Hope this entry finds everyone doing really well and as excited about the many championships the NCAA has coming up as I am. Two weeks ago we wrapped up 4 days of a very intense SEC Championship. Congratulations to our men's team for dominating the entire meet. They led wire to wire, finishing the meet with a 254 lead over 2nd place Florida. Matt Targett and Ava Ohlgren won the Commisioner's trophy, which is given to the highest scorers of the meet, Dan Mazzaferro was named the SEC Male Diver of the Year, while our coaching staff swept the Coach of the Year honors (Men's Coach of the Year, Men's Diving
Coach of the Year, and Women's Coach of the Year).As a senior and captain, I am incredibly proud of our women's team. We started off the meet
with a bang and ended just as strong. We broke numerous school records, one American Record, and achieved our goal of qualifying people and preparing for the NCAA championships next week at Texas A&M. As I've mentioned before in previous posts, our focus for the season has always been to be our best at NCAAs in March while taking the necessary steps along the way, no matter the consequences. Losing meets throughout the season was tough at the time, but each one definitely taught us something about the character of our team. We've had our work cut out for us during this time between the meets, but are doing a good job preparing for next week.
I was reading in a book today and it made me think about what resiliency and persistence really mean and how they relate to what we've faced this season. The book talked about Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success and a block that stuck with me was about intentness. I hope I dont get in trouble for quoting it, but I'm going to anyways. When talking about what intentness means, this was his definition.
More soon,
"I could say that it means determination. I could say it means persistence. I could say it means tenacity or perseverance. I will say that it is the ability to resist temptation and stay the course, to concentrate on your objective with determination and resolve. The road to real achievement takes time, a long time, but you do not give up. You may have setbacks. You may have to start over. You may have to change your method. You may have to go around, or over, or under. You may have to back up and get another start. But you do not quit. You stay the course. To do that, you must have intentness."
To end, I just wanted to ask that you keep our team in your thoughts and prayers as we travel and compete. The following is a list of the members of our 2009 NCAA team.
Seniors: Rachel Goh, Julianne Mclane, Chelsea Haser, Margo McCawley, Emile Ewing
Juniors: Ava Ohlgren, Alana Dillette, Melissa Marik, Maggie Bird, Abigail MacGregor
Sophomores: Erica Meissner, Melanie Roberts, Caitlin Geary, Micah Martindale
Freshmen: Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, Micah Lawrence.
Our divers compete this week at their zone meet at the University of Tennessee. Hopefully, I can write back with additions to our NCAA team. Best of luck to both the men and women as they represent our university.
WAR EAGLE!
