CHELSEA -- The Chelsea girls basketball coaching staff wanted to provide a little extra motivation for the players before they took the court against Tecumseh on Jan. 22 in a
Southeastern Conference White Division first-place showdown.
Instead of the coaches giving a traditional pep talk, they decided to let a personalized hype video from two prominent internet personalities energize the team.
Bulldogs assistant coach and former NFL tight end Tony Scheffler reached out to close friend Dan Katz of Barstool Sports, a popular sports and pop culture blog, to see if he could give Chelsea a shoutout before its big game.
Katz, who has more than 700,000 followers under his Twitter handle, @BarstoolBigCat, and colleague Eric Sollenberger (@PFTCommenter), obliged with this spirited video, which can be viewed below.
"It was really funny to watch that in the locker room before Tecumseh," said Chelsea senior and leading scorer, Abby Fullerton.
"We have a teammate who loves the Barstool guys, so she was going nuts."
'Aiming to make history,' Chelsea improves to 13-0 with 52-43 win over Jackson
The video appeared to have helped, as the Bulldogs, ranked No. 5 in Division 2, went on to win 35-30. They also have won both games since, improving to 13-0.
"We are deep," Chelsea 19th-year coach Todd Blomquist said after Tuesday's 52-43 victory over Jackson. "We have a lot of different kids who can do a lot of different things. You can't just take Fullerton away. She is a good shooter, but you can't just take her away because we have too many other people who can do some things."
Vote for Ann Arbor-area girls basketball Player of the Week from Jan. 21-26
MLive caught up with seniors Briana Hay, Maddie Vasquez and Fullerton after the game to discuss the shoutout by Barstool, the Bulldogs' fight song, game day routines, best coach impersonations and more.
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