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!!