First Tournament

Well it just hit me that I have now been here for 1 week. Part of me feels like it should have been much longer than that...was I really sitting on an airplane in the Bahamas only a week ago? Time moves slowly right now because I have so much of it...

I start out by apologizing because our team travelled to another town this weekend and I am lame and forgot to take my camera. I have zero pictures to document my trip to Leipzig.



If you find Berlin, look down and just a little to the left to see where Leipzig is, about a 2 hour drive away...(You can click on the map to make it bigger so you can actually read the city names)

We met on Saturday morning and split into cars to drive to the tournament. We stopped at McDonald's about halfway through. Everyone ordered coffee except for me who figured I am always hungry and didn't know when we would eat again, so I got orange juice and a breakfast sandwich. Of course I ordered last and of course it took forever and a day for my order to be done. Love making a group of people who you really don't know wait and wait...but I am so glad I did it. I had eaten probably two and a half hours earlier at this point, and we still had another hour at least in the car.

We got to the gym with about an hour before our scheduled game time, but the team from Poland was late so we didn't play till probably an hour after we were supposed to. I honestly don't know how my teammates did it. Maybe some of them were eating at times I did not see? Maybe German women have super stamina?

Anyway, so our first game was against a team from Poland- supposedly the best team in the tournament. Whatever. They got a little lead on us to start the game but we came right back. I was able to hit several jumpshots in a row to get us going and the team really started to pick it up...

Note on the Polish team- there were several of them who had shaved about a 2.5 inch strip of the side of their heads...weird. I have actually seen a few Germans who have done this too, but none on our team and the girls on my team thought it was weird too.

Anyway, we pulled out the win in the first game and everyone was very excited. Our coach is a young guy, 23 years old, who so far is very positive and patient. He has a lot of passion for coaching. I enjoy him. The girls are fun as well. On the court, as far as I can tell (shoot, they could be saying pretty much anything and I would have no idea) they are also positive and get along. We ran a lot of 4 out 1 in and just try to penetrate to the basket. It seems that, for the most part, if you just drive to the basket you will get a foul called. It is a little bit crazy...

We had the rest of the day free so we showered up and watched some of the next game after us. We ate dinner as a team at the tournament in a hospitality room wehre the meal was provided and that was fun. A few of the girls told us a story about overhearing a German girl in a bar who was speaking English to her friend and started every sentence with, 'HONestly,' but with a hard pronunciationg of the H...as you would use it in have or how...they thought it was hysterical so the entire two days girls would randomly exclaim, 'HONestly!' I used this oncee to get a laugh before our second game when we were warming up and shooting free throws, I waited till our point guard Claudia was about to shoot then pulled it out...Everyone got a good laugh out of that...(and she missed the shot, so I guess it worked ha)

That night we went into the main downtown/square of Leipzig as a group. No one was ordering food so I just got coffee...mistake. I think it might need to be my new mantra, if there is an option to get food, just get it. It was a good time to talk to some of the girls and find out more about them (Some of them speak very good English so we can have a conversation just fine)... One is a project manager for some company, another is a teacher in an elementary school, another works with handicap people...They seem to have a great sense of humor...Another girl who was just playing with us for this tournament is a doctor. She was telling me how she was the team doctor for their U16 team that won the Euro cup...she had to rush back early before the championship game to do a back surgery, but she had a picture of herself on her phone where you could see that she wore a team jersey under her scrubs when she went to do the operation...She is a really funny, really energetic person...

So that night we were split up into groups and we stayed with families/players from Leipzig. I was with two girls, Dani who is about my height, and Louisa who is about 6'4"...We were shown to the rooms where we would stay- down in a basement turned apartment with one room with a tiny twin bed, and then the couch in the family room area that was folded out to a twin sized bed with two comforters folded on it, showing that two of us were meant to sleep there...uh...well guess who got the bedroom, of course Louisa, none of us would have argued that for a second...but that left Dani and I to squeeze onto the couch. I couldn't do it. I couldn't sleep feeling that at any moment I was going to either fall off the bed or roll onto this girl that I dont know (and who speaks very little English)...I moved to the floor. It was a wooden floor with a rug on it- preeeetty hard. I prayed and asked God to help me to somehow sleep and He provided...

The next morning we got up and got ready. I had a little time to read my Bible so I was greatful for that. We ate breakfast (why didnt I pack something to take with me??) and left for the gym. We were there almost 2 hours before our game so we watched the game before us.

We took the court at 12:30 against the Leipzig team.


http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=Germany&Team=7866&Page=1

That is a link to their team page, although it is not entirely accurate. There are no Americans on their team anymore...The women from the Leipzig team that we stayed with the night before kept joking around that they wanted to try to get us drunk so that we would be out of it for our game. Thankfully, that did not happen. Ha ha. We got off to a great start, 10-0 run to get things going, but in the second quarter we started falling apart a little bit. At half time it was tied up, I think at 31 if I remember correctly. In the second half it was back and forth for a bit (we play 4 10 minute quarters)...Going into the fourth we had a small lead, maybe 8 points...and we were able to keep that up to win the game.

We then had an hour break before the next game. We took about 25 minutes to go outside to sit...in the sun!! I was so happy to have a sunny day. I really had thought all sunny days were behind us. We soaked it up and ate some snacks, which was so good because I was literally getting lightheaded by the end of the second game.

In the final game we played a team from Austria that was comprised mainly of girls that looked like they were 14-16 years old. I felt bad for them a little bit, though I am sure that the experience is good for them. We did not play great, which I think happens when you have just played and your competition is not the best, but we won by 25. I did not play the first quarter as Timur (our coach) was trying some different things...that was fine with me...In the second and third quarter I played quite a bit (I think the whole time actually) and even played some point guard...we tried some new things offensively and defensively, particularly a 1-3-1. I started on the wing, played there for a while, then was moved to the bottom where I was running the baseline, and then got moved to the top...At the end of the 3rd quarter Timur asked me how I was doing and I said I was ready for a break...ha ha, I was dying at that point. I played the whole quarter and that was a lot to play the bottom and then the top of a 1-3-1...

So we came out of the tournament the winners going 3-0. Our team got a trophy and we had fun. One of the girls on my team asked me how I liked playing with them, if it was good or if I felt bored or something...I let her know that I liked it a lot.

I could go on and on with details of the night but I will spare you. :) The biggest thing I would say is that I am thankful for a good weekend- no injuries, had fun playing, enjoyed the team and coach, and learned a valuable lesson- pack food :)

The last thing I would mention is that the coach drove me home last night and we had a good conversation in the car. We talked about our team and the potential there, but also about my potential as a player and playing first league. He said I am 100% capable of playing first league and he really thinks I will get picked up. He said it is just a matter of continuing to play and be seen. That was great input to receive!

This week we will practice and get ready for our tournament in Poland. Also, I will have the two training times for the 'team' I am to coach in Spandau. Please pray that kids will show up this week!!