National Team 2013 - Phase 1 - Day 1

Hello, Konnichiwa, Ni Hao, Zdravo, Bonjour, Dobar Dan, Hola

How many ways have I learned to say hello over the years...

Well here we are back again. It seems like yesterday I started with the national program but it has been 6 years. An awesome journey that, like the energizer bunny, keeps on going and going. I remember setting up this blog as a way to have my mom "join" me on my travels. Well here we go again Mom. Another summer of sights, sounds and experiences. For the rest of you, if you get bored (and you will with some of this!) try to hang in there. I promise you there will be some interesting stuff and maybe even a few more pics this year. So as "Uncle Danny" used to sing on TV every Saturday, come with me we're going to the Treehouse, everybody's welcome come along with me!!!

This year will be my busiest yet. I will have 3 assignments and will literally travel all over the world. I will be with the senior team for Phase 1 (May 15-June 10) with 7 or 8 days of training and then on to the Czech Republic, Serbia and France. I will be a "guest coach" this year with them but basically will be an assistant coach in practice and games.
Phase 2 of my travels will have me with the Development team as Head Coach for the University Games in Kazan, Russia - June 18-July 17.
Phase 3 will have me join the senior group again from August 6-19. We will train for about 5 days and then head to Brazil for a tournament.

A hectic schedule to say the least but it will be fun and an experience filled with learning. Once again I sit back and think of how amazing it is to be given the opportunity to represent your country, meet great people and see the world all because of a small round ball.

So on to the beginning of Phase 1

Left Sydney this morning at 9AM or so and connected through to Toronto on a pretty uneventful flight. Landed at 1pm Toronto time and was able to get my bags and meet up with the van from Canada Basketball around 1:30. I met up with Kim Smith and Katherine Plouffe who were waiting as well and we jumped in the van for the ride to Hamilton. We are doing this phase of training camp at McMaster University in Hamilton.

After I got settled in my room I relaxed for about 45 minutes and then headed to our first coaches meeting with Lisa and Shawnee. I am really excited to be working with both of them again. They are both fantastic and I will learn a ton. In fact, I took some notes during the meeting to save for later. The learning never stops. We chatted about the camp, how we will do things, some player stuff, etc. Basic coaches meeting. The girls are arriving here throughout today and part of tomorrow so we have no formal practice scheduled until Friday. There will be testing and meetings done tomorrow and then we hit the ground running.

We are taking about a 1.5 hour break now and then the coaches are going out to dinner. We will talk some more about planning there and then come back to campus.

So a short post for today. I am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to once again be part of the program. It is an exciting time.

Until tomorrow........