Oct. 20, 2005
ATLANTA – The 2005-06 Georgia Tech women’s basketball team began the preseason with a trip to Berry College in Rome, Ga., to participate in team-building exercise over a two-day period. Members of the team, coaching staff and support staff attended the retreat, which began Sunday afternoon and concluded Monday evening.
A few photos from the trip can be found by clicking here: Photo Gallery
The Yellow Jackets left Alexander Memorial Coliseum Sunday afternoon for the quick hour-long drive north into the base of the north-Georgia mountains, where Berry College is located. Upon arrival, the team had dinner and then participated in a low-wall team-building exercise in which their assigned task was to work as a team in getting everyone from one side of a wall to the other side, by going over the top of the wall. It was easier for some than others! After this mission was completed, the team retreated to the cabins for an evening of conversation and, for some, sleep.
The next morning, after eating breakfast, the sleepy (and cold) team then headed for the river, where they embarked upon a two-hour canoeing trip. The group was divided into twos, and each team worked at getting down-river while helping other teams to attain the same goal: to finish. After several spills in the frigid water and a couple of lost items, the team got to the end, where they then hauled their canoes up an embankment to load onto the waiting trailers. After finishing the task, they returned to the Berry campus for some lunch and their final activity of the trip.
After finishing lunch and a quick drying out for those people that had taken a dip in the cold river, the team had the opportunity to either zip-line through the woods, or participate in a swing-exercise in the same area. Several of the players that attended the Yellow Jackets’ trip to Costa Rica the previous season chose the swinging exercise since they had zip-lined before, but were in for a surprise when they realized that it involved climbing halfway up a tree and essentially stepping off a platform. Others chose the zip-line, which also involved climbing the tree, but instead of stepping off a platform, they could sit down and push themselves off. The goal was to have every player do at least one of the two exercises, no matter how uncomfortable it was, by having the rest of the team help by encouraging them that they could do it.
After completing one, or for some, both, of the exercises, the team gathered one more time to discuss analogies between the events of the two days and the team as a whole. Several players and coaches shared specific things that they could find draw comparisons between, but as a whole, sophomore point guard Jill Ingram summed it up best when she said that she was happy that the entire team, the entire coaching staff, the entire women’s basketball support staff, along with the auxiliary staff was a part of this preseason trip because working together is the only way that this team can accomplish its goals this season.
*This is the first of several “entries” this season describing the team’s events leading up to the first game of the season. Beginning next week, members of the Yellow Jackets’ team will submit diary entries detailing what has been going on this preseason, as well as what they are looking forward to in the coming year. Keep coming back to ramblinwreck.com to see what the Yellow Jackets are up to this fall!
