By Alexis Morgan, Originally appeared on GoPSUsports.com
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Lady Lions might have 21 wins this season but the real victories are won behind the scenes at practice. The coaching staff simulates tough challenges and physical game conditions by using an all-male practice squad when preparing the Lady Lions for game day.
Freshman guard Maggie Lucas is used to playing basketball with her two older brothers. Because Lucas is used to the physical nature of males, it has helped her adjust to practices everyday defending taller, bigger, stronger male guards.
“It’s (pretty) much the same, it does remind me a lot of practicing with my brothers,” Lucas said.
“It’s really good because it brings a lot of physicality that we see on the road. It prepares us and gives us an insight on what to expect.”
With a 10-man rotation, the squad’s purpose is to replicate offensive and defensive schemes of future opponents to prepare the Lady Lions for any possible conditions they might face.
Assistant coach Maren Walseth believes it’s a key asset to improve each players individual skills.
“It’s constantly challenging them to play different, think different, work on different aspects of their own skill set,” Walseth said.
As a former Lady Lion, Walseth said she enjoyed the challenge of practicing with males over females.
“Especially as a female, playing against your teammates gets old. You’re like ‘I know what you can do, not that you’re not making me better, but I’ll always do the same thing (against you)’. When you get a constant rotation of guys, they’re different. When you have 6-6 Pete, you’ll have to play differently than you do against 6-2 Scott”.
The Penn State coach responsible for the scouting report on the upcoming opponent has a set of plays the practice squad learns and mimics. The practice team members also wear numbers according to which opponent they are assigned to imitate.
“We give them a player profile of who they are in addition to the offense or style of defense they’re trying to run,” Walseth said.
The Lady Lions’ mentality improves at games when they see things they’ve worked on at practice.
“The guys are stronger, (more) physical, and can jump higher. If (a player) can succeed against the guys then (they) can succeed against the girls,” Walseth said.
Penn State senior, Dylan Lyons, has been on the male-practice team since last summer. He said that the competition between the men and women squads gets increasingly tough at practice.
“It’s very competitive. We’ve got guys that are (bigger); our guards are bigger than their guards, our centers are bigger than their centers, but whenever we play a scrimmage and we’re running against them, it’s always competitive,” Lyons explains.
Balancing practice, being a student, and having a social life for a practice player gets difficult at times.
“Time is definitely hard to manage; you’ve got to be good at it. The practices are usually three hours long. Right after practice I come back and get some work done. By that time, it’s time to get some sleep,” Lyons said.
He says, in the end it’s worth it.
“College is the next step to the real world, you have to focus on what’s important.”
Being a part of the practice team and giving 100 percent at every practice is very important to the former high school basketball player.
“(I) have a commitment to the team, to other people and to the coaches. (I’ve) got to do things the right way. I like the organization, the team, the camaraderie that comes with it. I mean it’s one of the best feelings in the world to be a part of something that’s bigger than yourself. That makes it special and unique, especially with this group that we have this year.”
Lyons is happy to have this experience after choosing not to play college basketball at a smaller school.
“I (thought I) was finished playing basketball in high school. A lot of (the practice squad players) had division two, division three looks but we wanted to go to a bigger school,” Lyons said.
“We knew sacrificing that meant that our basketball careers were probably going to be over. Luckily being a part of this team, it gives me and everyone else an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than just running around at the IM building with no referees and no coaches. It’s something that I never thought I’d get a chance to have again.”
Although the time commitment and dedication is tough, there are also some perks of being on the practice squad.
“We get to schedule early because we’re considered student athletes. Prioritized scheduling is really good for us because of time management and being able to schedule our classes earlier in the morning,” Lyons said.
“Occasionally the coaching staff will take us out to dinner.”
Many people are not aware of the all-male practice squad, but coaches and players say their contributions are not overlooked.
“It takes a very special person to be a practice player. The girls are really appreciative of the guys and they turn out to be really good friends,” Walseth said.
Even though there are gender differences between squads, Lyons says if they ever played against each other outside of practice, it’d be a pretty even match-up.
“I would never bet on us to win. I would hope that we would win just because the competitive nature that everyone has against each other. Nobody looks to lose but it’s always fun.”
Lucas on the other hand has a different opinion.
“I think we’d win,” she said smiling.
