The following was sent by a local coach about the Floresveille coach and program following the impressive showing in the South San tournament this past weekend. Floresville beat San Antonio's Top 10 ranked Antonian for the championship. I found the correspondence interesting because I was informed of how good Greg McWilliams was as a coach and a person by different coach last week. The conversation touched on the fact that McWilliams is a very good and underrated coach in the region and would get more respect at a higher profile school. Apparently, he has many admirers. The email follows:
-The Floresville girls team has the BEST pre-game warm-up I've ever seen since I've been coaching (8 years)! Reason being, because it is on another level with their INTENSITY. The assistant coaches/managers are out there so the girls can block them out on a drill,or for a defensive decoy, or to be a passer, all while they are still MOTIVATING the girls. The drills they do are very disciplined and you feel like you're watching an actual PRACTICE (you practice the way you play)because of how hard they are going!...and they go JUST AS HARD in the game!
-At halftime, while other teams are WALKING out of the locker room, this team SPRINTS out of the locker room and continues to run sideways sprints for 2 minutes all the way up until game time!
-The players on the bench repeat EVERYTHING the coach says...so if he calls out a defense such as "2-3!" ,the girls on the bench will immediately follow like parrots, screaming "2-3!", if he calls an offense, inbounds play, sideline play, you name it...they repeat it...COMMUNICATION!!!
-During Timeouts, all people on the bench, including coaches/managers are required to stand, even on a 30-sec timeout...during full timeouts, the players on the bench and asst. coaches form an arm weaving half moon around the coach (symbolizing unity), while the players on the court are sitting and the coach is bent down below the half moon discussing their next move!
-Each time they substitute, they hand each other a rope or what looked like it, (which reminded me of when I was in school,we used to do the same thing, we had this inspirational piece called HOLD THE ROPE, which meant if one person lets go of the rope, we all FALL!)So I'm assuming the rope was symbolic...if it was,LOVED IT!
-I LOVE THIS COACH! When they won the tournament, and they were being awarded with their trophy, the coach took a backseat, and let his girls have the spotlight. He was just sitting back(literally) watching his players' hard work pay off like a proud papa! The way his program was in both of the games I watched made me want to see more of their games!
-Another reason I wanted to see more, was a player named Erica Hernandez...or #13 as I remember her! She is a killer! Her team won the Tournament Championship, and she was their MVP,literally! She was extremely savvy, and had many weapons in her arsenal! She can shoot the three...wait, let me rephrase that, she can KILL you from the three...if you take away the three, she can shoot the mid-range jumper...if you try close out on her, she will punish you off the dribble! In transition, she's UNSTOPPABLE!!!...while the other team is celebrating a bucket by JOGGING back...all you hear from the stands is "WHO HAS #13!?!?"...which of course is too late every time because by the time the players hear it, she already scored and is running back on defense! She shows no emotion, she just goes to work!
-In all, I am just very impressed with the coach, the Floresville girls' basketball program, and #13...they are ALL of a reflection of each other,... and a GREAT one I might add!
