David Jean-Baptiste – the lone returning active player for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men’s basketball team – called dealing with adversity the “perfect recipe for team bonding,” something that was going to be necessary for the program this preseason.
Coach Lamont Paris gave the Mocs no choice in the matter.
Running downtown this summer, the coach saw some hills at Renaissance Park and decided they would be perfect for his team to train on. The Mocs ran the hills three different times, choosing a fourth to run the stairs at McKenzie Arena due to weather. They built up the scaling of the slopes incrementally, reaching 40 times up and down the hill this past Sunday.
“It was a challenge, both mentally and physically,” Jean-Baptiste said Tuesday. “Everything was hard, going up and going down, but after we’re down, it’s a relieving feeling. Dudes were struggling; dudes had each other’s back. You’d have to help guys get up the hill and walk down, and it’s like, ‘Hey, we’ll get through this together.'”
To help encourage the players, the coaches ran some as well. They also placed logos of the Mocs’ opponents on the way up, with players challenged to grab the logos and put them at the top of the hill once they arrived.