Serbia Day 17

Day 17 is over. How do you get so tired after a day of nothing to do? Breakfast at 9 this morning then off to individual meetings with our players. It is a Canada Basketball policy that we debrief with each player after the trip. We finished most of them with a few more left for tomorrow.

After the meetings I finally tracked Phil down and had a picture taken with Kelsey, Phil and I. Deb and Linda were waiting after that and we scooted downtown with a bunch of the girls. We wanted to check out a few shops and a little market again. It was a fun time. We had some laughs and explored a bit. Deb and Linda were able to talk two bartenders at sidewalk cafes into giving them free beer glasses to take home. The guys would not take payment for them. They just gave them away. The market area was kind of neat but we really didn’t have a ton of time to look through things. We met 2 of the girls about an hour after we arrived and we all shared a cab back to the Belgrade Arena. Russia and U.S. for the women’s gold medal. Great game for a half and then the US opened it up and knocked them off by about 20. We headed back to the village afterwards. The men’s bronze was at 5:30 and the gold at 9. We met back for supper at 6:30 and then headed to the arena at about 7:30. It was about a 15 minute walk. When we arrived there were a ton of people there. At 8pm, 1 hour before game time, most of the lower bowl was full and the arena seats 20,000. A lot of anticipation for the game. By the time 9PM arrive there was very few empty seats and the crowd heavily favored Serbia. They didn’t disappoint. They won the gold by about 20 in a very boring game. A lot of standing around on defense and a lot of fouls. Deb and Linda left at half but I stayed until the final buzzer. The arena went NUTS!!! A nice environment to be in.

After the game I took the 20-25 minute walk back in the cool air. It was nice. Along the way, I got to thinking about home though and it is time to get going. I have spent my time here and it was very nice but home is calling. As I said it was nice to be here and it was a good experience in different ways but it is just not home.

One of the neat things that happened today occurred during supper. The team from Ghana came into the meal hall singing in unison. Too bad we weren’t allowed to have a video camera in there. They sang traditional songs and danced traditional dances for about 20 minutes Full of energy and passion and it was very lively and entertaining. If more people could have that pride where would this world be!!

Tomorrow will be the last full day in Serbia. We will have breakfast at 9:30 and then have our final meetings with the girls. At noon Kelsey and I will meet Jelena and head out for a few hours. A little market shopping and perhaps a nice meal. Then it will be packing time.

Tomorrow will be my last post from Serbia. For those 2 or 3 that are still following I will reflect on the whole experience tomorrow. Perhaps a little ranting, a little philosophy perhaps and a whole lot of verbal diarrhea!!!!

See you tomorrow.

Coach