The Atlanta Beat 1st Round Draft Picks just have not panned out! Sunny was a great player once but by the time Atlanta got her, she was only a small portion of her former self. Add the knee injury and it was a waste. Take a look at who could have been the 1st selection. Anna wasn't even home. She obviously didn't even practice well based upon her lack of playing time. Another wasted 1st round pick. Callie has not been around due to finishing her studies. Now that she has arrived, what was Tom thinking. She has come in over-weight and out of shape. She is slow and lumbering. This might be the last year of this league and he certainly should have picked someone who could be here all the time. To add to that, Atlanta let Burtie go to keep her. Burtie is an excellent player, in shape, willing to do her role and never complaining. Complaining, that is just what I am doing. Maybe Tom should pass on the 1st draft next year.
Yeah, I'm not going to argue that prehapes Callie didn't come in to the Beat team in as great of shape as possible, but there are still plenty of games left in the season. Before now she was concentrating heavily on her studies but now that she is a professional athlete she can concentrate on playing. Give her a little bit to transition from student to player. She's not just over-weight, she is just built bigger and with our thug reputation that isn't necessarily a bad thing. She won't get pushed off the ball as much. I saw her play last week and she did well in her ten minutes. So it was only ten minutes, that will come. She did a MILLION sprints after the game. Ok, not a million but I was impatiently waiting for her to come to the fan area to sign autographs and she kept running up and down the field. I saw a few other players doing a couple of sprints but let me tell you Callie was putting in the time and effort to get in shape. She IS working hard and seems to have that hard work ethic additude that Burtie had. Now that she is completely done with Stanford give her a chance to become a good player. She'll be ready soon, especially come play-off time which we WILL be seeing some action of. She'll be very useful then to our team and I think she will turn out to be a very good pick.
The only problem with her being out of shape is that she came in and immediatley claimed an active roster spot which is not fair to any of the reserves who are in shape and have been working hard and earned it like abby crumpton and its not fair to burtie since she was cut in place of someone who is not quite ready. Also the players that choose to finish school are given workouts and expected to do them. I remember last year Stacey Tullock with Philadelphia had a chat or something where she talked about finishing her degree and doing the workouts so she would be ready when she got there.
I think there was a league imposed deadline on her school deferral, so they had to make her active when they did. Also, her fitness situation has alot to do with a injury she was recovering from. She is a big girl, but don't let her size fool you... http://theatlantabeat.com/press_room/spotlight_on/363081.html From the brief minutes I've seen so far, I would agree with her foot skills, her passes were dead on. I can't wait to see her in the air. As for the other two first rounders...well I wouldn't want to be known as the coach that passed on Sun Wen. Too bad about the injuries, however she seems to back at her ol' scoring ways with the Chinese Nats. Kraus, it seems has the skills but not the work ethic to make it in this league - at least we got something out of that trade, (wasn't Abby Crumpton taken on that trade for draft pick).
I've watched Callie's career at Stanford. She was always big. And she was always quick. And she always jumped higher than everyone else. Last year, she was quicker, jumped higher, outmuscled and outplayed players such as Aly Wagner, Devvyn Hawkins, and Leslie Gaston, among others. Against CAR, I guess Callie played bad because she slipped when fighting for a ball that landed 10 feet in front of her. In eight minutes of play, there were six airballs that went in Callie's area of responsibility. Not only did she get her head on ALL of those balls, she outjumped everyone else, and her team won the possession. I'm sure Stone was very disappointed in Callie's performance, he's been on the phone all week trying to trade her.