Serbia Day 3

Pic 1

Banner in our practice gym Day 1
2nd practice gym
1st practice gym
Sidewalk Cafe in the Athletes village

View from just outside the athletes village

My first national team player...a very proud moment for me

Hi Everyone

Day 3 was a tiring day. The body has to make adjustments to time and food which can play havoc with you as I am finding out. I hit a wall just after lunch today where I was dead tired but had to stay awake so I can make sure I am on a regular pattern.

The day started with an 8:30 breakfast. Eggs, sausage, various meats and cheeses, breads and pasta on the menu. Yes pasta for breakfast. An interesting choice but it wasn't bad. The coffee is strong here though. Could put Red Bull out of busness.

One thing I learned last year in this position that it is filled with meetings. After breakfast the players had medicals and we had individual meetings with them to ask them what they felt their biggest challenges would be and to ask what they felt they could gain from the experience. After these meetings we did a walk through of our offensive stuff in the parking lot. We then skipped across to the dining hall. Actually the dining hall is located behind the Holiday Inn which is a 10 minute walk down the road but it's not bad.

Lunch was a really nice greek salad, creamed chicken and i agreed to try something I didn't know the name of. Bad idea. I almost puked when I put a large forkful of horse radish in my mouth. I hate horse radish to begin with but this stuff was like drinking paint thinner. Yucky. I then tried the best thing of the trip so far. Banatska is a Serbian soup made with veggies and ground beef in a reddish brown broth. Outstanding taste. Finish it up with a chocolate muffin and all was good.

After lunch, you guessed it, another meeting to discuss practice. We would have an hour to practice and it would be our first time with all 12 players. We left for practice at 4pm expecting to get there in 10 minutes. Only problem was the bus driver and the police escort didn't know how to get there or took a wrong turn. On the first leg of the journey, we went through some spots that had a few of the girls stating how thankful they are for what they have. The high level of poverty was so evident. Past this area though we climbed through the hills on narrow roads into a very nice area of Belgrade. It was way up on the side of a hill overlooking the city. Very pretty.

Eventually we found the gym and went inside. The security is impressive here. On each bus we have 2 armed officers with a police escort. At each facility there is security and today in practice I witnessed a first. There were 3 entrance doors into the gym with an armed guard at each door. So on to practice.

The only way I can describe this practice is that if she was at a high school dance NOBODY was asking her to waltz. It was worse than ugly in parts. Sloppy execution and no defense but there were a few bright lights and we'll focus on the positive things and build on them. One nice moment for me was when Deb Huband, one of our coaches from UBC, came over to me after watching the pre practice shooting drills and said "Kelsey can just flat out shoot it huh" of course I said "Yup, she works hard at it". So there were bright lights but many dim ones. We have to get the power flowing which is hard with just 5 practices before we play but we'll go at it and see what we can do.

The ride back from practice was uneventful and we stopped off at the dining hall for supper instead of going all the way back to the village. Dinner was Potato Pie, Beef Strips, Moussaka and Serbian Salad which was heavy on the onions. The tomatoes and cucumber in it was phenomenal though. After the meal we figured why not have another meeting so we planned for tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be a jumble as we either have one practice or one practice and a game. WE have worked out an exhibition game with Great Britain but the transportation people are having a little difficulty with it so we will find out in the morning what we will do. We'd like to scrimmage just to get some game action and see what will happen. Hopefully things work out. Interestingly, Tom Mahar, the coach of the China team we played against last year, is the coach of Great Britain now. They have hired him to build the program towards the 2012 Olympics. He is a highly respected international coach.

I thought I would try and share a few pics if I can so hopefully if this turns out and the internet access is OK I will continue.

So that was pretty much Day 3. I will update you tomorrow if we can get a game or not. It is now about 10:15 pm and it is beautiful outside. I may take a short walk around the village just to check things out. So far it has been eye opening like last year and I am sure it will continue.

See you tomorrow.