Lima South Middle School Community Service Project

Over break we conducted a basketball practice for the middle school team at Lima South Middle school. This is the 2nd year we have done this project to help reach out and provide service to our local community. Our women's basketball team was responsible for creating the practice plan, dividing up responsibilities, and teaching these young ladies some important fundamentals for the game...not to mention, fielding questions from these girls after our practice about basketball - the commitment, the frustrations, and lessons that can be learned from playing the game.....not only was I impressed with our team's answers to their questions, but also with their genuine concern in trying to offer help and advice for these ladies that need positive female role models....It was truly a "win-win" situation for everyone and an experience I hope we continue! ~ Coach Terrell

"Tis the Season for Giving....

Every year we adopt a family from Ada for Christmas... Our girls split into teams, pool their resources, and take a night to go shopping for their family member. This is a great opportunity to step back and think about our blessings as well as take time to think of someone else in need....Last year, our senior, Erin Brand was wearing a women's basketball sweatshirt while working at the local drive through in town....the customer in the car saw her sweatshirt and disclosed that it was his family that we had helped. He literally had tears in his eyes when he described how much it meant that we had adopted his family for the Holidays....that moment really resonated with Erin and I know when she shared that with her team last year, and this year's team, it really hit home about what we can each do for others to make their day just a little bit brighter....

This Sunday, we made our team dinner night a chance to wrap and organize the gifts before we send them out this week, which you can see the gift wrapping going on in some of the shots....not everyone has gift wrapping skills, though! We also had Coach Durand's chicken and biscuits and other fine foods (Lauren Cassell makes a mean brocoli salad and Lish Rinehart added her cheesy potatoes to the table, but I think the award may go to Kara Dysert's mom Bridgette with her dessert....I am not sure the name of it, but it was hit!). After the dinner and wrapping gifts we were also lucky enough to have a guest speaker come in and talk to several of our ONU athletic teams about the mental side of sport....he did a great job of motivating our girls to stay positive and really believe that you can achieve anything....a very fitting message for us and the goals we have for this year! GO BEARS! ~ Coach Terrell

Season update as of December 10, 2008

We are five games into this basketball season so I wanted to give some thoughts on how things are going thus far.....


We were hit right away with 2 key injuries with captains Brittany Bogart and Heather Armbruster. Britt we expected to take over the center position and that plan did not quite shake out, but the really good news is that she will be back hopefully by the end of this month. The other player who has been injured is Heather Armbruster. Heather is one of our smartest players and our best outside shooter. Unfortunately for Heather and us it looks like she may not be able to play this season. These injuries have left us with a lot of inexperienced players having to step into roles we were not anticipating right away....that is a double edged sword. The new players are getting a lot of exposure, but they also have a lot to learn about playing at this level....


Although we are currently 2-3, I am very happy to say we have been in and led at some point, in every game we have played. I am also really happy with our game to game improvement. Each and every game thus far we have improved in one or more areas. We won our first OAC game vs. Marietta last Saturday in convincing fashion. It is great to start off our conference season on a positive note! This gives us momentum for another tough OAC stretch this week.



Our team is continuing to work hard each and every day and if we continue to work we will keep improving. I've enjoyed this team thus far because they want to learn and are willing to do what the coaches ask to get better. Overall, I believe we are moving in the right direction and I have confidence we will continue to get better. I predict by the end of the season we will be the team no one wants to play! Go Bears!



Head Coach Michele Durand