By Adell Harris

Adell Harris is Associate Head Coach for Women's Basketball at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, which captured the Big South Championship in 2007. A graduate of and four-year letter winner at Wake Forest University, Harris has also coached at the high school and club levels. She can be reached at: aharris@unca.edu.

Five players coming off knee surgeries. Five freshmen and only two returning seniors. Rebounding from our first losing season in five years ... Those were the facts facing us here at the University of North Carolina-Asheville as we began to prepare a plan for the 2008-09 women's basketball season.

In past years, to ensure our athletes were in shape to start the preseason, we required them to complete a mile run below a set time before the first official day of practice. But this year, with so many players coming back from injuries and other needs beyond physical conditioning on our plate, we wondered if we should do something different.

Our coaching staff tossed out a lot of ideas: Maybe the players should run the mile on grass to lessen impact on their knees? What about a fun strength challenge, like flipping a 250-pound tire 100 yards? Would partnering them up help with team chemistry? Should we add nutritional goals?

It was clear we needed to challenge our team in many different areas. What wasn't clear was how to do so in a way that would be motivational and meaningful. The solution we came up with was the "Big South Challenge," which took our preseason preparation to a whole new level.

In short, the Big South Challenge presented eight challenges to our athletes based on our goals for the team. Each challenge was given the name of a conference foe. Many were physical, while others focused on mental preparation. Every athlete had to complete every challenge in order to participate in the first day of practice on October 17.

One of the best things about the plan is that it moved the motivation for working hard during the preseason to something athletes can relate to. Our preseason workouts became our league rivals. We would win the Big South before the season even started.

PREP TO WIN
As coaches, we always preach that winning doesn't just happen, you have to prepare for it. Athletes nod their heads at this statement--they've heard it before. But getting athletes to really understand and buy into the concept can be difficult.

Our squad won the Big South Tournament in 2007, and last year many players thought that it would automatically happen again. They figured they could just show up to the conference tournament in early March, put together three good days of basketball, and be rewarded. That is not how our 2007 team won the championship, but our younger players weren't here to see how hard those former players had worked for their winning moment.

The Big South Challenge was a way of reinforcing the words, "You win games in your preparation." The end-goal to every challenge was beating a conference rival. That led to the ultimate goal of being prepared come game time. The players would feel as if they had mentally and physically defeated that opponent before playing the game.

In addition, the motivation did not come from a coach running players into the ground, but from the athletes' desire to beat the opponent connected to each challenge. We created the game, but it was up to the players to figure out how to win it.

To help our athletes understand that preparation is not just physical, we included a few outside-the-gym challenges. One was nutritional. After having a player collapse during a workout last preseason due to dehydration and very poor eating habits, we woke up to the importance of nutrition. Two other challenges focused on mental preparation. One task was a partner-based activity in which athletes formed bonds with one another. The other asked each athlete to put her role on the team and goals into words in the form of a letter.

Since team chemistry was going to be key to our young team's success, we also added a twist to the Big South Challenge designed to build camaraderie. We like to see a player look at a teammate and say, "I'll help you." So we added the opportunity for athletes to "save" each other from a challenge.

The first save rule applied to one individual helping another. Once an athlete completed all eight challenges, she could save a teammate from one of hers. So, if there was a drill an athlete just couldn't do, a teammate could step up and say, "I'll do that challenge a second time to cover my teammate."

The second save rule was team-based. If an athlete couldn't do a challenge because of injury, the team shared the responsibility of completing that challenge--and team members could combine efforts to tackle the workout. One of our players was recovering from a lower-leg injury through the entire preseason, so her teammates had to complete all of her running challenges. It was up to the team to work together to come up with a plan, and it quickly revealed to us who our leaders were and who was willing to sacrifice for others.

As a staff, we chose to send the message that, even if we have injured players who can't participate, we can still complete our goals. We fight harder, we do extra, and we find a way to win.

BREAKING IT DOWN
In presenting the Big South Challenge to our team I put out a very lofty goal, one that had never been mentioned in our program: win the regular season conference championship. You can't win a regular season title if you don't value every opponent and every game. That was how we made every challenge just as important as another.

Here were our eight challenges:

Coastal Carolina: Since team chemistry was critical to our preseason plan, the first challenge required each student-athlete to interview a teammate and present that information about her to the team. We called this our "Partner Challenge" and implemented it at our first team dinner in August. Team members had to learn the following about their partner:

· Full name and where she's from.
· Parents' names and siblings' ages and names.
· What she loves about the game.
· Her definition of a champion.

This exercise was a great way to break the ice and get things started. And it was an easy challenge to accomplish, giving everyone momentum to dive into the tougher challenges.

When choosing the partners, I thought long and hard about personalities, roles on our team, who leads by example, who needs an example, and who has future leadership potential. For instance, our two point guards do a great job of representing our mission in the classroom, in the community, and on the court, so I partnered them with extremely talented players who needed a role model off the court.

Some of the partners were based on personality. I linked freshmen with fears about their transition to college with upperclassmen who had similar fears when they were freshmen. I even paired two individuals because I didn't think they would otherwise bother to talk with each other.

This exercise was great for initial team bonding, and the partner relationships have continued throughout the year. If I feel like one of our players needs something that only a teammate can provide, I'll go to her partner.

Charleston Southern: We used to give players just one goal during the preseason, which was to run a mile in a minimum time. We wanted to preserve this important conditioning goal, but make it part of our Big South Challenge--and run it on a surface that would accommodate our players recovering from knee injuries. The result was our "16x100 Challenge," which was a mile run broken down into 16 100-yard dashes on our turf field--the number 16 being the number of regular season conference games we play. Team members had to complete the back and forth run in a given time (6:30, 6:45, or 7:00 depending on their past performance) to accomplish the challenge.

Gardner-Webb: We wanted one challenge to test each athlete's will, so we came up with the "Circle to Circle Run." Starting at the traffic circle at our main campus entrance, the players ran one-quarter mile uphill to the next traffic circle, and back down to where they started. The players had to complete eight circle to circle runs in 32 minutes in order to complete this challenge.

The fact that the challenge took place at our school's entrance had obvious significance, and the eight runs equaled our eight conference foes. This was probably the most difficult of the challenges and brought out the importance of having the toughness to fight when it's hard.

Radford: Our "Weight Room Challenge" was key to getting our young players to embrace the importance of strength training. On our first day in the weight room, each player was tested in the vertical jump, bench press, pull up, and squat/leg press. They were then given goals on how much they needed to improve in each area: one-half inch on their vertical, 10 pounds on their bench press, one on their pull up, and 20 pounds on their squat/leg press. This helped our players have a purpose every time they went into the weight room.

Liberty: While the 16x100 runs challenged our athletes' endurance, we also wanted to measure their sport-specific conditioning. This on-court sprint workout was called "24/24". Our players were required to run down and back the full-length of the court twice in 24 seconds. And they had to do this 24 times. During the first 12 twice-down-and-back sprints, players were given 30 seconds of rest in between. For the last 12, they rested one minute. If a player missed the 24 second goal in any rep, she failed the challenge and would have to try again.

High Point: For this next conditioning challenge, we moved suicides to a 100-yard field. That translated to athletes running 100 yards and back, 75 and back, 50 and back, 25 and back. We called it the "Big South Shuttle." Guards were required to complete it in 1:40, with posts needing to finish in 2:00. They ran eight total, with 1:30 rest in between. We again used the number eight to represent the number of conference opponents.

We often talk about how every game is important and no one opponent is any more important than another. We highlighted this concept with the eight shuttle runs--players had to finish all eight runs in the set time to complete the challenge.

Winthrop: To emphasize the importance of nutrition to our athletes, we included a "Nutrition Challenge." For four weeks, we required that they eat three meals and one healthy snack a day and have their department-issued water bottle with them at all times. While we didn't actually have them meet us for meals, we did ask them to produce their water bottle at random times.

We combined the nutrition challenge with a "taking care of yourself" challenge, and required those athletes nursing injuries to comply with their prescriptions. That meant no missed appointments in the athletic training room, required heat before and ice after workouts, and proper stretching.

Presbyterian: The last challenge was for each player to write a "Letter of Recommendation" for herself, an idea I got from Pat Summitt (Head Women's Basketball Coach at the University of Tennessee). I thought it was a great way to get players to think about and communicate what they intend to do with their athletic opportunity. The athletes wrote the letter in third person, as though they were speaking on behalf of themselves.

To help them with this assignment, I provided questions for them to answer, which were different for each class. This was important because each player is in a different place in her career and should be providing something different.

Freshmen: Why do you deserve to be a member of this program? What do you plan to bring to the table? How will you improve our program?

Sophomores: Why should you be promoted and brought into a more reliable role? How will your contribution be different than a year ago?

Juniors: What is required for you to become the face of the program? Why should you be promoted into a leadership role? How has your experience in this program made you ready for more responsibility?

Seniors: Why should you be moved into ownership? What will you do with your knowledge and experience to own the 2008-09 season?

This helped them think about their personal goals, and how those goals related to the seven other challenges. It also has been very informative for us as coaches. During the season, we have often reminded athletes of what they told us they intended to bring to this year's team.

THE RESULTS
During our first team meeting of the year, we stated our goal of being regular season conference champions and presented the Big South Challenge to our athletes. We explained the logistics and that they would not be allowed to begin regular-season practice until they had completed all eight challenges.

Their eyes got big, and they asked questions. Some were excited, some were doubtful, some were motivated, and some were scared. As they left the meeting, there was a lot of buzz. They began discussing which would be the hardest challenge and which would be the easiest. I heard "What traffic circle is she talking about?" and "I can't increase my bench by 10 pounds!"

We posted a chart in the locker room with each player's name and the challenges. After completing a challenge, that player would get a sticker placed by her name and challenge. It definitely helped each player to see how she and her teammates were progressing through the challenges.

Two of our players completed every challenge on the first attempt. Four players had to be saved from a challenge because they couldn't do it or had an injury. But, as a team, each athlete completed all eight challenges on time, earning the right to practice as a full squad on October 17.

On that date, the players were proud of what they accomplished and ready for the next challenge. They had bonded as a team and were psyched to face each conference opponent on the court, now that they had beaten them off the court. They knew what their goals were, thanks to the letter of recommendation.

As coaches, we also started the season with a lot more insight into our players. We found out who the leaders really were, who's afraid of a challenge, who welcomes a challenge, and who cares for her teammates. I learned a lot about our freshman class, including that they're more capable of performing when the going gets rough than I thought.

Our season is just beginning as I write this article, and our preseason is behind us. But the eight challenges will continue to be with us every game we play, and with every conference opponent we face.