The Grind is all about connecting with other community basketball programs who lead with strong Sportsmanship and passion. Below is an exchange between Coach James Neilson of the St Margarets Sugar Pandas and Terrell Evans of The Grind:
Hello Everyone
Myself and THE GRIND players, coaches, families, and entire Community just want to express how grateful we were yesterday of the Sugar Pandas coming by for a friendly competitive exhibition. Coach James you are the man truly much respect so glad we accepted the invite from you and your Sugar Pandas. Hats off to your girls they are tough and showed great resilience for the full 40-minute game competing to the last buzzer. With that mindset and work ethic I can assure you that your girls will thrive and achieve some great things this upcoming season and following ones. #NEVERGIVEUP is our philosophy in my program.
This was so amazing in a million ways yesterday for both programs playing this great beautiful game. I am super proud of everyone from both sides. Thank you all again and as Coach Dean said, “THIS BATTLE OF FERNWOOD IS NOT OVER!” Got to love it. Good luck Sugar Pandas (that is really cool name to be honest) in night league and your school season this year. I will be following you girls most definitely and want you to win it all because I believe you can.
Terrell Evans
Terrel Evans, CEO & Coach, The Grind Basketball
Morning Sugar Pandas,
Great to be back on the court last night to shake off summer rust and run new combinations against Coach Terrell Evans Boys U11 , The Grind. So um..boys. They’re aggressive, fast and fierce and maybe, just maybe not as awful and stinky as your dads have been telling you. We saw a much different pace than we are used to and much harder play.
Every Tuesday night those boys do a two hour practice and then go next door to Vic High to run a mile on that track. Their speed and endurance was very evident. We also saw a motion offence used against us. To quote Kawhi Leonard, “Board man gets paid”. We need to jump on those rebounds and win the ball. Let’s learn from their intensity and bring that to Night League with us in September. We played boys. Nobody died. Nobody cried. Red faces, sweaty hair and happy chatter in the car home from tired girls. We showed up, played a boys team, learned about a different way to play the game and had fun. A great night and thanks to everyone for making it happen with Coach Terrell and his Grind team. Check them out on Instagram @thegrind.basketball or on Facebook. Terrell is serious about building excellence with his program and it really shows.
All the best,
Jamie Neilson
Jamie Neilson, Coach, Sugar Panada’s