Gail Goestenkors Willing Quotations

She's one of those kids who's good on the ball, and she's really good off the ball, too. She's willing to take a charge, and she does a lot of the little things that go into making a great defensive player.

Years ago, players were willing to come in and sit on the bench for one or two years and work their way into the lineup. And now so many players come in and they want to start right away. They definitely want to make an impact right away. When you have 15 available scholarships it's not possible to have 15 players playing major minutes right away.

It's because high school kids are getting better and better. The quality and quantity is getting better. Players are going to different schools now, not just the top two or three teams. They're willing to go build a program instead of sitting on the bench at a well-known school.

We don't run many plays for her, which is different than in the past. But the grand scheme was to make everybody feel important so that, if and when she had an off night in a big game, her teammates would feel comfortable and confident that we were still going to win because they knew they could score as well. She's been the consummate leader for us in that she's been willing to sacrifice for the greater good.