Day 10, Wednesday, January 5, 2005
& Day 11, Thursday, January 6, 2005, Departure
By CJ Sherman, BIP East Coast

We woke up this morning to a day of no volleyball. With a day off to sight see and shop, most of us decided to go back downtown. Prague has a lot to offer a tourist. The many souvenir shops and cafes make it very interesting, along with the incredible architecture of the clock towers, churches and old historical buildings.

First we went to the Prague Castle. We ventured the grounds and took in the magnificent site. The church inside the castle is amazing. We took many pictures and visited the castle shop as well. After the tour we went through Old Town down towards the Charles Bridge. Crossing the bridge into the scenic city with all the old churches, clock towers and the castle in the background makes for a great memory.

Prague Castle, and the Cathedral inside

We then walked around in the city; shopping, eating waffle cakes (a thin waffle type cake with syrup baked into it) and taking the last of many pictures. A few of us decided to have lunch at TGI Fridays and the food and service was just like in the States. We enjoyed some time out of the cold. All together it was a great day!

Girls molesting the honor guard at the Prague Castle

We returned to the hotel and cleaned up for our last meal together. We went to a local pizzeria in Brandys and had a great buffet of pizza, pasta and salads. We enjoyed eating our meal with the German Junior National team and their coach that BIP is hosting here in Prague for the week. The girls on the US teams and the German girls shared stories and had a great time socializing and getting to know each other. Sharing a hotel and meals with a foreign team like this is a great experience for our kids and coaches alike. After dinner we all headed back to the hotel to pack and take a nap before our early departures…

Our final dinner, pizza and pasta in Brandys

On our final morning, our first group left the hotel at 3:00am. They had flights out of Munich, Germany and had to get an early start. Then our last round of good-byes got started around 3:45am as our second group headed off for the Prague Airport at about 4:00am. Everyone was on time and ready to go home. After saying goodbye and hugging everyone both groups got off safely. Hopefully we’ll see many of these players, coaches, and parents back next year as the BIP New Years Bash will return to Italy, Slovenia, Austria, and the Czech Republic for the 2 nd Annual Tour!

I have been on many BIP Juniors tours, five to be exact, and this tour was both unique and interesting. We had 4 USA teams and just watching those teams interact with each other was fun. Once we began the tournament in Slovenia the Jacksonville group definitely got things rolling with the loud "AAAYYY" to all the other US teams. Walking to and from the hotel or downtown Izola shopping you could hear the "AAAYYY” and know someone from "home" was communicating to you!

The teams shared hotels, meals, sight seeing and volleyball matches. Usually I am with only 1 team and we are a tight group and sometimes stick to ourselves, but this tour we were with 3 other teams and we began to open up and share with them. Each team cheered for the other and encouraged each other. The groups were becoming one in a way. The environment we were in was pushing us together.

The volleyball competition at both tournaments was good and exciting. All the USA teams played well at times, but being on tour takes a toll on a player; the food, the gyms, the style of play, and the interruption of sleeping patterns. But the USA teams were hanging in there. As a coach I was impressed with the way the teams blended together on the court, knowing that most of us had only practiced a few times, if ever, before we came to Europe.

Mostly, I know that the student athletes on this tour received a good and accurate impression of what European culture and volleyball is like. The players asked good questions and seemed generally interested in learning how to do it the "Euro" way. Besides the complaints about the food, which is usually everyone’s biggest complaint, the teams seemed to fit in well and worked hard to learn how to do things right in the countries we were in.

This tour has definitely provided an incredible memory for each person involved from coaches to parents to the athletes themselves. Personally I can not wait for next years Bash and the new friends we will make and the new places we will visit.

Editor’s Note: Anyone interested in buying a Tour DVD from this trip can do so by contacting Chris “Monte” Mortimer (the artist formerly known as Mort) at: Grifter210@aol.com

Many thanks to Mort for his work on the action still and video clips for this tour!

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