38 female volleyball players from all over the USA, Canada, and even New Zealand arrived in Maribor, Slovenia for the Annual August Women's Firesale. This year's camp again was a big success as a number of players received contract offers. We must admit that this was the most difficult year to place players due to the current economic conditions facing the world. In spite the difficult times, we were still able to get 18 players offered contracts. 15 players accepted their offers and a total of 29 players went on tryouts to one or more teams.
Below is a summary of the players who accepted contract offers, the players who where offered contracts (not accepted), the players who went on tryouts and finally the coaches who attended the tour from over 5 different countries.
Accepted Contract Offers:
Mandy Bible: OK Koper, Slovenia
Brittany Collett: Vordingborg, Denmark
Kimberly Adams: Murcia, Spain
Jacqueline Bayley: OK Galeb, Montenegro (1st American ever to sign in Montenegro)
Stephanie Serna: OK Tabor, Slovenia
Lindsey Buteyn: VC Tirol, Austria
Jolene Baptiste: Brondby, Denmark
Shelly Langford: Vordingborg, Denmark
Christina Speer: Aachen, Germany
Julie Mota: Laon, France
Quincy Verdin: OK Tabor, Slovenia
Jessica Barrera: OK Koper, Slovenia
Lisa Drennan: Brondby, Denmark
Brittany Lowe: Klagenfurt, Austria
Katie Vatterrodt: St Fons, France
Kiley Hall: VB Cossonay, Switzerland
Tori Thompson: Algar, Spain
Offered Contracts:
(Not Accepted) Stephanie Higgins: OK Tabor, Slovenia
Kelly Schmidt: Klagenfurt, Austria & OK Tabor, Slovenia
Meghan Kainz: OK Koper, Slovenia
Player Tryouts:
Nikki Gonzales: OK Benedikt, Slovenia
Melody Nua: OK Jesinica, Slovenia
Allie Cherven: OK Kula, Bosnia
Lindsey Buteyn: OK Sempeter, Slovenia
Stacey Borgia: OK Sempeter, Slovenia
Becky Moores: OK Kula, Bosnia & VC Tirol, Austria
Darshaya Mustacchio: OK Jesinica, Slovenia
Stephanie Higgins: OK Seompter, Slovenia
Caitlyn Knowles: OK Kula, Bosnia
Milan Clark: OK Sempeter, Slovenia
Coaches who attended the August Women's Firesale
VC Tirol, Austria Klagenfurt, Austria Linz, Austria Vordingborg, Denmark Brondby, Denmark Aachen, Germany Jesinica, Slovenia Koper, Slovenia Tabor, Slovenia Sempeter, Slovenia Bendikt, Slovenia Maribor, Slovenia Kamnik, Slovenia Murcia, Spain We also thank Marcelo Mussi, our Spanish Partner (Agent) for attending.
BIP August Women's Fire Sale
Tour Maribor, Slovenia 2009
A Player's Perspective By Kiley Hall, University of Texas '09 "
Be ready for anything and everything..." I flew through Paris, France and missed my flight to Vienna, Austria but thank goodness I was arriving a day early. Once I finally arrived in Vienna that same night I learned the airline had lost my luggage and I had missed the last train to Maribor, Slovenia. When I finally got to Maribor the next morning there were a few girls already at the hotel getting to know each other and excited for the first practice that night. There were also a few coaches wandering around the hotel waiting to watch the practice and pick up a few players. One of the coaches, a nice lady from Austria, even came and talked to a group of us while we were sitting in the lobby. She was looking for one player and she had brought the two American girls that were already on her team to help her make the decision. It was great to get to talk to these two players and ask them questions about their previous years experience overseas. This type of "outside of the gym" interaction was very typical for the entire tour with the coaches eating meals with us and staying at our hotel. They were not only interested in our play but our personalities as well.
With the help of Cory and the hotel staff at the Dras Center I received my bags from Vienna, delivered right to the hotel after dinner the first night.
The next day, the first full day of the tour, was a crazy one for me and a few other girls who had four different trainings. The first was at 10am with all the girls on tour then at lunch everyone listened in anticipation to Cory as he called names for tryouts or trainings that afternoon. The first group of six names was to play for a while for some coaches at our hotel, which had the gym conveniently in it. The next group of twelve went about 15 minutes to the next town to practice with another team. Then the last group of ten went over an hour away near Ljubljana to scrimmage another team. It was a lot of volleyball, but a lot of fun. On the other side though, I know that it was hard for those girls that did not get their names called that day at lunch and instead stayed at the hotel to have a practice of their own. This was how the tour went, girls and coaches coming and going day after day.
The third day was a more typical day on tour with two practices and some time to have fun or explore Maribor. We got up for breakfast about 9am and had one training from 10-12pm. We had lunch, then some of the girls and I went up the mountain to see the view and ride the Alpine sled rollercoaster down. We were excited to be accompanied by one of the Danish coaches and his "money man" on our little afternoon adventure. The second training was 6-8pm followed by dinner and socializing. At this point there were already a few girls with offers and some preparing to sign contracts or go on trial periods to practice with teams. Cory and Nick were very intent on making sure girls knew what they were getting themselves into, stating multiple times that you live in the place first with many hours of free time and play volleyball second for only a few hours a day.
We also met the Lakers' Sasha Vujacic, as he was visiting his home town of Maribor. We had some time in the evenings to go out with the girls and enjoy the night life of Maribor as well as sing some Wii Karaoke with Sasha and friends. One of the last nights on tour a few girls also went to explore an old winery and taste a few of the local wines. It was an all around experience with the bulk being volleyball.
About four or five days into the tour, a setter and I were asked by the coach of Benedikt to come practice with them. Benedikt is a village of about 1,000 that is approximately 20 minutes outside of Maribor by car. We practiced with this team for the rest of the tour, even playing a team made up of the girls on tour. At the end they gave us both an offer that was fairly good except the living arrangements. They had asked the both of us to move in with one of the girls already on the team who was in a one bedroom, one window, basement apartment with two twin beds and a pull out couch. Obviously for a seven month season we did not see this as livable by any means. To add to this, the apartment was in the small village of Benedikt with no offer of stable transportation to Maribor. Cory gave the club the opportunity to try to find us a better living arrangement, preferably in Maribor, but they refused.
After the tour ended I decided to travel around Europe for two reasons, the first being I was already here and the second because Cory had said that if I really wanted to play it would be easier to get me a job if I was already in Europe willing to travel to a tryout, so this is how my next two weeks went:
I took a train to Venice, Italy for a day with a couple of the girls from the tour in my same situation. Then to Milan, Italy for a day by myself, next to Lausanne, Switzerland where Nick arranged for me to go to a few different trainings. These were not necessarily teams that had asked for players, but they were more than happy to have an extra girl for practice due to insufficient numbers. The hope was that I would impress one of them into giving me an offer. During my stay in Lausanne, Cory got word of a possible offer in Dubai, but nothing ever came of it. Next, I flew to Athens, Greece to meet my parents who were on vacation. At this point I was very concerned, stressed and some what unhappy with still being unsigned. I had almost decided to call it quits and go home or try my hand at something else. Next I went to Paris, France to visit a friend and fellow BIP player. I was able to trained with her team and actually played with them in their first tournament.
Every team that I practiced with on my travels was extremely nice and accommodating. They even went to lengths to call other coaches they knew to see if they were interested in a foreign player with my abilities. The issue with the team in Paris was that France has a limit to how many foreigners they can sign per team, therefore I was both relieved and thrilled to get an email from Nick saying that one of the clubs I had trained with in Switzerland had given me an offer.
It was an up and down emotional journey, but I am now excited to say that I have signed with Cossonay Volleyball Club and I live in a very comfortable apartment in the heart of Lausanne.
