Two-time defending MEAC champion NSU women ‘hit reset button’ as practice begins
NORFOLK — The back-to-back MEAC women’s basketball champions kicked off their first practice of the 2024-2025 season Monday morning.
Though Norfolk State coach Larry Vickers and the Spartans’ quest for a three-peat technically started with summer workouts, Vickers said it was good to get his team back on the court for real practice.
“It’s good that we do this because it gives us a reset button,” Vickers said. “At this point, we’re pretty much 10 months a year, so it’s good to have those dates during the year that kind of refocus and re-energize your group. And the first day of practice generally does that.”
Norfolk State is coming off a year where it dominated its competition en route to a program-best 27-6 record, which resulted in an NCAA Tournament appearance against Stanford.
The Spartans are returning their “top nine” players from last year’s squad, Vickers said, something 2023 MEAC Player of the Year Kierra Wheeler believes will be a huge benefactor for the team.
“I think it’s really nice. Honestly, you rarely see that now,” Wheeler said. “With the transfer portal and everything, you rarely see eight of the main players come back. But I think last year, we had a really good run, and we built connections and friendships through last year that made us not want to leave our program and want to see what’s next.”
Last year’s MEAC Newcomer of the Year, star guard Diamond Johnson, said she was excited and lost for words for her “last first practice” Monday. Johnson said the energy around the program was high for practice and the offseason flew by.
“We were just talking about how we just finished winning the MEAC in April, and now it’s September — time really goes by super-fast,” Johnson said. “We just finished preseason conditioning. When it first started, we were like, dang, we got four weeks, but the four weeks felt long. But now I know this is about to go fast. We’re just super-excited, we know we’re putting in the work and we’re gonna see results when the season comes.”
Vickers said the energy in Monday’s practice was high and emphasized that the first week of practice will be crucial for setting the tone for the Spartans during the season.
“Momentum is everything in our game,” Vickers said. “When we get down, we stay down. When we’re up, we’re up. So, you know, we got 30 — well, 29 practices now — before our first game, and the momentum from today just needs to kind of continue to go through.”
Michael Sauls, (757) 803-5774, [email protected]
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