Well, today Jo and I made the 8 hour drive "home" to Maribor without a single moment of traffic. You have to love the Italian freeways on a Sunday. What a perfect end to a great tour. As usual, it was fairly sad to pack up and leave Comunanza, but the for the seventh consecutive day the sky was clear and blue, and the sun was shining on the beautiful checkered hillsides of the Marche. Pepe (the Roverino Hotel guy for those of you that don’t know him) waived at us from his seat in front of Bar Flory on the way out of town and we yelled "A prossimo anno!" at him yet again. I can’t imagine a summer going by without spending a week at this tournament and with all these great people. I just wish we could win it again.

 

To close the journal out I’m sorry to report that Slavia Bratislava won the tournament for the third consecutive year. It was a drawn-out 5 game battle against Olomuc from the Czech Republic, but the age and experience of the Slovaks (this same team has been together for years) pulled them through at the end. I vow yet again to do something about this next year.

The best attacker award went to 16 year old Jovana Brakovic from Poster (6’5"). Tournament MVP went to Slavia’s best player, 19 year old Martina Nosekova (5’11" outside hitter). Olomuc’s setter took the honors at that position, and the Final Match’s Top Scorer was 20 year old Petronela Biksadska, a 22 year old 6’1" outside that weighs in at about 120 pounds tops. The USA’s lone honor went to Ashley Adamczyk (I hope I spelled it right this time) as she won the Best Defender award for her great defense on Team Third Degree. I wish there was a way to post the 15 second video clip I have of her when she finally realized that she had won. And I hope to get a photo from the tournament directors in the next days to post to a "post-journal" journal somewhere. Congratulations Ashley!

I’m pushing the folks on the Sibillini Tournament Committee to update their site at www.sibillinivolley.com so please check it out. Hopefully they’ll have photos posted there by the end of the week. Right now it’s still stuck on the 2003 edition of the tourney, but I will do my best to get them to get it updated. The internet isn’t quite as booming in Comunanza as we’d like. Or maybe it’s better that way.

In closing, I want to thank our great coaches (and their significant others) for the heart, experience, and time they put into their teams. I want to thank Jirka for his tireless efforts in bringing in our reinforcements from Prague (he emailed me today to say that they’d made it home in 16 hours: 2:30am to 6:30pm) and to Zuze, Klara, and the Shark for making the drive. Both ways. You’re insane. Thanks also to our reluctant fourth middle that had to play 6 matches in 4 days on a shoulder that would be better off in therapy. Jo, you rule. And once again, thanks, to our 11 American girls that made the flight. This was such a great group. As a delegation I don’t know that I’ve ever seen people bond so quickly and have such a great time together from minute 1. On the court we didn’t always see great chemistry, but what a great group of young ladies we had. It’s also interesting to point out that this group had more people land early (to spend time travelling or in Rome) or stay late than ever. I think that speaks volumes and I hope that everyone had a wonderful trip before, during, and after our Sibillini experience.

I also want to thank Tana at VolleyCentral for her amazing efforts at getting my terribly edited journals up so quickly for the duration of the trip.

Lastly, mile grazie (di tutta la Delegazione USA) to all the wonderful folks in Italy that made our trip so great. From our family (The Lucianis) and hosts in Rome; to Mario and all our friends in Fidia (Cesano) and Ladispoli; to Franco, Claudio, Valentina & Valentina, Rita, and everyone in Falconara and Auchan Ancona / Galassia Volley; and Pepe(s), Massimo(s), Pietro, Sandro(s), Gianluca, Chiristina, Manuela, Ernesto, Matteo, Stefano, Francesco, Vittorio, Marco (and everyone at Chalet 54), Gaetano, and everyone from the Comitato Sibillini (mi dispiace si mi ho dimenticato a qualche persona), the kitchens of Futura, da Roverino, and da Ernesto, Mitch’s Pasticeria, Bar Flory, and too many others. To all of our supporters nella Marche: "Ci veddiamo prossimo anno: Sibillini 2005!"