Allison Smalley

Moderatorzy: tadziu, kyS, thomas72

Gość-1147
Młodzik
Posty: 623
Rejestracja: 13 czerwca 2007, 17:31
Lokalizacja: Gorzów Wlkp.

Allison Smalley

Postautor: Gość-1147 » 10 sierpnia 2012, 22:17

.
Alli na razie odpoczywa u siebie w domu (Arab, Alabama). Jednak wkrótce wyjedzie do Auburn, by dokończyć studia (nauczanie początkowe). Obrona pracy jest zaplanowana na grudzień. Z koszykówki nie zrezygnuje. Podczas drugiej części sezonu 2012-2013 będzie gdzieś grała.

"Może to będzie znów Polska. Może to będzie inny kraj. Nie jestem jeszcze pewna." - mówi Alli.

"Smalley pójdzie tam, gdzie jest (będzie) najbardziej potrzebna lub tam, gdzie ma (będzie miała) najlepsze możliwości"

"Prawdopodobnie nie pojechałabym tam w przyszłości na wakacje, ale granie w Gorzowie podobało mi się," - powiedziała Smalley.

"Jej znajomość (zażyłość) z zespołem i z trenerem (Dariusz Maciejewski) może również być czynnikiem istotnym, skoro ma dołączyć do składu w trakcie sezonu."


The Arab Globe Trotter

AU bound Alli Smalley talks Polish basketball

By MIKE TANKERSLEY - The Arab Tribune
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 8:56 AM CDT


Obrazek


Courtney Gibson, Lindsey Guess, Anna Huckaby, Alex King and Jackie Townsend weren't there to hang with and talk to like they were when they were all teammates at Arab High. Her good friend Ashley Aldaz wasn't there, either.

There wasn't DeWanna Bonner or Whitney Boddie to run with, like when she was playing at Auburn.

And, for the first time ever, there wasn't even one parent at any of her regular-season or playoff basketball games.

But Alli Smalley still found joy playing the game she loves, even if it was 5,000 miles away in a place called Gorzow in Poland.

It was different, for sure. But it was still fun, she said.

"I've enjoyed basketball at every level," Smalley said last week as she was finishing up a part-time summer job in Huntsville before heading back to Auburn to finish work on her degree in early childhood education. She'll graduate in December after completing a student-teaching internship at Carver Primary School in Opelika.

Then she'll play basketball again, at a location still to be determined.

"I'll play a half-season somewhere," she said. "It may be Poland again. It may be a different country. I'm just not sure yet."

The reason for the indecision is simple. Women's professional basketball in Europe is no different than pro leagues in this country, except maybe for the salaries paid the athletes. (In the Polish league, Smalley said the salaries range anywhere from $2,000 to $13,000 a month, though the best of the best can get up to $25,000 a month.)

Smalley will go where she is most needed or has the best opportunity. There are teams in different leagues and different countries, and some team somewhere is certain to need a shooting guard with dazzling passing skills and now a year of professional experience.

Smalley's agent, Boris Lelchitski, will find that spot, just like he did last year when he placed her in Gorzow. The team there is competitive and plays in front of an enthusiastic - if small - fan base.

Think Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium, only with 2,000 crazies instead of 9,000-plus - kind of like Arab High when Smalley was lighting up the gym here.

"The fans are awesome," Smalley said of the Gorzow faithful. "They'd travel with us, and they're wild and do a lot of chanting.

"Home games were a lot of fun. The fans really get into it. It was really cool. I love to play in front of that kind of crowd and in that kind of atmosphere. I really enjoyed it."

For that reason, Smalley won't rule out a return to the Polish league or to Gorzow, though she admits she did and saw enough there during one season (September 2011-April 2012) to last a lifetime. She'd welcome a return there to play, though she's just as interested in a different adventure.

"I probably wouldn't go there (Gorzow) on vacation in the future, but I did enjoy playing there," Smalley said.

Her familiarity with the team and head coach (Dariusz Maciejewski) might also play a factor since she'll be joining the squad at midseason.

If she doesn't return to Gorzow, she'll have plenty of memories - and all of them good ones.

As part of the compensation package in Poland, Smalley and her teammates received housing and the use of a team car. What Smalley learned early on is that none of the cars in Poland have automatic transmissions, including her small, baby-blue Ford.

"I had to learn to drive a stick shift," she laughed. "Coach (Maciejewski) taught me how on the first day of practice. I stalled out a bunch of times, but I picked it up pretty fast.

"By the end of the season, I loved it."

Having the car gave Smalley freedom, and she used it to explore her new surroundings, usually with teammates but one week with her boyfriend, Brock, who flew in for a visit.

That week probably was her best as she admits to being homesick from time to time. But almost as memorable was the time Smalley and some teammates drove to visit two concentrations camps: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

"We went to both camps and had an American tour guide," said Smalley, who counts history and reading among her passions. "It was cold and there was snow on the ground, and that just made it more real for us."

Usually, though, Smalley's days were more routine. Her apartment was more like a dorm, she said, and all the players - including the non-Americans - stayed there.

Life was different from college in that practice in Gorzow incorporated the conditioning work. She didn't have to go lift weights and run separately from actual practice, giving her more free time during the day.

"I liked that part of it," she said. "We had a lot more downtime to do things.

"The city was easy to navigate. It had a small-town feel to it, even though the population is about 125,000. The people are real simple over there. They keep to themselves a lot, and they are not materialistic. You'll see people riding bikes everywhere. A lot of people walk."

In her spare time, Smalley occasionally would go with teammates to the bowling alley or to the local theater, which, in addition to Polish, showed English versions of many of movies. She didn't watch much actual TV but found herself watching some American TV shows online.

"I started watching some shows I never really watched that much before, like Modern Family, Desperate Housewives, Friday Night Lights and Grey's Anatomy," she said. "That was a change for me."

Smalley had access to American food at all times but often tried the local cuisine and lived to tell about it.

"The food was actually good," she said. "The buffets at the motels we stayed at usually had a lot of hot dogs and grilled chicken laid out."

One polish dish in particular struck Smalley's fancy: Pierogi.

"It was like ravioli, with lots of kraut and stuff," she said. "It was very good."

Smalley said she tried to learn one Polish word a day from her teammates and never felt frustrated by not being able to communicate with the locals.

"No matter where you went, someone could speak English," she said. "It was more funny than frustrating."

She never once heard a Polish joke. She did, however, hear a lot of Polish being spoken around her.

"I'd be waiting to be interviewed after games, and they'd all be speaking Polish to the other players, then they'd get to me and ask me a question in English," Smalley said. "They'd repeat the question and my answer in Polish. English is like a second language there."

Smalley knows the end of her illustrious basketball career is on the horizon. Her priorities have begun to change as she prepares for a career in teaching and possibly a family life.

Her goal of playing in the Women's National Basketball Association, so passionate a few years ago, is still in the back of her mind, but that desire has been tempered to some extent by four years at Auburn and her pro experience in Europe.

Smalley is enjoying other aspects of life now, like tossing a football with her boyfriend in the front yard of her parents' house in Arab on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Still, the fire burns inside her.

"I'm not ready to be done playing basketball, I know that," Smalley said, almost defiantly. "I'm still really competitive."



[ http://www.thearabtribune.com/articles/ ... /news2.txt ]

.

Gość-1147
Młodzik
Posty: 623
Rejestracja: 13 czerwca 2007, 17:31
Lokalizacja: Gorzów Wlkp.

Re: Allison Smalley

Postautor: Gość-1147 » 30 czerwca 2013, 20:40

.

Już wkrótce Alli stanie na ślubnym kobiercu.
Szóstego lipca 2013, Allison Jean Smalley i William Brock Bracewell będą ślubować w Arab (Alabama).

Obrazek

Wszystkiego najlepszego, Alli i William!!!

[ http://www.andalusiastarnews.com/2013/06/15/smalley-bracewell-to-unite/ ]

----------------------------------------------
685
.

Gość-1147
Młodzik
Posty: 623
Rejestracja: 13 czerwca 2007, 17:31
Lokalizacja: Gorzów Wlkp.

Re: Allison Smalley

Postautor: Gość-1147 » 06 lipca 2013, 17:50

.
Jednak nie zobaczymy Jej w przyszłym sezonie w Gorzowie (no, chyba że zmieni zdanie 8) ).

W odpowiedzi na zadane na Twitterze pytanie: "Where are you playing this year?"

Alli odpowiedziała: "I'm not going to be playing next season. I'm getting married in July and will be looking for a job in Auburn!"


------------------------
785
.

Gość-1147
Młodzik
Posty: 623
Rejestracja: 13 czerwca 2007, 17:31
Lokalizacja: Gorzów Wlkp.

Re: Allison Smalley

Postautor: Gość-1147 » 21 sierpnia 2014, 17:10

.

Rok temu powiedziała, że będzie szukać pracy w Auburn.... i pracę tam znalazła.


" ALLI BRACEWELL JOINS AUBURN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL STAFF

[ Aug. 14, 2014 ]


AUBURN, Ala. - Former Auburn women's basketball standout Alli (Smalley) Bracewell has joined head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy's staff as director of basketball services, Williams-Flournoy announced Thursday.

Bracewell, a 2012 Auburn graduate, joins the women's basketball staff after spending the last year as a graduate assistant working in academics.

"I'm very excited about being back," Bracewell said. "I think it's a great privilege to come back and be on staff where I played, here at my alma mater. I'm really looking forward to being any help that I can be. I've enjoyed talking to Coach Flo and getting to know her, and I'm excited about what she's doing here."

As director of basketball services, her duties will include film exchange with opposing teams and serving in a video coordination capacity. She will also help in organizing the team's practices.

"I think it's always great when you can get former players to come back and work on your staff," Williams-Flournoy said. "We're really excited about having Alli here. The things that she's done here are going to be very beneficial to us, and we're glad she's back here at Auburn."

Bracewell was a four-year letterwinner for the Tigers from 2007-11, playing in 130 games in her career, which ranks fourth all-time at Auburn. She scored 1,611 points in her career to rank eighth in school history, and she is the all-time leader in three-point shooting for the Tigers with 219 successful 3-point attempts in her career. Her 68 3-point field goals during her sophomore season of 2008-09 were both the second-most in the SEC and the second-best number in school history, helping lead the Tigers to the 2009 SEC regular season title.

Bracewell was an All-SEC First Team selection in 2011 and earned a second-team nod in 2010. She helped lead the Tigers to the postseason in three of her four years (NCAA in 2008 and 2009; WNIT in 2011).


After finishing her collegiate playing career at Auburn, Bracewell signed with a professional team in Gorzow, Poland, for the 2011-12 season.


She returned to Auburn in the fall of 2012, where she earned her bachelor's degree in education.

Bracewell is currently pursuing a master's degree in administration of higher education with an emphasis in sport management.
She is married to Brock Bracewell and resides in Auburn.
"


Czyli, w największym skrócie: Alli (Smalley) Bracewell weszła w skład sztabu szkoleniowego koszykówki Uniwersytetu w Auburn (gdzie swego czasu była czołową zawodniczką drużyny akademickiej).


[ http://www.auburntigers.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/081414aaa.html ]


-----------------------------------------------------
1810
.


Wróć do „AZS-PWSZ Gorzów Wlkp.”

Kto jest online

Użytkownicy przeglądający to forum: Obecnie na forum nie ma żadnego zarejestrowanego użytkownika i 11 gości