Appreciate & Celebrate

Approximately a decade ago, Brenda Frese was at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, VA, chatting with legendary boys and girls high school basketball coaches Glenn Farello and Scott Allen about what it takes to run programs that are consistently at the top of their respective sports.

Farello posed an interesting rhetorical question that Frese considers an “aha moment” for her when she was about 10 years into her historical Maryland career at that point.

“He was asking, ‘What do you do to celebrate your wins because, as a top-ten program, you're expected to win basically 90 percent of your games,” Frese recalled. 

Frese learned that Farello’s trick to celebrating the many wins his Paul VI boys team won was taking them out for ice cream afterwards. Frese was inspired by that, but opted to take a slightly different route.

“We thought that creating the Tough Terps awards would be that form of postgame celebration for us,” Frese said. “It kind of exemplifies who we are as a program.”

Today, the #ToughTerp postgame awards are still going strong. The coaches hand out long-time staple awards after every game such as the hard hat award for players who illustrate extra toughness. They’ve also added specific ones that are designed for each year and each specific team. One of this year’s favorites is the “caught fire” award, a firefighter hat given out any time a player has a particularly hot shooting night. 

“The awards definitely tunes us into the different aspects that go into different wins,” senior forward Faith Masonius said. 

For Frese and the team as a whole, a big part of the Tough Terps awards is highlighting some of the less noticed aspects that go into winning and celebrating the players that do the dirty work without always getting the credit.

“The different awards are based on things that we feel we want to be really good at,” Frese said. “It’s kind of a neat recognition throughout the team when someone plays well or if someone puts in a lot of hard work. It’s a really fun thing to do and it closes that chapter of the game every time we go in the locker room after.

This year, the team has prided themselves on winning the “helping hand” award, one given out to players who are particularly effective as distributors as the team has highlighted assist-to-turnover ratio as one of their main goals of the season. Additionally, the net award is given to the player who attempts and makes the most free throws, with getting to the line another major point of emphasis for this year’s group of Terps. The lock-down award has been a common one given to the game’s top defender, but when the team excels defensively as a whole, it can be given to the whole team.

“The team getting the lock-down award is always a big moment because it means the girls really got after it defensively as a unit and we always take pride in our defense,” Frese said.

Additionally, the girls have gotten some of their most enjoyment out of the charge cards—another way for the team to celebrate those who put their bodies on the line for the team. For each charge drawn, the girls get their punch card—charge card in this case — punched. After five charges, the player gets a free dessert, adding a little extra incentive to the already enjoyable awards. 

And even the coaches get to join in on the awards fun—Frese was presented with the ninja turtle after her 600th career win at Purdue on Dec. 8 as a special award that only comes out in big moments to celebrate someone who embodies the Terrapin spirit to the fullest. 

“It’s definitely cool,” Masonius said of the awards. “It’s nice that the little things people do get acknowledged like offensive rebounds and charges. Those little things are definitely momentum-changers in games so it’s cool that we celebrate people for those things that seem small, but really help us win games.”

For a program with a constant standard of nothing but excellence, the awards have helped them remind themselves to celebrate the process and the journey to the ultimate goal. This year has been no different in terms of the expectations as the 10th-ranked Terps continue to push for a Big Ten title and beyond. 

But once again, Maryland makes sure to cherish each step along the way. Whether it was the first win over UCONN in program history or a road win against Purdue Fort-Wayne, each win is made special and the Tough Terps awards are at the forefront of that. 

“Everyone’s always really excited when those awards come out,” junior guard Shyanne Sellers said. “We’re collectively really a happy team so we’re all always just really happy for whoever was recognized.”

At Maryland women’s basketball, excellence is the standard, but plenty of fun is going to be had along the way. And that’s something that’s felt by everyone throughout the program, especially the players. 

“When you decide to come here, you’re coming here expecting to win a lot of games,” Sellers said. “But you also have to always appreciate the journey and celebrate the small victories and find ways to make the whole year more fun. The Tough Terp awards definitely help with that.”