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Hoping Boys and Girls Can Continue to Play Together
A girls' practice at Westlake sometimes includes boys. "If the women can't be challenged, then how are they going to get better?" asked one coach.
(By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)
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"I tell the guys before we start that this isn't about their ego, this is about them doing us a favor to help us get a little bit better," Priester said.
A lot of the work is situational -- breaking a press, honing a press, executing a motion offense. Facing taller, quicker players with wider wingspans on a Thursday afternoon can really pay off on a Friday night, and the presence of the boys can spark a starting five that has grown weary of schooling its understudies.
"You find out that the boys don't want to lose to the girls," said Holy Cross girls' coach Russell Davis, whose Pallotti teams used to practice against the JV boys (Holy Cross is an all-girls school). "The intensity level is a lot higher than what you could produce. It's almost like a game-type level of intensity."
Stonewall Jackson girls' coach Nsonji White has a regular boys' scout team made up of players not on the Raiders' school teams. As far as he's concerned, his scout team is a necessity.
"The reason is that last year I had six serious players and the rest filling a roster," White wrote in an e-mail. "I owed it to my program and those girls to challenge them. It aided in changing my girls' thinking. We won most of the scrimmages. What that has done to the confidence and attitudes of my girls has been tremendous."
Few area male coaches of girls' basketball teams have the perspective on the topic that Notre Dame's Teasley has. His sister is Washington Mystics guard Nikki Teasley, who grew up playing frequently against boys.
"Even though the women's game has grown a lot over the years, you can't match that when you're practicing with girls," Mike Teasley said. "It's no discredit to the women's game, or the women involved in the game. It's just about helping the game grow."
Varsity Letter is a weekly column about high school sports in the Washington area. Check out the Varsity Letter blog weekdays athttp:/
