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Even though summer has only just begun, one of the best parts of my summer is already over. For those of you who have read my blog before, you know that I coach a traveling girls basketball team throughout the year. The team is called Nebraska Heartland and our adopted mascot is the ninja. The girls are made up of 10 girls from the Hastings area and they will be freshman this coming school year.

The ten girls are from Adams Central, Hastings High, Kenesaw, St. Cecilia, Sandy Creek and Superior and they are the best bunch of girls that I coach could ask for! We have been together for three summers now and it’s so cool to see how much they have improved since our very first tournament three years ago! They have played some of the best teams in the Midwest and competed at high levels for girls their age.

This summer we placed first in Denver, first in Des Moines, first in Hays and 6th out of 30 teams in the biggest tournament of the summer in Wichita which features some of the best teams from Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. Our record this summer was 21-3! Not too bad of a summer if you ask me.

If you can’t tell, I’m pretty proud of them! They do everything I ask of them and then some and they are so much fun! If I tell them they need to work harder, they find a way! What coach would love that! They are all extremely talented players but their work ethic is what sets them apart! They all have different talents and already at this young age, they all know their roles on the team. They bring their talents together and form one pretty great team!

The parents are just as great! They allow me to coach their daughters my own way, they support us, cheer for us, call timeouts for me when the officials can’t hear me, stay up late doing our laundry, cook us food and sit all day in a hot gym only to see us beat teams by 40 points. I am truly grateful for everything they do!

So as summer is just beginning, one of the best parts of my summer came to an end Sunday….

 

About the author: Amanda McKenzie

Amanda is a 20-something resident of Hastings who found her way here via Hastings College. She is an Exercise Specialist at Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital. She coaches girls a competitive 8th grade girls basketball team called Nebraska Heartland. In her spare time she enjoys getting together with friends and family, watching and participating in sporting events, working out and shopping.