What an amazing week!! It started on last Thursday when we hopped on a plane and flew up to the chilly town of Chicago. They said the weather was in the 20's, but I swear it felt like it was about -2. Both of my parents are from Chi-Town and I do not know how they survived!! My grandfather still lives up there so he was able to come to the games. This was the first time he has ever been able to see me play so I had a lot to live up to. After arriving Thursday afternoon, we decided to celebrate by enjoying some deep dish pizza, Chicago style at Giordano's. It was the first time I have ever had real Chicago style pizza and it was so good!! Below are some of the girls enjoying the unique pizza.

Our first competition was against Grinnell College on Friday in the Lee Pfund Classic at Wheaton College. While the beginning was back-and-forth, we ended up riding to an 87-60 victory. That evening we were able to go into the city and enjoy the Christmas lights that were already around Chicago. While downtown was fun, we knew we had a game the next day and this was going to be a big one. Saturday afternoon we played the host, Wheaton College. Wheaton has had many years of good teams and we knew this was going to be a good game. We came out ready and probably played the best first half of basketball ever at Oglethorpe University, tallying 61 points in the opening 20 minutes. We ended up winning 99-68. I was named to the All Tournament Team and Katie Kulavic was named the MVP. Not a bad showing for grandpa if I do say so myself. Here we are trying to say warm in the freezing cold.

Thanksgiving is one of the best and yet one of the worst times of the year for a basketball player. On one hand, it is the first real break from basketball, and while we all love the sport, sometimes you just need some time to yourself. We get a couple days to rest our bodies, eat good food, and see family that we rarely get to see in season. Unfortunately, all is not good. Tomorrow is one of the days that our team dreads every year, the practice following our Thanksgiving break. This practice pretty much consists of us running for a couple hours straight, a couple times a day. Coach Sattele actually said this year, "Go home and eat as much turkey as you can so when you return on Saturday you can throw it all up!!" He was joking of course, (or at least I am hoping he was). While it is a practice no one likes, it is what is necessary to keep us on the right track. We have had a great start but the season only gets harder from here. This week we have 3 tough games. First is our rival Emory, followed by past conference champs Depauw and then an always tough Centre. Hopefully we will be able to get all that turkey out tomorrow so that come game time we will be able to run like we have been doing so far!! GO PETRELS!!

So yeah, awesome week so far. Right now I am packing to head off to Chicago tomorrow so I am going to keep this short and sweet. We started off this week on Saturday where we played our home opener against Ferrum College. The Panthers played us tough, but in the end our Petrels came out on top. We won 83-65. While it was a good win for us there was little time for celebration.

We then had to start preparing for Piedmont. Piedmont was a little bitter about us beating them in the first round of the NCAA tourney last year so they were looking for revenge. We jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. We ended up winning by a score of 91-67. Not a bad start out to a season.

Now we have one of the biggest tests of the year, our first away games. It is so much easier to play at home. Hopefully I will be able to report back with a couple more victories after this weekend!!

If there is one thing wrong with being a student-athlete at a D-III college, it has got to be that fact that you are stuck being a student as well. I mean, we all understand that we need our education in order to pursue our future, but still, life would be so much easier if we could just be athletes and not have to worry about class and homework. Think about it, all we would have to worry about is staying in top shape, working out, expanding our game, and mentally preparing for the games to come. Instead, not only are we doing everything it takes to be a successful basketball program but we are also studying for tests, doing math homework, writing papers on Aristotle and Adam Smith, and learning about the apparently altruistic behavior of bees. I know that I am not the first to say this, but those who have not experienced this first hand just do not understand.

This week has been extremely tough for me because not only do I have normal load of reading and math, but I also have had two tests. Ugh, it has not been fun!!

But while tests are important, something even more important happens this week, the first game of the season!! Whoo!! It is about time. We have been practicing for almost a month now and I am sick of playing against ourselves. Yes, we have had scrimmage games, and we played well against Jacksonville State this past weekend, but nothing is like a real game. I just can not wait. We have high expectations for this year and we get to see where we really are come Saturday.

This is our team last year, outside our gym, after we made it to the Final Four.

So this is when the average person starts out by introducing themselves, but I am not the average person. Instead, I am going to start by introducing my team. We are the Oglethorpe University Stormy Petrel Women's Basketball Team. Now, it is about here when people tend to stop me and say, "Wait, what? Your mascot is the Stormy Pretzel?" Hearing this on more then one occasion, I have my response already prepared. "No, we are the Story Petrels. It is like a seagull, but it is the only bird that can fly through a storm. Legend has it that when James Edward Oglethorpe first came to Georgia, he was so amazed by the grace of the little bird." I guess people are a little disturbed when someone knows the entire history of their mascot because upon this response people usually just smile and walk away. Yeah, it might be a little out of the ordinary, but trust me, after four years of being asked what a Petrel is, you would know the bird's history too!!

My name is Biz Richmann and no, as cool as it would be, Biz is not my given name. I have my brother for creating my nickname; him and my father not wanting to yell "Elizabeth" across the gym while he was coaching me. Biz was short, sweet and did not get him out of breath during the game. I am a 5'9½ guard/forward/center. To those who have not seen our team play might be a little confused by this. Well, I am the second tallest player on our roster so I am technically a post player, but with the style we play, everyone is a guard. So I get to claim being both a post and a guard at the same time.

Being a Division III student-athlete, being a student really comes first. So before I really get into my life inside basketball, I guess I should say a few things about my life outside basketball. Well, there is class. I am a senior mathematics major; therefore I am constantly having fun doing calculus, geometry, algebra, differential equations, etc. While most might find that last statement to be full of sarcasm, I meant every word of it. I really do enjoy doing math. (I told you at the start that I was not the average person.) Being good at math also means being asked to help those who struggle with it. I not only tutor twice a week but I have also gotten those phone calls from friends at about 1am saying "OMG I just remembered I have a test tomorrow, is there anyway you can help me study." As much as I want to kill them at this point, I pull myself out of bed and do what I can to help. All good things have their down sides too I guess.

Now to the fun part, the basketball. For those of you who do not really keep up with Division III basketball, here is a little update about what happened last year with our team. After working our butts off through the entire season, we finished second in the East of the SCAC behind rival Depauw. We had a chance to get some revenge in the finals of our conference tourney but fell short and once again Depauw got the better of us. But we were not done yet. We then marched into the NCAA tournament and not only got our first win in the NCAA tournament in school history, but we fought our way all the way to the Final Four. While we did not perform like we would have hoped up in Holland, MI, it was the experience of a lifetime!! And we did not stop there. Through the efforts of so many people, our team was able to travel to Italy to get coarse credit as well as play some international teams. I might go into this in more detail later, but to keep it short, it was amazing and the entire team has a blast!! (Below is the team stoning the coaches in the Colosseum.)

But that was last year, that is the past and now we have to look forward to this season. We lost one senior from last year's team so we have a strong core coming back. This season started at precisely 12:01am on October 15^th. Yes, you heard me right, midnight. That was just over three weeks ago and I am so excited. I am not going to give away all the details now, but lets just say this is going to be a fun year!!