-courtesy of Tour Players

May 6-18 2001

- Coach Dave Best's Comments

Day 1 - Frankfurt to Prague
- Kristy Kierulff (Long Beach State)

Today we arrived in Frankfurt Germany. We were all supposed to meet at the McDonalds in the "Food Plaza" at the airport. Many of us had really long flights but we all showed up on time to the McDonalds except for Tim Kelly. He arrived what seemed to be three hours late but actually he was only about 45 minutes late. Then we waited for the bus to arrive and drive us to Prague in the Czech Republic. We had a very long bus ride, stopped on occasion to use the "water closet", and grab a bite to eat at, yah you guessed it, McDonalds. Then we finally arrived at a little local restaurant in Prague and met everybody else (Cory Solomon, Mora Kanim and Brandy Barratt were already in Europe for a few days waiting for the group). The food was very good. I think that was all of our first experience as to whether of not we wanted water, or water with "gas". I personally have never heard of water with gas, in those terms. I thought that was kind of funny. After we ate dinner at the restaurant we drove a little more to where we were going to sleep and train for the night. Our Czech guide, Jirka Honzik, had arranged for us to train in a local club's facility where we were fortunate to be able to sleep as well. We were also joined at training by 2 Czech girls that were interested to play in the USA. It was nice to finally get to move after being stuck on a plane and the bus for quite some time. At practice everybody just got a feel for each other and had a better idea of what to expect. I thought practice went pretty well overall. Every one seemed ready to play the next day, which was very nice. I'm looking forward to seeing what is going to happen throughout the next two week and can't wait to play some good competition.

Team in Prague after a long bus ride and training

Day 2 - Prague to Brno,
- Renee Nash (Loyola Chicago and BIP Sibillini Alumnus)

After we woke up from a much-needed full night's rest, we explored Prague for a few hours. First we went to the palace that now serves as the capital building. We only saw it from the outside, but it was certainly an impressive structure. Next to the castle was St. Vitus's Cathedral. This was also incredible. We actually got to go inside this one. It was just like I had seen pictures of in history books. The details and décor were so extravagant. From here, we walked into town. There were many souvenir shops, quaint little restaurants, and fun clothing stores. We did not have much time to shop because we needed to travel 2 hours to Brno to play our 5:00 match. We took a coach bus with the Czech National Team to the game. We were all very excited to be playing against the Czech National team because we had been hearing how good they are the whole time we were here. We played hard during the game, but our lack of experience of playing with each other took a toll on the results. We did beat them the second game - everyone knew we could have done much better, though. After the game, we drove back to the hotel to eat one of the many meals that the tournament provided for us. We were actually in the same hotel as the Finnish, Danish, and Spanish National Teams and we had all of our meals in the same dining room before and after matches. Then we went to another gym to watch the team we would be playing the next night (Azerbaijan - a former Russian state). We all found it interesting to actually watch some European national teams play in person. Next, some of us went to a bar with the coaches to have a beer (or two). This seems to be a pretty popular event out here - play a hard match, then head straight to the bar. We then headed back to the hotel to start our second night of much-needed sleep.

Day 3 - In Brno - Match versus Azerbaijan
- Jen Bostwick

We all finally settled in Brno. Right off the bat we had to improve our "international relations". Leonie Muller joined our team from Germany. Her main goal was to get to the states to play volleyball. Talking with all of us ex-collegiate players helped her to get a bigger perspective of playing college ball. She also was able to get the scope on many colleges in the States. This morning we had training with Paulo Cunha, one of Portugal's national coaches. It was intriguing to see how Europe's practices went. Paulo stressed ball control on defense and serve receive. We didn't do much hitting. Oddly enough when our practice was done most of us decided to stay and work on our serve receive. Up to this time most of our days have been packed with volleyball. Not much time for sightseeing. The only day we have really looked around was Prague. Thus, in Brno we had no idea where we were or where things were. We arrived into this little town outside of Brno to play Azerbaijan. By this time we had seen Azerbaijan play against Slovenia the day before. They didn't seem too tall and intimidating. But they did have this awesome setter. Amazingly enough she was only sixteen. It is amazing that girls can get so good by that age in these different countries. Especially in a country called Azerbaijan. "Who knows where this country is located?" Not one of us could answer this perplexing question. Unfortunately we lost to Azerbaijan in three sets. Although, during this match our team really clicked in chemistry. Azerbaijan did not sweep the floor with us. The game score were 24-26, 23-25, and 19-25. Sometimes it is so hard to lose to a close match when we work so hard and just cannot finish. Every one of us felt that we were a team and we had a place on this team on this tour. After showering these little girls from a local club volleyball team gathered at our locker door. They wanted everyone's autograph. It is amazing to see the admiration for American players from these little girls. They wanted to know everything about America. Especially the scope on Brittany Spears and N'SYNC. One of the girls asked Poppa (Joanna) if she knew Brittany Spears. Poppa wanted to say that she lived right next door to Brittany. She didn't have the heart to tease these girls. They were so sweet, trying to speak the little English they knew. Everyday we usually have some kind of "cultural duties" as Tim would say. Usually those duties consist of riding with the team we were going to compete against to the place where our match was being held. Or we would have some refreshment get together with the other team. Today was no exception. It was very hard to interact with these girls because we were not sure if they knew very much English. Also our cultures are so different when it comes to smiling and greetings. But we did try to make the best of it. Leonie fit in very well with our team. Once she stepped on the court she meant business. The confidence was strong in her skills. She also fit in very well socially with us. On the ride back to the hotel, Leonie attempted to teach Chez, Katie, and Jenn some German. Was it successful? We will never know. It will definitely depend on if we can retain the phrases we learned. If any German tried to speak to us that did not involve water we were hopeless. The phrases we learned was Ich habe wasser: "I have water". Danke: "Thank-you". Bitte: "You're welcome, please". Ich habe hunger: "I am hungry". Wilst du wasser: "Do you want water?" Mein namm ist ______?: "My name is _______?" There were many more phrases and numbers. But do we remember them? Not all of them. It was fun trying to speak from the back of our throats. Of course we are terrible at it, because we speak from the front of our mouths. While we were trying to learn this German our bus driver, Frank, did some heavy maneuvering on the road. At a turn on the road Frank tried to pass many cars by driving on the other side of the road. All of a sudden we had a semi barreling full force for us. Frank jerked the steering wheel to the right. We were back in the right lane. Then a tiny car tried to pass from the other lane in our lane. Barely missing us they safely made it back into their own lane. Oh the experiences in Czech Republic. Some them we could do without. The rest of the night we mainly rested for our rematch against the Czech Republic. Of course we were not allowed to go to bed without our daily dose of meat, rice and potatoes. No wonder why we slept so well at night. Of course we had to get our daily dose of MTV (one of the only English channels) before we went to bed. Off to bed as we close another chapter of Bring it on USA.

Team photo after the Azerbijain Match

Autograph hounds surround Team USA's locker room

Day 4 - Matches vs. Czech Republic and Slovenia
- Jen Sanchez (Florida)

It is day four of our tour, but it actually feels like day ten! We are getting to play a ton of volleyball. We are looking more and more like a team. Each time we step on the court, we reach a higher level of play. All of our opponents have been pretty tough, and will only get tougher as we continue to play in this Spring Cup. We faced Czech Republic this morning…our chance at redemption. We were eager to play them again because we knew we were a much better team than we showed the first time. We came out strong. Our ball control kept the game close. Last time we had trouble siding-out because a few of their servers launched bombs. That is one of the biggest differences I have noticed in European ball…they serve extremely tough! Serving is at a higher level over here. So now we knew what to expect, and the result was a much better match-up this time between the Czechs and us. We managed to win games 2 and 4, and force a fifth game. The Czechs pulled away at 10-10 with their jump server leading the way, to go on to win the dogfight. Although we lost a heart breaker, we were very satisfied with our level of play. We are gaining more confidence…and having a blast! After our match, we were able to do a little sight-seeing in Brno. It is a pretty neat city. We were able to get the "inside scoop" from our tour guide/translator/new friend Jirka, pronounced Yer-kah. He's amazing (but not quite the Jedi that our bus driver Frank is!). He plays volleyball also, and it was really cool to have him around. He helped us understand the Czech culture, explained what it was that we were actually eating, and most importantly helped us order water WITHOUT GAS! Dobra Voda!! We saw the "happenin" part of Brno, bought a few souvenirs, had some local cuisine (at the Czech-style McDonald's), and a few of us even got a haircut. One of my favorite things about this tour happened next. We often get the chance to meet and play with so many people from so many different countries. It is the greatest thing! I realized that when I had to say goodbye to Leonie. She left today around 5:30 to catch a train back home. She roomed with Rebeks and I, and we had gotten to know her really well. We answered questions she had about life in the US, and in return she taught us about life in Germany. She also gave a few of us our first lesson in the German language. (We can count to ten and talk about water.) Bri from Germany, pronounced Bree (actually short for Sabrina) arrived today. She is a very cool person, super-easy to get along with. She has this bright orange hair and loves to wear this colorful woven hat. She joined our squad as a middle. We also met the girls from Poland, Doris (the only one that speaks English, without a doubt the craziest of the group), Patricia (the left-handed "Babe" girl), and Olga (the one that speaks Polish 100 kilometers a minute). They came along with their English-speaking teacher Igor and the really-friendly Martin. The Norwegian National Coach also joined the coaching staff today. His name is Tore Aleksander.

Tore Aleksander running the show (our Polish friends on the far left)

He comes with a wealth of knowledge to share with us. We now have an international team…that is cool! We are up against Slovenia tonight. We are playing a friendly match that consists of three games to 25. All pumped up and ready to play another good team, we once again come out strong…with lots of "American Fire!" The first two games were really tight. We won the first one 27-25, and lost the second 25-20. By the third game Tim was really rooting for us, as he and the other coach had some beers riding on the outcome! Have no fear…we were making some big time plays and executing well. USA-BIP emerged victorious. This match against the Slovenians marked our first W of this Gala tour so far. It was a great win for us. It showed that we were competitive at this level and were capable of beating other teams at this Spring Cup Tournament. After the match, Tore ran a training session with our team. He is a great coach…very technical and concerned with the details. It was a great learning experience to participate in such a session. We were able to see how other countries train. I was interested in some of the drills he had us do. We have had a few of these practices already (also with Paulo, the coach from Portugal) and have a few more scheduled for later. Now it is time to end the day, and what better way than to visit a local favorite…Charlie's! It is an awesome multi-level pub/disco. The dance floor was in the lower level. It looked like a large version of one of those brick ovens that is used to make pizza…either that or the bat cave. Jirka escorted a group of us over to meet the Polish girls for some "Czech Medicine!" We all had a blast. Those Polish girls were no strangers to partying!!!

Team USA and Slovenia after our friendly match