Sherri Coale Journal Entry No. 1

This is the first installment of Sherri Coale's journal. Coach Coale begins her seventh season in Norman in 2003 as head coach of the nationally-ranked women's basketball program. The Sooners open the regular season against Oral Roberts on November 22nd.

Sherri Coale
Journal Entry No. 1 (Nov. 10, 2003)
How good is our football team? Look up "machine" in the dictionary and you'll find something about parts transmitting energy one to another toward a desired end-that and a picture of a Schooner whose reigns are in the hands of one Bob Stoops. I talked to my team about them today. We talked about the daily attention to detail that enables a group to perform as one on a given Saturday afternoon. We talked about a commitment to excellence that has to pervade the minds and the hearts of every member of an organization if that organization is to continue to get better day after day, week after week. And we talked about class and grace and the pursuit of championships. Then we went back to work with our sights set on the city Oklahoma would like to own by April.

I really like our team. We began on October 18th with fourteen healthy bodies and after twenty practices we still have fourteen healthy bodies! I had forgotten about all the fun drills you can run if you actually have more than nine people! Practices have for the most part, been outstanding. This team has a countenance that I really, really like. They are intent and conscientious and yet almost daily they make me laugh so hard my ribs ache. They're a tight bunch that really likes to be in the gym. And they learn. Teaching is fun when players learn.

It's obviously nice to have Caton Hill back on the floor. She is in the truest sense of the word a "presence" player. She's like an anchor-the one we were without last year while we tossed about in the sea. Her teammates feed off of her. She is our best player and our hardest worker, which any coach of any sport will tell you is a necessary and special combination. She is skilled and she is smart and in her 5th year she's just not in such a big hurry. She's enjoying every close-out, savoring every rebound, wringing every possession dry because she sees now with an eye of detachment that sometimes only a season on the sideline can bring. We laugh about her being the great mother hen, but I think she loves it. She was born for the spotlight. She thrives on a challenge and she will win a game if it's on the line.

Our freshman class is enormous! We have two medical redshirt freshmen and four newbies! As a matter of fact, ten of our fourteen players are underclassmen! If I were smart, I would be frightened. Every day is a roller coaster: some of them are good and some of them are bad, some of them are good, some of them are bad. But when you have so many, at least someone is good almost every day! They have a lot to learn (understatement of the decade) and the verdict is still out on how they'll handle the rigors of Division I basketball-in the Big XII particularly. But they have a chance to be a special, special class. At this juncture, having a chance is all you ask.

The crew I'm probably most proud of, though, is the squad in the middle--the sophomores and juniors who had to grow up in front of God and everybody last year. They are our stubborn survivors of last year's microscope season who scratched and clawed their way to 19 wins and a fourth straight NCAA tournament. Those are the guys walking around our gym right now like they own the place. Those are the guys who carry practice when the freshmen are stunned or Caton is struggling. Caton may be the coxswain but these guys definitely own the boat.

I never particularly enjoy comparing seasons-they're all different, they each have a life all their own. And I don't like to talk about last year this year-whether last year was a fairytale or a nightmare. You can't change the past and both reveling and wallowing take away from the moment. Yet it seems always wise to remember that each season came from the one before. This journey was born the night we lost to George Washington on our home floor in the first round of the NCAA tournament. It grew over the summer in the weight room, in the gym and in the hearts and souls of our team. And it does in some ways feel like that special season not so long ago that began with a bad taste in the mouth and a fifth year senior who had been extraordinary from the word "go." You never know. That's what makes this all so much fun.

- Sherri Coale
Head Women's Basketball Coach

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