{"id":18407,"date":"2019-10-23T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T15:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=18407"},"modified":"2019-10-30T09:23:15","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T16:23:15","slug":"camosun-chargers-womens-basketball-team-excited-about-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2019\/10\/23\/camosun-chargers-womens-basketball-team-excited-about-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun Chargers women\u2019s basketball team excited about season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Camosun College women\u2019s basketball team is preparing for its upcoming season, which starts on November 1. Chargers women\u2019s basketball guard Tessa Lannon-Paakspuu, who is a fourth-year Sport and Fitness Leadership student, is in her fifth and final year with the team. She says that she\u2019s really excited about this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a new coach, and a lot of new, young girls,\u201d says Lannon-Paakspuu. \u201cWe have potential to go to nationals this year. This season we have a lot of opportunity for success, and [coach Justin Thiessen] is helping us set that up really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thiessen started with the Chargers in July; he arrived in Victoria from China, where he had been running a successful basketball academy for several years. Thiessen has been coaching basketball for almost two decades and has high hopes for his new coaching job and for the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with any season, you hope to win a championship,\u201d says Thiessen. \u201cBut these guys are fantastic. They really help each other and encourage each other; usually that communication is a goal in itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Camosun Chargers women\u2019s basketball team practicing for their upcoming season (photo by Emily Welch\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Chargers teams have competed in more than 100 provincial and national championships and have had over 50 medal-winning finishes in their combined histories, and that puts a certain pressure on the women basketball players to keep that record climbing.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re really just using our skills together,\u201d says Lannon-Paakspuu. \u201cWe\u2019re not a very large team. Not whatsoever. But we use our abilities to run the ball really quick, and then key in our specific skills and abilities, allowing each girl to play how she can. We are just playing basketball, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lannon-Paakspuu thinks that what makes this year special is the comfortable environment amongst the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere of this team is just great,\u201d she says. \u201cEvery single girl gets along with each other; we have no conflicting personalities or difficult people on the team. We all just flow so well together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thiessen says that good communication between the coach and the players on the team is evident this year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we talk to each other, if we check in, if we commit to communicate, then there is nothing they won\u2019t be able to do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Lannon-Paakspuu says that the players practice five days a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our team lift every Monday, and we also lift on our own time,\u201d she says. \u201cPlus, we try to go to the gym whenever we have a moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whole team is looking forward to its first regular season games; however, as this is her final season, Lannon-Paakspu is also\u00a0 <\/span>looking forward to a life without playing basketball\u2014at least for a while.<\/p>\n

\u201cI jumped into basketball and college right after high school,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve had five very, very full years. I think I need to do a basic 9-to-5, and just enjoy my life for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lannon-Paakspuu says that if she were to offer advice to a woman basketball player just starting out\u2014say, a Camosun student considering joining the Chargers basketball team\u2014it would be to just enjoy themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe years go by really fast, then once it\u2019s done, it\u2019s done,\u201d she says. \u201cYou might as well have fun with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Camosun College women\u2019s basketball team is preparing for its upcoming season, which starts on November 1. Chargers women\u2019s basketball guard Tessa Lannon-Paakspuu, who is a fourth-year Sport and Fitness Leadership student, is in her fifth and final year with the team. She says that she\u2019s really excited about this season. \u201cWe have a new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-october-23-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18409,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18407\/revisions\/18409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}