Day 1 - 2
by Tim Cole - Juniata College

On August 15th, at 5:00 sixteen volleyball players met at Hotel Arena in Maribor, Slovenia to tour Europe, soaking in culture, making new friends, and train, all (hopefully) en route to earning contracts as professional athletes.  Our routes and backgrounds could not have differed more, with travel stories ranging from long delays to complete loss of  baggage to six weeks of backpacking to a flawless single day of connections.  Our crew was made up of guys from Australia, Pennsylvania, California, Oregon, Canada, Bosnia, and Hawaii. 

From a personal standpoint, I was the lucky one.  I had a wonderful flight on the 12th from Newark, New Jersey, to Warsaw, Poland, to Lubljanja, Slovenia.  I met up with Brandon Meuller, from Springfield College, my (Juniata College) old rival.  I never imagined three months ago I’d be staring at maps in a language I couldn’t comprehend with someone I used to sneer at across the net.  From Lubljanja we took a train to Zindani Most, transferred to another train, and finally ended up in Maribor, city center. 

Brandon and I had a day to kill and hadn’t expected to travel so easily, so we spent the 14th in the center of Maribor, checking out the shops, exchanging our money for Tolars and Euros, and relaxing.  So many things stood out immediately about Slovenian culture;  first of all there are absolutely no overweight people in the city.  It seems like an odd thing to notice, but everyone is skinny as a rail.  We figured it was because everyone is always walking.  There are a plethora of outdoor cafe’s where people like to sit and have wine and talk.  People will sit and talk with friends they bump into on the street for hours, then part and walk somewhere new.  We wondered if anyone does any real work, besides the waiters. 

Our group of guys is great.  Big guys, but no big egos.  With a group of 16 everyone is patient about playing time, and very supportive.  The level of play in our practice gym is pretty high, and getting better as players get more comfortable with each other, and their surroundings.  I would equate the level of practice in our gym to a top 15 division one team’s practice, but not a top 5.  There is a visible stratification of talent, which will probably determine the order of tryouts with teams.  The gym we play at has enormous airplane-hangar style windows which make visibility rough at some points, but there is a bar attached to the gym with beautiful people laughing and chatting away.  I don’t know which is more distracting.

The first day we met, ate, and had a practice at 9:00 PM.  We were done at 25:00 (11:00).  The next morning, we woke, practiced early, had some free time for lunch, and then played Graz at 17:00.  They showed up late and got into the match slowly, losing to a pumped-up Bring It USA 25-17 or so.  Their style of play differed from ours in many ways.  None of them could pass a float serve!  Chris told us that they all begin jump serving at such an early age that all the passers see is heat from the beginning of their careers.  European teams also almost never set the middle.  After game one Graz got warmed up and started controlling their rocket jump serves.  The game became a contest of who could hit outlet sets better, and Graz’s experience won out, as they took the next three games 25-20, 25-22, 25-22.  We were upset to lose to a team that we thought we could beat, but it is still early in the week. 

Tomorrow, we travel to Klagenfurt, Austria to play their local team.  A couple of Czech coaches will be in attendance, and Chris gave us word that we have  French, German, and Czech coaches coming to take a look at players in the upcoming days.