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Fire Sale Tour
August 13-23, 2005
By Cory Solomon,
Bring It USA
The Fire Sale tour is where everything gets really interesting. Half of the group left Prague on the 13 th to head for Maribor, Slovenia, however five of the players left Prague for tryouts around Europe. In Maribor we practiced only once and played four matches against top Slovenia teams. Players were coming and going each day as we used different lineups each day. Special thanks to Kiki Karmen, Bip client, Slovenian national team setter and playing this year in Vienna, for setting three matches for us while we had all our setters on tryouts.
In addition, players started to really learn what it means to be a professional volleyball player in Europe as they traveled first hand to many different teams and cities. This gave them a great opportunity make very sound educated choices about the upcoming year.
All and all this was a very successful August tour as all players, except one, were either offered contracts or had very sound tryouts with good clubs.
Instead of giving a day-by-day account of the Fire Sale tour I will give a short summary of each player after the Pre-Tour.
 Deanna Albers left Prague on a train for Sinsheim, Germany to tryout for a 2 nd division team. She ended up making and signing a contract with SV Interroll Sinsheim.
Ellen Barwise also left on the same train as Deanna to Sinsheim. She ended up making the team and will play with Deanna this season. Two Canadians together, good luck to everyone in Sinsheim.
Olga Roudovski also left on the same train to Sinsheim, but this was only the adventure for Olga. After Sinsheim, she had a 12-hour train ride to Slovenian, only to be pulled off the train in the middle of the night at the border due to visa problems. With the help of the Slovenian Volleyball Federation Olga arrived in Maribor 24 hours after leaving Sinsheim. A long trip to say the least. Olga was offered a contract in Freiberg, Germany but decided not to take the offer. However, what a great girl for everything she went through.
 Stacey O’Conner left Prague to travel to Chemnitz, Germany and she ended up signing with the club and will spend the season with two other Bip clients in Chemnitz. (Lauren Goins, January tour and Emily Mansur, March tour.)
Anna Abatzoglou left the group after the Pre-tour to visit family and friends in Greece. She has tryouts scheduled in France.
 Michele Rauter came to Maribor for four days until we could get her flight and contract worked out in Finland. Coaches from Finland came down to Prague to see Michelle and sign her to a contract. Michelle will play this year for ETTA volleyball club, Finland.
 Bonita Wise came to Slovenia for three days before heading off to Innsbruck, Austria. Innsbruck’s coach came to Maribor to see Bonita play and took her back to Innsbruck right after the practice. Bonita will play for VC Tirol this season with BIP Client Rashinda Reed (March tour).
Jillian Mazzarella joined the tour in Maribor, but she was very quickly off to Corodaba, Spain where she will play the season for Cajasur, Corodaba.
 Kelli Nerison stayed with us through Maribor, but then left for Tenerife, Spain where she signed to play the season for Aguere, Tenerife.
 Jacqueline Heler stayed with the entire tour, left for France on the last day and signed with Hainaut Volleyball in Valenciennes, France.
 Sonnie Peace stayed with the entire tour, but is currently in Poitier, France on a tryout. Good luck Sonnie, its nice to see you leave the nest.
Angela Tassone joined the tour in Maribor and is currently on a tryout in Benidick, Slovenia. Good luck Angela.
 Katherine Hall stayed with us the entire tour, but decided to return home and try and play in Europe in the future.
 Karen Auspurger stayed with us the entire tour and we are still trying very hard to find her a tryout as she is a very good libero.
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