The Eastern women’s basketball team has a lot of size.

The Panthers have 6-foot-2 senior forward Rachel Galligan, 6-foot-1 senior forward Lindsey Kluempers, 6-foot-1 junior forward Maggie Kloak and 6-foot-2 junior forward Marie Baker.

They also have a lot of speed, featuring senior guards Ellen Canale and Megan Edwards as well as junior guards Ashley Thomas and Dominique Sims.

They have the skill sets of teams they will play against.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, practicing against players their own size and speed can only get them so far.

Panthers’ head coach Brady Sallee and his coaching staff have found a new opponent to practice against to simulate the size and strength the Panthers will face throughout the season: men.

“We’ve been practicing against guys for a couple of years now,” Sallee said. “It’s a pretty regular practice across D-I schools, and we take advantage of it. About two years ago we had the program at the point where working against speed and quickness and strength will benefit us.”

Sallee said assistant head coach Lee Buchanan gets a group of six or seven guys together through putting fliers up in the Student Recreation Center as well as spreading word in Physical Education classes.

Sallee said all of the guys who participate come in on a volunteer basis, and they must clear the same academic eligibility process as any athlete in order to participate.

Senior forward Rachel Galligan said playing against guys helps the team when they get in game situations.

“It’s one thing going against Maggie and Marie every day and we definitely push each other, but going against men, it causes you to try and play stronger and work harder and that carries over to the games,” Galligan said. “Playing against opponents in the Big East and Big Ten, we know we’ve played against their size in practice and that helps us a lot.”

Galligan has matched up against Illinois’ 6-foot-3 junior center Jenna Smith and Cincinnati 6-foot-3 senior forward Jill Stephens already this season.

Sallee said the team enjoys the competition and the test they face every time they scrimmage against the guys.

“We use it to work live in scrimmage situations,” Sallee said. “We usually have them come in for 30 minutes and let us work on whatever we need to – have them run whatever we need them to run. It helps with the speed of the game and the strength it takes. It’s a real benefit to us.

“Most of the time we hold our own.”

According to Galligan, the guys the team practices against have athletic backgrounds as many of them played basketball, football or other sports either at the high school level or at another level. She said they never keep score when scrimmaging the guys but often work on end-of-game scenarios.

“We’ll simulate end of game situations where we’ll be down by four or up by four, but I’d say that we definitely can hold our own,” Galligan said. “We get them a lot with our offense because they don’t know what we’re running, and we can get open shots. On (defense), as long as we’re being active and moving our feet, we can stop them too.”

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or at cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.