ELON, N.C.- The Elon University women's basketball team has been participating in full-team training sessions at Schar Center in preparation for its 2020-21 season.
"It feels really good to have everyone back out on the floor," said head coach
Charlotte Smith. "Basketball is a team sport, so it's always exciting when you have the full team out on the floor."
Smith also spoke on how the team has followed the new guidelines in response to the coronavirus.
"We are adapting, adjusting and advancing in response to COVID-19," said Smith. "Masking, social distancing and sanitizing has become a way of life that our players have adapted to in order to ensure each other's safety and an opportunity to participate in sports this season."
The team focused on building a defensive foundation and implementing new things in its offensive scheme over the course of the week. However, the coaching staff still wanted to gradually reacclimate the players to the speed and physicality of the game.
"We just tried to use wisdom in terms of the workload that we put on them in the first week. We still are recovering from having been out for months because of COVID. This first week has kind of been a light week. We're just taking it slow and just trying to make sure that we make sure the team is acclimated at a pace where we prevent injuries."
The players were also heavily engaged off the court, coming up to the coaches' offices to watch film. Smith said, "That's been very exciting that they're hungry to understand and to learn and to get better."
Junior
Tyja Traore has been one of the standouts among the roster. "We've seen tremendous improvement from Tyja," said Smith. "The one area where we felt like we could be stronger and that would help us make a championship run this year is in the post. I feel like she's made some great strides in the offseason."
Elon returns 13 of its 14 players from the 19-20 roster. With only one player graduating last year, there were plenty of opportunities for the rest of the team to gain experience. Smith believes that will be crucial for the team in the upcoming months.
"Last year, I felt like we were still in that learning phase and still young. Now that we have some experience under our belt and some senior leadership, that will give us the edge we need."
--ELON--