Last week, the Florida Gators women’s basketball team trekked to Camp Blanding — an Army base in Starke, Florida.
There, the players were subjected to the wrath of a drill sergeant.
Organized by UF assistant coach Bill Ferrara and a partnership with the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, Florida held a joint-practice session with the United States Marine Corps.
It featured military-style physical training and problem-solving challenges, trials that head coach Amanda Butler believes has helped the team.
“The leadership-reaction course really revealed to them, I think, some strengths in some people that maybe they hadn’t seen,” she said, “and then it also exposed some weaknesses.