Phase One - Day 8

Well Day 8 is in the books. We had the regular 7:30 AM breakfast and then off to the gym. Today we had a scrimmage against a local group of guys. It was good to get some competition against someone else. We played well in spurts and ended up losing by 2 points. The guys weren’t supposed to play any zone defense against us but they wanted to win so they played the entire 4^th quarter in a zone. We had 8 turnovers in the first 3 quarters and then 9 in the 4^th quarter. We need work against the zone.

After the game it was off to lunch and then Starbucks for an hour. Tom, our guest coach, and Rich were heading out today so we went out for a last chat. We came back to residence and I tried to sort out a computer issue. I couldn’t get it figured out and it is still bothering me. Not my computer so at least that is OK. I also started to edit our game against the guys which we will watch when we arrive in Europe.

We had an hour and a half practice this evening mostly installing some new offense and working on our transition defense. Off to supper immediately after practice and then back to have cake as it is our managers birthday today.

So I finally have some details on the travel. We leave residence Tuesday at 5:30AM and head to Vancouver for a 9AM flight. About 45 minutes to get to Vancouver and then we have to beat rush hour so that is why it is so early. We fly to Toronto first. Arrive at 4:20PM. We depart Toronto at 8:30PM and arrive in Paris at 9:40AM on Wednesday. Our connection to Madrid leaves at 12:30 and gets in at 2:40pm. So doing the math, we leave Residence at 9:30am Nova Scotia Time and arrive in Madrid the next day at 9:40am Nova Scotia time. 24 hours of travel. Yee haw!!!! Gotta bring a change of underwear in the carry on bag for this trip.

Our schedule in Spain is as follows: (this could change easily as I have learned in my previous travels)

First city and city where we spend most of our time will be Segovia. 30-40 minutes north of Madrid with just over 50,000 people.

Thursday, May 26

4-6pm Practice

Friday, May 27

4-6pm Practice

Saturday, May 28

This will be game day but the fun part for me if we can work it out will be the coaching clinic that will be going on. Allison will be speaking at it along with the other coaches and I will be watching/filming as much as I can. This happens in the morning.

7PM we play Cuba

Sunday, May 29

6pm Game vs. Spain

Monday, May 30

We get up and take the bus from Segovia to Torrejon. This is in Madrid or just on the outskirts. We play at 4:45pm vs Japan.

Tuesday May 31

This will be when I depart from Madrid as the team trains for a week and then heads to France for 3 more games. Crappy part about this is that the 31 and June 1 will be total days off and the team will be exploring Spain. I guess I will miss the exploration.

My travel on the 31^st is to depart Madrid at 7:15AM and arrive in Paris at 9:20AM. Leave Paris at 11:20am and arrive in Toronto at 1:15PM. I then have to wait until 9:40PM and fly to Sydney arriving at 12:55AM that night. Almost another 24 hours. Might have to change that.

So there is the itinerary. Sorry for the long post. Tomorrow is an early breakfast, light practice then the day off to pack and shop for necessities

Until then