Women's Basketball Recap!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: I think what I most hope that I left my mark on is I, like, helped to establish, like, first and foremost, we're playing for Christ and we're playing to reflect his character on the court, and that should always be number one. [00:00:15] Speaker B: Welcome, everybody, to the Emmaus official podcast in the nest. I'm your co host, Shane Douglas. Away, gone far away, stuck in the snow blizzard is Matthew Thomason. Currently. Shout out to you, Matthew, we love you. Wish you were here. But instead of Matthew, we have Anna Harwood that is here with us today. Say hello, Anna. [00:00:37] Speaker A: Hello, everyone. [00:00:38] Speaker B: Anna is a senior on the women's basketball team here at Emmaus Bible College, and we're gonna talk about sports with her. We're gonna talk about basketball. [00:00:47] Speaker A: Yes. [00:00:48] Speaker B: So in today's episode, we're gonna talk about. We're gonna be able to talk to Anna about women's basketball as well as coach Sharon Tomlinson. So we're going to get right into it. But first off, thank you, everyone, for listening to us today and just having taken minutes out of your day, either if it's in the morning right at 09:00 or if it's in the evening or in your living room, just like Mary Ellen as well as Andy do. So shout out to the festlers, we love you guys. But, Anna, how are you doing today? [00:01:25] Speaker C: I'm doing pretty good. [00:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:26] Speaker A: Thank you for having me. [00:01:27] Speaker B: Yeah, welcome. Welcome to in the nest. It's great to have you. We love this. So, Anna, for everyone who might not know, haven't got to meet and meet you yet. This is Anna. So there we go. Tell us a little about yourself. How did you, how did you. Where'd you grow up? Where'd you grow up? Where are you from? [00:01:43] Speaker A: So I'm from New Berlin, Wisconsin. I just say Milwaukee because no one knows where New Berlin is. Okay, so I don't know where New Berlin is. [00:01:50] Speaker B: How far out from Milwaukee is it? [00:01:51] Speaker A: It's like 15 minutes outside of Milwaukee. [00:01:54] Speaker B: Oh, so you're like, you are Milwaukee, basically in Milwaukee. Okay, cool, cool. [00:01:58] Speaker A: So that's where I grew up. [00:01:59] Speaker B: Okay. And then did you. You went to pub, did you go public school or. [00:02:02] Speaker A: I went to public school in elementary, and then I was homeschooled after starting in fourth grade, and then I home schooled all the way through. [00:02:08] Speaker B: All the way through. And did you play basketball? How'd you get into basketball? [00:02:11] Speaker A: Yeah, so my mom's side of the family is super. Like, basketball's our sport. So my grandpa, like, kind of coached all his grandkids, and so I grew up playing with my cousins and going to other games, but I didn't start playing competitively until my 8th grade year. I started, I got into a rec league, and then I enjoyed it, but I didn't think I'd play in high school, actually, until I found out about a homeschool league that I could join and play varsity basketball. [00:02:39] Speaker B: There was a fun. Did you have a good time? [00:02:41] Speaker A: Yeah, it was great, but I wasn't even planning on playing in high school. Basketball was just a fun thing I did. Ended up doing it and loved it, and that was kind of where I met a lot of my, like, core friends in high school and just learned to really love the game and grow as a player and, yeah, played all four years for. [00:02:59] Speaker B: So how. Where does that connect with how Christ found you? [00:03:03] Speaker A: Like, my testimony? [00:03:04] Speaker B: Yeah, well, sure. Yeah, yeah, exactly. [00:03:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, basically. So, yeah, I grew up in a christian home. My family is just, like, really solid. And I just, like, always grew up knowing the gospel. I never remember, like, not knowing Jesus or not believing in Jesus. I just always did. And so I just, my faith, like, grew stronger just as I kept learning. And I was involved in tons of church activities. [00:03:31] Speaker C: So. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Juana, Sunday school, my parents were super involved in the church. That was just a huge blessing. I love that, to have their example of, like, what it looks like to be involved in the church and have good relationships. And so most of my friends were all in the church, and you just learned a lot from my family. And my sister was a huge influence on me. My older sister, she just loved the Lord. Her faith was so strong, and so she taught me. I feel like almost everything I know about God and theology, but obviously not everything, but it feels like that sometimes. So, yeah, she just really pushed me to know my, understand what I believe for myself and not just believing what my parents, you know, taught me growing up, but, like, looking at the Bible and saying, what do I believe? And so, yeah, that just really, like, just strengthened my relationship with the Lord. And, yeah, I've just learned so much. [00:04:22] Speaker C: Along the way, and I think that's awesome. [00:04:25] Speaker B: I love that you had that community around you growing up, and it really helped you. It shows a lot, honestly. And that's a great testimony. And a lot of people grow up in christian families. They're blessed with that. And they believe that because they grew up in a christian family. They don't have a testimony because they didn't get into drugs or alcohol or. Or, you know, have that rough past that, like, their testimony is boring, but that's not boring at all. What you just shared was not boring. And what it is, is it's a testimony to the Lord's goodness. [00:04:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:52] Speaker B: So thank you for sharing that. That is amazing. And then through that, you know, throughout, I guess, high school and all that encouragement and mentorship of your family and people around you got into basketball. How did you find Emmaus? Where did that come from? [00:05:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it's kind of random. I. So I went to a. So I graduated in 2018, and then I went to a, like, gap year program overseas, so I went to Australia. [00:05:15] Speaker B: Oh, I didn't even know this. That's cool. How long? A year? [00:05:18] Speaker A: I was there six months. [00:05:20] Speaker B: Okay. [00:05:20] Speaker A: So I went to a Bible school called Torch bearers there, and that was kind of. [00:05:25] Speaker B: Where did that come from? Like, how'd you go there? [00:05:28] Speaker A: Well, my family likes to say that I, like, turned the globe and picked the farthest place from home, but that's not true. I just thought Australia was really cool. [00:05:37] Speaker B: Everyone loves. [00:05:37] Speaker A: Yeah. I think my sister, again, encouraged me because she was like, you should go to Bible school, Anna. Because I didn't know what I wanted to do after high school, and I'm like, I guess I could do that. And she's like, don't just go in states. Like, go out of the states. [00:05:49] Speaker B: Oh. [00:05:50] Speaker A: And so she, like, she encouraged me to do that. [00:05:52] Speaker B: Get out. [00:05:52] Speaker A: Yeah, go. Get out of here. Yeah. So I was like, okay, let's do this. So I just looked up Australia because that was the first one. [00:06:00] Speaker B: Really? Okay. [00:06:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I just, like, it just hit me. I'm like, okay, let's check it out. And I looked at it, and it was, like, the first thing after high school that I was excited about. [00:06:07] Speaker B: Wow. [00:06:07] Speaker A: Like, I saw what they. What the school was about, and I was like, I want to do this. And I'm like, I'm terrified, but I'm also so excited, and so that's kind of what pushed me. [00:06:15] Speaker B: So you're there for six months? [00:06:17] Speaker A: Yep. [00:06:17] Speaker B: Studied the bible. Had a good time. Where you were in Australia, was it? [00:06:21] Speaker A: It was, like 2 hours outside of Sydney. [00:06:22] Speaker B: Okay. So near the city ish, but far away from the outback. Fair enough. [00:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it wasn't. Definitely was not outback. [00:06:29] Speaker B: And you had a great time? [00:06:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it was amazing. I met, like, awesome people, like, just grew so much in my faith and, like, really saw how the lord, like, used my gifts to, like, serve other people and minister to other people and how he'll equip you in those moments to, like, be able to do things that you wouldn't have thought you'd been able to do so. [00:06:45] Speaker B: But they didn't have basketball. [00:06:47] Speaker A: They didn't. Yeah. [00:06:48] Speaker B: So that's the problem. [00:06:50] Speaker A: I know they didn't have a hoop, and I would shoot outside and I'd, like, play one on one with people, but no competitive team, unfortunately, so. [00:06:57] Speaker B: Is that. So I'm guessing that's not ex. Maybe it was, but what brought you back to the stage? What brought you to Emmaus after that? [00:07:04] Speaker A: It connects, because I didn't mean to go into this. [00:07:07] Speaker B: No, you're good. You're good. [00:07:08] Speaker A: Next. Because I. When I got back home, I was like, I don't know what I want to do now. I kind of felt like I was back where I had started, like, after high school, but I was like, I knew that what I loved was when I was learning about God's word, and I knew that no matter what, like, that time wasn't wasted. Like, I was, like, I was learning about things that would affect my whole life and that I would never, like, be, like, I wasted that money because it's not a waste of money to be learning about God's word. And so I was like, maybe I started looking at schools in the states that I could go to to kind of continue what I had been learning in Australia. And so I looked up schools, just Bible schools in the, like, Midwest or. I think that's what I searched. And, like, emmaus came up, and I had never heard of Emmaus. And I'm like, oh, dubuque. Like, that's not that far. And then I happened to go on the website, and I saw that do weekend was happening, and so I signed up to go to Duke because I'm. [00:07:58] Speaker B: Like, what'd you do? Was it. [00:08:00] Speaker A: It was fall of 2019, okay. And I went and I had, like, so many girls. [00:08:05] Speaker B: That was my senior year. [00:08:06] Speaker A: Was it really? Oh, my goodness. So I was there, and I was, like, playing basketball with the girls on the team. Like, I met them. I met Tiffany Williams, and she, like, we talked for, like, 30 minutes. And, like, the amount of, like, good conversations I had with people, like, it was, like, so cool. Like, it wasn't just, like, surface y, like, oh, nice to meet you. It was, like, I had, like, really deep, like, just encouraging discussions, and I was like, oh, like, I want to be here. Like, this is cool. [00:08:30] Speaker B: I love hearing that because we just had to last weekend. I'm still recovering. It was a lot. There's a lot of late nights, a lot of planning, putting together, running around. It was great. It was fantastic. We had a record number of 200 people on campus, the guests visiting this campus, and it was awesome. It was amazing. So. And a lot of people afterwards were encouraged with that same mindset of just the conversations and the relationships, seeing the relationships, you know? Of course, you're not gonna get a whole, you know, experience, but you're gonna get a taste. Yeah, you're gonna get a taste, and, yeah, you're gonna. It's gonna be something that you want more of, you know? So. So you love. Do. Yeah, I'm coming here next year. [00:09:14] Speaker A: Yeah. I was like, I think I'm gonna come here. And they had a program that I was interested in, and so I was kind of, like. I decided, but I was kind of going back and forth with it because I ended up deciding I didn't want to do the program initially. I was initially thinking I would do one of the programs with NICC in the medical field kind of thing and decided I wasn't gonna do that. So I'm like, do I still want to go? And I was convinced by the admissions team to come for the. [00:09:43] Speaker B: Who's your admissions counselor? [00:09:44] Speaker A: Kyle guerra. [00:09:45] Speaker B: Okay. [00:09:46] Speaker A: Yeah. So he convinced me. He's like, come for one year. Like, just play basketball. Just see how you like it. [00:09:52] Speaker B: So you came fall 2020, bad year. Okay, we won't get into that. Let's not get into that. For women's basketball and for the one year Bible program. And you're graduating four years later. [00:10:06] Speaker A: Yeah. It's crazy. [00:10:07] Speaker B: In counseling psychology, correct? [00:10:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:09] Speaker B: So just right there. Testimony of its own, you know? Come for that Bible. See what? See if Emmaus has anything for you. I love that. That's a great story. [00:10:17] Speaker A: Classic. The classic Emmaus story where I came for one year, and then I said, I'll come for another year, just be two years. And then here I am, four years later. [00:10:25] Speaker B: So talk. Talk to me through freshman year to senior year. The first off, like, the community, how you seen its growth here, but then also make a transition to basketball and how the culture and the team has grew, too. [00:10:39] Speaker A: Yeah. I think for me, like, my mas journey is, like, so interesting because of COVID Like, it just has changed so much. And so when I think about, like, my freshman year, it's not at all the mas I know today. And so it's even hard to, like, associate them as the same thing. [00:10:53] Speaker B: It's better, you mean? [00:10:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's so much better. But, like, obviously, COVID naturally, like, limited the amount people I got to, like. [00:11:00] Speaker B: Interact with, and that's sad is I hear from a lot of seniors that, like, they struggled the first two years because a lot of it was because of COVID But ever since, we've recovered fully now and having a great freshman class come in, which we'll get into, and how that has affected the women's team and the culture, but the. The fact that you guys are graduating and you got, like, you got another taste, another taste of, you know, emmaus and the culture and the community that we have here with the traditions coming back to life and everything, and you're like, dang, I want to start now. [00:11:37] Speaker A: I feel like I missed out a little bit. Like, it feels like this is so sad that I only got, like, two years of it, but still very thankful. And it's been obvious that the Lord has wanted me. Like, he has kept me here. He's provided for me to be here. So I know this is, like, where he has me. [00:11:51] Speaker B: And when I graduated 2020, I felt like I got cut short, and I was, like, so bitter. I was like, this sucks. But then I didn't really think about the freshman. I didn't think about, like, yeah, I got cut short my second semester, senior year. There's gonna be awesome. But then thinking about the freshman, thinking what you guys went through, you guys got cut short, like, two and a half years. [00:12:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is extremely tough to get back to normal. [00:12:11] Speaker B: And, man, I mean, honestly, I would trade. I would trade. I would. I would take getting cut short a semester over that, but that sucks. Anyways, enough of COVID Enough of that. But, like, talk to me. So you saw the culture develop and the traditions come back, and you're. You just want to save in long, and I love to hear that, of course, you don't want to, like, pay any longer, but you want to stay for the culture, community and everything. Yeah, but how has. What about the women's basketball team? What were the. Some changes, the growth that you've seen since freshman year? [00:12:43] Speaker A: So it's. The team has changed so much since I first came in, and obviously, there's been, like, again, coaching, there's been changes and just the amount of players that have come through during that time as you. [00:12:54] Speaker B: As you side eye coaches. [00:12:59] Speaker A: So, like, yeah, I started with my freshman year was Heather Kennard, and then Sharon came in my sophomore year, and so. And also, just like, I think the dynamics of the upperclassmen was just very different on the team, and it was not, like, what I was used to on a team sport. And so that just was, like, an adjustment coming in just. Yeah, I would say it just didn't feel super cohesive. Yeah. My freshman and sophomore year was kind of more of a struggle for me to fit in with the team. And I would say, like, overall, we worked well enough on the court, but, like, it didn't feel like we really had, like, developed, like, really strong relationships outside of basketball, and I'm kind of in it for the relationships. Like, I love, like, yes, I love basketball, but I love, like, just team building and, like, meeting new people, friendships, and all those things. And so I think that was, like, really hard for me that it wasn't just, like, an easy click for me to get into the team, but it changed my. My junior year, and it was, like, a crazy year because we had so many injuries. We had, like, five people most of. [00:14:02] Speaker C: The year, so super stressful. [00:14:03] Speaker B: I remember that. [00:14:04] Speaker A: Yep. It was, yeah. Really tough. Definitely one of the hardest seasons, and, like, in the sense of, like, just physically, it was hard on us because we'd have to play all the time and people were getting hurt and stuff like that. But it was really neat to see, like, how, like, really rough circumstances can, like, bring people together. [00:14:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:21] Speaker A: And there was all these random people on the team, and at first, I'm like, how is this gonna work? Like, we're all so different, but yet, like, cool to see, like, how we could. Even through our struggles, we were able to, like, come together and become friends and become a team, and that was. It was fun. Like, there was. There was good moments even in, like, how difficult of a season it was, so. And I think that carried even more over into this year. This past season was by far my favorite, like, season. And, like, even though it didn't translate necessarily into the way I'd hoped with, like, the amount of, like, wins, I guess. [00:14:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:54] Speaker A: Like, I just love what we did as a team and developing, like, good team culture and just, like, we kept our priorities. [00:15:02] Speaker B: Like, you won in the regular season. [00:15:04] Speaker A: We did. Yeah, exactly. Like, it was improvement from there. And, like, also, we were, like, all the games we played were, like, close. Like, my junior year, it was a lot of blowouts because of the situation, but this year, yeah, we don't need to go there, but this year, like, we were in it, and, like, that felt so good to be, like, we're a competitor and to just see that, like. Like, we had so much, like, we have potential and, like, we're growing and, like, we all, like, just stayed close. Like, there was never a division in the team. There was never, like, this drama that I feel like would happen. Like it would have happened previously on the team, but it just didn't happen this year, and that was amazing. [00:15:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Seeing that, the growth, like, I see the comparisons of your time here at Emmaus as a student and as a student athlete. So it's extremely tough, especially coming in to a program. The women's program is known, like, our legacy as a program is known to be winners, you know, to. To win. [00:15:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:59] Speaker B: Um, being one of the. I think we're still even. We're on the losing drought, but we're still one of the top teams in the conference when it comes to, um, titles, et cetera, within the last decade. So, no, it may be known for women's basketball prior to, I guess, 2020, uh, or 2020. Yeah, 2020, I think. And then having. Having some rough years, and a lot of it had to do with outside sources, outside reasons, not inside that affected it. I'm sure it's tough, but, like, with that legacy of Emmaus and our women's women, are Emmaus women's team being known for such a competitive team in the past, what is. What is, um. What is something that you feel like the freshman this year that you've seen have. Can bring that, or I guess, bring that back? You know, you see, we see this freshman class being, you know, a lot of strong athletes, but a lot of strong characters. [00:17:00] Speaker A: Are you referring to the freshmen that will be coming in next season, next season, this season, or more like the freshman from. [00:17:06] Speaker B: From this season, last season, et cetera? Just like, I guess, going off of first off, like, I guess, your legacy and what you want to leave here, but talk on that first. [00:17:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I think what I most hope that I left my mark on is I hope that I helped to establish, like, first and foremost, we're playing for Christ, and we're playing to reflect his character on the court. That should always be number one. And I think that we did a really good job of that this season. And all the girl, like, we were all, like, minded about that, and we ultimately wanted to, like, serve each other and care for each other. Like, that was our first goal, and then it's like, yes, we also want to be excellent in how we play basketball, but if we're neglecting our teammates, if we're, you know, not. Not giving honor to the Lord by. In how we act, then we failed, like. And so I think that we really did a good job of that this year of showing what's most important. And so I would hope that that is kind of the legacy that keeps going that, yeah, we have this culture of, we have fun together, we're goofy together. We get. We work hard, we push each other, we challenge each other, and we keep each other accountable. We call each other out when we see, you know, behavior, that this is not healthy, this is not good team behavior. And so I guess that I hope that that culture stays, that culture of silliness, like, enjoying each other, like unity. There's just a lot of unity this year, and so that's something that I hope, and I'm very hopeful of, that it will carry. I really think it will carry over, not, not just because of what I've done. I think it was a whole team thing. It was. Obviously, I tried to lead in that way and show that example, but just the group of girls that we had really did an excellent job of setting that tone. [00:18:49] Speaker B: Now, if when these freshmen. When these. When we look back, when. When the. The girls on team now today look back, come their senior junior years and they remember, you remember Anna Harwood, you know, the senior, you know, the person who poured into us that was there to help. How do you want. What do you want to follow your name? What do you want? What. What sentences? What words do you want to follow? Anna Harwood. [00:19:16] Speaker A: Wow, that's a tough. [00:19:17] Speaker B: And even off the court and what you were on the. On the dorm halls, you know, dorm floors. [00:19:23] Speaker A: Yeah. I hope that when they think of me, that they're like, she truly loved the Lord, and she strived to show that following Christ is not something we just do off the court. That is something that, when we step on the court, it's the same. It has to be in all aspects of our life. And how I do my schoolwork and how I play basketball and how I interact with people, it all has to be the same. I can't say, well, I follow the Lord, and I'm trying to emulate his character, but the minute I step on the court, I can be mad at someone because they didn't give me a good pass, and I can yell at the ref because they didn't give me a call I liked. It has to be consistent. I would really hope that they would see that consistency in my life, that I was grounded in, that, hopefully that I love people and I strive to, like, serve them and encourage people. That was kind of, like, my goal. [00:20:23] Speaker C: For this year was just to be. [00:20:24] Speaker A: Someone who, like, encouraged my teammates and just built them up. [00:20:28] Speaker B: And you did. You got an award for it. I'm forgetting. [00:20:33] Speaker A: That was a really good segue. [00:20:34] Speaker B: It was the name. The name of the word was the. [00:20:38] Speaker A: Game plan for life. [00:20:39] Speaker B: Game plan for life. [00:20:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Character award. [00:20:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And you won a scholarship last year. [00:20:43] Speaker A: I did, yeah. [00:20:44] Speaker B: So for basketball and just, you know, being a good person, you know, so you. You won that, you know, and you. So I would say that, like, that legacy has been. Has been made, you know? You know, and that's on you, and maybe that's some encouragement for the. The next class, the other. The young women out there. There are in collegiate sports athletes is to be consistent, would you say so? [00:21:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. And, like, it's just neat to see that, like, you might not see the fruit right away. Like, like. Like I said, the first couple years of basketball were hard, but. And I didn't necessarily see, like, I'm trying so hard to do the right things, but I don't necessarily see, like, the fruit of my work, I guess. But I've just really seen how, like. Like, it has. It has come, like, the Lord has brought it, like, to the end, and I did even be, like, honored with that, those, like, awards. And just to see that other people can see that this is, like, such a blessing to know that, like, people notice that and that I kept the priorities, like, where they needed to be, because ultimately, it was less about my performance and more about, like, how I acted. [00:21:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:49] Speaker A: As I played. [00:21:50] Speaker B: So now they hear. People hear from me and Matt and the coaches all the time of why they should come to mas. But we were quickly, quickly, how would you say. What would you say to any young athletes out there interested in women's basketball or, you know, other. Why they should choose a mas? [00:22:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say, like, come to a mas for, like, don't come to Emmaus because basketball is the number one thing in your life. Like, come to Emmaus because you want to, like, first off, like, learn more about who God is and be encouraged by just a community that prioritizes him and professors and classes that are gonna, like, sharpen you and, like, help you to learn and grow, but then also you get this, like, amazing bonus of, like. And you get to play a sport that you love, and you get to, like, as you play the sport, you get to be discipled by your teammates, by your coaches who will pour into you, and they don't see you as just a basketball player. Like, they see you as, like, your person, and they care about you as a person. And so I guess, like, that's just, like, awesome, because basketball, it's not like, like, I'm, like, I'm more than my athletic performance, and I really feel like Emmaus does an amazing job at that. They see you as, first off, just like, someone who follows the Lord and wanting to help you in your walk with Christ and just strengthen you as a person. And I've really just been blessed by that, by our coaches this year. I feel like they've really poured into me, helped me to be a leader, encouraged me, cared about my. What's going on in my life. And so I guess for people who are considering a mass, that would be my encouragement to them is like. Like, what an amazing community to be a part of and what an amazing opportunity. [00:23:30] Speaker B: So, I love that. No, that's. That's a great answer. [00:23:33] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:23:33] Speaker B: And we went far be over time, but that's. And that's completely fine. I always go over time. You know, they always say, shane, don't go too long. You know, it's just good conversations. You know, I want to hear more about you, and so do the people listening. But thank you, Anna, for, you know, having. Spending some time for us or with us today. And you're gonna be graduating this. This spring. [00:23:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:54] Speaker B: And I'm. A month and a half month. No, less than a month and a half. Yeah, by, like, 40 days. You're. You're out of here, but you're gonna be leaving the team with. We got some stats here. 674 total points, but more impressive, you're 72% on free throw, 72 and a half on your free throws, as well as your. Your three point percentage increased every year, but with a total of. With all combined, 28.3. But this last season was 30. Yeah, 30. Almost 31. Honestly, we'll say 31%. But you were a great athlete on the court, you know, a great addition to the team and the culture, but even off the court, as well, from, you know, my relationship with you is from what I know and what I hear from professors and other students. So thank you, Anna, for spending time with us today, and hopefully everyone got to know you a little bit more. Next up is the head women's coach, Sharon Thomason. But thank you, Anna, for your time. [00:24:55] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for having me. [00:24:56] Speaker B: Thank you. And welcome back, everybody. I'm Shane Douglas again, I guess you already know that since you've. You just watched the transition from Anna Harwood. Great interview. Love her. She's awesome. Great addition. This is coach Sharon Thomason. Family. You're family of the show. I am because of Matt. Well, that, too. You're familiar with the show, but you're also family because of Matt. If you don't know. Matt, our co hosts, who everyone loves, who is actually. He's not stuck in the. The snow anymore. Colorado. But they're in where. I know where that is. Either way, brother sisters right here. So both from Wyoming, of course. Did you guys, were you born in Wyoming? [00:25:43] Speaker C: Yeah, we were born in Jackson. [00:25:45] Speaker B: No. Yeah. And then you guys did. You didn't go to the small Bible college? [00:25:49] Speaker C: No, I didn't. [00:25:50] Speaker B: But Matt didn't you just like, hey, you went to Ms. I'll come. [00:25:53] Speaker C: I was still in high school when I was there. Yeah. [00:25:55] Speaker B: Did you go to do as well? [00:25:56] Speaker C: I did. We were just reflecting on that. So this was our due weekend exactly ten years ago. [00:26:02] Speaker B: Really? This date? [00:26:03] Speaker C: Well, not this date. I don't know what day it was, but, like, the spring due of 2014 was when Matthew and I first came and we got introduced to Emmaus, stepped on campus for the first time, and we fell in love with it. [00:26:13] Speaker B: And he came that year. So you both came out? [00:26:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Because he was a year ahead of you. [00:26:18] Speaker C: Well, two years. [00:26:19] Speaker B: Two years ahead of you. Okay. So that's very similar to my sister and I. She was two years older than me, but one year, one grade ahead of me. She was just not the brightest. So. I'm joking. I'm joking. No, her birthday fell on a weird, weird time of the year. But with that said, welcome back, Sharon. It's great having you. We love having you on a show, talking about sports, talking about faith and everything and everything. So we're here to kind of reflect and talk about the basketball season. So this, that's what this episode is really about, is like kind of a little small recap of the women's basketball season, but also trying to get to know some of our players, like Anna Harwood. If you are just tuning in now, if you skip to just watch the recap, please go back, watch that interview was great, hearing more about Anna and everything, but tough season. Can't. I can't sugarcoat it. How do you feel? How do you feel about it? [00:27:13] Speaker C: Yeah. So season ended, what, three weeks ago? Four weeks? [00:27:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:18] Speaker C: I've had time to recover physically and sleep a little bit and get back into a normal work routine. [00:27:24] Speaker B: Well, needed. [00:27:25] Speaker C: Yes, very much. Yeah, it was definitely tough. It's hard when you lose a lot of games in a year and then you come back the next year and you lose a lot of games again. And it's just really difficult to sometimes find the bright spots in that. We went through a lot outside of just games, there's a lot of things outside of basketball that just affected the team throughout the year. So it was definitely a difficult year, but it was a very sweet year, I would say it was within all the difficulties, there was a lot of joy. We had a lot of fun together. We had a lot of fun on the court. Even in some of those games that we lost, there were a few games where just, I mean, Anna or Maddie were draining threes and Hannah would go off or Aaron would go off, you know, someone would just, like, light up the other team. And it was just a lot of fun to be part of those games and to see the girls celebrating each other in the ways that they did. So that's an aspect of sports that maybe you're not winning, but they're still like, it's a lot of fun to play and a lot of fun to be a part of throughout. Yeah, all of that. So hard season. It was really cool. Kind of like what Anna talked about earlier, just how the team dynamic has changed the last few years and how this year kind of settled in. And that is coming, like, mainly from the upperclassmen, from the girls who have been around, really just pushing for the culture that we built. And I'm confident that even though we did graduate a lot of seniors this year, I'm confident that the culture is going to stick around because we still have a really good group coming back and the recruits coming in are like, we recruit based on our culture, and so they're girls who are going to fit well at Emmaus. They're going to fit well with our team, and I think they'll be able to step in naturally and contribute to it right away. [00:29:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I love hearing that and, like, being able to talk to Anna and hearing from some of the other girls and you as well. The culture has shifted. The culture has changed. Not that it was bad before, but it was. It was a lot to do with society, you know, things outside of mass that were affecting people. So. And I really feel for the seniors this year of how they. They kind of went from a really tough first two years to a really awesome last two years, and they didn't get, like the full four years that, you know, you really seek. I remember for myself, I was cut short, but I just know at graduation, your friends, it's not just you and your friends graduating. It's like you're leaving a lot of your friends behind because a lot of them are freshmen or sophomores or juniors. Cause you grow so much with everybody here. So I love to hear that you guys have seen a lot of growth within the culture on the women's team. And the thing is, for the seniors, they've created and they've helped create that foundation and to help pick up, you know, the. The women's team, the. The underclassmen, to help them go forward, you know. So you had how many freshmen this year? Two freshmen? [00:30:33] Speaker C: Um, yeah. So we had Erin come in. It was her first year of college ball, and then Cadence Horn came in as her first year. We had some newcomers as they had played before, or they've been in college a couple years outside of just taking, like, community college classes. So, yeah, we had two true freshmen, and then Kate Jansen played her first actual season, not just a couple games. And then Rachel Barrett joined us as well at the semester. [00:30:59] Speaker B: So we have those girls. Some of them will retain, some of them we won't. But great additions to the team, from what I've heard from skill as well as the culture. And I love what you said earlier of, you don't recruit based off of skill necessarily, but culture fit. And this is for the school as a whole, but as well as for the team. You don't want to mess up the culture that you and ally and previous coaches and players have created. So I love that. I think that is something. Honestly, in my opinion, the main job as the head coach is to create a culture. You know, like, yeah, you should know the sport. Yeah, you should have, like, good schemes and a good game plan going in, but if you don't have a culture, none of that matters. And I think you see that time and again, and professional and college, collegiate sports, even at our level, is just the culture killing the skill. I won't get into that. There's plenty of examples, but culture kills. Culture kills. It's a determining factor. It is the. If the game's online, you're down by two, you get three pointer. Culture is what's going to help you win. So how have you. Do you see that a lot of you see a lot of that building this year? In what ways? Like, we hear about it building, but what are some of those ways that you get, you and Alex and these upperclassmen have built this culture? What is that? That's a tough question. [00:32:24] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. No, I mean, that really starts last year, I would say. And I think the big difference from what the seniors the last two years have experienced to their first couple years is like just a change in focus for us. I know when I came in, and I'm a young, inexperienced head coach in my first year, a lot of the focus was on winning because I knew we had a lot of talent on the team. I knew that, like you had pointed out, we had a legacy of winning. And so for me, that's a lot of pressure. And so the focus shifts to the wrong things and you're thinking about, oh, man, I can't let you know, everyone down, so we've got to win a lot. And that was kind of our focus and that's where maybe, yeah, there wasn't as much cohesiveness, there wasn't as like, as strong of a culture. And so, yeah, in a sense, I wish those girls could come back and experience what we have now because I think it's just, yeah, it's been such a joyful and fun year. But, yeah, it started, I mean, kind of last year when Madison was assistant coaching as well. She's been a huge part of it, even though she's not with us this year. Just a lot of it was players deciding like, hey, we don't want to. We don't want to have the culture be a struggle. And, like, we kind of knew going into it because we had several players get injured that it was going to be a hard year. And so we had, yeah, I spent a lot of time praying that, like, the Lord would help us to focus on him and I kind of feel like he took distractions away. Not that the players who got hurt were distractions, but it was kind of like, okay, we're going to take it down to the basics and we're going to make it. So you guys have to focus on me and we're going to make it so you have to support each other through that. And so, yeah, not a lot of wins last year, not a lot of competing, like Anna pointed out, but it really helped us get tight, it helped us lay that foundation so that this year we can come in, we can compete a lot better, playing a lot closer games. Most of our losses were less than ten points, where it just came down to a couple of missed bunnies or a few too many turnovers, things like that. But then it allowed for Alex to step in and several players to join us at semester. It allowed for Aaron to come in as a freshman and just naturally step into that because we had established it last year and the girls liked what we had started to build and so they really, again, it was a lot of just the players pushing what they wanted that culture to look like and the coaches supporting it. And, yeah, they were the ones who welcome, welcomed in new players, made it just easier for them to transition. It's hard when you start on January 3 and we have a game the next weekend, and you have to learn all the offenses, you have to learn how to play defense with each other, you have to learn all these things. Like, that's a really difficult thing to dive into. And so, yeah, the girls did a really good job welcoming everyone in and making it so that they fit in. And the new players, yeah. Really were invested in just the team dynamic and continuing to add to that and bring their skill as they could. [00:35:22] Speaker B: Yes. As a women's team, finished four and 18, which is a tough record to say. But the thing is, is what you mentioned before is a lot of those games were tight. A lot of them were super close, and that 418 could be more, even more balanced at the end of the day. And it's the truth. If you look back at a lot of the previous games of, you know, the first game of, or the most recent game you guys play, or one of the most recent games, February 10, you know, you lost by, you know, four, you know, and then the next game, you lost by eight, then the next game or a couple games later, you lost by another five. So. And then, like. And then, wow. Like, it's just. Yeah, it's tough, you know. [00:36:01] Speaker C: Yeah, that's really hard to honestly go through a year and, like, it's hard to go through a year, like, last year. Lose by a lot. That's hard. But, like, it's almost harder to come into these games and be playing in them and lose game after game. And so, like, really big kudos to the girls on the team for not giving up on each other and continuing to come back to practice every week and trying to push each other more and, like, learn more and just, yeah, take any feedback that we gave them and come back the next game, and we put ourselves in positions to win a lot of games. And, you know, it worked in four of them, and it didn't work in the others, but the girls did what we asked them to. [00:36:37] Speaker B: So you guys were able to add two great freshmen and Aaron and Katie. Both my applicants shout out to both of them. Aaron was the only one. So I always offer my. I think I might have mentioned this before on the podcast, but I always offer if they're my applicant or not. But if I give them a tour, I always offer them a scholarship, the Shane Douglas scholarship. And this is if you. You get one shot, one shot only, no warmup. And you take a three pointer. [00:37:02] Speaker C: A college. [00:37:03] Speaker B: College three. Sometimes if I know they're not. Sometimes I'm like, you can take them to high school, okay, if they're, you know. But for someone like Aaron, who I know is a basketball recruit, I was like, no, you're taking. You're taking college. Shot three point line, so. And she had the whole. The men's basketball team was in there warming up for practice, so a lot of them were watching, and she sank a three. And she got. She's got my little scholarship that I gave her. Only one. She's the only one so far that's gotten it. It was. It was cool. There's been a lot of other close shots, too, but with that said, their addition to the team has been great. I've heard. And hopefully Katie comes back. Maybe she does. She was here for the one year bible, so maybe she'll. [00:37:47] Speaker C: Katie, if you're listening to this, you need to come back. [00:37:50] Speaker B: There we go. [00:37:50] Speaker A: Katie. [00:37:51] Speaker B: Maybe she'll pull an anna, you know, but. And then having the addition of Kate Janssen, you know, athletic freak, cross country legend so far. And also, Rachel Barrett, you know, second tran or second semester transfer, has enjoyed and loved the campus, and I always hear her. Most of our conversations have been about, like, basketball recruits. She's like, where's the basketball recruits? Where's the basketball? Especially during do or some of the. This past weekend when there's a lot of guests on campus. So she's. She's excited for basketball, and I love that. I love those additions to the team, what they've been able to bring, what they'll leave with, as well as Alex May, coach Alex May, she's been on the show. She had the opportunity to co host as well as just talk about herself and let our audience know who she is. So the addition of Alex, those freshmen, how has that been? Especially with Alex's on, Alex's part of her coming in, being a new assistant coach, I see a lot of progress, a lot of, I guess, lack of words, a lot of maturity, greatness when it comes to, you know, mentoring and being there for the. Your girls. There's so many. They're always in her office. Yeah, it's, like, super accessible on the. [00:39:09] Speaker C: First floor, but I'm on the third. [00:39:11] Speaker A: Floor, so they don't get up there quite as often. [00:39:14] Speaker B: Yeah, but. And her office is actually pretty relaxing. She's got, like, a beanbag chair and stuff, so it's like, I want to. [00:39:21] Speaker C: Go in there and lounge. [00:39:22] Speaker B: With that said, how has her addition been? How has it been? The dynamics and everything? [00:39:27] Speaker C: No, I love having Alex here. It's been really fun to get to know her. I think our situation was unique because I did not know her until basically Chris McHugh, Rad, he knew her from when he was at Moody. She was there as well. [00:39:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:42] Speaker C: And so he was kind of that connecting person. And so I, in the fall, right before school started, I drove up to Apple, where she currently was, and I met her there, and we talked for a couple of hours. Just friends. Yeah, totally. But, yeah, that was kind of all I knew about her was that one, like, interaction with her that one day before she came to campus. And so for us, it's been a lot of just getting to know each other this year. And, yeah, she has a lot of areas of strength that I'm not as strong in, and so she's been able to take over kind of the mentorship and really leading our team captains this year. Anna was our captain, so Alex did a great job of pushing her to serve the team better. And so, yeah, she's taken over some areas that, yeah, I have struggled with. [00:40:34] Speaker B: In the past, which is great. That's a great partnership. [00:40:36] Speaker C: Yeah. And so I'm really excited for her to come back next year and just to be able to continue to get to know each other and having a year under our belts together and to, yeah, keep building with her. So it'll be, yeah, it'll be fun. [00:40:47] Speaker B: And that's something Matt and I love talking about. And will knows it. Will knows it is the. Our staff, our athletic staff is together. [00:40:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:57] Speaker B: Finally, you know, after years, and I guess we've been saying this year is like, we're finally there, but we just added Alex. We just added her to the staff, giving her a year under her belt. [00:41:08] Speaker C: To be able to grow the last couple of years. [00:41:10] Speaker B: Yeah, we've gotten there, but I would say next year with this full staff that we have for all of our, all of the athletic programs in a year under their belts. Yeah, it's going to be. It's going to be awesome. Moving forward with the, with all you guys having the same, like, mindness when it comes to athletics and, you know, Christ first, you know, the consistency that Anna mentions of, you know, who you are off the court, in the classroom, in church should be the same on the court, so. And I love that. And I think everyone has been great additions, Alex, including what are your, what are your, your goals? What are the goals next year? Of course you want to win. Of course you got, you want to bring in the recruits, the ones that you're talking to the ones that fit our culture, fit the mold. But what are, what are some of your loose goals, I guess that you could say for next year's team? [00:42:01] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a good question, I would say. I mean, based on where we're at in recruiting right now, next year looks like it could be our first, like, full roster. If we can just add one or two more players, we'll be at that ten to twelve range, which is what I want. And so that's kind of a goal of mine, is just to finally have that full, finally have that. Because this year was exciting, having four subs, nine players. I mean, we had ten. We had ten between the two. It was pretty cool and it was fun to be able to scrum and change consistently in practice. And so, yeah, looking at next year, it's like, that's kind of the next step is like, to make sure that we're competitive. We need those numbers and so, yeah, obviously we want to continue to be building on our competitiveness. That's not our ultimate goal is to win everything. But it'd be really fun to be in those games and be winning those games and be able to make pushes in the off or post season again. So, yeah, those would be a couple of goals and then, yeah, just continuing to keep Christ at the center and not losing perspective in that. Because, I mean, even this year when we were losing a lot, there were times where I felt like I was losing perspective of like, why? Why are we doing this if all. [00:43:11] Speaker A: We'Re going to do is lose? [00:43:11] Speaker C: You know, so, like, just being able to really keep Christ to the center and stay focused in that even through disappointing games, but especially if we do win, like, keeping. Keeping that as our focus. [00:43:23] Speaker B: This is going to be a tough question, but I think this is a good question to ask anybody, any coach. And this is, this is something that I have and I want to continue to ask coaches. I have asked them off, off camera, off screen, no. How do you see yourself and how can you grow as a coach? [00:43:44] Speaker C: That is a really good question, I think. I mean, the biggest thing, obviously, this was my third year coaching and so I feel like if anyone who's been around for a while listens to this or who's coached years, they're going to laugh at me. But I feel like just being here, like, you grow, you know, like every single year I've had so many moments where I'm like, wow, why didn't I do that last year? Like, I just learned so much about myself each year. And so I think just the act of coaching, you grow. Obviously. You can't just coach and expect to get better and, you know, you're just going in the regular season and then you forget about basketball for a year. Can do that. But like, yeah, I think just doing it is a huge area to be able to grow. And then there's just a lot of, like, I mean, looking at the, the basketball side of things, you know, watching film, watching coaches who are better than me or more experienced than me, how they run their programs, talking to them, finding people who can be my, like, coaching mentors, things like that, just not getting complacent basically, you know, not saying, oh, we had a great culture this year, so I don't really need to do anything, you know, like just continuing to stay active in that growth and that kind of parallels with, you know, our spiritual walks and everything it does. I can't say, oh, I work at Emmaus, so therefore I don't need to go to church. I don't need to read my Bible. You know, like, you can't approach any aspect of life in that, just that way complacently. So it's just a continual, like, okay, are there coaching books I can read that are going to help me? Are there not just coaches who are better but like believers, like coaches who are christians who I can learn from and talk to and connect with things like that? So, no, that answers it. [00:45:33] Speaker B: I think it's great. Iron sharpens iron and like you had the great connection of on the court to off the court. So it's the truth. [00:45:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:43] Speaker B: How can we, how can we not just here in the nest, but we at Emmaus, we as listeners help you, help you guys as a team, help the coaching, help the students. How can we help you? [00:45:55] Speaker C: I think one of the biggest things, and like we did feel a lot of love this year from people outside of our team. The biggest thing is just supporting us. And I'm not saying financially, you don't. [00:46:06] Speaker B: Have to give me money, Chad Cunningham would. [00:46:11] Speaker C: But yeah, just coming to games and asking us about how the road trips went and encouraging us in that way, we had a lot of that and it's really cool seeing, especially within, I know this happens with all the programs, but with the women's basketball programs, just the amount of support we had this year of former coaches. I mean, Madison comes to every single game and she's up in the mezzanine cheering for us and she's talking to me about the game afterwards. You have Kyle Gras who either comes to half of our games or he's texting me after them. Just a lot of support in that way. We have Tiffany Williams, who's been our kind of secondary assistant coach this year, and after she works for 40 hours a week, she's coming to our practices when she can. She's sitting on the bench for home games, things like that. So obviously, that's not going to be most people. You don't need to be texting me about strategy in a game if you don't know basketball. But it's really fun to see stands pretty full. It's really fun to have people cheering for us. It helps us get more excited about just things that happen within the game. Yeah. And then it's, I don't know, it's kind of a nice thing to be walking, you know, into the cafeteria and someone comes up to us and is like, hey, you guys played so well. Or, you know, like, I love this aspect of your game, or, ooh, that player is really good, you know? So, like, just the encouragement has grown this year a lot, and it's really fun. Yeah. To have that encouragement. So continue doing that, continue showing up to our games and. [00:47:43] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I love that. And that's something that I feel like we don't ask a lot. We don't ask enough. How can we help? Because it's not just, you know, we're just as the church, you know, as the body of Christ, and we need to help each other to, you know, we got to do our part, our role, where the Lord has placed us to, you know, to have a functioning body. It's the same aspect for, you know, Emmaus or even sports is how can. How can we help you? You know, maybe we are, you know, the feet and we got. We can help you drive, encourage you guys. But with that said, we're gonna. We're gonna end it here. But before we end it, Sharon, of course, I always got to give you the stage, give you the opportunity to recruit so quickly. Quickly. How? Why should they come to Emmaus Bible college and play for you? [00:48:36] Speaker C: Yeah, this is probably going to sound similar to the last time I gave this pitch, similar to what Anna said, because I think she said it. [00:48:45] Speaker B: Really, everyone, I'll tell you this right now, everyone would say this. Everyone will say the same. If you ask a student who's been here a couple months why they should come to Emmaus, they will say the exact same to someone who's been here ten years, because it is consistent. [00:48:59] Speaker C: Yes. [00:49:00] Speaker B: And it is genuine. [00:49:01] Speaker C: Yes. Come to Emmaus because of the school. Come to Emmaus because you are going to get an incredible education here. You are going to grow in your faith. There is no way that you do not grow closer to Christ by coming here and investing in your time here. The community here is amazing just in general within basketball. Come play women's basketball here because you want to be part of something special, because you want to experience the team culture that we've talked about, because you want to be part of just building this program into a really competitive on the court program while we keep that focus on Christ. So we do things a lot different in our program than maybe some other christian schools do it where we're willing to look at the recruits who are better fits, even if they're not an all american level athlete, you know? So, yeah, come because you want to be part of something special and because you want to be on a team that loves each other really well and supports each other really well. [00:50:05] Speaker B: And a growing program. Yeah, a growing program. Don't just go into a program that's already created a legacy and no one will remember who you are afterwards, but into a program where Tiffany Williams, she's been graduated four years, but everybody on the team still knows who she is, even if she's around or not because of that legacy she had coming to a school like this, a school like Emmaus, where you can create a legacy and create an opportunity to have your name and have your likeness known, you know, and not just, you know, because it's you and your personality, but of your testimony for Christ. So you can make something here. That's for sure. But everyone, thank you for listening. Sharon, thank you for coming back on the show. I'm sure we'll have you, you know, again, we always have you on the show, but everyone, thank you for making us a part of your day and we appreciate it a lot. We appreciate the love, the support. So like. And subscribe or whatever the youtubers say. Right. But also tune into concerning him. We have great episodes that come out weekly or bi weekly sometimes, but we'll hope hopefully be back here next week. I know we're gonna do, I don't know. I'm gonna say it. I don't know if Eric even wants to do. We're gonna have a cross across episode where our co host Matthew Tomlinson will be able to be on concerning him to talk with Eric Rasmussen about in the nest and athletic things and being a Christian in sports. So. Oh, yeah, it's gonna be a great episode. So. But again. Thank you, everyone, for listening today. Can you. Can you do the outro that Matt does? Yeah, I can. [00:51:34] Speaker C: Say it. [00:51:35] Speaker B: Say it, please. [00:51:36] Speaker C: All right, everyone, it is a great day to be an eagle. [00:51:39] Speaker B: Thanks for listening.