INDIANAPOLIS – After leading the IUPUI women’s basketball team to their first Summit League Championship appearance,
Jernisha Cann and
Julia Whitted wanted more. So the duo set out this summer to prepare to lead the Jaguars one step further in the 2008-09 season.
Spending part of the summer in Indianapolis with their teammates, both Cann and Whitted agreed that the summer workouts had gone well. Cann said, “Everyone worked hard and tried to improve some of their weaknesses so that by the beginning of the season, those deficiencies will be strengths.”
In a typical day, the team would lift weights, run and play basketball. However, the workouts were tougher than they sound. Three days a week, the ladies would do a combination of upper and lower body lifts and end the workout with crunches and sit-ups. Twice a week, the team would run either two miles or sprints equivalent to two miles, depending on the day.
Cann mentioned that “We wanted our freshmen and newcomers to get a feel for how the beginning of the year will be by giving them a taste of what we have been through in the previous years. We weren’t trying to scare them, but just give them a head’s up and prepare them so that we can be able to move at a faster pace once the season gets rolling.”
Both Cann and Whitted worked out on their own throughout the summer, too. Whitted was invited to the prestigious Pete Newell Tall Women’s Basketball Camp at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, where she refined some of the post techniques that vaulted her to a First Team All-Summit selection in 2007-08.
“The camp was extremely beneficial for me,” Whitted said. “I learned a lot of important things that I hadn’t known, and I think they will serve me well in the upcoming seasons.”
Cann did not attend any camps this summer, but played competitively against cousins as she rehabbed a nagging injury.
Both players easily found a consensus when asked about their goals for the 2008-09 season. Whitted would like to “win The Summit League Championship and sweep the home slate this year.”
Cann was a little more detailed: “My goal for this year is to finish what we started last year, and we can do that by putting in the extra time to accomplish all of our goals. I feel that this is our year, but we have to work hard every day because nothing is going to be handed to us. Our freshmen will play a huge part in helping us finish off the year on a high note, and I’m excited to get going.”
