With a few last minute kinks, the Italian Team landed safely on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, they were two short as one of the players' passport was not valid, which she found out at the airport on departure day. She and Max (team manager & statistician) arrived the next morning to complete the delegation. It's been a great day and a half full of cultural experiences for these girls.

After a good night's sleep, it was off to training. It was obvious that the girls were shocked when they entered NMSU's facilities. The Pan Am Center seats just under 13,000 people and the girls were blown away. After some quick photos the girls were ready to train. It was a short hour of jogging and stretching to work out the stiffness from traveling.



Their first major meal in the USA was at Chope's Bar & Cafe, located in La Mesa, New Mexico. Chope's is famous for their chili relleno, but everything was fantastic. It was quite an experience not only for the girls, but for Tim and I as well.



The staff had a fun-filled adventure to Walmart, buying breakfast food for the team. It would be difficult to describe the looks on their faces as they tried to wrap their heads around all the options and the sheer size of the store.

In the evening they trained for 90 minutes and then lifted in the NMSU weight room. This was a great experience for the girls. It was the largest weight facility they had ever seen.

A local Italian restaurant helped us out for dinner and we took the delegation to their first tasting of Fettuccine Alfredo (many people are surprised to learn that this dish doesn't actually exist in Italy). I think it was fun for them to try American "Italian" food.

After a full day in the USA, the general consensus is that everything is "super-size," and we eat way to many carbohydrates. The coach, Stefano was very concerned that the muffins at breakfast were 350 calories each. He also commented that we had a 7,000 calorie lunch followed by a 70,000 calorie dinner. We are working on getting some meals a little more "like home" for them.

On September 2, 2009 the Italian National Team will arrive in El Paso, New Mexico, where they will start a two week tour of the US. This mixed-age team will compete in the Italian Lega’s A2 Division this year under National Team Head Coach Massimo Barbolini. Dubbed “Progetto A2” by the Federation, this group of girls comprises the top young talent from Italy’s Youth and Junior National Teams along with some experienced Senior National Team players to lead the way. The team will be coached on this USA Tour by long-time BIP amico Stefano Lavarini, and we thank Marco Mencarelli and Stefano Sciascia for their faith in entrusting their team to us for these two weeks.

Special thanks to to following people for helping make this trip possible: Jerritt Elliot of the University of Texas and Michael Jordan of New Mexico State University who spearheaded the efforts that made this trip possible; Texas A&M, Wichita State, Austin Performance Volleyball Club, and Austin Juniors Volleyball Club for their generous offers of help to round out the schedule.

Once the team lands we will be updating with daily blogs (in Italian and English) and pics so please come back!