So I wanted to find some pictures to add on to this and it took me longer than I thought to get them scanned and uploaded. I wrote this about two weeks ago…
I don’t know what it is about the early a.m. hours that help to settle my mind. Maybe it’s the calm quiet of the dark, or just the lull of the final hours of my day that culminates into helping me put my thoughts down. We are in our last week before students show up to campus, which includes our athletes. This coming Sunday night when we scrimmage will be my first real look at what kinds of players we have. While I’ve watched a couple of game films from last season, I’ve only seen one NAIA game live. I’m extremely interested in the level of play that is the NAIA. Having been at CSU-Pueblo I was able to watch a lot of Division II basketball, and high level DII basketball at that watching the RMAC. The comparative factor will be intriguing and will also help when it comes to recruiting too I feel. Hastings competes in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). And a member from our conference has won 10 of the last 11 national championships for NAIA women. With that, our conference competes at the highest level of NAIA. Will we be able to compare ourselves to the likes of the RMAC women’s teams? As competitive as I am I’d like to think so, which makes me all the more excited to write about my findings.
With the gym still void of basketball players I have been sent out of the office to spend my time at the local historical society. The inception of the women’s basketball program at Hastings College came in 1977. Women’s basketball in those early years on up through the 1980’s were never tracked by the college, at least statistically speaking. Coach Dittman has assigned me the mission to put together, as best as possible, statistics, as well as a scrapbook of pictures and articles from those missing years. Hence my new home has been in the back of the Hastings Museum scanning through pages of microfilm from the 70’s and 80’s. While my task at first thought might appear tedious it has not only been enlightening, but invigorating. Reading through so many articles I can’t help but get attached to the teams. Having no prior knowledge of the successes from those years I find myself rooting for the teams of the past, frantically scrolling through pages to find out the results of the next game. Player’s names become ever so familiar, and as I find pictures posted in the paper I’m able to put faces to the names. The drama has become rather enticing to say the least!
- This is the article after the first ever Hastings College women’s basketball game. 1-0 to start history.
As I journey through time it’s hard not to get lost in the titles of other articles as well as I peruse segments of the paper. It’s amazing how the concerns of the 70’s and 80’s mirror the concerns of today. Every type of article from worries about the failing economy, and the decisions of the president, to advertisements opposing abortion, and the jobs posted in the classified ads mimic what you would see in your local paper today. From one section to the next it is unbelievable how so much of the past parallels the present. Of course amongst the intrigue is that of the nostalgic as I look over the sports sections and read articles about the hall of fame athletes that I’ve only watched on ESPN Classic: Reading about the game “Pistol” Pete Maravich had “last night” and how Dean Smith’s Four Corners offense “stifled Wake Forrest” is like reliving things of legend.
- This is the first ever team picture
I should have known I was in for something special when the receptionist at the front desk told me how to get to the Historical Society located in the back of the museum: “Go through those doors and turn right, then take a left at the polar bear and you’ll see it.” Only a place of wonder can be located left of the polar bear!
- I never found a date on it, but you have to appreciate the visual. I don’t think girls should ever complain about uniform styles again!
Till Next Time
- Coach Kyle
