Home2025-02-24T16:40:18-08:00
peacelovebasketball gear
buy sonya's book now
shop at peacelovebasketball
Free Basketball coaches downloads
buy sonya's book now
Award winning coach Sonya Elliott talking to a player. Peacelovebasketball blog about the fact that coaches don't know everything.
Free Basketball coaches downloads
peacelovebasketball gear
shop at peacelovebasketball

PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: The Power of Positive

IMG_4119

I love quotes. I use a couple of my own from time to time and I love finding quotes that fuel me.

If I talk to one of my kids before their games I always end with, “Play hard and have fun!” When I sign my memoir I use, “Always believe in you.” And when I was coaching I searched out quotes to encourage and inspire. Our locker room walls were covered in quotes, my coaches and I would text quotes to the players and I would use quotes in my pre-game speeches. Our team was surrounded with positive energy, added fuel to the fire of our intended goals.

During the five years that I was head coach, I watched the energy change with our team. My final year, we were in no way perfect, but we grew as a team and placed 6th in State and more importantly, we grew as a group of young women who learned to stay positive in the face of a challenge, and positive quotes were one small piece of the puzzle.

What are some of your favorite quotes?

Monday’s Pen to Paper: Change Is Life

DSC_0573

There have been a lot of changes going on in my life, and though basketball and writing are still priorities for me, it’s been, and will continue to be, a challenge to settle into a new path.

Last spring I left my position as head basketball coach at the high school in my neighborhood and started closing out my PeaceLoveBasketball business because I was ready for a change. I decided to focus on my writing and put energy back into modeling (and catch up on projects that I had let go over the last 5 years). Then summer hit and so did even more change. The usual sports camps and family vacations took place of course, but then my daughter had heart surgery, our dog had two surgeries, and I lost my grandmother just as my daughter was headed off to college.

A lot of change.

Fortunately, I have learned over the years that change is a part of life. And what I experienced this summer is not much different than most people experience throughout their lives. Loss is a part of life, leaving jobs, sending a child off to college. You follow a path, make a plan, but it often gets uprooted. This might make you cry, or laugh, or feel lost for a while, but there is also hope and better times. Change is life.

Yes, I’ve felt lost and sad at times, but I’ve also had some of the best times with my family and friends this summer. So I continue to remind myself to enjoy life and do the things I love and to believe that change will keep me moving forward and help me to find my way.

Remind yourself to search for the good in change.

 

WRITING PROMPT #1: Write about changes in your life…

WRITING PROMPT #2: Beverly […]

Monday’s Pen to Paper: Time For A Date?

photo

This summer I haven’t had many dates. Not with my husband or with my writing, and that’s a bummer. Fortunately I have my Thursday writing date with my friend Jenny. Those have been consistent every week (though not always on Thursday since it’s summertime), but beyond that it has been difficult to fit writing time in. The “must do’s” often sneak ahead of my writing, but one way I find time is by making a date with myself, putting it on the calendar and then escaping to a coffee shop or the beach, like a real date. Maybe I should try the same with my husband.

WRITING PROMPT #1: Where is your favorite place to write? Why?

WRITING PROMPT #2: Kendra peered out from behind the curtain as her date made his way to her front door…

PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Good For Your Body & Soul

Sonya Elliott Morning hike to Ollalie Lake Sonya Elliott
Morning hike to Ollalie Lake

My recreational basketball team took the summer off so I’m using it as an opportunity to get in better shape for when we start again in the fall. Over the last couple of years I have lost a lot of strength and flexibility. My wind is still okay, but on the court it’s been tougher to rebound and play defense when I can’t hold my ground like I used to.

But not for much longer. I have been mixing it up with beach volleyball, weights, yoga, hiking and conditioning boot camps every day. And this morning, as my daughter and I hiked down from Ollalie Lake, it was nice to be sore again, not the sore that keeps me from bending down and weeding the yard or taking the plates out of the cupboard, but the good kind of sore that reminds me of how many muscles keep the human body moving and assures me that I’m getting stronger so that when basketball starts again, I will be ready.

My body will be ready and my mind will be ready. I have I been missing basketball, (Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?).  So whether you’re a weekend warrior or a seasoned athlete, it doesn’t hurt to mix up a little. Not only is it good for your body but it can be good for your soul.

Shop now for PeaceLoveBasketball gear button

Meet Sonya

Sonya Elliott’s memoir, Back on the Court: A Young Woman’s Triumphant Return to Life, Love & Basketball, is her story of finding hope in the wake of tragedy […]

Categories

Meet Sonya

Sonya Elliott’s memoir, Back on the Court: A Young Woman’s Triumphant Return to Life, Love & Basketball, is her story of finding hope in the wake of tragedy after she and her fiancé were hit by a train. She blogs about writing, basketball, and life and is currently working on a Young Adult Novel and a Non-Fiction Coaching book. Stories of her career as a fashion model are woven through her memoir, as both the Soloflex and Easy Spirit Shoes commercials were filmed during that time period, and this unique and intriguing business continues to be a part of her life.

Sonya played basketball at Eastern Washington University and was a starter for the Big Sky Champion team that went to the 1987 NCAA tournament. She coached for almost 25 years and was voted Seattle Times Coach of the Year, Seattle Officials Women’s Basketball Association Coach of the Year, and twice voted Metro League Coach of the Year. She loves the game of basketball and is thankful, not only for her husband and kids but for her ability to continue to get back on the court.

Blog

PeaceLoveBasketball Friday: Defense wins the games

IMG_0543 - Version 2

I was watching some young kids play pick-up basketball the other day and I was amazed at how often they played just one end of the court, the offensive end. Both teams were letting three-pointers fly and they made them a lot, but it was hard to watch the rest of the game. There was almost no defense being played. Players were just looking for the glory shots, the three-pointers.

Does it really matter if you can drain a three-point shot, if you can’t, or often won’t, play defense on the other end of the court? I don’t think so. In fact, the ability to hit three-pointers tends to make a lot of players lazy. They assume the ball is going in and don’t follow their shots.

Of course as a shooter, you should think that you’re going to make your […]

PeaceLoveBasketball: Girls Not Tough Enough? Bring It On!

elliott hoops0005 - Version 2

There was a time when girls played six on six basketball, three on offense, three on defense, because according to The Women’s Basketball Rule Committee the game was too rough for girls. Though this rule was put into action in 1899, it’s how I learned to play when I was in grade school, and when I was in college there were still three states that played this way. Oklahoma was the last state to change to five-on-five basketball in 1995; seven years after I graduated from college.

Girls not tough enough? Please.

Learn more about how Title IX changed things for women in this country and how it affected me throughout my lifetime of sports in Can I Play? Dreaming In the Wave of Title IX at AwesomeSportProject.com.

 

Monday’s Pen to Paper: Ten Short Lines and Go

IMG_2684 - Version 2

My friend Jenny and I write every Thursday. Most days we write a quick letter to one another to catch up on our week. Last week we wrote ten short lines about our previous week. Mine started…

  • Ping Pong Pandemonium
  • Not-so-sweet 16
  • Gone are many dog days & days & dogs. Peace.
  • Title IX article

You get the idea. Just little snippets into what happened. Then we chose one of the lines and wrote for eight minutes. Now it’s your turn to give it at try.

WRITING PROMPT: Jot down 10 things that happened last week. Pick one of them and write some more.

Go to Top