Mo's Trip to the Inauguration!!

Hello Falcon Fans!

I am proud to say that I witnessed history this week, in person! Most of you don't know this about me: I am willing to drive just about anywhere in the country for an event - weddings, birthday parties, baby showers, graduations, christenings, dinner, no distance is too far. So, when we elected our new president this past November, the first thing I said to myself was "I'm going!" Right afterwards I said "I hope Curt let's me go". Once I assured him I would be back for the Buffalo game, the plan was set in motion. Following our win against Akron on Saturday (congrats Golds on your 100th win) Clay and I started our journey. On the drive down, we passed a lot of fellow Inauguration goers (yes, I drive a bit fast) with all of their signs, and smiling faces. The atmosphere in Washington D.C. was like nothing I've ever been around. Being from a big city myself, my first thought was that the crowd would be a perfect site for thieves (Roos actually warned me to watch my pockets), but it was the furthest thing from the truth. Despite the cold everyone was helpful, happy and truly thankful that they could be there. Inauguration Day we left our friend's house at 6:30am to walk with hundreds of people over to the mall, and we were the late ones! Once we arrived and found our space, everyone around us talked, danced, sang, it seemed as if we were friends forever. The freezing people around me were from the warm states of Texas, Georgia, Florida, California but were able to be cheerful despite their total lack of knowledge on how to dress for cold weather. As my toes went numb (and I thought I would be able to tell my grandchildren how I lost my toes to frostbite at the Inauguration), Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President. I never thought the words "Congratulations Mr. President" would bring tears to my eyes, and that hugging a total stranger would mean so much to me. So, a special "Thank you" to Curt for allowing me to experience one of the better days of my life.

Monique Rosati

Life Outside Basketball...

Hello All! Just a quick update:

First, Basketball: We are currently on a 16 game winning streak! It has been fun, but we are just trying to take it one game at a time in our quest for our 5th MAC Championship! Coach Miller will be guest blogging next week when we finally reach our bye week and his staff isn't making him watch so much film! :)

Second, Life Outside Basketball: Our Director of Ops Mo will also be writing about her adventure with her husband Clayton last week in DC. They drove over for the inauguration, so we will fill everyone in on her experience! Also, here is the reason for today's post. Last Sunday was the first annual Student-Athlete Formal for all of the athletes on campus. It was a great idea and will continue to grow in the future. What a great way to bring everyone together! Our girls got glammed up, went out to dinner, then enjoyed the festivities. Enjoy the pics...you won't hardly recognize them without their uniforms and ponytails!!

Hope to see everyone up at Eastern Michigan this weekend as we begin our swing through the West division!

--Coach Poole :)

Christmas Recap...

Hi Falcon Fans!
Hope you all had a great holiday season. I know I did! One of the things that we did over the holiday was having our annual Christmas party. Ha, what an experience. Having been my first one, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was told that a little friendly competition always accompanied the party. And sure enough, when it came to the dice game, I knew exactly what everyone was talking about.
There were more than a few ‘Brightside’ t-shirts given out, and even a basketball hat – which looked wonderful on Brandi, if I do say so myself. I ended up getting the best gift ever- a great big pack of lotion. J
Aside from the gifts, Diane and Eileen catered from Outback Steakhouse. It was awesome! I couldn’t have had a better holiday season. Now time for MAC play!! Go BG!
Jess Slagle

Fun on the bus...

So here we are a third of the way done with the season already! I can hardly believe it! We finished non-conference with an 11-2 record and as Coach Miller says, that is something no one can take from us. We finished up in Edwardsville, Illinois on the second and even though the game got very ugly at times we proved to ourselves that we have come a long way since Temple and Valpo. Not only did we walk away with a big win, we also were able to have eight hours both ways chalk full of team bonding! Haha! As if we weren’t already a close team! We watched tons of movies and I am pretty sure that at some point on the trip I was awakened to Jess Slagle leading the team in a sing song of the Star-Spangled Banner…it was a long trip and that was right about the time that cabin fever set in!
Anyhow, we are ready to kick off the start of the MAC season starting with Kent on Wednesday! We are picked to win the conference again this year and we are ready to step up to the challenge! The returners are well aware that the road ahead is going to be nothing short of an all out war and the three freshmen have really stepped up so far and proven that they can handle anything that can be thrown at them. We have really begun to mesh as a team and even though we had an impressive non-conference we are back at 0-0 starting Wednesday. Our goal is always be playing our best basketball come tourney time and although we still have some work to do on both ends of the floor we are very confident on what we are capable of doing and there is definitely a buzz of excitement in our locker-room as we start this next big chapter of our year!

Hope to see you at Kent and OU this week!!

Sarah Clapper