“Here it is again” is what I thought to myself in class a little over two months ago. Another basketball season is upon us. Although, this season is much different for two reasons: it is my senior season, and we are now under the helm of a new coaching staff. I couldn’t be more excited.
There was a lot of talk about the new staff coming in and how things were going to be different. We were quickly about to find out as conditioning started around the third week of September. Right from the get-go at 6 a.m. that Monday morning we were getting after it. You could tell what this program was going to be about. Three things: Energy, Effort, and Enthusiasm.
From day one, those are the three points of emphasis Coach Adrian and the rest of the staff have stressed. The energy in the gym has to be at a high level. “Energy in motion” as Coach Purlee likes to put it. We have got to have more energy than our opponent and it starts with even the littlest things. Effort is almost self-explanatory. Without effort you have nothing. If you are giving it everything you have and putting in the full amount of effort, then good things will follow. The last point is enthusiasm. This is one that most of us players were not used to. They stressed that we need to be constantly cheering on our teammates. Enthusiasm has to always be high in everything we do, whether that is yelling and cheering on our teammates or just clapping. A quiet gym is a losing gym.
Over my years here playing for Otterbein, conditioning was not something that was stressed very much. Well, this year was going to be a different story. We were going at 6 a.m. three days per week and then in the afternoon on a fourth day. We were running, lifting, doing agility drills and getting better every day. One of the hardest parts of this five-week process was the running of “The Hill.” This was a hill down at Hoover dam, the biggest hill I’ve seen in my life…
The first week we started out running up it six times. It was the closest I’ve ever felt to passing out. Afterwards, Coach Adrian says each week we will add four more and by the final week, we would be running it 22 times. Right then and there we all just sort of looked at each other and thought, “this guy is crazy.” But each week we added four more hills… 10, 14, 18, and 22. We struggled, but we pushed ourselves to the limit and achieved that goal of 22. It was the absolute hardest physical challenge I have ever encountered, but as Coach said, it will all pay off.
This year our team has had the opportunity to do many things. Right before conditioning started we had a team retreat to Buckeye Lake, where we separated into groups and competed all weekend doing various team builders and playing games such as football, kickball, softball, pool, and trivia. We even carried out a little idea called “FANdemonium,” which I’m sure most of you heard or even participated in. This was where our team separated into three student sections for our volleyball team, and whoever could attract the biggest group of students won. Of course, my section (The Black Hole) came out victorious.
We have worked the Westerville experience which is a Special Olympics type event. Also, we have gone to the Otterbein theatre department play/musical Spring Awakening. Our coaches have stressed that other organizations on campus work just as hard, if not harder, than we do. We should be there to support them, whether that be an on-campus group or a team in the athletic department.
We went through five weeks of intense condition and practiced those following weeks leading up to our first game. This was at the College of Wooster Classic against Adrian College out of Michigan. We didn’t have a lot of experience but we went in knowing we just had to do what we have been taught by our coaches. It was a hard fought game but we ended up losing. We had to accept the loss because we turned around and played the next night vs. a very solid Carnegie Mellon team that had lost to No. 13-ranked Wooster the previous night.
That next night had a slow start as we went down early to Carnegie Mellon, but then we got our act together and took off and never looked back. We had our first victory of the year and Coach Adrian’s first victory as Otterbein University's head coach.
We had a good week of practice after our opening weekend because the next outing was heading up to New York to play in another tournament. Oddly enough, we were playing Ohio Wesleyan. Yes, we were driving 385 miles to play a team that is 15 minutes away from us. Nevertheless, we were extremely excited for this game. This is because, according to everyone and the newspapers and polls, we are not expected to be very good this year… some suggest the weakest team in central Ohio.
We felt there was something to prove, and had the perfect opportunity considering OWU entered the weekend ranked No. 22 nationally. The game started out back and forth before they eventually took a 32-31 lead into halftime. We knew we could come out in the second half and beat them.
The second half started and they went on a big run, but we responded quickly and went on a run of our own. It was a hard fought battle that came down to the end, and we unfortunately had to start fouling and they ended up the winners. It was a very tough loss but it was to a good team, although I truly believe we were better. That game was the worst we have shot from the field all year.
We regrouped and came together the next day to beat SUNY-Cobleskill by 19. It was a great team effort and everyone played well. I was fortunate enough to earn All-Tournament team honors.
The coaching staff has already given me so many memories this season that I will never forget, and we haven’t even gotten into conference play yet! Needless to say, we are excited to get into full swing of our season and start OAC play this Saturday at Marietta. We hope to see everyone in the Rike Center for our home opener Dec. 4 against Wittenberg!
Zach Bakenhaster
Plain City, Ohio
