Woolridge Proves Workouts Don’t Have to Be Work
Even from the back of the bus, Allison Feaster knew something was amiss.
She has an economics degree from Harvard, but she also knows a little geography. She knew that from downtown Detroit, when you cross the Detroit River, you’re going to Canada.
“Where’re we going?” she asked.
The Sparks, having won a double-overtime game at Minneapolis the previous night, were on their way--or so they thought--from the airport to their hotel in Auburn Hills, Mich. In about six hours, they were to play the Detroit Shock.
Maybe, some wondered aloud, Windsor, Ontario, had just been given a WNBA team.
Up front, Spark Coach Orlando Woolridge knew exactly where he was going: to Detroit’s Belle Island Park, in the middle of the Detroit River.
The bus stopped at an old asphalt basketball court, with rusted metal backboards and nets hanging by single strands. Woolridge stood up.
“Ladies, can I have your attention?” he said.
“Y’all’re gonna think I’m crazy, but we’re going to get off here and walk through Detroit’s plays. We’re gonna get back to your basketball roots.”
In minutes, the dumbfounded players were on the old court, a Canadian urban skyline a mile or so away. Clarisse Machanguana, who is 6 feet 5, was scuffling along the pavement in her platform shoes. Gordana Grubin walked through the plays in her deck shoes.
And in the middle, the 6-9 ringmaster, Woolridge, approached 7 feet in his cowboy boots.
Soon, cars stopped. The drivers were stumped as to why so many tall women were in one place.
From one car, a small voice was heard to cry, “That’s Lisa Leslie!”
In 30 minutes, the Sparks were back on the bus, bound for Auburn Hills and a 91-81 victory over the Shock, their fourth in a row.
And anyone wondering about the Sparks’ surge from 3-4 less than two weeks ago to 7-4, should check out one of Woolridge’s practices.
They’re difficult, exacting . . . and fun.
His athletes have played in Olympic Games and Final Fours. They’re not exactly jaded, but many were under the impression that basketball practice is not fun.
Yet when each long Spark practice is over, Woolridge’s 11 players almost seem sorry.
“That’s exactly right,” Feaster said.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere else. We’re all very competitive people, and ‘O’ lets us be competitive and have fun doing it.”
With a shooting contest to end practice, Sparks cheer and jeer each other, and the winners leap and high-five. The losers invariably cry foul, claiming a miscount.
Speaking of cheers and jeers, two weeks ago, during a water break, Woolridge said, “Feaster, make one free throw and practice is over. If you miss, a lap and a half for everyone and practice goes on.”
She went to the line . . . and missed. Jeers.
Well, jeers and cheers. Truth be told, they didn’t really want practice to end anyway.
OLD-TIME SHORT-TIMER
Frank Layden, 67, might have been a world-class schmoozer with NBA reporters, but he had a rapid flameout with his Utah Starzz players as a WNBA coach.
Layden coached 566 NBA games but after only 15 in the WNBA, he resigned June 21 when player unhappiness boiled to the surface just before the season’s second game.
His sin? Putting two of the club’s three European players in the starting lineup three days after they had reported from the European championships.
“We told him: ‘Hey, Frank, we’ve been in training camp for four weeks. What’s going on?’ ” said one player, requesting anonymity.
“Also, at the end of training camp, we’d run so many offensive sets, I had no idea what our offensive scheme was supposed to be.”
It was also reported that players chafed at Layden’s insistence on coordinating outings to movies or plays, and his practice of asking players to read certain books.
His replacement is former assistant Fred Williams. And that means two former USC coaches, Williams and Cheryl Miller, are WNBA coaches.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
WNBA President Val Ackerman said last week she doesn’t believe the addition of four teams next year will result in weak-sister expansion teams.
“Remember, there are a lot of good ABL players who didn’t get drafted this season, and because we did draft 35 ABL players, a lot of good college seniors didn’t get taken, either,” she said. . . .
If the Sparks’ surge continues, the club could lift itself out of its attendance doldrums.
The team plays at Phoenix on Saturday, then hosts Sacramento on Friday and Phoenix on Sunday.
After that comes the one-week All-Star break, followed by a six-game homestand, beginning July 18 with Western Conference leader and defending champion Houston.