I think it was obvious her hand was hurting her bad. I am surprised it was not taped up. Seattle was doing ALOT of hand-chopping to every one. And they were NOT getting called on it. It was a physically rough game. I bet all our players are battered and bruised today....
I thought the Mighty Mercury put up a good fight. I also think t
Well let me start off with HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEWANNA! Its been a while since I last blogged but I figured today is the day!!
The team went on a 2-game road-trip and just got back 2 days ago on Wednesday. I am so happy to have them back in the 602! Coming into work when the team is away just isn’t the same. I go into the locker room, training room, and my office and I am the only one there. I have to turn all the lights on myself and work in silence, or the sound of my ipod or tv, which is not the same as the distinct voices of our hilarious players and coaches. When the team is here it’s pretty much impossible to have a bad day at work or a dull morning. They all have their routines of coming into their second home, the Mercury locker room! Everyone goes around to make sure they tell every single person good morning. Some do it with just a little eye contact and verbal words, most go around giving hi-fives, then there’s Meek who gives hugs and Dee who sometimes gets overly excited and attacks you with a bear hug. There’s always smiles all around! Also, when the teams gone I find myself coming to work on a empty stomach and I always wait until so late to eat lunch. I make myself have a headache from an empty tummy. This is only because when the team is here, every morning there’s food provided for everyone… thanks to our trainer Tamara! We have fresh cut fruit, bagels, muffins, donuts, granola bars and other delicious snacks! Making a pit stop by the food counter is part of my daily routine!!
I received a package the other day from my two lovely sisters. They sent me a syringe filled with chocolate from Max Brenners, my favorite dessert spot in NYC… A chocoholics heaven!! And a huge pair of purple underwear with MERCURY screen printed on the back side. They are hilarious and from our 2007 championship season. They may have some goodluck with them! Some of you may have seen the photos of players wearing them on the bus to one of our practices in Detroit during that finals series. Anyways, I thought I’d tell you about them because they seem to be stuck in my mind… maybe because they are hanging on my window to the office right in front of my face!
Donna Orender has graced us with her presence at this mornings shoot around!! It’s awesome to have such a great women as the President of our amazing organization, the WNBA! I’ve met Donna Orender on multiple occasions and she’s just so humble and genuine.
I hope you guys are coming to tonight’s game vs. the Mystics! When we get this win we will have clinched a playoff spot, and we will be the first team this season to earn that postseason appearance!! Also, you desperately need the watch the Cappie23 video our game ops dept. put together!! It’s going to play 2nd quarter. There’s some really special appearances in the video… I was lucky enough to see some clips, one of our President Jay Parry and GM Ann Meyers Drysdale. They really got into the spirit of the video and rapping!I can’t wait to see it all put together!
Can I just say… our game operations department is the absolute best! I have been to every arena in the WNBA and watched so many time-out, quarter break and half-time skits and performances and no one compares! I’ve known Vice President of Game Entertainment Kip Helt and Game Entertainmet Manager Shaun Stanhibel since the day I started working here…. Back in 1997! Kip was my first boss and I’ve never had a better one! Both of those guys are so creative and entertaining! I can tell Shaun just lives for the moments he gets to throw on a costume or mascot outfit and run onto the court to get the crowd involved! His dance moves may need a little more work though J. So… they’ve been telling me for a while that they are going to put me in one of their hilarious game time videos, I always say NEVER! But, they finally got me to do one! It was hard to say no when my one line was “I love CP23”..I mean I do love that girl so it wasn’t too hard.
Well the team just left for the afternoon lunch and naptime, which means I get to go home for a little break also! I will be back to the arena shortly though… can’t wait for tonight!
The team is on a 5 game roadtrip! We unfortunately started off on a bad foot and our flight to NY was delayed a total of 7 HOURS! Oh man, that really put a damper on our Saturday because we had to wait around the airport the entire time! Although we were slightly happy we were able to catch the All Star game because of our delay and all that free time allowed for some team fun! So... Let me introduce you to the "MERCURY FIVE" - Bridget, Le'coe, Tangela, DeWanna and Ketia! They are our new dance crew, lol! They used their extra airport time to come up with a dance, which if you were in our terminal you got to see them perform it for everyone! Haha, the Jet Blue staff even anounced it on the main intercom and played the music through their speakers! It was hilarious and definitely gave all those uneasy/irritated/delayed passengers a great laugh. Since our flight was delayed, we didn't get into NY until 230am! :( such a bummer! But, luckily when we got on the bus, Bridget continued to entertain us and acted like our tour guide! Apparently she thought we landed in Rome, because it really did feel like we just got off a 14 hour flight! I was especially bummed because I was planning to have a lovely dinner with my two sisters who live in the city! That really cut back the amount of time I got to spend with them, but I am still sooooo excited and happy I got to see them! I was also excited that Dirk made it to the game a.k.a. Dermot, although I didn't get to say hello. I am going to post the video of the MERCURY FIVE performing but don't have my connector to upload the video to my computer, gotta wait til I get home! But, I cannot wait for everyone to see it!! We beat NY on Sunday! YAY... It's always exciting to play in Madison Square Garden, and its always a difficult arena to play in... I mean, our all time record there speaks for itself! We are now 2-12 in MSG! After the game my sister took some of the team and I to a delicious Spanish Tapas restaurant called Pipa. Coach Julie, Nicole Ohlde, our Communications manager Eric, our PR and community relations mgr. Leslie Factor, and our tv/ radio announcer Kevin Ray came along. It was a very cool restaurant with great food and live music! Later Sunday night everyone went to Cappie's launch party for '4Season Style Management'. It was at Mad46 a really cool rooftop bar. Today the team took a charter bus over to Connecticut, it's a pretty quick drive. I stayed an extra day in NY and am going to catch up with the team tomorrow morning. I'm so happy my sisters and I have gone to some of my favorite places to eat, Max Brenners and Serendipity. We also went rowing in Central Park Which was so relaxing! After the Connecticut game I am going on a little vacation! Yay! The team is continuing on to Atlanta, Minnesota and Seattle before coming back to Phoenix. Well, I hope all of you keep tabs on this roadtrip because I'm sure its going to be an exciting one! We did already start off with one exciting win! Go Merc! :)
Well its the start of week 3 of training camp! The Mercury court is down, freshly buffed and ready to go for our first home game of 2009!!! Practices have been really good and I think we are done with two-a-days thankfully :) but all the girls are still working extremely hard! So I know you amazing X-Factor fans like to know the skinny on the players! Well... Let me just tell you we always have a great bunch of girls, but this group is hilarious! The new dance that seems to get most of the players moving in the locker room is the stanky leg... Not my style! But.. I do enjoy watching them make fools of themselves. On the court.. During our stretch circle "B" better known as coach Bridget Pettis has a daily ritual of going around and giving each girl a hi-5. This season it has turned into a complete routine with each player having a different crazy action to do with B. I'll give you some examples... With Shin they give each other a karate bow, hi-5 then use their hands to symbolize flashing lights, with LeCoe they both do a dance that they've created, then slap hands. There's also jokesters on the team. One un-named player picked up a tiny disgusting critter found and chased one of our unexpecting rookies around the gym with it!
The team has also been doing a lot together outside of the arena. We've had a few team bbq's... Any excuse for some good food! Memorial Day we had a pool party and we've gotten together for the exciting NBA playoff games. I must say we have some good cooks on the team! Bridget makes the absolute best mac & cheese, our trainer Tamara always provides the delish crab legs and Quigley makes the most AMAAAZING cookie bars, which we've named "Q's intentionally extremely undercooked cookie bar" its like eating warm cookie batter with the tiniest crisp to it! :) I am definitely the biggest fan of desserts. Some players have also been supporting other local sports, a few of the players went to the Diamondbacks game last friday. Ohlde and Laurie Koehn took their former college coach from K. State.
And just to keep you guys in the know.... Here's player nicknames currently being used. Of course you guys know our returning players: DT or Dee, Diana CP, Cap or Cappa, Cappie Maz, Kelly Mazzante Tan, Tangela Smith Coe, LeCoe Willingham B-Rock or 'brook the hook', Brook Smith Shin, Yuko Oga Q, Allie Quigley Here's the new ones: Ali, Alison Bales Meek, Temeka Johnson O or Ohlde, Nicole Ohlde Page, Murriel Page Laur, Laurie Koehn DB or 'go getta', DeWanna Bonner Sha pronounced 'shay', Eureka Brooks
There's a lot of great things happening with the Mercury right now and I personally can't wait for that first game on June 6th!!!! Hope to see you there.
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