BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s basketball program continued its preparations for the upcoming 2014-15 season and took part in a two-hour United States Marine Corps conditioning workout Friday afternoon on the Parade Grounds.
It’s the second consecutive season that the Lady Tigers have worked out with the Marines. After a leadership and safety briefing the day before the workout, LSU was put through a vigorous conditioning test that featured running, crunches, leg lifts and pushups conducted by a Marine drill sergeant.
The Lady Tigers participated in multiple combat fitness tests where the student-athletes conducted multiple crawls, carried ammunition cans, threw grenades to targets and executed a casualty lift where they carried a teammate for approximately 25 feet.
“When you think about the Marines, the first thing that comes to mind about the men and women of service are their loyalty to our country and their mental toughness,” head coach Nikki Caldwell said. “Our loyalty to LSU should run just as deep. We appreciate the time, the energy and the effort of the Marines in setting up this workout for us. This type of event tells you a lot about your student-athletes. We hope that our leaders emerge from difficult situations when adversity hits. That’s when you want your leaders to step up, and we had a lot of them do that during this workout.”
The final fitness test had the players and coaching staff sprint and push a Marine vehicle nearly 100 yards. LSU accomplished the feat in just under two minutes.
“Working out with the Marines makes us closer as a team,” senior forward Sheila Boykin said. “This type of workout is where you see your teammates at their breaking points. You’re tired, you’re drenched in sweat and you feel like you’re about to pass out. When you have your teammate next to you and encouraging you to keep going, it shows that we have tremendous leadership on this team.”
“I don’t think I can come up with the words to describe how tough our Marine workout was,” senior guard DaShawn Harden said. “When things get tough mentally, you reflect back to moments like this during the season. A workout like this helps us be mentally prepared and is very beneficial for certain things we will face this season.”
LSU has secured three consecutive 20-plus win seasons and three NCAA Tournament appearances highlighted by back-to-back NCAA Sweet 16 trips under Caldwell. The Lady Tigers will host a pair of exhibition games against Loyola at 7 p.m. on Wednesday November 5 and Mississippi College at 1 p.m. on Sunday, November 9.
LSU is accepting $20 season ticket deposits online at http://www.LSUtix.net/. The $20 deposit will go toward the purchase of a season ticket or mini-plan for the 2014-15 season.
For all of the latest news and information on Lady Tiger basketball, visit www.lsusports.net/womensbasketball. Fans can also follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/lsuwbkb, @lsuwbkb and @NikkiCaldwell on Twitter and @lsuwbkb on Instagram.