Julie van Beek is beginning her fifth season in charge of the national-caliber Seattle Pacific women's basketball program. In her first four years, she has built a 96-21 record with two outright GNAC championships and a share of last year's conference crown. The Falcons figure to be in the mix once again in what is looming as a tight GNAC race.
Van Beek chatted recently with SPUfalcons.com about the upcoming season, which starts tonight (Nov. 5) at 7 with an exhibition game against the Washington Huskies in the UW's Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
SPUfalcons.com: How has preseason training been going, and how is everyone fitting together?
Julie van Beek: “I think we have a great group of girls. We have a lot of talent. Obviously, losing
Katie Benson (to a season-ending injury) changes some of what we do. But it's just an opportunity for other people to step up. We might be more guard-oriented than post-oriented. But we're fast, and we can make it more of a full-court game.”
SPUfalcons.com: Who among the veterans is standing out so far?
JVB: “Daesha (Henderson), Megan (Hoisington), Melissa (Reich), Sydney (Benson) and Caitlyn (Rohrbach) had a very good summer. Daesha is probably the best player in the region, yet, she has found a way to improve her overall game as well as her 3-point shot. The same can be said of Megan. She worked extremely hard to fine-tune her shooting and ball handling. People will see a big difference in Melissa this year in her game, conditioning, overall strength, and confidence. Caitlyn also committed herself to improving her strength, conditioning and shooting.
Nyesha Sims had a great summer. She did a good job improving her overall game. McKayla (Gorman) had a great spring. She missed last few weeks of preseason (recovering from a knee operation), but I expect good things for McKayla. She has laid a great foundation. Jordan (Harazin) had a great freshman year, and I think she has been doing some really solid things, too.
Maddie Maloney has been shooting the ball really well. She has had a lot of experience in two years, and I expect great things from her.”
SPUfalcons.com: How about the newcomers?
JVB: “
Rachel Murray (from Australia) is going to be a very good player. There's still an adjustment between the international game and the American game. Once she makes those adjustments, I think we'll see some really good things. She's really smart, has great instincts, and can make her teammates better. Michelle (Teng) and Katie (Thralls) are both very strong competitors. They're game players. Michelle does some really good things defensively. They're both very strong, and Katie is very, very fast. Joani (Reimer) is a nice surprise for us. She has a good size and a nice shot. “
SPUfalcons.com: After redshirting last year,
Sydney Benson is eligible this season. What does she bring to the team?
JVB: Sydney has is great instincts, and is a great rebounder and has a beautiful shot. She's tireless -- she can go forever.”
SPUfalcons.com: Last year, you had such a young team, and you weren't sure how things would play out. Will it be different this year because those players now have some experience?
JVB: We still are pretty young. We have a lot of unknowns. Losing
Katie Benson was huge, so we have to do some thing differently. I know we have kids that know how to win -- that's a big deal. We're fast and I believe we're going to be able to get a lot done with our defense. I think our defense will create some good offense for us. I think we'll have some good balance. That's where I hope we can use depth and really have kind of a tag-team approach and can be relentless in going hard each possession of every half and just using that to kind of wear people down.”
SPUfalcons.com: Last year, you said one of your big challenges was simply to become a team -- and that happened. With more returning players, is that still a challenge this year?
JVB: Even though we have 10 returners, we have five new players. And of those returners, Sydney (Benson) didn't play. I think with every team, even if you have only one person that's new, the chemistry changes. We have to grow together. Last season, that first weekend (with wins against UC San Diego and Cal Poly Pomona) was a huge builder. Then, we had to go through the adversity of losing to Seattle U. Going in to play North Dakota was a good experience. Part of becoming a team is a process. That process won't end until the season is over.”
SPUfalcons.com: It's early yet, but what stand out as strong points so far?
JVB: Speed, quickness, depth, and just some really good senior leadership. Our team has very high expectations for ourselves. That's a real strong characteristic of winners. We want to do the best we can. That's our theme this year: the pursuit of excellence and making every day count. We know how many days of opportunity we have in front of us. Can we say we are better today than we were yesterday? Are we doing the best that we can at every drill and every practice? How can we be excellent? That's really our goal.”
SPUfalcons.com: And, at the other end of things, are there any big concerns so far?
JVB: The big concern is always injuries. But we have kids who want to do what's right and our kids want to work hard. We're just taking it one day at a time.”
SPUfalcons.com: What's in store for the GNAC this season? Have you ever seen it look this tough?
JVB: It's sure the toughest since we've been here. NNU just lost one player, but replaced her with a very good player. Jessica Summers is back at Western Washington, and we never saw the true Jessica Summers (last year because of an injury). Western is also bringing in a very talented point guard. And Anchorage is Anchorage. But that's the way you want (the conference) to be. Our league is good, top to bottom. Two years ago, our conference was ranked No. 2 in the country in strength of schedule, and I think we're going to see that again.”
SPUfalcons.com: How about your schedule? There are some very quality opponents on there.
JVB: I think we have a good schedule. Colorado Christian is a good, solid team with a coach that's bringing them along. Humboldt State, we played in semis of regionals. Joddie (Gleasson, the Lumberjacks' coach) does a great job, and they have some good players returning. We play everyone who was in the region tournament (except Cal State Dominguez Hills), and that's great. We get Grand Canyon twice and Dixie State, so we'll play the best of the Pac West Conference. We get UC San Diego, Chico State and Sonoma State. It's a good schedule to prepare us for a very tough conference schedule.”
