Catching Up

Hey there everyone!

Yes, I know, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted here on “Cree’s Corner”. Blame it on the usual stressful and emotional duties of a freshman athlete: tons of homework, long practices, final exams and the fact that we are now in conference season! Now that things have lightened up a bit for me here at the beginning of the spring (where memorizing the syllabi is the only expectation for the first few weeks), I’ve got to catch you all up with what’s been going on in my world.

Fall semester, I can honestly say, was very good to me. Dealing with the travel associated with road games and managing studying/homework, I feel I handled the challenge really well by prioritizing my time off the court with the help of my wonderful academic advisor, Kelly Diener. Finishing my first semester with a 3.7 GPA was a great kick-start to my college career academically, and every athlete knows that we must handle business in the books in order to handle business on the court. The last day of finals had to be my most memorable moment of my first semester, and I am almost sure the same can be said for other freshmen around the country. Oh, the relief! Just waking up knowing that “Hey, I don’t have class today…or tomorrow…or the next day” has by far been the greatest feeling. The academic stress was finally lifted off my shoulders, and I was so excited to have basketball, conference play, and winning as my primary focus.

I am very fortunate to have a coach who emphasizes the idea of family on the court, off the court, and even back in our hometowns. Before attacking conference play, we had four days to ourselves over winter break. Being from a state thousands of miles away, I was grateful to have the opportunity of genuine time with my family during the Christmas holiday. A lot of my friends and former teammates back home, who also play college athletics, were only granted two days off at the MOST!

So, to have four days off, 96 hours of free time, 5,760 minutes to enjoy the wonderful 50-degree temperatures of Houston was extremely important to me. MONUMENTAL! My grandmother cooked the entire family the usual Christmas feast – seafood gumbo. One of my favorite “grandmother meals”. (Everyone has got to have at least one favorite grandmother meal right?) Then, of course, opening gifts was the best part! Every Christmas, my younger cousins and I all bring our wrapped gifts to our Christmas feast so we can unwrap them together as a family. As I’ve gotten older, the number of presents that I’d open slowly decreases, but that’s okay. After all, at this age, what do you really ask Santa for anyway? I really enjoyed spending time with my mother and family back home before returning to a schedule of non-stop games and practices – and I mean NON-STOP!

Fast forward to now, present day, and we have just begun the second half of conference play. I must admit, our first half of the schedule was pretty difficult with five of eight games on the road, and on the road carries it’s fair share of disadvantages. Coach Rechlicz has ramped up our practices and we have been going pretty hard as a team. Win or lose, however, we always come together as a family to discuss our mistakes and make adjustments. I absolutely love the girls that I play with and wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. Through the ups and down, my team has never been shaken. I know we are great. We know we are great. Like Assistant Coach Dan Carey always says, “When you take a punch, punch back!” (figuratively speaking, of course). In the home stretch, there will be plenty of punches thrown by our opponents and we will take each and every one of them while giving it right back!

I have just about ran out of words for this posting and I promise to fill you all in again soon…and I mean SOON!

GO PANTHERS!

Introduction Time!

What’s up everybody?!

It’s Cree! A lot of you may not know me yet, but that will all soon change here in a few moments. It’s only right that I kick off my first blog by letting you know a little bit about myself, especially if you’re planning to check in here regularly throughout the season. First and foremost, my name is Cree Hammond (also known as “H-town” around here) and I’m from Houston, Texas – that’s 1,180 miles from Milwaukee to be exact. Many people ask, “Why Milwaukee?” and the answer is very simple. I want to take on the mission of building our team into a championship caliber program. In the world of college basketball, scholarships are hard to come by, which is why being here at Milwaukee is a true blessing in and of itself. After a long recruiting process by a number of D-1 programs, UWM topped the list! My gut told me this was the place to be and I have been proven right!

Okay, BACK TO THE TOPIC! I’d like to think of myself as very liberated and very different. I love shopping, sushi, going to dinner dates alone, math, cracking jokes, writing, playing my keyboard and listening to music. As a matter of fact, believe it or not, my DREAM career is to be the world’s greatest female disc jockey. But, for now, I have chosen to take a path toward a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Besides my two brothers and two sisters, I am my mother’s only child and we’ve been two peas in a pod my entire life. My mother, Helon Hammond, is one of the greatest women I know. As a single mother, she has sacrificed for me and supported me in whatever I’ve decided to do, and for that I am so grateful. As the saying goes, “there is no love like a mother’s love”, and I can definitely vouch for that! I’m a mommy’s girl through and through. For example, on my first day of college here at UWM, she called me on FaceTime. I will never forget how the moment we saw each other on the screen her eyes filled with tears - I missed her and she missed me! After all, we are all we have. That separation from her has probably been the most difficult aspect of my transition to college life here at Milwaukee. (Although the looming experience of my first REAL winter here in Wisconsin may be a close second!)

Back in January, I experienced one of the toughest and most challenging times of my basketball life when I suffered a torn ACL and lateral meniscus. (Yikes!) No matter how common ACL tears may be in this sport, in my opinion, they remain every player’s worst fear and now I had to face it head on. So, I spent my Valentine’s Day in an operating room. (Exciting right?) While other girls spent their day eating assorted chocolates and heart-shaped candy, I was under the knife and steady hand of Dr. Walter Lowe, who also serves as the head team physician for the NFL’s Houston Texans and NBA’s Houston Rockets. Now, months later, I look back and realize how the entire ordeal truly showed me just how much I love this game of basketball. When you go from working out multiple times per day to having to relearn how to walk on both legs, it would be an understatement to say it’s a wakeup call. Now to the good news! I’m happy to say that I’ve been given the ‘OK’ by Dr. Lowe to resume full basketball activities, but I realize I still have a ways to go when it comes to strengthening the new muscles around my knee. Lately, I’ll be honest with you, the practices and strength and conditioning sessions have been very difficult. Imagine walking around with the feeling of a dead leg, because that’s exactly how I feel when the muscles become fatigued. However, I know that I must push myself beyond my comfort zone and, if I do, it will all pay off in the end.

Well then, I hope I’ve given you a little more of an idea as to who I am, where I come from, and why I’m here. Now, the next time we talk, we won’t be strangers anymore! I’ll be posting here at Cree’s Corner throughout the season, so check back soon because you won’t want to miss the inside scoop on our team!

GO PANTHERS!

- Cree