Earlier this week, the Wright State men’s basketball team gave up a day in the weight room, practice court and film room to participate on an obstacle course as a way to build team unity.
“We use this for anyone who is into team-building,” said Amy Anslinger of the WSU campus rec center, which has a course in the woods between the Nischwitz baseball stadium and the softball field. “This is used to build relationships. We’ve had some other teams use it, but also others on campus, such as med students.”
WSU coach Brad Brownell had heard about the course, and has even taken walking tours.
“I talked with Amy and told her I wanted to do something different with these guys,” Brownell said. “It’s an older group that has been doing the same things for a while. We took out a weight workout and a sprint workout for this.
“It’s sort of outside-the-box and it also builds togetherness and showing how you can work out things together.”
While the course has 13 stations and can take up to eight hours to complete, the Raiders participated at four stations before finishing their nearly three-hour session with a question-and-answer period.
While the players kidded each other a little while going through the stations, they appeared to perform each task seriously.
“I enjoyed it,” said guard Vaughn Duggins, coming off an injury that caused him to miss most of his junior year. “I didn’t know what we were going to do. It was like a conditioning session.”
All 12 team members took part in the activities. The Raiders — who have won 20 or more games three straight seasons — officially open practice next Friday.
“We know this is going to be a big year for us, so we took it seriously,” senior Todd Brown said. “We did it that way because that’s how we’re coached.”
Brownell had Lucas McKay, his administrative assistant, watch most of the drills and take pictures. Otherwise, it was strictly a player activity.
“What I’m hearing is they had a great time working together,” Brownell said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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