Cup Game and Rivalry on the Radio

We played our second cup game tonight against Mainz and won. The German cup games start out with 32 teams; divisions 1, 2, and 3, teams are randomly selected to play each other. These games do not count toward the league game record… they're played on Wed. nights and league games are on Saturdays. These games are single elimination and we've played 2 so far. So now there are only 8 teams left including us. Whoever wins the German cup championship goes on to play in European cup games. It would be really cool to be able to travel to other European countries to play, so I hope that we continue to win! :)

Tonight I listened to the NMU home game vs. MI Tech. girl's basketball online. I have great memories of playing against Tech. and great memories of playing in that Arena at NMU. During the 1st half I thought about the Athletic Director and decided to send him and e-mail to see how he is doing and to wish him and the athletic department Happy Holidays. He must have checked his e-mail pretty soon after I sent it, because during the second half the radio announcers said hello to me and announced that I was listening to the game from Germany. :) It was really cool! The 2 girls that are still on the team (Maria Kasza and Al Carol) that played with me, played great, and it brought back good memories of playing with them. One of Tech's best players (Sarah Stream) actually made a recruiting visit to NMU when I was a Senior there and I happened to be her host that night and she stayed over at my house… so it was fun to hear her playing well too. The game was awesome to listen to, but unfortunately MI Tech. pulled out the win in the end.

Coachless Game

Yesterday we drove 5 hours to Frieburg to play a game at 7:30. During the first quarter our coach got 2 technicals and was ejected. The first one was because she was complaining to the refs, but the second one was called because she was yelling something to us at half court. From then on, it was a crazy game. That ref. seemed to call a lot of fouls to their advantage, and to top it off, our assistant coach didn't come with us because he had to coach a lower division team somewhere else. So, we basically coached ourselves. We played pretty well, but were down by 10 points at half time. In the 3rd quarter we made a great comeback, and in the 4th I hit a 3 to bring us within 1, and then we took the lead soon there after. Unfortunately, we didn't keep the lead very long, and ended up fouling a lot near the end. Although we lost, we played pretty well without a coach.
We didn't get back until 3 am, so I slept for about 4 hours and then went to church this morning. Although I was pretty I'm really glad that I was able to go. After church Lori and I are made our substitute Thanksgiving dinner, with chicken, mashed potatos, green bean casserole, bread, and cake. I am very excited to go home for Christmas in 3 weeks!

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving, and its my dad's birthday, so I am missing my family and the celebration a lot. Today I had a basketball workout in the morning and then I went to our fitness center. I had a 20 min. walk home from there and I thought a lot about what I'm thankful for and how many blessings I have in my life. It was a little chilly and drizzling the whole way home, but it really didn't seem that bad or very long because I had so many things to think about and to be thankful for. :)

Today at practice a group of young guys from Honduras who are in a band came to our practice to meet us. Our club is sponsoring them and they are all orphans and really making something out of not having much. They performed a concert last night in Marburg and I guess they're becoming a big hit in Hondurus. They brought us some really cool Spanish carved wood, and said a few things through a guy who translated for them. Dani, one our teammates spoke some Spanish to them too… then they sang a little for us. It was really good. I was impressed.

Wednesday I had to work with the school kids in the gym all by myself for 3 hours. Usually I'm there just helping out Hans and don't have to run everything alone. So it was quite an experience. The first hour and a half was young kids, but two 14 year old girls from our club came to the gym and helped me out with the translating. It turned out to be pretty fun. The second hour and half group of kids were easier to work with because they understand English much better. Time actually went by faster than I thought it would and it was ended up being pretty fun.