Day 23 Complete
Morning came early after a late night. 8 am breakfast with lots of same
stuff with some nice little muffins added in today. A little cooler today in
France which is a nice break.
After breakfast we had practice at 930. Tried to review some of our
offensive stuff. That is what hurt us the most last night. We also walked
through some of the things Spain would try later in the day.
Returned home from practice and the girls went to a 30 min pre hab
session. I worked on some film clips for the project I am working on.
At 1130 we headed to our video session to show the girls some clips on
Spain. Finished the session and headed to lunch right away. Fish,
pork, potatoes and pasta. Nice salad including a tuna potato salad that was
very tasty. Also had some very nice phyllo pastry things stuffed with a nice
melted cheese. Dessert had a number of things. I tried a sliver of a cherry
tart with a custardy cheese cake kind of filling. They also has something that
resembled creme brûlée but without the caramel flavour. Very tasty.
After lunch I was very tired but skipped a nap. I sat on the little
patio we have and did some film work on the project and then almost finished
the edit for our turkey game tomorrow.
We left for the game at 3pm and shared the bus with the Spanish team. It
was hot during the 15 minute ride.
One of the nice things before the warmup was when they were
introducing our team. Each of our players was paired up with a young girl from
the area mini basketball league. When our girls name was called they ran out
together holding hands. A very cute moment.
I thought we had a good warmup and we had a good start. We were
running our offence much better and our defense was pretty good. We still
struggled to score at times and we turned it over too much. We still ended up
leading by 1 at half
. Just when I thought we turned it over too much, here
came the second half. Spain switched to a zone defense and we absolutely shit
the bed. In total for the game we turned it over 35 times. Beyond frustrating.
We played timid and lost by 6. I can't seem to fathom why we would turn it over
this much at this level. Baffling but I guess we will continue to focus on the
process. The biggest thing we need
to learn from tonight is how to play against a very veteran team. Spain
outsmarted us at both ends.
We had to wait about 30 minutes for the bus after the game and then
shared it with Spain again. As you might imagine I was not necessarily the
happiest or most talkative person on the bus.
When we arrived back at the hotel I went to my room and put some shorts
on then went back down to have supper. We ate again in the outside tent. There
were sprinkles of rain starting and the skies were darkened. In a few minutes
we learned why. The skies absolutely opened up. Torrential (and I mean LOUD,
bouncing off the pavement, absolutely pouring down TORRENTIAL) rain poured down
and a nasty thunder and lightning storm hit us. It was fun just watching the
rain pound the parking lot. Gave me something to think about other than the 35
turnovers.
Supper was good however. Fresh cream of broccoli soup to start. Pasta,
green beans and chicken skewers. I passed on the rice and fish. Also a bunch of
salad options. Of course, the bread is always FANTASTIC. Dessert was filled
with options. I tried a little of 2 of them. First was a lemon cheesecake with
a ginger spice base and a raspberry sauce. Very nice. Topped it off with yellow
watermelon. Didn’t realize that existed but it was really really yummy. A nice
cup of coffee to send me away and I was enjoying it.
Now I basically have an evening off. The video for Turkey is complete
and there is no other film to watch. I will probably watch some film for my
project in a bit. We also have a coaches wine and cheese at around 10:30. Of
course, if I can connect with a coach from another country, I AM IN.
Tomorrow we have breakfast at 10:30 and then we watch film. Our game is
at 1:30. There is talk that we may get back to Paris tomorrow evening so I am
crossing my fingers.
I will finalize the first phase tomorrow with some overall observations
of each country and the experience I have had. I will also throw in some of the
things I have learned. Sound like a really interesting read filled with piles
of BS. LOL
Until then………
No comments:
Post a Comment