Cyber CY'd With Alexis Yackley

Another school year has begun and the Cyclone women's basketball team is already back hard at work, preparing for the upcoming season. In order to give Cyclone fans an inside look at the Iowa State women's basketball team, head coach Bill Fennelly and members of the ISU team will be posting a weekly blog at cyclones.com on Tuesday of each week throughout the school year.

Fans will have a chance to hear directly from Coach Fennelly throughout the year about how practice is going, how the team is doing during the season, and what he sees as the staples of the ISU women's basketball program. Players will talk to you each week about their perspective of school life, practices, games, and the daily hurdles of being a Division I student-athlete.

Coach Fennelly and the 2008-09 Cyclones are excited to talk with the loyal Iowa State fans each week. Alexis Yackley is up this week and will talk to you about her summer and the first week of classes as a full-time ISU student. Nicky Wieben will write to you next week. Check back next Tuesday to see what the senior has to say.

Hello Cyclone fans!!

I am Alexis Yackley and I am one of the four incoming freshmen that will be playing basketball for the Iowa State women's team this season. I am from Onida, a small farming/ranching town in central South Dakota. My town has less than 1,000 people and my graduating class was 17, including myself. So when I walked into my first class last Monday and saw 300 kids sitting in the seats, it was amazing to me because that class was three times the size of my high school!! :)

I moved to Ames in June along with fellow freshmen, Ashley Arlen and Whitney Williams. The summer was a great experience as I got to workout in the weight room every morning with the team and become familiar with the campus and take some summer classes. When fall semester started on Monday, I was relieved to find all of my classes...on time! It was also exciting to meet a new teammate from Ireland!

As the second week of fall classes starts, I am excited to get to know more people around campus and am looking forward to being one week closer to our first game in November!

Alexis Yackley