Taylor Vigil: The Right First Steps

Welcome fans, family and friends!! If you have been following Sonoma State women’s basketball, then I am sure you have been excitingly informed of our victory in overtime over the Colorado Mesa Mavericks with a 55-54 score on Saturday. Your support for our team has been greatly appreciated and speaking on behalf of the team and coaching staff, we only hope to see you in the near future at our upcoming home games!!

Starting this season off on the right foot has been key for our team collectively. In my last blog I talked momentarily about where success began for us and how the foundation, aka our pre-season, is vital. It is something to build on in hopes to potentially reach our destiny and it showed on Saturday that by building on everything we have worked for, victory becomes a reality.

Saturday's win over the Mavs felt immense. It was not until Saturday night that I recall back to the time during in pre-season when, not only my teammates, but my coaches constantly reminded me that with hard work comes reward. The times of hard training and conditioning, the times of working so hard that you had to look to your teammate beside you to try and pull that second wind out of you to go on, and the times of realizing how important it is to take care of the ‘little details’, that I realized and felt those times paid off. Apart of this reward of winning through hard work and perseverance to never quit, was the simplest fact that I was endowed with this win alongside my teammates and coaches. They were the people who helped me get to this point in time, who helped me push myself to get to gain such an accomplishment like beating the Mavs, who helped me to allow the mistakes of the game only be used as my incentive to bounce back and be a difference within the next play and who helped me instill the confidence that I needed to do so.

The wins we have accomplished and, especially the win over the Mavs, was never about one individual, nor one individual for one play; it was about all five individuals out on the floor working through each possession together. It was about the bench working as a unit talking about the flow of the game, being engaged in the game by cheering on their sisters, and by using words of encouragement to help them realize what needs to be done on the offensive end as well as the defensive end. It was about the coaches who helped us get set up in the right positions and who gave us the confidence to know we would, and could, be successful during the times we were. It was about the fight we had together to never give up for 40 minutes. This team has had a small taste in just a short time of what it is like to not only ‘talk’ about being successful, but actually become successful.

Before every game I like to write some words of encouragement to my teammates to remind them about what our main focus was on during the past week in practice. I let them know that myself, as well as the other girls on the team and the coaches all believe in them and that they are capable of bringing their talents to life during the game. This last game, I used a basketball quote by an unknown author to start off my letter. The quote says:

“Love the game. Love the game for the pure joy of accomplishment. Love the game for everything it can teach you about yourself. Love the game for the feeling of belonging to a group endeavoring to do its best. Love the game for being involved in a team whose members can't wait to see you do your best. Love the game for the challenge of working harder than you ever have at something and then harder than that. Love the game because it takes all team members to give it life. Love the game because at its best, the game tradition will include your contributions. Love the game because you belong to a long line of fine athletes who have loved it. It is now your legacy. Love the game so much that you will pass on your love of the game to another athlete who has seen your dedication, your work, your challenges, your triumphs and then that athlete will, because of you, love the game.”

I used this quote as a metaphor to implant this idea in my sisters that we are a team just like any other team out there, working for a common goal and doing what we love. With that, I went onto say that while mistakes are bound to happen throughout the game, it is how well we deal with those mistakes. It is our “love for the game” that takes away the possessions of frustration and miscommunication. Our love of the game is what brings us to where we are now, our love of the game allows us to compete and have this sense of urgency to simply get the job done and it is our love of the game that allows us to never quit on ourselves or one another and it is our love of the game that lead us to victory. I am so proud of my teammates for everything they have done, been doing and helped me with. I only look forward to what the future brings.

I hope all of you fans stay tuned for more information regarding SSU women’s basketball and come watch us play at our next home games. But, be sure to check us out when we travel to Humboldt to play the Lumberjacks on November 26!!