Today was basically arrival day for everyone. With many players connecting in various European Airports, we had girls arriving from 6:30am to 8:30pm. We had 4 different “pick-up times” at the airport and finally had all the girls in the hotel by about 9:00pm. Unfortunately a few girls’ bags were lost, and even more unfortunately, most of these girls forgot to pack their “training clothes” in their carry on.
We had a little training period (for those that had arrived already) from 3-5pm in the Olymp Praha gym. This was important to teach some of the girls how to get to this hall on their own since we (Tim and Cory) wouldn’t be able to escort everyone that following day. And learning how to use public transportation is of course important for anything even thinking of playing overseas…
The training went well, even if the main goal is just to get everyone moving to try and fight jet-lag as well as get used to the “new” ball (they don’t use Baden, Tachikara, or those soft Moltens in Europe…)
Dinner started with the delegation meeting in the lobby at 9:00pm to learn how to take the metro into the center of Prague to our spot at Pizza Coloseum just off the Wenceslas Square in the Old Town. Hopefully everyone came right home and to bed after dinner…
Today started with a delegation meeting in the breakfast room at 8:30am and then training for Teams Tim and Cory from 10:00 to 11:30am, again at the Olmyp Praha facility. We basically scrimmaged and went over sets to get everyone on the same page and feeling good about playing with each other.
Team Ron showed up to take the gym from 11:30am to 1:00pm and then it was free time in the city for lunch…
Everyone had their own matches that night and then it was dinner altogether and bed time…
Team Cory, by Audra
We planned on meeting in the hotel lobby at 4pm to head out to our tram stop but the girls were so anxious that we left a little bit early. We were playing in a foreign gym. By foreign I mean not the gym we had been practicing in for the last couple days which was Olymp Praha, but rather the gym of the team in Stresovice. After a couple interesting tram transfers we arrived at our destination which was a cute little gym at the top of a very steep and icy hill. You best believe we were slipping and sliding all over the place on the black ice. After getting dressed we headed to the court to figure out how to do a “European Warm-Up”. That consisted of us imitating everything the European team did. Once the game started you could tell that we were a bit nervous. The other team was playing relaxed volleyball and we were a little stressed and high error. That is too be expected when playing with new people I would suppose. We picked it up as the sets went on, but we came out on the wrong end of four sets. I think once we play together a little more we'll be pretty good. To celebrate our first match in Prague we took shots of “Czech Medicine”. I would love to tell you that it was delicious but that would be a lie. Ha! Amazing Day. That's all folks.
Team Ron, by Melissa (Mo)
This morning we were all a little stiff and jet lagged for our second practice and preparation to play the Czech Olymp Praha team at their volleyball gym. We made our second bus trip on our own debating who was right on the number of stops to the Wal-mart-like Tesco Shopping Center. We made it through a tough practice jet lagged and all with high sprits from Coach Ron who is awesome! Some of us girls caught lunch and bought some Red Bulls to get us going at the center during our break. Being we were from all over the nation I taught a few southern girls the trick of using snow for icing your joints after I found some bags. The team we played against tonight was awesome! They had great jump serves and jumped out of the gym. Many of the girls were juniors and we took a game off them at the end to build a little more confidence for our next match tomorrow. (Editor’s Note: They played the u17 Junior Team from Olymp Praha, many of which are on the Czech Junior National team.) We hope with fresh legs and getting the chance to know each other more we can start to rock-on USA style.
Team Tim, by Dre and Bri
We were all impressed at the level of competition today, especially since the competition was a team of highly advanced 18 year olds. One thing that is different in Europe (compared to the United States) is that they don't call “doubles” (double hits) and the Czech players are seemingly a lot more serious and less vocal. Although we lost 0-4 it was great to finally compete against a European team. Their coach remained calm throughout the entire match and there were no outbursts as is common among American coaches. He let the team play and it seemed that they had everything figured out and they took care of themselves during the match. Overall it was a great experience for our first match in Europe. After the match we took the bus home, all by ourselves, and got ready for a fantastic traditional Czech meal of dumplings and Goulosh. Tomorrow is a day of sight seeing, followed by more matches.
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