Los Angeles, California!!!



Kelsey Durichko, Alexis Kemper, Danielle Day,
Megan Andres, Marisa Thomas and Coach Emans at
Casa Vega.

Alexis Kemper, '14

Hey everyone! My name is Alexis and I am a second year player to the Hiram women’s basketball team. Hopefully everyone had an exciting and relaxing winter break and I’m here to share our team’s whereabouts over the holidays. As a team, we traveled to Los Angeles, California! Even though we stayed in Anaheim, most of our activities were spread throughout the Los Angeles area. For some, this was their first time traveling to California and even flying which made the trip even more exciting. Everyday we had an excursion planned as well as a practice or game. We visited many familiar sites such as Rodeo Drive, Laguna Beach, Sea World, Downtown Disney, and even USC’s campus and basketball arena. As a team, we were able to take a downtown tour of Hollywood, which personally, was the highlight for me of the trip. We saw many restaurants and clubs that were popular to many celebrities and even movie scenes! Half of our group, including myself, visited the famous Pink’s Hot Dogs and it was definitely as good as everyone writes about! Many of us wanted to spot celebrities and we successfully did! Lisa Leslie was one that especially hit home for a lot of us. We were able to watch the Women’s USC game against Stanford where we saw her! I think this was really inspiring and exciting for a lot of us because we watched her play basketball as we were growing up. Although we weren’t as successful as we wanted to be as far as games go, I think we experienced a lot of great competition and positive things to take away from our two teams we played in Cali. I think it was awesome that many of our families were able to travel with us and experience all the great things we did while we were there. It was definitely an experience I will never forget!

Team at Casa Vega, authentic Mexican Restaurant

Brenna Host, Kelsey Koskinen, Amy Geisman,
Tiffany Shields and Calysia Smyers at Casa Vega.

The famous Chinese Theatre!

Jasmine Kellom, Taylor Ratliff, Amy Geisman, Lindsay
Buckner, Sam Morford, Bridgette Click,
Emily Smerchansky, Amanda Petrusky, Chelsea Kovach.

Coach Preston, Marisa Thomas, Emily Smerchansky,
Chelsea Kovach and Amy Geisman with Lisa Leslie!!

Group photo following the Stanford v. USC game
at the Galen Center, many souvenirs made the trip back
to Ohio!

A few minutes with......Taylor Ratliff!

Name: Taylor Ratliff

Hometown: Columbia Station, OH

Year at Hiram: Freshman

Major: Integrated Math/Education

Career Aspirations: High School Math Teacher and Coach

Craziest Ambition: American Idol Star

Favorite TV Show: Tough Love

Favorite Movie: Love & Basketball

Favorite Class: Politics & Sports

What's playing on your iPod right now?  Rihanna's new album: Talk that Talk

What is your best basketball moment?  Playing in my first game

What do you like most about Hiram?  The basketball team

What are you most looking forward to on our upcoming trip to LA?
Disneyland!!

A few minutes with......Marisa Thomas!

Name: Marisa Thomas

Hometown: Lorain, OH

Year at Hiram: Sophomore

Major: Psychology

Career Aspirations: Become a Physical Therapist

Craziest Ambition:
Becoming a professional Dance Dance Revolution Dancer

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite TV Show: The Nanny

Favorite Movie: Bridesmaids

What's playing on your iPod right now?  The Beatles

What is your best basketball moment?  Beating the College of Wooster on Saturday

Best Hiram moment: freshman winter break playing 'Just Dance'

What are you most looking forward to on our upcoming trip to LA?
The 'dress-up' dinner and Seaworld!

Congrats Kelsey!

Senior All-NCAC point guard Kelsey Durichko broke the school record for assists in a career on Sunday, November 27th, in our game versus Thiel College.  Kelsey came into the season needing just 22 more assists to break the record. 

In her junior season, Kelsey broke the school record for assists in a season with 138, the previous record had been 115 set in the 1995-96 season.

2011-2012 Season Preview!

The Hiram College women’s basketball team will feature a very experienced team in 2011-12 as the Terriers return the majority of their roster from a year ago.The Terriers are coming off of a 12-14 campaign last year and finished sixth in the conference last season. Hiram also made its fourth straight trip to the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.

Hiram loses just one player from last year’s roster and will be led by the duo of senior All-NCAC guard Kelsey Durichko (Brunswick) and Tiffany Shields (Bedford Heights/Bedford).  Durichko started all 26 games last season and finished fourth on the team in scoring at 6.8 points per game on 30.1 percent shooting (53-of-176). She was tied for the team-lead in rebounding at 6.5 rebounds per game and dished out a school single-season record 138 assists. She also had three blocked shots and a team-high 56 steals defensively. Following the season, she was tabbed as an honorable mention All-NCAC pick.

Shields is coming off of a solid junior season after leading the team in scoring with 14.2 ppg. while shooting 36.4 percent (137-of-376) from the floor. She was also amongst the team leaders in free-throw shooting (71.1 percent) and rebounding (4.7 rpg.). In addition, Shields tallied a team-best 18 blocked shots to go along with 32 steals defensively.

"Kelsey and Tiffany are the undisputed leaders of this team.  They have worked extremely hard to elevate their competitiveness and their work ethic has had a tremendous impact their teammates.  I am excited to see where this team will go with their leadership." stated Coach Preston.

"Kelsey is one of the top point guards in the NCAC and region.  She makes it very difficult for defenses to stop her from getting where she wants to go.  With that, she creates tremendous opportunities for herself and her teammates.  She will have an opportunity to break some school records this season and I hope it works out that she does.  Tiffany is a triple threat player.  She can knock down the three point shot, pull-up off the dribble, or get to the hoop and finish at the free-throw line.  She is a challenge for any defense to contain.  I have high hopes for her this season; I really believe the sky is the limit for her this year."

Also returning in the backcourt for Hiram this season will be juniors Chelsea Kovach (Lakewood), Emily Smerchansky (Girard), Calysia Smyers (Akron/ Coventry) and Lindsay Buckner (Vienna/Mathews). Kovach was third on the team in scoring last season with 7.6 ppg. and was second in three-pointers made with 29. Smerchansky and Smyers had solid seasons coming off the bench providing depth at the guard position and averaged 4.6 and 4.4 ppg. respectively. Smyers also averaged 2.2 rpg. to go along with 29 assists and 22 steals. Buckner saw playing time in 25 games as a backup and averaged 1.9 ppg. on 14-of-46 shooting (30.4 percent).

In addition, expect to see sophomore guards Danielle Day (Newbury) and Marissa Thomas (Lorain/Amherst) to compete for increased playing time.

"We have high expectations for our perimeter players this season.  This is the second year running an up-tempo offense.  Every indication is that we will be more efficient and productive than a year ago.  You cannot manufacture experience when it comes to learning and executing a new system.  I am looking forward to Chelsea (Kovach) having another solid year.  She is such a hard worker and wants to do things right every time.  She has been a great influence to her teammates.  I also expect Calysia Smyers to have a break-out year; she is a player that has been a productive player off the bench for us in the past.  She has a lot of passion for the game and is extremely competitive.  She has a great desire to win and I think she is ready to help her team in that capacity." 

Hiram will also return a host of veterans up front at the forward positions led by junior Amy Geisman (Middleburg Heights/Midpark). Last season, Geisman started all but one game and led all forwards in scoring at 5.4 ppg. while averaging 4.3 rpg. She led the team in field goal percentage at 40.3 percent (60-of-149) and was also amongst the team leaders in free-throw percentage at 74.1 percent (20-of-27). In addition Geisman had nine assists, six blocks and 14 steals.

Joining Geisman will be fellow juniors Brenna Host (Seven Hills/Normandy) and Amanda Petrusky (Parma/Valley Forge). Host played in 25 games as a backup forward and averaged 3.1 ppg. and 2.6 rpg. She ended the season second on the team in blocked shots with 17. Petrusky saw playing time in 13 games and scored 12 points on four-of-nine shooting (44.4 percent) and four-of-eight (50.0 percent) at the free-throw line.

Sophomore Alexis Kemper (Centerville) should also battle for playing time in 2011-12. As a freshman, Kemper played in 22 games and scored 33 points while shooting 24.4 percent (11-of-45) from the field. She also averaged 1.0 rpg. to go along with two assists, a blocked shot and six steals.

"We have a great group of forwards who have gained playing experience over the past couple of seasons.  I expect Amy (Geisman) to have another solid season and anticipate that Brenna Host will have an opportunity to leave her mark as well.  Alexis (Kemper) gained some valuable playing time as a forward last season; however, her perimeter skills have really developed nicely so she will definitely see more playing time in that role."
Hiram will open the season on Tuesday, Nov. 15 when the Terriers travel to Marietta for a non-conference matchup against Marietta College. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Hiram will play its first home game on Saturday, Nov. 26 against Westminster (Pa.) College at 2 p.m. at Price Gym.

"There is no question that we want to have a big year this year.  The conference race should be very exciting with many of the top teams losing key contributors.  We feel confident that we can take a big step forward with our program this year.  We were on the cusp last season and didn’t finish the way we would have liked.  That feeling has resonated with these kids throughout the offseason and they are fired up to take the court!"

RELAY FOR LIFE!

Lindsay Buckner, Amanda Petrusky, Calysia Smyers,
Brenna Host and Chelsea Kovach representing the super sophomores!

Last April we took part in Hiram's first annual Relay For Life. Relay For Life is an organization that raises money for Cancer research, anyone can make a team and start fundraising. The actual event took place out on the track at the Coleman Sports Center, where all the teams set up their on site fundraisers. The event lasted from 6PM on Friday to 12PM on Saturday morning. During this whole time one person from each team must be walking the track to represent that "cancer never sleeps". 

Alexis Kemper, Calysia Smyers and
Megan Andres walk to fight cancer!

Megan Andres, Marisa Thomas, Leslie Johnson and
Alexis Kemper representing the fabulous freshman class!

Playing a little ball on the track!

The theme of last year's event was Hollywood/Movies, for our team we picked the movie Space Jam, (suitable I thought). We made shirts, sold baked goods, and had a basketball hoop. People could come by and pay a dollar for one shot. We won best site and were treated to Chipotle! Many of us stayed up most of the night and danced around the track the next morning  to keep warm. We all had a lot of fun and we are excited to participate again this coming year. I'm not sure how much we raised as a team but as a school we were in the running for the title "Rookie of the Year". Meaning we competed with other schools who joined Relay for Life for the first time! The results haven't come out yet, but we raised close to $27,000 dollars! We'll post information on here and our Facebook page if you would like to help out! Remember, any little bit helps :) I also want to make a shout-out to Rosie and Jamie Zychowski they made this an awesome and unforgettable event! Thank you so much!

A great team picture!

1st Annual Golf Outing a huge success!

 A huge thank you to all our golfers and hole sponsors that helped make our first annual golf outing at Chardon Lakes Golf Course a huge success!


Lindsey Buckner, Emily Smerchansky and Marisa Thomas
working hard at Chardon Lakes Golf Course!



Katie Grendel '08 and Coach Preston after recording
their first hole for par!