physical education/health at the high school, and coaching both freshman volleyball and J.V. basketball. When I played I displayed great enthusiasm and energy for the game of basketball. Things have not changed now that I am on the sideline. I get that passion from Coach Mitts. I ’ll always remember the times she walked all the way down the court (or even on the court) to protest a call and stick up for her players. And what about her amazing stare that she has used in the direction of the officials? Well guess what? I do the same thing when I am coaching and don’t even realize it. My girls this year had to yell at me to get off the floor, and I didn’t even know I was out there! I was simply coaching my girls! Luckily, I knew some of the referees from my playing days and they would just tell me to scoot back a little. One lesson that my coaches at Southern always stressed was the importance of relationships, and now I know why... It helped me not pick up a technical :) Thanks for passing on that important tidbit!I constantly repeat the phrases that I heard for 5 years at Southern when I’m coaching my girls. “Jump to the ball”, “fake a pass to make a pass”, “wait on your screen”, “play strong”, “never stop short of the line”, and the list could go on and on. One idea that I teach our girls (and I think about daily) is to work your hardest no matter the situation. I tell my kids all of the time that work ethic has nothing to do with talent. If you outwork the talented kids, you will out perform them as well. I learned that from my
coaches. We never had the most talented teams when I played at Southern but we played extremely hard, and good things came as a result. The best compliment I can receive now as a coach is being told, "your kids really played extremely hard, with great sportsmanship and respect." I will never forget when I taught my players to say "thank you" to the referee after being given the ball to throw inbounds and on free throws. They had confused looks on their faces. They had never dreamed of doing anything like that. That is what was instilled in me as a Lion and now I instill it in them. Multiple times this year referees would compliment my players on that very thing and I can’t tell you how great it made me feel! And, just like Coach Mitts always said would happen, I’m pretty sure we picked up a couple calls that maybe wouldn’t have gone our way!On a subject that could go on for days, let me leave you with this. Your shot is like a baby. Would you go days without feeding, changing, and caring for an infant? Well, heck no you wouldn’t! Then why would you go days and days without caring for your shot?!? That is one of my all-time favorites of Coach Mitts’ endless analogies. I haven’t been caring for my shot lately so when we played pick up recently my shot was a little hungry and needed a diaper change! It was brick after brick after brick. Then a made shot followed by an air ball! Man I should have listened to Coach Mitts!
Until next time...It's a GREAT day to be a LION!!
Danielle DeVader
Class of 2005
