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Sports of All Sorts

Law Q&A

Posted by: Tony Bleill

Saturday, April 5, 2008 7:17 PM

Sunday's News-Gazette includes a chat with Jolette Law, who spoke extensively about the struggles of this season and the changes she had to make as it evolved. She also revealed that she made the players do their own laundry for a spell.

"I wanted to breathe life back into this program," Law said. "We hit some potholes, and a lot of it had to do with me meeting resistance, and standing my ground and not giving in. Even the thing with (Danyel Crutcher), a lot of people could have thought, 'What in the world are you doing?' Sticking to my guns. Bottom line, we're going to do it this way, and this is the way it's going to be. I'm not going to win at all costs. We lost some close games, and a lot of it came down to trust.
"It's all about growing. They're closer as a team. They've seen another side of me, and I've listened to them. We had a (team meeting), and I listened. I allowed them to get to see me, the person, and let them know that I'm not trying to say that what you did in the past was bad. I'm trying to take you to where you ultimately want to go. I'm not looking down on you. I don't know if they understood what I was trying to do. I think they thought I was comparing them to Rutgers, and not looking at them as Illinois. That was never the case at all. It's about getting them to believe, getting them to trust. And on that part, I'd have to say that at first I thought I was failing -- failing to convey that I'm not against you. I'm pushing you, I'm driving you. They didn't understand that. They thought, 'Oh, you're just punishing us.' It wasn't that. To get to where we ultimately wanted to be, I didn't need any individuals. I needed this to be a total team effort."

The complete chat is in Sunday's edition.