The title of this article is the title of a book written by Joshua Medcalf. The book is about a boy’s journey to achieving his dream of becoming a samurai. A part of his journey is overcoming himself, defeating the “man in the mirror” as they say. This book was used by LSUS women’s head basketball coach Tim Hays to help his team grow closer over this offseason and put on the mindset that it will take all of them and all of their effort to win.
Hays has coached basketball for 23 years. He was previously a coach at Division 1 schools Pepperdine and Colorado, as well as NAIA school Southeastern in Florida, the school that LSUS baseball defeated to win a national championship.
Hays sees this season as “in some ways like starting over”. Only three players returning from last season, two freshmen, and overall, twelve new players. On top of that there are two new staff members for LSUS women’s basketball. With all that said, Hays is very confident about his team. He fully believes in this group of girls. Hays intentionally scheduled tough teams at the beginning of the season to see early on what type of group he will be working with. “I don’t know how you can pretend you’re competing nationally and then you never play any tough teams.”
One way Hays described the roster was “a deep bullpen”. Every player can serve multiple roles on the team. Another word he used was versatile. Hays emphasized the idea that every player is bought in to playing for the team rather than themselves. Hays also emphasized that he came to Shreveport to win national championships. “Wherever I’ve been, the goal is to compete at the national level.”
At one point I jokingly asked if he thought the Lady Pilots would go 59-0 like the baseball team. As serious as can be, Hays stated “that’s our expectation”. “There won’t be a game we walk into that we don’t think we should win”. Winning is all Hays wants to do. It is why he took the job here at LSUS. He understands the standard and wants LSUS women’s basketball to hold their end up.
He also wants to get the word out about the Lady Pilots. Hays wants fans all over Shreveport to come to the games and see what is going on. Hays has one goal, to win a national championship. The next time you can catch the Lady Pilots is on October 3 when they host a scrimmage with a tough JUCO in LSU Eunice at 5 PM.
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