Chapter 6

“OKAY, LET’S get warmed up,” Dennis called to the team on Tuesday at their first practice. He wasn’t sure about this, but Coach had told him it was part of his job. She didn’t plan to come out to the practice until they’d had a twenty-minute warmup. “Let’s start with some arm rotation. Straight to the side and small circles then let the circle grow until you are doing a full windmill. We’ll start with forward rotations and then do a set of backward rotations. Ready?”

“Hey, where’s the coach?” Diane called.

“She’ll be out as soon as we’re warmed up and ready to practice,” Dennis responded. He was doing the exercise to demonstrate and the girls started following him.

“Do you want us in some formation?” Roberta asked. “Like a certain distance apart or something?”

“This isn’t the army. Choose a position that’s comfortable where you won’t run into anyone else.” They finished the arm rotations. “Next is knee hugs. We’ll walk forward to the end of the court and then walk back. Each step, bring your knee up, wrap your arms around it, and hug it to your chest. Step out and hug the other knee. Ready? Let’s walk.” Several of the girls were panting a little before they reached the end of the court.

“Wow! That was harder than it looked.”

“It’s a good exercise for activating the glutes, hips, and hamstrings. Now we’re going to backpedal.” He had placed cones every ten feet down the gym floor sideline on one side. “For this one, you’ll line up on the sideline over there. On the whistle, you’ll run to the cone in front of you, cross over to the other side of it and run backward to the line. Remember to control your speed and slow down as you reach the cone. Don’t come to a screeching halt. Cross-over with the back foot and backpedal to the other side.” He blew the whistle and everyone took off at a pretty good clip. Several of the girls looked over at him to watch how he did the cross-over. When they were back, he blew the whistle and they took off again.

“We call this next one over the fence,” he called. “Watch and I’ll demonstrate the move. Basketball can be really hard on the hips and groin. This can loosen up those muscles so you don’t pull one. Bring your foot up like a march. Swing your knee to the side and stretch your foot out for the next step. Exactly as if you were stepping over a fence.” He demonstrated. The girls started giggling.

“Are you making these up?” Brenda asked.

“No, ma’am. These exercises are a legitimate part of the basketball trainers’ handbook. And believe me, I feel as stupid doing some of them as you do. Okay, once across the court. We’ll do ankle pops on the way back.” The girls followed his lead and started doing the awkward step. He jumped out in front of them and turned to watch their form. “Keep your heel under your butt when you rotate out,” he said. “If you kick your leg out, that’s getting on a horse. We just want to step over the fence.” They laughed and followed along as Dennis turned and continued across the gym floor. Dennis had a dozen exercises for them and they were all winded by the end of them. Then he had them shoot basketballs as the last thing. They took three shots and then went to retrieve balls after they were shot. Dennis stood at the bottom of the key and shoveled balls off the rack to the shooter. The girls retrieving balls put them back on the rack where he could reach them.

The whistle blast brought them all to attention as Coach stepped onto the floor.

Ardith hadn’t been in her office while Dennis led warmups. This was one of the things they’d all learned at the workshop and had practiced each exercise. She stood just out of sight and watched the girls as they followed Dennis in the exercises. She was very proud of the fact that he actually led them and did every exercise himself. And the girls all gave him the respect to do the exercises, even when they grumbled or complained a little. The team gathered around the Coach. Dennis grabbed his clipboard off the bench.

“Feel warmed up yet?” Ardith called.

“Feel like we’ve already had practice and need a shower,” Judith said.

“In the words of Lisa Marie Presley, ‘You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.’ Today we’re going to work on ball handling. It might seem simple to dribble a ball.” She held out a hand and Dennis tossed a ball to her. She kept looking at the girls and handled the ball, catching it with one hand and dropping it to dribble without looking. She switched hands, dropped to a crouch, stood up straight and passed the ball back to Dennis behind her back. “When we are ready to play at the end of November, you will always know where the ball is and always be able to control it. We’ll start simple and then work on switching it back up. In order to keep things moving and make sure I can pay attention to each of you, I’ll have Dennis take half of you to the other end of the court to work with while I work with the other half here. Then we’ll switch. I want to be able to see each of you and I can’t do that if you’re standing behind each other. Dennis?”

“Brenda, Roberta, Diane, Rosie, Amy,” he called off the names and tossed each a basketball. “You’re with me at the far end. Let’s go.” He grabbed a ball for himself and dribbled it to the far end of the court with the five girls following. Rosie had a little trouble controlling where the ball went. During tryouts, she’d kicked the ball all the way to the end of the court when they were dribbling and running to the end. Amy had to grab her ball with both hands a couple of times to keep control of it. When they reached the end, Dennis turned to face them. “Okay, I’m not the best at this but I know the principles. We’ll start with just stable dribbling in one place using your dominant hand. As you are able and start to feel confident in bouncing the ball back to your hand, bring your eyes up and look at me. That’s when I’ll know we’re ready for the next step.” They started bouncing their balls and learning to control them. Dennis could see why the women’s balls were smaller than the men’s Amy and Brenda had very small hands. It was easy for the ball to get away from them. Dennis tried to keep a smooth and even tempo to his own dribble while he watched the girls.

Just because he was small didn’t mean he didn’t like to play basketball. He’d never be able to play on a regular team. Between his stature and his eyesight that just wasn’t reasonable. But he spent hours in his yard bouncing his basketball and shooting it. Those were things he was pretty good at. So, at least he was comfortable dribbling the ball while he watched his girls. His girls. He’d been amazed when Coach put together the training schedule and went through the exercises with him. The male coaches—those he’d seen working—either worked together or assigned a player to lead some of the exercises. The team managers were nothing more than errand boys, responsible for water, towels, and cleanup.

They’d been dribbling with their non-dominant hand for about five minutes when Coach’s whistle blew. The girls turned and ran to the opposite end of the court, dribbling all the way. They did much better on this pass. Dennis faced five different girls—Carol, Daniella, Natalie, Judith, and Leanne.

“Okay, we’re going to start switching hands now. Let’s start with one bounce to each hand. Left, right, left, right. You remember what the ball feels like with each hand, just pass it to the other. When you’re confident of where the ball is, look up at me.”

And so the practice went. The group wasn’t always split. The last fifteen minutes of the practice, Coach Graves divided them into two teams, handed out practice jerseys so they could tell each other apart, and had them half-court scrimmage a while so they could feel like they actually got to play basketball. She encouraged them to put into practice all they learned about ball control. At the end of practice, she blew her whistle again.

“Good practice, team. Put in this kind of work at every practice and we’ll be ready to meet any competitor at the end of November. Dennis?”

“I went through the locker room before practice and made sure the soap and shampoo dispensers were full. There are towels inside the locker room door. One each. There are no extras in our allotment. Please return the used towels to the laundry bag hanging on the cart. You are responsible for your own practice clothes and jerseys. If you don’t mind wearing wet smelly clothes for the next practice, just leave them in your locker. I make sure there are fresh towels and I wash uniforms. Uniforms do not include your sports bra, underwear, and socks. You’re responsible for those yourselves. Judith, you wore a necklace out here today. Please make sure it’s stowed in your locker before tomorrow’s practice. No jewelry on the court. Rosie, that includes your rings. Carol, the ankle bracelet. A player can be tossed from a game for wearing jewelry on the court. Leanne, see me at the coach’s office and I’ll give you one of these stylish geek straps for your glasses. You don’t need to wear it to school, but you need it on the court so your glasses don’t fall off. I know you were all thinking I wore one just to be fashionable. Coach.”

“We are the Angelines. Hands in the circle and tell me on three. One two three! Angelines! Good. Shower up.”

“Hey, Dennis. Mind walking us home? Leanne and I live on the same block you do,” Rosie said.

“Um ... sure. Just give me a chance to collect the towels. Is the locker room clear?”

“Anybody still naked in the locker room?” Rosie called through the door. “We’re sending Dennis in. Anything he sees is your own fault.” Brenda, Diane, and Judith came out of the locker room carrying their bags and scrubbing at their hair with a towel.