To the editor:

I just got done listening to the KU vs. Iowa State women’s basketball game. KU lost. They have yet to win a conference game, and a lot of people are losing hope, but they have no reason to. I have had the gracious privilege of knowing Coach Washington and her coaching staff, and I can’t think of any better four people to go and coach the KU women’s team.

Yeah, they haven’t had the best of seasons, but what a lot of people don’t see is what I do. Washington and her staff are four of the most patient people I have ever met in my life. The past few seasons have been pretty good for the women, so I think people automatically assumed that this season would be the same. But having six new players, even with the best of coaches, it would be hard to make a winning team.

These players had never met one another before; they didn’t know what to expect; it was their first time playing with a Division 1 team, and they had never played together before. It’s not their fault or the coaches’ fault they’re having the season they are, it’s the fans’ and spectators’ fault for assuming that the coaches could take these six newborn babies and teach them how to walk in a matter of months.

They have yet to do that BUT they’re being extremely patient. They have played every game like it’s the last; they give 110 percent in practice and in games because they know there is hope, and they know they can do it. They have done what other teams probably wouldn’t be able to do in their situation, and that is, they haven’t given up. They never lost; they simply ran out of time. I’m only 14 and I still believe in them, so why doesn’t anyone else?

Missy Vinyard,

Lawrence