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Give ’em Trouble

Posted on: April 10th, 2013 by Lisa Van Wyk No Comments

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Louisville Women’s Basketball

It was by far the largest upset in women’s basketball history. When fifth seed Louisville Cardinals defeated number one seed and defending national champion, Baylor Bears, in this year’s Sweet 16 round of the NCAA 2013 Women’s Division I championship, time stood still as people gawked in disbelief.

The Louisville women won five games to get to the final national championship battle against Connecticut, but it didn’t come easy, and no one expected them to be there. There was one team, one person, in the way: Baylor Bears Brittney Griner. Like David and Goliath, Louisville needed to defeat Brittney, whose 6′ 8″ frame, a giant among women, practically shut down every team she played against. The odds were stacked against them. Brittany, the giant, took away the hope of many young ladies. She shut down other teams’ offensive strategies, blocked them from scoring, and was an obstacle to their success. (more…)

Unpacking Confidence

Posted on: March 22nd, 2013 by Lisa Van Wyk No Comments

I’m so excited and extremely hopeful, I think I’m going to burst! My 6th grade girls basketball team is readying themselves for their Big Dance this weekend in Wausau, WI – the Wisconsin State Invitational Tournament. We are putting final touches on our offensive plays, making their motion offense seamless, their defense unstoppable, and packing up our sneakers, shiny uniforms and…well…hopefully, our Confidence…

That’s where as a coach I’ve seen my players struggle the most over the years: their Confidence level.

Late this season, at one of our weekend tourneys, one of my post players, Special K, was beaten twice down the court against a local team. Her shot was deflected on offense and a guard dribbled past her for two points on defense. The next trip up the court, she drove hard to the hoop, only to stumble and fall on her left knee, and as she was sweeping the ball away from her defender, another stepped up behind her and ripped the ball away from above her head while she was still down. That was her breaking point.

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Why Some Dreams Succeed and Others Fail

Posted on: November 13th, 2012 by Alaina Pompa No Comments

I am a dreamer and visionary. I love making plans. I love schedules. Organizing makes my heart beat faster, in a good way. Let me rephrase that. I should say – I love reading, organizing catalogs, being in organized environments and shopping at IKEA.

While I have a great schedule plan and cool calendar app I often have a hard time sticking to either. Sitting on my shelf is an extra large 3-ring binder that contains a subject-by-subject outline for homeschooling my children. I spent three months one summer putting it together and I look at it every day when I rush out the door to pick them up from public school.

In spite of these quirks I have managed to get a few things right.

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Embracing Difficulties to become an Expert

Posted on: August 14th, 2012 by Lisa Van Wyk 4 Comments

Lisa’s path

Have you ever traveled on a difficult path and was a better person for it? I was on that path recently, but it taught me some surprising lessons.

It was a chilly 40 degree spring day. Somehow I was talked into waking up too early to mountain bike on unfamiliar terrain through the woods. A disastrous concept at best. I was with my girlfriends, Terri and Amy, at Hartman State Park, which is known to have one of the finest mountain biking trails in Northeast Wisconsin.

When I say “best” trails, to the extreme bikers, this means bike paths with narrow 3’ openings between “concrete” pines, hundreds of roots to “jump” over, and 2’ boulders to meander around. There are steep cliff edges to avoid, rises in elevation that leave you burning, roller coaster drops that send you careening off the beaten path, climaxing in breathlessness. That, my friend was the Easy track!

I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when we decided to bike that day. I went flying over the front of the handlebars within the initial 30 minutes of our adventure. (more…)