Jim Bragg Quotations

We started losing this game two days ago. I think we were having a little too much fun in practice and not getting things done that we needed to get done. The effort was there, but we just could not finish.

When you've got a team, and we're pretty close as a team, and you lose a family member, it affects you, and that's what we had. It affects everybody, so I was pleased with (the win) because we did not play the way we're capable of playing and the girls know it. But it was emotional.

We didn't connect. It wasn't lack of effort. It was lack of preparation and passing the ball. They played hard, they busted their butt to win the ball, but we didn't play together and that's what we've been doing in our workouts. Our effort was there, but our team play wasn't.

We're into the next round and we're playing again, and that's what we wanted to do. We're not disappointed at all, but we can play better and it's good to know this wasn't our best game. We want our best game to be down the road.

We deserved to win this game. It was a game we needed to win and we deserved to win it because of the way we started to play. The players just talked to each other, and the second half was the way we need to play going into the playoffs.

We didn't work on finishing as much this week, so that's bad coaching on my part. We've got to put those away because you're going to have fewer good chances to score the deeper you get in the playoffs. We're going to be talking about some 1-0 game, and we've got to put those chances in.

We're having fun and it looks like we're picking it up. We've got the confidence to score and we've got a strong defense and everybody needs to be playing their best game. This is the first step in getting to the regional tournament and winning it.

Last year, playing (games) like this, it was what I called a feeding frenzy. Everybody pushed up, there was no shape and we just tried to bang away. This time, we were still working on stuff, pulling the ball back around and trying to create space. I think that shows some maturity and that's what we tried to do.

Fowler's done a great job. And when we play these games, as a freshman, she's standing up to some of the best offensive players in the state, players who are going to be playing in college. She's a dominant player, and she will continue to get better.

We talked about playing good passes to the feet and keeping the ball out of the air. Truthfully, that's the way we play best, when we just one-touch the ball around the everybody's moving into spots. That was fun.

I think we're looking forward to going up there and playing Marcus again. We know they're the defending state champion, but somebody's got to beat them. I think we'd like to be that somebody.

Last week we were frustrated (against Abilene Cooper) but not (Friday). We knew this was a good team and we just told them to keep the ball on the ground and keep playing.

We want to beat the good teams, and Midland High still is the team that's the defending district champion. We know these other teams and they know us. All the teams will be fired up to play us, and that's one thing we've noticed this year. Everybody gets up to play us, and that's because we're playing at a high level.

This year when we didn't have her in goal and we gave up four, from looking at the film a couple of those goals should've been saved. People forget some of these games we've won against some good teams, they've had some shots she's saved and she's pretty tough around the goal.

This is the maturity she has and that's why she's going to be playing in college. She realizes for the team to be successful, she had to do something she might not want to do. That's a team player and that's why teams with her on them will be successful.

Any time that we get a shutout, that's kind of like a team thing. We believe that the offense needs to control the ball to keep the pressure off the defense.