First Blog Entry:

Today is ____ and this will be the first of hopefully many entries on my blog, mainegirlsbasketballreport.Blogspot.com. I guess I should start off by telling you a bit about myself and why I have decided to write this particular blog (If you don’t really want to know about me I understand just skip down a bit to get to the good stuff). My name is Shawn Wyman. I am 26 years old and live in Portland, Maine. Basketball has been in my life basically since birth. My grandfather was a coach in Massachusetts for almost 40 years. I actually have a photo of him handing me a basketball when I was maybe 2 years old. Naturally I played basketball my whole life straight through high school at Lincoln Academy where I was a team captain my senior year. From there I attended the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and my freshman year was the first year in my life that I didn’t play basketball. It was difficult and I knew I had to change that before the start of my next semester. Thankfully I found a work study job as the team manager for the UMass Women’s basketball team which I held for the next 3 and ½ years (Yes I had a super senior year for those counting at home, Amherst was too much fun to leave in only 4 years). I returned home to Maine with my degree in Sports Management to realize that I was again faced with the same dilemma as freshman year, no basketball. I played in some men’s leagues and at any open gym I could find and also spent one year coaching middle school girl’s basketball. That coaching ended around 3 and 1/2 years ago and was the last direct involvement I have had with basketball.

I recently decided that it has been long enough and I need to get basketball back into my life. I tossed around multiple ideas in my head before settling on this one, coaching, adult leagues, I even tried taking a course on NBA scouting, but somehow writing a blog came out as the winner. I have never done anything like this before and really never enjoyed writing when I was in school, but I figure if there is anything I can enjoy writing about everyday it has to be basketball. Perhaps it is because I am tall (6’6”) but to me the sport of basketball is simply the best sport ever invented. Firstly it is fair, everybody plays both offense and defense, and it forces you to be complete. Some sports you can be an amazing offensive player and that is enough but not basketball, no matter how great you are on offense if you stink on defense the other team will make you pay. Secondly basketball has great flow, things just transition so well, one team scores and then are immediately on defense and the defensive team now goes on the offensive. Then there are the sounds of basketball, a ball being dribbled, the chirp of a sneaker on the wood floor, the painful clang of a missed shot and the sweet sound of the net as a perfect shot swishes through.

With that being said it should be clear why writing a blog about basketball was so intriguing to me, but you might be asking why girls basketball? Good question, and there is a simple answer, as I have gotten older I have grown to respect girl’s basketball more and more. I also feel that in the sports world and especially in the state of Maine girl’s basketball is not given the attention it deserves. I plan to do my part in changing this by writing about girl’s high school basketball in a way that hopefully shows others the beauty I see in the game. While the dunking and above the rim play might not be the same as the boy’s game all the things that I love about basketball are still there (And as players like Candice Parker have shown the above the rim part of the game no longer belongs solely to the male gender).

While I don’t know all the specifics I do have a general idea of how I would like this blog to work. My first goal will be to see first hand as much girl’s basketball in the state of Maine as possible so that I can write about it with an informed opinion. That should be easy during the season with games almost every night across the state. Things get a bit harder in the off season but I still believe I can provide interesting reporting and opinions from AAU and summer league games as well as summer camps and tourneys. I want to bring light to girl’s basketball in all corners of the state. If you feel your region, conference or even team is not getting a fair amount of attention please let me know so I can get out to your area and see what it has to offer.

I plan on attending as many summer basketball games, camps, tournaments and other events as my work schedule will allow so don’t be surprised to read comments about you on my blog soon! I look forward to providing some much needed publicity to girl’s basketball in the state of Maine. Until next time, remember, all the work you put in during the summer pays off in the winter.