Shoes squeak as they scrape the gym floor. Two players pass the ball back and forth along the three pointer line as their teammates yell to distract them – but every single pass is completed.
This is a classic drill the Smith basketball team runs as they start practice getting ready for their next big game.
Smith College Pioneers basketball team started their season on Wednesday, Nov. 13 with a team of majority rookies. Their roster includes six returning players and eight first years. There are no seniors on the team.
“We have first years who are really capable of stepping up, we have seen it through the scrimmages and through practices,” Emma Zener ’21 said. “We know this year is going to be more of an adjustment year.”
Since last year, the team graduated seven players. Two of them, Lauren Bondi ’19 and Kennedy Guest Pritchett ’19, were the key players on the team, their average points per game last season 18.6 and 14.7 respectively.
One of the major goals for the upcoming season is winning NEWMAC; a larger goal for the season is winning all the home games.
Along with goals of winning, the team is also working on finishing through every play and improving their communication. “Communication is one of our biggest difficulties because we have eight new first years,” Zener ’21 said. “We need to build that chemistry.”
Lynn Herskey, Smith’s all time most winning coach, guides the team. It is her thirteenth season with Smith’s basketball team with a 190–129 overall record. When asked how she is getting the young team ready, Herskey said, “We are trying to make the transition as smooth as possible…We are trying to expose them to championship situations.”
Since the season started on Oct. 15, the team has six days a week of practice as well as three days a week of strength and conditioning. During practice the team does a variety of drills to prepare for games.
“We are hard on fundamentals this year,” Herskey said. “With a young team it is important to do fundamentals and skill work to have a nice tool set heading into the season.”
The lifting room has become a place of fun as well as hard work for the team. “We love to play Lizzo in the weight room,” said team captain Elle Jo Whalen ’21. They have turned Fridays in the weight room into a time for fun by declaring it throwback Friday. The team plays early 2000s songs, favorites including Avril Lavigne and Emblem3.
“The team has worked hard to build a new culture including all the first years in the environment,” Zener ’21 said. “We can’t rely on the people above us; we have to interact with the first years and I think that has really benefited us and created a lot of friendship.”
They have started a new tradition where every teammate is assigned to be another one’s “hypeman.” They leave each other notes and get each other pumped for the game that week. The team has also started giving out an honor shirt out at every practice. At the beginning of every practice, the team picks the person who worked the hardest the previous day, and they are awarded a special pinney to wear all practice.
“Because we do honor shirt and the notes, it makes the first years whose confidence isn’t super high make sure that their hard work is seen. It shows that we value everyone’s strengths that they bring to the table,” Whalen explained. A time old tradition for the basketball team at Smith happens in the locker room. Before every game the entire team hits a sign saying “together” to stress how important their teamwork is.
As the season picks up, there will be plenty of time for the team to hit that sign.
