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A few notes before I begin; I plan to underrate everything
I write here. I don't want to be guilty of maliciously making
the reader jealous.
There are 11 teams here and 9 have foreign players this
year. 5 Americans and 4 Latin Americans. All got here because
they had a friend on the team they play for. This is a very
good reason to be nice to all the Puerto Ricans you know.
Another reason is they are all nice people themselves.
The foreigners here are Me, Colin McMillan, Scott Lane,
Clay Stanley, Chris Gisland, Ted Groves, Ivan Contreras,
Martel (Mexico's opposite), a Venezuelan and an Argentinian.
Sorry if I butchered the names. Of the Americans I am the
grandpa, the rest are coming straight from the NCAA.
My history:
| Tim
told me about the possibility of foreign players in
Puerto Rico last summer. I've wanted to play in this
league bad ever since I heard about it years ago from
my Puerto Rican friends. I accompanied 10 other Americans
and Tim on a scouting trip here last summer. Come April
2000 I was lucky enough to be strongly recommended to
the owner of Caguas VB Club by the setter and my friend
Hector Lebron. April 12, Spain: I got a call from Tim.
April 18, Puerto Rico. My plane lands and I walk into
the humidity trying to look as much like a volleyball
mercenary as a chump like me can. |
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Puerto Rico
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Those of you that are actually
reading this are probably doing it to find out what
it is like to play on an average team here in Puerto
Rico. I don't think I know this. First, it's only been
three weeks since I got here. Secondly, as much as I
wish this team were the average team in PR, I don't
think it is. Playing on any team here would be great.
I've played for three teams in Europe in three countries
and Puerto Rico blows them all away. What can beat a
7-week season that pays like a 7-month season in the
rest of the world? Add that it is on a tropical island.
Add the beautiful women. Add the league sponsors; Coors
Light and Burger King are among the notables. Add the
low cost of living. Add the fact that it is a first
world country. |
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I'm a very hard critic on this point; for the record
I consider most of Italy and Spain second world countries.
PUERTO RICO. This is Volleyball at its best.
A man in a very big Cadillac that rode extremely
smooth greeted me at the baggage claim and drove me
to the office of the team owner, Vicente Guzman. The
people of Puerto Rico are extremely hospitable to
guests and Vicente has proved he's no exception. After
a bit of paperwork Vicente took me out to one of the
places I have been staying. Nothing purges a body
of the evils accumulated after a year spent in Europe
like a few rounds of golf and a week spent lying on
the beach.
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| I
suppose I should legitimize this journal by starting
to talk about the volleyball. I played about ten sets
in the form of scrimmages in three sessions over the
next two weeks. I went to twice as many press conferences.
That was the preseason. The season commenced. We opened
up against Corozal. Ramon "The Bruin Slayer" Hernandez
(I know you love him TK) plays here. He is the best
player in the league if last years statistics mean anything.
They were playing without two of their key players so
my team was smelling blood. We won the first set 25-15
and lost the next three closely. After the match I was
not one to argue Ramon's credentials, we couldn't stop
him all night. I played really well, the club was happy
and their decision to sign me was legitimized as a good
idea. I was disappointed we lost but thrilled as the
next two months of my life were now definitely going
to be spent in paradise. |
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In this league each team plays 20 matches in 7 weeks, all
on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. This means
three matches per weekend. It's grueling but my team only
practices twice a week (usually less) so the load is lightened.
Our next two matches of the first weekend were won against
middle of the pack teams. A big reason for the wins was
a new addition. Jaquin Acosta of BYU was added to the roster.
This guy can block on the outside. Notables for the two
victories are few, in one gym my empty Dorritos bag blew
from end line to end line in 5 seconds flat. The gyms here
don't have walls for the most part. There is usually a good
side needless to say. The other gym fielded a 6'-5" middleblocker
that was 152 lbs. He was worth seeing. He blocked me a lot
and was a heck of a player, maybe the best in the world
pound for pound. This team is waiting on Clay Stanley who
I understand is supposed to be pretty good. I'm glad we
got by them early.
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The 3-day weekend (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday)
was well spent. More golf, beach, fun nights and so
forth. Sparing any details, I'm getting used to this.
A random tidbit: Puerto Rico is RUN by Coors Light,
a league sponsor. The Coors Light girls here are HOT!
The fact that one or two are present at every press
conference really makes it easy to focus on the speaker's
platform even though I can't comprehend hardly a word
of Spanish.
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The next set of matches were against some lesser foes.
The first match was against Ivan Contras's team. Ivan is
a heck of a player but that wasn't going to be enough against
the mighty Caguas squad. We prevailed 3-1 in a typically
ugly match. The next game was to be our first home game.
We have the best volleyball stadium in PR. It's air conditioned
and big, which is all it takes to blow the others out of
the water. Good thing it is big because we had a rock band
open for us. The band was one that opens for Ricky Martin
and has allegedly written songs for him. Anything about
Ricky in Puerto Rico is huge. Vicente maybe a first year
owner but he knows PR. We were doing promotions all week.
I was looking forward to the match. The band didn't disappoint;
they were a cross between Ricky Martin and Metallica. It
was the first time I have warmed up to live music. Pretty
cool. The match was our first easy win, 3-0. The gym didn't
seem too full. It seats 5000+ so the fact that 500 people
showed up was probably the reason. If we build a winning
record they will come. We can hope at least. The last match
of the weekend was against a good team. After losing the
first set something like 32-30 we found ourselves serving
with the score 24-21 in their favor. I was the guy serving
and I'll be honest, I'm not the kind of guy that wears NO
FEAR shirts and lives for this kind of situation. I'll kill
the suspense now, we eventually won the match in four sets
although they made us work hard for it. I keep the ball
in play with a jump serve I thought I was hitting hard.
The libero was receiving like a schoolgirl was serving at
him. Through teamwork we managed to keep enough pressure
on the other team to force errors and win the match with
another high score. It was a great moment for our team.
We are now standing alone on top of the rankings of the
"Super League" of Puerto Rico. (I'm not trying to be funny,
that's really what they call it here.) Wednesday we play
against the league's version of "The Dream Team"ä It's at
home, I'm going to get really pumped up and come out firing;
this is how the plan goes in my own head at least. I'm going
to need a serious streak of good luck.
I hope all you readers got at least something you wanted
out of this because I wasted a lot of time on it. I type
about 40 words per hour. My advice to anyone who ever gets
a chance to come down here to play is drop everything and
do it. I've got my fingers crossed that next year the owners
vote to keep the foreigner intact or even expand on it.
So far we foreigners have been adding a lot to the action
and excitement here. Wish us the good fortune necessary
to keep it goingä for the sake of all you that want to play
here in the future.
Sincerely,
Sir William Donald Harris
self proclaimed esquire, pioneer and explorer of Puerto
Rico Volleyball
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