Historically, Florida A&M Woman Rattler basketball has been a powerhouse. From the times of Mickey Clayton the place the ladies usually outdrew the boys’s video games to Claudette Farmer who led the FAMU Woman Rattlers (then Rattlerettes) to the varsity’s first-ever appearances within the NCAA playoffs, FAMU girls’s basketball has been storied. And with Bridgette Gordon on the helm, these glory days may very well be returning to the very best of seven hills.
Starting within the New South Ladies’s Convention, then to the MEAC, FAMU basketball has been a conventional drive. Stellar gamers like Natalie White, Cathy Robinson, Sybil Rivers, April Manning, and Shelly Boston etched data that stood tall.
During the last a number of years, Woman Rattler basketball has fallen on laborious instances. Whereas coaches Debra Clark and LeDawn Gibson each had profitable durations as head coach, there was no consistency in achieving the extent of success Rattler followers had been accustomed to.
A number of years after the departure of Gibson, these watching the staff now really feel the staff is being led by a official coach to make a run on the SWAC match someday quickly.
Florida A&M Vice President and Director of Athletics Tiffani-Daybreak Sykes didn’t take lengthy to call Bridgette Gordon the pinnacle coach after the sudden departure of former head coach Shalon Pillow. Gordon and Pillow have a commonality as they each performed for arguably the best girls’s basketball coach in Pat Summit at Tennessee.
Bridgette Gordon herself was a drive to be reckoned with. She is a 2007 Ladies’s Basketball Corridor of Famer. She is the eighth head coach in FAMU historical past. With two nationwide titles and Olympic expertise, she has skilled Collegiate basketball on the highest ranges.
FAMU Ladies’s Basketball has had some downtime as of late. Within the 2021-2022 season, the staff gained simply six video games whereas shedding 23. 2022-2023 can be worse. The staff misplaced 25 video games whereas successful simply three.
Up to now this season, even with the late begin the Woman Rattlers has already gained 4 video games. Extra importantly, with restricted time to reshape the personnel, the staff is enjoying a strong model of basketball.
FAMU battled the JSU Tigers for a half
On Jan. 29, the staff seemed very sharp and executed very properly in opposition to SWAC energy Jackson State. The staff went in on the half with a one-point lead, up 34-33. There was an excellent plan and the staff was executing it in opposition to a SWAC energy.
“I instructed our staff that we had been battle examined. We ran out of a little bit little bit of vitality within the third quarter and with foul bother it pale us a little bit. Total, our depleted depth obtained one of the best of us and we simply couldn’t dangle down the road,” mentioned Bridgette Gordon.
There have been instances over the past a number of years that fixed moans and sound of disapproval of what was occurring on the courtroom would take priority. On social media, the fanbase was questioning what occurred to the greatness of Woman Rattler basketball.
Grant you, the Rattlers weren’t simply enjoying anyone. Tomekia Reed has her Tigers rolling once more, sitting within the prime spot within the convention with an ideal 6-0 file. It takes an entire staff, nice plan and strong execution for 4 quarters to defeat JSU. For a half the Woman Rattlers had been capable of preserve that. In the long run, the fatigue and depletion of personnel to execute the proper recreation plan fell brief.
Optimism even after the loss to JSU persists. In FAMU social media circles, there may be an understanding that rebuilding from the years of subpar performances will take time. It is usually extensively acknowledged that Gordon is the proper match for FAMU.
