Watching a girls' basketball game this year, the shouting figure crouched at the sidelines might seem a little out of place. Coach Brian Fulks is not a new face here at John Glenn, but most of us associate him more with runners than basketball. Not that this is his first time coaching hoops. He's coached the eighth grade boys for the past two seasons and coached at Tri-Valley before that.
Don't think of him as "used" though, more "new pre-owned," with plenty of energy and passion left for the game as well as a new set of spark plugs to jump-start the team. "He's really into it; he's excited to coach and excited to have a good year," said junior Chelsie Karling.
His excitement for the team comes through both in practices and games in his energized presence. "At games he's very vocal, and he definitely pushes us. He makes us work every second of practice," Karling says.
Junior Breanna Bradley says about practices with Fulks, "It's more intense. Every practice is more intense than the one before it. We keep building on what he teaches us."
Just play hard. "We are just trying to improve every day out. Winning isn't easy and no one will give it to us or feel sorry for us. We just have to keep playing hard and staying positive." That's Fulks' philosophy for the team. He believes that as long as they do that, they will be successful.
"He always says that he knows that people doubt us because of our record last year, but he wants them to doubt us because he knows we're better. He knows that if we give our all then we're better than they say we are," explains sophomore Kathleen Luburgh.
When I interviewed Fulks, he told me about preparing for the Morgan game and the rest of the season. "In practice, we focused on the things we didn't do well against Sheridan so we can work on those things to improve... hopefully it will all click and things will come together," he said.
Whatever problems might have been leftover from the Sheridan game were clearly fixed as things finally did "click" as the team beat Morgan on Saturday 51-45.
Comments