Was over at Northwestern in Roseville on Saturday morning to catch the Eagles practice that day. On this particular day, Head Coach Aaron Kahl had a special guest to help with the day's work - Tom Young who was lending his expertise on team defense. And this was the emphasis of the day as the Eagles were working diligently on a 2-3 zone defense while Young was explaining the finer points of how to utilize it at its utmost potential. Several repetitions were done with Young always adding encouragement and "Good job!" to the players. Young also had the team work on trapping defense as well which, when used correctly, can pose a lot of problems for opposing teams. The team then also worked on half-court trapping defense before winding things down for the day.
As far as the outlook for this team, Kahl is very uncertain how his team will fare this year. He has only one senior on his squad this season - Kristin Sczublewski - that he can count on heavily for experience and leadership. Beyond that, another player to keep your eye on this year may very well be sophomore Becca Kendrick whole older sister, Kaylee, was a key player for the program just a couple of years ago. Otherwise, there are a lot of freshman and sophomores that Kahl is going to have to work with and bring along. But Kahl insists that his team is working hard and is going to be competitive. As far as the UMAC is concerned, Kahl seems even more uncertain about how this topsy-turvy conference will shake out although Minnesota-Morris would appear to be the favorite at first glance. The Eagles do have a couple of scrimmages coming up next month: one at St. Olaf on November 9 at 6:00 P.M. and another one with nearby Bethel on Saturday 11-12 scheduled at 10:00 A.M. before things begin for real with a trip down Snelling Avenue to Hamline on Tuesday 11-15.
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