Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team holds first practice

Southeast Missouri State senior forward Erin Bollmann described first-year women's basketball coach Rekha Patterson as both encouraging and intimidating ahead of the Redhawks' first practice of the season on Monday.

Patterson, who exuded enthusiasm and energy from the moment she stepped onto the court at the Student Recreation Center, could instantly be seen encouraging her players, but the intimidation factor isn't as easily spotted.

"It's not that I'm afraid to mess up. It's that I do not want to let her down," Bollmann explained. "She is so encouraging. I've never met a coach so determined to make this year so great. I love her to death already and I've known her for a couple months. When we're in practice all of us are encouraging each other just like she does and we just don't want to let her down."

The Redhawks' offseason efforts and even the minutes leading up to Monday's practice impressed Patterson, who said she wasn't sure if she slept the night before from her excitement.

"I'll tell you this: if you look right now, when I first got the job and we would start practice my players would be sitting on the bleachers just like chilling out," Patterson said. "They wouldn't be stretching, they'd just be sitting there. Now we are 15 minutes before practice, we've got kids shooting and working on ball-handling, they're getting stretched, they're getting their bodies warm, so we are changing our mindset. I want us to have a championship mindset, and that's what we're working on."

Southeast Missouri State senior Erin Bollmann runs a drill during Monday's basketball practice.

Southeast went 10-19 and 3-13 in the Ohio Valley Conference last season. The Redhawks missed the conference tournament for the sixth consecutive year after finishing tied for 10th in the 12-team conference.

"We have a better understanding of the expectations. We know what Coach P wants," senior forward Connor King said. "We know how practice is going to be, we know the pace and the intensity and the effort that she expects us to give. I don't even think you can really compare it to last year. I think this is just a whole new year; it's a blank slate. I think it's going to be good -- really good."

Bollmann, King and guard Olivia Hackmann are Southeast's seniors this year.

Bollmann is the top returner after averaging 10.4 points and 6.7 rebounds last season. Hackmann averaged 8.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists as a junior and King averaged a team-high 7.8 rebounds.

Other returners are sophomore guards Ashton Luttrull, Kaley Leyhue and Hannah Noe, sophomore forward Deja Jones and junior guard Brianna Mitchell. Forward Imani Johnson also returns after redshirting as a freshman.

Southeast Missouri State University's Connor King runs a drill during Monday's basketball practice at the Student Rec Center. (Laura Simon)

New to the team are freshmen guards Adrianna Murphy, Corneisha Henderson and Hilma Mededovic and freshmen forwards Dolapo Balogun and Katia Polk.

Patterson said the upperclassmen embraced the newcomers she added to the team and was able to teach them while still learning the new coach's ways themselves.

Patterson put an emphasis on creating a family environment in her program.

"Like they hang out now together, and that was huge for me," Patterson said. "You don't necessarily have to always like [each other], but you do have to love each other and we've got to have each other's back."

Another change was the mindset that the program can become an OVC title contender.

"Our theme for the year is 'She believed she could, so she did,'" Patterson said. "You've got to believe first. And then just them believing in themselves, that's going to be huge for us."

The Redhawks host two exhibition games at the Show Me Center. They play Oakland City at 2 p.m. Nov. 1 and Lindenwood-Belleville at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 4.

Southeast starts its season at Saint Louis on Nov. 14 and its home opener is Nov. 16 against Harris-Stowe.

"I think overall it's a positive environment and it's an environment conducive to success," King said. "I think we have a coaching staff from head coach all the way down that really pushes for excellence, and they don't take anything less. I just think this group of girls, everybody's going to give their best all day and everybody wants to do well."

"I truly do think that from 1 through 14, she's going to get the best out of every single one of us this season," King added.