Months and months of preparation and planning are set to pay off Friday, as the Charlotte Crown hit the court for the first game in franchise history.
The Crown is in Jacksonville to face the Waves on the first day of the UPSHOT League’s inaugural season.
While the idea of this league and the opportunity to bring women’s professional basketball back to the Queen City has been long gestating, the construction of this Crown squad has been a relatively quick one. Starting with an open tryout at the end of April, head coach Trisha Stafford-Odom has assembled her group – whittling down prospective players to craft a team ready to embrace her signature style of TSO basketball.
“Transition, which means players in shape and willing to get out and run,” said Stafford-Odom of her team’s identity, “We’ll have to get stops to get into our transition. That’ll probably be something I’m the most critical about, our defensive efforts. And then offense should be a beautiful sight to see because we have a roster full of people that are capable of putting the ball in the basket.”
The end result is a Charlotte squad packed to the brim with star power and accolades, and on Friday in Jacksonville the world will get its first taste of the Crown in action.
“My expectations are that the roster that I put together – the people who I have adopted as Crown family – will rise to the occasion,” said Stafford-Odom. “They’ll become even closer, understanding that we’re going to war with who came with us to Jacksonville.”
It’s been a whirlwind for the Crown, which has crammed building a team, learning a system, developing chemistry and more into the span of just a few weeks. But when it comes time to hit the court for game one, the approach is simple.
“At the end of the day we are professionals,” said center Emer Nichols. “We know how to play basketball. We need to just go out there, play basketball and be a winner.”