It has been pretty exciting since my last blog entry.  So far, 2009 has been exciting for our team. We started off the New Year with a tournament in the Bahamas, which was amazing: 80 degrees, time on the beach and shorts and t-shirts everyday, it was definitely a nice break from the middle of winter.  We played two games while we were there and won them both.  We played very well and everyone contributed and did their part, which helped us win as a team.

The Bahamas trip helped jump start us into our conference season. We’ve been focusing on the same things that helped us win in the Bahamas: hard work, team play, and excitement to play the game.  That’s helped us win our last six games and 10 of our last 11 games.  We are about half way through our conference season and are looking to make a run at the conference title and finish strong. 

I also had a great opportunity, recently, to meet Deb Cupery, she is the former all-time leading scorer at Edgewood College.  On Wednesday night (January 21st) I needed 16 points to break her record.  For me, breaking the record was not my focus because basketball is a team sport and I couldn’t have gotten there with out my teammates and coaches helping me.  It was a nervous day and I was more anxious to get it over with, but most of all I was excited to meet Deb and get to know her.  At the beginning of the game, I struggled and wasn’t in the groove.  But once again, my teammates and coaches were there to help me through it.   There wouldn’t have been any records broken if it wasn’t for them and their support means so much to me. 

It’s an honor to have broken the record but I’m glad that it’s over and done with.   We can now focus on the games ahead of us, looking to play our best, work together, and play well as a team. 

2008 is almost over, our season is underway, and Edgewood College is in full gear going into the New Year.  The team has gone through many obstacles and adversities to get here and have finally found ourselves and have been working well together.  We started off with the season with three non-conference games.           

Our first tournament was eye opening for most of the team, since many of them haven’t played basketball at the college level before.  I could tell they were nervous, I was totally nervous before my first college game and expected them to be also.  We played well at the tournament, the team got the first two games under their belts and found out what it was like to play at this level, and we found the things we need to work on to become a better team.  We lost both games, but found out how each other played and looked to using that in our upcoming game.

Our next game was against the No. 1 team in the nation, UW-Whitewater.  I know for the returners we wanted to redeem ourselves from the last time we played them; I do believe they scored a hundred points on us and so we weren’t going to let that happen again.  We knew it was going to be a challenge for us, but we love challenges and we had nothing to lose going in, this game could only make us better.  Whitewater was a tough team and had a well rounded one at that, but at half time we were only down by nine points.  The game went on and we continued to battle with them, but in the end they got the best of us and we lost by 19 points.  As a team we talked about what we could do to beat the number one team in the nation; we needed to shoot better and come up with more stops on defense and we would be right in the game.

At the end of November we finally played our first home game and our first conference game.  The team was looking forward to this and to playing Concordia Wisconsin.  They are one of our rivals and we didn’t lose to them by more than three points last year and did finally beat them for the first time in my career last year. Concordia beat us and it definitely wasn’t how we wanted to start off conference play.  This was a tough time for our team, we were 0-4, had two players out with knee injuries for the rest of the season, and now only have nine players active on our roster.  This wasn’t exactly how we wanted to start off our season and it was really hard to stay positive and keep everyone going.  But we made a commitment with each other that we would do this together and we can just keep working hard and it will get better.

I didn’t really want to talk about this, but Dave, our sports information director said I had to.  I’m on pace to break Edgewood College’s all-time scoring record.  I haven’t really thought much about it, because I just want to make sure the team keeps playing better, but I suppose it will be really cool if it happens. As long as we keep winning games, that’s all I’m concerned about. [SID note: Megan has 1,700 career points and needs 155 more to break the record.]

That Concordia game was our wake up call on how to work and play together as a team.  We knew we had to come together and get things done as a team.  That’s exactly what happened; we are on a three-game winning streak and know that we can work together and win as a team.  To me the first win is the hardest, but after we got that under our belts we continued on that path and have continued to win.  Our next game is on Monday against Lakeland.  We can’t wait to get back on the court and continue our winning streak on our home court.

Hello, my name is Megan Scheele and I am the only senior on the Edgewood College women’s basketball team. I came from a small town near Madison called New Glarus.

As I enter the first month or so of practice and think about the upcoming season, I’m thinking to myself, I can’t believe I’m a senior and this is going to be my last year playing basketball here at Edgewood College.  I remember coming in my freshmen year being so nervous and didn’t talk much at all; oh, how times have changed for me!  Now I’m the only senior on the team and have lots of freshmen and newbies coming in the same way I was, nervous and scared to talk.  But I tell myself I can’t think of this as being my last year; I say to myself, let this be the best year. 

In my eyes as the team practices; we get better each day, we get to know one another, we see what everyone brings to the table, but most of all we work hard.  All of those things right there are what make me believe that this will be the best year.  We are a young team having one senior, two juniors, six sophomores, and four freshmen, but look to use what everyone has to offer and come together as a team and be a powerful team in the NAC. 

Our conference is very competitive and you never know who’s going to win each night someone plays… this is something I love and makes it fun to compete in.  We are a very team oriented program and live up to that.  We play team defense, win or lose as a team, but most important we stay together through the ups and downs of the season.  We start off our season this weekend up in Adrian, Michigan and we participate in a two day tournament.  We can’t wait to start play and are very excited for the season to get underway.