 |
|
|
| Mens Summer Tour 2000 | ||||||||
|
||||||||
| Continued....... | ||||||||
|
This was the first time that the tour had ventured to Poland, but I had been to a few World League and Olympic Qualification matches in Katowice and I knew the the Poles can pack a gym. I didn’t expect much crowd for our match, and boy was I surprised on my walk to the gym. Our hotel was about 100 meters away from the crowd entrance to the gym and we had to walk across the parking lot of the gym to get there. The boys started their warm-up at 5:30 (for a 6:30pm match) but I was walking over at about 6:10. The parking lot was packed and there were literally 200-300 people swarming into the hall as I walked across the lot. I could also hear the Euro-beat pounding out of the walls from about 50 meters so I knew we were in for a good time. We entered the gym from the "VIP" side and I was immediately greeted by our hosts and hustled into the gym. What a great way to start the weekend – the stands were packed to capacity with about 1200 people in attendance and the music was blaring. This is exactly what we needed to get the tour rolling and I knew we’d play well in this atmosphere. Well, Stilon Gorzow was the #2 team in Poland (and they have a very good league) in 1999 and they were there to play. We had a good match, but couldn’t overcome this team and finally lost 1-3 after losing a little steam late in the match. We would go on to lose the tournament with a 0-3 record (we later lost to the #5 team from Division 1 and the top team from Division 2 after a couple of disappointing showings by our guys) but we had a great time. The food and accommodations were great and the people of Gorzow were very hospitable and friendly. We had some good nights out at the local disco and plenty of cheap eats and drinks. We were having such a nice time that the boys decided to even extend the stay one extra day (4 nights total) to train with Stilon on Monday afternoon and share the sauna with them afterwards. Again, many thanks to Krysztof and Marek (our new good friend and the Gorzow manager) as well as the staff at the Stilon hotel and all of the other people that made our stay in Poland so enjoyable. I had returned home after the last match in Poland, so Daniel dragged the team back across the border Tuesday morning (no delay going this way) and back to Berlin. We had a another match with Innova Berlin in hopes of getting them to hire someone but the plan fell through. From there it was off to Unterhaching, Germany (Munich area) for a 2 day stop with a team that needed a setter and middle. I should mention here that Slavomir headed to Moers before Poland to accept a job there and that we had lost Sean Warnes to a family issue back in Canada. Other than Bemus and Rupp, these two were the only two other "send-offs" so far. We added Kenny Murczek in Poland (he arrived by train in time to play the second two matches) which kept our total pretty high. The reason that I mention this is that the Tour picked up Tim Farmer and Lee Bennett again in Berlin and was scheduled to meet up with 6 more people over the next days in Munich. Our plan of having a large group "on deck" was about to backfire in a big way. 18 people do not fit too well into one 9 passenger van and a 4 person wagon – especially big people with lots of bags. It was my job to "get rid" of 4-5 people while the team was in Munich so that they could all fit for the next drive…. Many thanks to Mihai for setting up these two days in Unterhaching. We didn’t end up selling them anyone, but Munich is always a great area in which to stay. Well, the days in Munich saw us lose Aaron Shepardson to a leg injury, Tim Farmer to a shoulder injury, and also Mark Lau (to Schuttorf, Germany where he later signed), and Chris Komer (to Klagenfurt, Austria for a tryout and trip to Slovenia with that team). Not quite enough, but not bad. From there the team headed to Austria and the home of Johann Huber and Klagenfurt Volleyball. We had recently placed Lacey Vicknair on their women’s team and I knew she was excited about the visit. Chris Komer was also still with the club, and after choosing not to sign with them, he would join up with us again from there. Well, I’m not sure how we did in the tournament, but I’ll assume we lost most of the games. I know that no one played well enough to get an offer so we must not have been too impressive. Many thanks to Johann for inviting us down. It is always nice to have the Tour travel to a new city and push the envelope in all directions possible. From the southern border of Austria the squad traveled north to the capital of Vienna for our annual stop with the Peter and Igor’s HotVolleys. Newly named E-ON are the annual Champions and Cup Winners of Austria and were also most recently in the Final Four of the European Champions League. They are also the proud owners of Kevin Barnett for the upcoming season. The team arrived to sleep in the hall on Sunday night and then spent the next day seeing the many sights of Vienna. After getting beat in an evening training match, the team again (I assume) spent some time sightseeing. Tuesday the 29th is when it all got interesting…After an 11:00am match, the team split into 3 groups: Group A: Katz, Salak and Mulvey headed for Belgium on the train. They were to play with European Powerhouse Noliko-Maaseik in a weekend tournament in Saarbrucken courtesy of Rene, Anders and Theo of Maaseik. Both the USA All-Stars and Maaseik had been invited to play in Rolf Gergen’s presitigious classic, but neither team had quite the roster to make a good showing so we decided to let them take the invite and borrow our top players. Ed Ratledge flew in on the 29th and met the boys in Maaseik to round out the US delegation. The team ended up beating Wuppertal of Germany in the finals and I was told by the Maaseik staff that all of our boys had contributed and played very well. This was a great experience for these guys and I’m both happy that we decided to handle the tournament in this manner and proud of their performance both on and off the court. Group B: 6 boys stayed that afternoon and night in Vienna. Group C: Daniel + 6 players decided to drive all the way to Budapest, Hungary for the night. This wouldn’t have been a bad decision except that they had to cross 2 borders (Slovakia and Hungary), they brought James Sneddon (one of the Canadians that caused such a stir at the Polish border), and they had to be 5 hours WEST of Vienna (Hungary is EAST) by 3pm the next day for a 5:00pm match. Daniel brilliantly decided that this was plenty of time and told group B that he would pick them up at 9:00am at the hotel in Vienna. Well, I got a call at about 1:00pm from Group B asking if I knew where Daniel was. Apparently his phone was "off". I had no idea of the Group B/C split and was of course as confused as this poor caller. To spare any suspense, all of Group C spent that night (until 5pm the next day) in a Budapest prison. Details of the "arrest" have still not been disclosed, but the entire group had to return the following day at noon for "arraignment" and all were released except poor James, the Cannuck without a visa, who then had to stay in Budapest (keep in mind he was the tour’s only setter at this point) for 18 days! Needless to say we had to cancel matches in Salgau, Germany for the 30th and 31st of August. My continued apologies to Michael Schmidt and the Salgau team/staff for our disorganization and bad decisions. On a side note, I want to point out that Phil Kerewich and Ted Groves were actually part of a Group D at this point. From Munich they had traveled to France to participate with the USA "B" Team in a pre-Olympic Tournament and exhibitions vs. France, Italy, and Russia. The USA Team had pulled out of this event at the last minute due to injuries and the staff had asked me to donate a few players to our last minute delegation. Without going into detail, I will say that the team did better than expected, taking a set from the Italian team that would eventually take 2nd place in Italy and a couple of sets from a very good French team. Many thanks to Doug Beal, Rod Wilde, Jim Coleman, Rudy Suwara and the rest of the USA staff and brass for giving these guys such a great opportunity to shine and also for making me welcome to share some wonderful days in Bordeaux and Pau with the delegation.
|
||||||||
