USA Youth Team, Update from Serbia, Day 7
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
By, Kanani Herring

This morning we left Maribor, Slovenia for a 2 and a half hour drive to Croatia.  Everyone was so excited to play the Croatian Youth National Team again.  The Croatian team was very friendly to us when we first met them in Izola, Slovenia.  Most of them could speak English, so we were able to have conversations.  It felt like the bus ride went by fast because everyone fell asleep and before you knew it, we were in Croatia.  It was raining pretty hard outside and we could not really see anything because it was so foggy. 

Before we got to our destination, Corey gave us some history about Croatia.  He said that Croatia used to be a part of Yugoslavia and did not become an independent country until the late 90’s.   Slovenia also was part of Yugoslavia and they wanted independence because the money system was really bad in Yugoslavia.  Slovenia wanted to run their own money system and after a 10- day war, they finally got their independence.  Yugoslavia did not want to give Croatia their independence and there has been a political war for many years.  It took a bomb in Austria for Croatia to win the war and get its independence.  The subject right now is still sensitive here in this part of the world.  No one likes to talk about it and you should not ask anyone unless you know that person really well. 

We finally got to our destination in Zagreb, Croatia.  We met the players and even seen some of the National Croatian Men’s Volleyball team.  It was finally time to play, but we got informed that some of the players from Croatia were stuck in a snowstorm.  So our game got postponed and the USA Select team played before us against a Croatian club team.  In the meantime we had lunch with the Croatian team at a restaurant close by.  We all sat together and just shared stories with one another. They have to take English in school and have 14 subjects to learn in school.  Their school is in the morning and afternoon.  These girls have no free time to just hang out with their friends.  As soon as they are done with school, they have volleyball practice and then go home to do homework.  Their vacations are playing in different tournaments like the one in Izola, Slovenia or the one we are going to be in at Belgrade, Serbia.  They practice everyday and just never get a break.   I guess that’s what volleyball is all about.  Striving for EXCELLENCE. 

Oh Yeah, today is my birthday and everyone was shocked to know that I was the oldest one on the team.  I am seventeen today.  This was a cool experience for me to celebrate my birthday in Europe and with the Youth National team.  Even the Croatian girls sang happy birthday in their language.  I was so grateful and proud to be a part of this wonderful experience in Europe. 

After lunch we had our match against Croatia.  This was a best out of five games, but it was more like a scrimmage.  Everyone did an awesome job doing her part to help win the game.  It seemed like the game went by really fast.  Our team chemistry has evolved quite well and our development as a team has excelled tremendously.  I am very proud of the team and enjoy having them as my teammates.  We won in three, 25-15, 25-18, and 25-21.  This was a quick game and everyone was ready for the 5-hour ride to Belgrade, Serbia.

The bus ride was long.  We tried to play card games and listen to our iPods so time would go by faster.  We did make a pit stop so everyone could walk around or go to the restroom.  Then we set off again for Belgrade.  As we finally pass the boarder into Belgrade, police escorted us to the hotel we were staying at.  How cool is that?  Everyone was relieved to be at the hotel and we all went to our rooms and crashed out.  Tomorrow we have two games.  I hope we do well and have fun at the same time.

<< Previous | Next >>