UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- This August marked the seventh time that women's basketball head coach Carolyn Kieger would begin a school year in that role. While the previous six, including last year at Penn State, may have had a certain familiarity to them, this year has been a little different.
That move in time on campus would normally lead to in-person team bonding and the start of a march towards the season.
Instead, the impact of the coronavirus outbreak has required Kieger to step back and adjust to a new, challenging method of leadership that largely deviates from anything she's experienced in her coaching career.
"I think the hardest thing has been that lack of team interaction, especially when you have so many new players on your team and you're trying to grow as a unit," Kieger said. "Not being able to hang out or practice together...having to be in groups, having to see each other over Zoom versus in person..it's hard."
Kieger's group is full of new faces, 13 in total with eight freshmen, which will provide a real challenge throughout a particularly unprecedented season characterized by uncertainty. With just five upperclassmen on the roster, the limitations that safe practices and workouts may present aren't favorable, either.
"We have to slowly go back into training, so we split up into groups," Kieger said. "Instead of giving each other high-fives and touches, we do handclaps, points and shoutouts, so it takes a lot of creativity."
Players are only allowed to train for a specific number of hours per week in small groups of three to four people. In between time slots, the coaching staff works diligently to ensure that all basketballs, weights and equipment are sanitary to use for the next incoming bunch.
Moreover, the team is required to wear masks for the vast majority of practices and to get tested once per week.
Despite all of these complications, Kieger's adamance about team unity and perseverance has certainly resonated with her young group. Even new faces are taking leadership roles.
"I definitely have taken on a leadership role," Villanova graduate transfer Kelly Jekot said. "When I got to Penn State, [my teammates] showed me around campus and we've just really connected from there on."
"We've worked really hard on our weaknesses to get better every day," added sophomore Makenna Marisa, the team's top returning scorer at 9.2 points per game. "Even though it's small groups, having each other to push and compete with one another has really helped."
"There's not a human being on the planet that hasn't been affected by [the coronavirus], so it's all about reminding each other to stay the course, and make sure we're getting better," Kieger said. "You're either going rise above it and come out stronger because of it, or you're going to complain and be worse off."
If there is a silver lining to what has been a chaotic year thus far, it's the fact that the team has bonded more than they could've imagined.
"We can't really hang out with anyone outside of our team, so it's really brought the team together," Marisa said.
"We've been playing a lot of card games," Jekot added. "It's kind of cool because a lot of us are new, and we're kind of closed off to just being with each other and getting to know one another."
"Any time a group of people face adversity together, it's going to bring them closer because you need to lean on each other and support each other through it."
Kieger also vocalized the significance of the team's recent Zoom sessions, and how the group has repeatedly spoken about trying to be "triple threats," the best version of themselves as students, people and players, in that respective order, during tough times.
"We've had more real conversations than we've ever had as a team," Kieger said. "It's been emotional, it's been authentic, and as a coach, it's been really awesome to see our players rally behind each other."
