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Stumbleuponmiami women's basketball
RedHawks prepare to hunt for another MAC championship
Coach handed out 2008 title rings in unique fashion: a treasure hunt.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
OXFORD — The Miami University women's basketball preseason officially started with the first practice Friday, Oct. 17, but the team's real journey toward what they hope will be a second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament began a few weeks earlier.
With a treasure hunt.
Following five stops around campus, including the final destination at Millett Hall, the players found the loot: their 2008 Mid-American Conference championship rings.
Coach Maria Fantanarosa said the idea began to form after the team was recognized during a football game in September.
"We were on the field and all I could keep thinking about was how I wanted this to be something special, something they'll remember," she said.
"It was already September, and I didn't want them to continue to celebrate the previous year," she said. "I wanted to move on so we could focus on our next goal. But I didn't want it to be a quick ring ceremony. I was trying to find a balance."
That balance, Fantanarosa and her staff decided during a brainstorming session, would be a treasure hunt.
"The team came in and thought they were doing a land-and-sea workout, some running, some swimming," Fantanarosa said. "And they were dreading it. They were trying to find out the details of the workout for a week. And when they showed up, I told them to drop all their gear and leave it, that this was a timed treasure hunt. They had to get to five different destinations by 4:30."
The destinations included Withrow Court, the former home of Miami basketball.
"When we got to Withrow," Fantanarosa said, "we educated them about how far women have come since Title IX and the ratios of, now, one in every three women participate (in collegiate sports) and it used to be 1-in-27."
"The treasure hunt ended when they got to Millett," she said. "Our coaches and support staff were all hidden up top in the stands. Millett was dark and the players had to come in singing the fight song, hooked together. And when they got to the court our highlight video played, and then they were dancing and it was still dark, and there was a spotlight on one of the rims with a big red present."
Seniors Jenna Schone and Jaclyn Leininger retrieved the box.
"It was still dark, but the spotlight now was on the team at the free throw line," Fantanarosa said, "and when they started to open the box they got to a second box, and the red and white balloons came down, and they started to get fired up, wondering what's going on, and when they opened the second box they saw their rings.
"You got chills watching it," she said. "They were jumping up and down, they were screaming, they were hugging."
If the RedHawks get their way, the 2008-09 season will end the same way.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.
