Today's post is written by Assistant Coach Marcus Moeller:
If you follow our twitter you know that I refer to Oct 14th as Christmas Eve, and October 15th as Christmas day. October 15th marks the start of official practice for NCAA schools country wide. There are several ways that October 15th functions like Christmas day for college coaches. Ho, Ho, Ho...Merry Christmas!
The first parallel between that glorious December holiday and October 15th is the sheer anticipation of the day. From the day after Thanksgiving, you can't avoid the music, the decor and smell of Christmas time. Many families even have a countdown calendar in their kitchen as they anxiously await that day. For us, the first day of school marks the beginning of that time. As soon as we start working with our players during individual work we begin to feel that October 15th is drawing near. You'll often hear things like "only 12 days till we start practice, are you ready?" The strength and conditioning workouts, the nicks and bruises and the sweaty laundry provide all the decor and smells to represent that the season is right around the corner!
Every family has their own traditions and rituals surrounding the Christmas holiday. My family has always opened our presents on Christmas Eve. My friend Joe's family wouldn't dream of doing something so outlandish, Christmas morning ONLY for them. College basketball programs are very similar. If you have flipped through sports channel recently, you might have noticed a 4-hour "Midnight Madness" special running over and over on ESPNU depicting a program's first practice as a team. A lot of school will host this "midnight madness" the night of October 14th. Technically they are allowed to practice at midnight, so they turn the evening into an event for the public, visiting recruits, and for the media. While several teams in our league have began opening their presents on Christmas Eve, we open our presents on Christmas day! Official practice opened for us on October 15th at 4pm.
The suspense of what is contained in those beautifully wrapped presents underneath the tree is almost unbearable. Santa's naughty or nice list oftens reflects whether you get coal or candy in your stocking. Essentially, Santa Clause says "you get what you deserve based on if you were a good little child this year". The beginning of the season shows the same thing to be true. It is VERY obvious who worked their tail off over the summer and throughout preseason, and who decided to coast and take it easy. As a staff we were so proud to watch our team find a ton of candy in their stockings on Christmas day this year!!
Finally, one of the greatest things about the Holidays is sharing that time with family and friends. Nothing is greater than the quality conversation and time spent together with loved ones. For us, October 15th was the same way. Our immediate family was so excited to look over and see that some of our extended family (Lionbackers Don Miller and Bob Laptad) had joined us for the day. Their interest and care for the members of our program is always so greatly appreciated. We couldn't imagine spending Christmas without them!!
So, you might be thinking, "well, if it's Christmas, where is my present?" Look no further. As a gift from our staff we would like to give you an awesome gift. We are giving you a voice. We want to know WHO you want to hear from on the blog and WHAT you want to hear about. E-mail me at moeller-m@mssu.edu by this Thursday (October 21st) and YOU will decide the author and topic of the next blog!! Merry Christmas in October for the Missouri Southern Women's Basketball Program!!
Until next time...It's a GREAT day to be a LION!!
Marcus Moeller
Assistant Coach
