Women’s August Exposure and Placement Camp, The “Fire Sale” - 2004
August 8 th to 18 th.

Team Photo in Maribor on August 8, 2004

Our Setters: Purdy, Greta, Noreen, and Connie

Our Outsides: Matchett, Molly, Kelsie, Munger, and Jenny

Our Middles: Tesha and Jill

Our Liberos: Mac, Leah, and Ro

Pre-Tour, Prague, Czech Republic
August 3 to 7, 2004, by Leah Johnson

We arrived in the so-called most beautiful city in Europe, Prague, Czech Republic after many hours of travel to begin our volleyball journey. Cory was adamant that we need not sleep upon arrival, he said it was best that we stay up, practice and go out. The Czechs showed us a great time in a small pub. We ate, drank, and we were very merry. We trained twice the next day with a bit of sightseeing in between. By the first night’s adventure we were all assimilated to Europe and one another. We hiked up to the city castle to experience an incredible view of an amazing city - you could see forever. The city is very hilly and all the streets are cobblestone, not always so fun to walk on, just ask Mac. The old town square was nice with a clock show on every hour. Prague is the host of the “Cow Tour” right now, in every corner were painted cow statues. I have no idea why!

Prague’s Main Square

This trip has been a trip of surprises - but that can be attributed to Cory’s flower child demeanor. Everyday was an unexpected adventure, we never knew what would be the next day’s schedule. We trained hard, toured a ton, and enjoyed every night like a good Czech citizen would: beer, multi colored shots and good greasy Czech food.

Practices were an adventure in themselves, each one being directed by a different coach in a different translation of English. `A German coach told us that we were “petting” the balls too much, we needed to “streichen” harder. “Bull Shit” he declared in his broken German/English. We turned that comment into an ongoing joke. Although he insisted that his English was poor, he sure didn’t have any trouble telling a long, thorough story. Then we enjoyed the coaching of a Czech man who loved drills. We did all drills and we never really understood what we were doing until we had been through it a few times. Cory’s practices always consisted of playing; the more we do, means the less he does. We struggled through these practices because our positions were overloaded. We had 4 setters, 1 outside, 2 liberos and a couple of middles - and not enough for a full scrimmage. But we made it work and had a great time trying out new positions and learning the way one another play. Our greatest transition is adjusting to the way Europeans play, not always textbook, but they make it happen. I think we are learning fast and improving everyday. It is easy to enjoy and improve when you are granted great teammates and fun directors such as Cory, Tim, and all the foreign coaches we have experienced.

 
Tour Rooms at the Propolpka in Prague & The Charles Bridge at Night

Notes from Coach Cory:

Prague was a great opportunity for players to train and get used to being in Europe. Training twice a day with three different European coaches allowed them to get back into shape, learn how Euro coaches train, and just get used to European volleyball. Special thanks to Markos, our wonderful first division German coach from Braunschweig, John from Oslo, Norway, and Oldridge from Prague as they worked the players hard and showed great resolve in getting them back into shape. In the future I would highly recommend players attending the pre-tour camp in Prague.

August Firesale, Vienna and The Maribor Portion
August 8 to 11, 2004, by Noreen Carroll

On Saturday morning, we left Prague for a three-hour ride to Vienna. We traveled in one van and a small car, not too bad for 10 players. When we arrived in Vienna, we met Tim and his girlfriend Jo. Oldridge and Jirka, our drivers, returned to Prague from there. At the train station, we picked up two more players, Kristina and Rowena. With Rowena on the tour, we now represent three different countries; she’s Australian and we have two Canadians. We had free reign to roam around the city for two hours. As we split up into groups, some girls shopped and some walked around “The Ring” which is a tour around the downtown area with many attractions and monuments.

Wien (Vienna), Austria

When we left Vienna, we had the same amount of car space, with two extra people, so the ride to Maribor was a little squished. Fortunately, Mac brought her portable DVD player to pass the time with. We arrived in Maribor after about 2 and a half hours. After checking in, we went to Padrino’s and pizza was already on the table when we arrived. It was great for us because most of us were starving. The best service so far in Europe! As we have been experiencing regularly, we went out to a Latino club the first night here. We were able to find Bongo’s with vague directions from Cory and some policemen on the street who pointed with a flashlight and said, “That direction.” Bongo’s is a club that many past tours have also attended and I’m sure many will continue to. They played some old school American music, but also some fun hip-hop to dance to.

When we woke up Sunday morning, we found that this hotel’s continental breakfast also includes eggs with the usual bread, cheese and ham! We practiced from 10-12 in a gym that is about a ten minute walk from the hotel. It was great having 12 to practice with finally to run some 6 on 6 drills and do some scrimmaging. Molly arrived in the middle of the night, but didn’t practice because of jet-leg. After a short afternoon break, we began “the hike”. Tim and Cory told us that we were going to hike up a mountain and have dinner at the top and that it would take about an hour to get there. I think many of us assumed that this would be a nice walk up a hill, just a high hill. Well, we hiked, and I mean hiked up this ski mountain that takes 3 chair lifts to get to the top of. It’s probably about 5,000 feet high, just under a mile. After the first 10 minutes of sweating profusely and breathing heavy, we realized what we got ourselves into. We made it up the mountain in just over an hour and there was a spectacular view of the city from the top. Maribor isn’t a huge city, but it was still great to view from above. The dinner we had was like a home made dinner, lots of extra servings. The hike down was much quicker, even as many girls decided to take the lift down.

Team Photo after lunch on the Pohorje

View from the top (Maribor)

After the hike, we were quite tired and had no plans for the night. Munger arrived around 6pm and she was pretty hungry from her long travels, so we went to eat at Padrino’s again and met a number of the girls there as well. This night was our first low-key night. Most of the girls emailed, called home, did some laundry in the sinks, and just relaxed. Spiderman 2 was playing at a local theater that a few girls went to later that night. It’s easy to do laundry here, but it takes a long time for the clothes to dry. If you walk into any of our rooms, you’ll find all sorts of clothes hanging from hangers on the walls and windows trying to dry. It was nice to finally have a night to rest and relax.

Monday morning we had practice again from 10 to 12, now with 14 players. Finally we are filling out our positions better with more hitters. Cory set up some game-like situation drills to prepare us for the match at night. After practice we had a few hours to kill so we snacked and napped. Kristina and Kelsey were “shipped off” to Klagenfrut to train with a team there and for a possible tryout. It was sad to see them leave, but we’ll meet up with them on Wednesday. The team met at 4pm, again at Padrino’s for pizza and pasta. Leaving dinner, we drove to Lennart for our match. We arrived a few hours early because Cory had a dentist appointment, so we had an hour and a half to experience this small city about 20 minutes outside of Maribor. It took about 8 minutes to experience that city, so we ended up sitting at a little café drinking cappuccinos. The time finally came to play our first match. When we walked in, their team was practicing. It’s much different than a normal match; they were all wearing different clothes like for practice. Some of the girls looked much older, and some seemed much younger than us. We quickly peppered and than had shared hitting and serving. Our team was pretty psyched to start our first match after practicing for so many days, so we were ready for some competition.

The first set went back and forth the whole game; we ended up losing 23-25 with a few errors at the end. Coming back strong the second game, we won easily and showed them how we could really play. The third set we started off well and kept the lead for our first victory. Because we were back to 12 players, we had only 2 middles and 2 outsides. It’s hard with two outsides being gone and having such an overload of setters and liberos. We’re told it’s pretty common that players have to get use to playing different positions and getting thrown into different situations. I’m a setter and I played middle the third game. There were actually about 20 fans attending the game and some coaches from other teams. After the match was over, we ran some middle hitter drills for the coaches to look at some players that they liked and wanted to see more of. Showering quickly, all 12 girls walked to Bongo’s Club for fun and for Cory’s last night in Maribor. Tim actually called the club to get a DJ for the night because a Monday night in Maribor isn’t the most happening place. Dancing to some good American music and writing on the walls was fun and a great send-off to Cory who has shown us excellent times in Europe. We’re told that many teams in Europe play in cities like Maribor, so it’s a great experience to go out and see how well you can adapt here.

Tuesday morning we pushed practice up from 9-10:30. We worked on serving and serve receive mostly because that what wins matches. Being able to side out and get points on serve is really important. We also play tonight, so we weren’t pushed to jump as much. Having the afternoon off, it’s nice to nap and be able to catch up on whatever you need to do. It’s great having a computer with internet in the hotel, quite convenient and I’m sure a luxury. After a little relaxation time, Munger, Leah, Mac, Greta, Jill and I walked to downtown Maribor for some lunch. We took Tim’s recommendation on a restaurant called Ancora. Fortunately we had a waiter that spoke English, so ordering food was easy. The food was delicious. We walked around the downtown area for awhile, there are a lot of little shops with jewelry, hand bags, and lots of ice cream shops. Of course we stopped for ice cream and the man serving us realized that we spoke English and “turned on” his English by saying, “Good afternoon ladies, may I help you?” It was quite humorous.

The team met at 5:15pm and walked across the street to the gym for our match against a Maribor club team, Nova KBM Branik. This gym was more like an arena with lots of upstairs bleachers and seating. The match seemed more “real” because

the other team had uniforms with a libero, and we had a referee. We had plenty of time to warm up, shared hitting and serving. We started the match with lots of side outs back and forth, neither team taking control. Pulling out the first set 25-23 we were happy with the win but knew that we could perform much better and with a little more spark. All of our hitters did a wonderful job of adapting to different setters as well as playing different positions. We won the second set a little easier, lost the third very closely and came back and won the fourth set 25-22. Our team has great chemistry; everyone seems to get along, and we are able to play well with anyone on the court, at any position. The Maribor team had some strong players, but their setter was very young and we were able to take advantage of that.

Showering quickly back at the hotel, Tim and Jo drove us to a very “homey’ restaurant where we had an entire room to ourselves. The restaurant is on the top of a hill and has a great view of the city and the mountains. Food and drink were great and we had fun winding down the evening.

August Firesale, Austria (Klagenfurt, Salzburg, Innsbruck, and Feldkirch) August 11 to 14, 2004, by Amanda Purdy

Time to leave our Maribor home and move onto Austria. The original plan was to go straight to Klagenfurt, however, Tim has discovered that Christina’s missing bag is in Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia) so we will swing by the airport in our way to Austria. The airport stop was welcomed by most as Maribor was lacking in the souvenir department.

After a treacherous drive through and around the mountains we arrived at our hostel in Klagenfurt around 2pm. Here we were in rooms of six with three sets of bunk beds.

Cramped quarters in Klagenfurt

Greta and Mac ended up sharing a room with two random girls from somewhere
else. We met up with Christina and Kelsey, who had been training there for the
past two days, and did a bit of catching up. We heard of a lake to go swimming
at so some of us grabbed our bathing suits and walked to the "Wurthersee".
Tesha had to stay behind as she had to catch a train to Braunschweig, Germany
to go and train with Marcos’s team.

It cost 1.90 Euro to get into the beach but it was worth it. The water was
blue green, the Alps were in the background and the place was packed. Lots of
topless tanners and speedos to be seen. We picked one of the three piers and
went for a swim.

Swimming in the Worthersee in Klagenfurt, Austria

After 45 minutes or so we decided to go back to the hostel, eat at a local
Italian restaurant (more pizza) and get ready for our match against ATSC
Klagenfurt. After returning to the hostel we met our new tour/team member Angela
Tassone. The match started at 7pm with Christina and Kelsey playing for
Klagenfurt. We ended up losing 2-3. After the match we went out for food at the
same Italian place but we all avoided the pizza and went for some great pasta
dishes. We all called it an early night and hit the hay.

The next morning we got up for breakfast and some of us explored the local
shops. We grabbed some snacks, money and stamps and we were all then off to
Innsbruck. This time taking Kelsey and Christina with us and leaving Molly to
train with Klagenfurt. On the way to Innsbruck we took a detour up to Salzburg
– Mozart’s birthplace and where parts of The Sound of Music were filmed. We
ate a buffet lunch at a beautiful looking golf club. Ro and Christina learned
that they would be staying in Salzburg to train with the local team so we left
for Innsbruck, two girls short again.

Beautiful views in Salzburg, Austria

We arrived in Innsbruck about 25 minutes before we were supposed to play so
we had a quick change at our hotel and left for the gym. We played at a big
sports complex near where events were hosted at the ’64 and ’76 Winter
Olympics. We matched up against TI Innsbruck and beat them 3-2. After the match the
team took us out for dinner at a nice restaurant behind the main opera house
downtown. After a great meal and some interesting dessert we had a couple
hours to explore the downtown area. After not having access to email since we
left Maribor most of us were on a hunt for an internet café – we were all
unsuccessful. Anyway, it was the beginning of the orchestra season, we think, and
there were lots of Rolls Royce cars and fancy outfits around town that night.
However, for all of those who couldn’t take in the orchestra inside they
broadcasted the show on a big screen in the town square were people sat at little
cafes and on the ground to take in the music – it was a big event.

Just before we were all to meet up to go home a windstorm rolled in and out
streak of sunny days came to an end. However, the silver lining on that cloud
was that Tim had found a cheap internet café near the train station. We all
spent about half an hour catching up with friends and family until Tim decided
it was time to get back to the hotel. After getting slightly lost we found
our hotel and headed for bed.

As usual the morning came quick and we were off to Feldkirch, Austria. We
arrived around noon to our hostel, which is a 700 year old building. However,
they were well equipped with a key card door lock, alarm system, nice bathroom
and yeah, a computer.

Our 700 Year-Old Hostel in Feldkirch, Austria

After settling into our common sleeping area (yes, all of us in one room) we
decided to head into the town center (Feldkirch is not very big) and hang out
for a couple hours. We grabbed some food at the grocery store and ate
outside. We spent the rest of the time touring and shopping at tour new favorite
store, H&M.

Out Photog, Connie, in Feldkirch’s City Center

The rain hit just as we were headed back to the hostel so we all took good
long power nap before heading off to the gym for our match against SKK
Feldkirch. At the gym, prior to the match we were all entertained by the samurai
training that was going on in the gym and some witty Highland dancing, courtesy of Kelsey. The match was long as we took technical time outs at 8 and 16 points.
We ended up losing 3-1 and were all quite disappointed as we gave up some
big leads in two of the sets. Due to the later start and long match we were all
bummed about missing the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. We made it to
the restaurant just in time to see the Greece team walk into the stadium – so
if you have the ceremonies on tape, we would love to see them. We were again
treated to a great pasta meal in the town center and then headed back to the
hostel for a big sleep over party. Eventually everyone fell asleep despite a
number snorers.

Switzerland, August 14-15
By Greta Holmes

After Feldkirch we headed to Switzerland for our day off and to play a match the next night. On our way to Switzerland we stopped in the small country of Liechenstein for a little break. Some of the girls decided they would take a tour of Andy Warhol’s artwork at the National Museum and others decided they would take a journey around the city.

As we were wondering around the city a guy on his motorcycle tried to impress us by peeling out, as he was doing this his whole back wheel fell off. We wanted to help but he ran away to find some guys to help, so we just stood around and laughed. After that we all met up again and took off for Switzerland.

We arrived in Glarus in the afternoon and were taken to our bomb shelter. Actually it was a military base but it felt like a bomb shelter to us. We were all in one room with each other with 24 bunk beds all lined up for us. We were let go and could rest or do whatever. Kristina, Ro, Connie, and I decided we would take a little walk around the city to find a supermarket and a phone. While we were on our walk we couldn’t find a supermarket or phone so we told Ro to go ask this man in a BMW where the supermarket was. He told us to hop in since it was too far for us to walk. We were taken there and he waited while we shopped and he took us back to the other part of the city where we were staying. We walked to the train station for the phone and then headed back to the bomb shelter.

Tesha was coming back from visiting Braunschweig so a few of us girls took the car to the train station and picked her up. Then we headed off to Rapperswil to watch a beach volleyball tournament and to meet up with some of Tim’s friends from back when he used to play in Switzerland (Thanks Peter!). Wendy Hatlestad, a former Bring It USA tour player who is now playing in Glarus, came with us to hang out. It was great to hang out with her and talk about her experience over here so far. We hung out there for the night and talked to many of the players.

Our days in Rapperswil, Switzerland

The next day we had training for an hour, just so we could touch the ball. After practice, we headed back to the beach tournament to watch the finals. Some girls decided to take a swim and others decided to watch the games. Around 3 we headed back to Glarus for our game at 4.

This team has only been training a short while, and their star middle (former BIP Tour participant Debra Robertson) wasn’t playing due to a knee injury. We won all 5 games and actually had the best showing of the tour. All of our outsides were attacking great and we really played as a team. Having Tesha back really helped, and I think that she had about 20 blocks. Thanks to her, when the other teams wasn’t making errors, they were giving us balls we could handle and our offense flourished. We also had some strong serving all around to put pressure on their outsides.

After dinner we went out to eat on top of a mountain at the Obersee with Wendy, Debra, and their Finnish Coach, Marko. What great views. Thanks for taking us up there Marko! It was great again to be able to hang out with some current players (Debra also played last year) to learn a little what might be facing us if we get jobs.

Ro and Kelsey up at the Obersee

Then back to the bomb shelter for some much needed rest. The next we day we left in the morning for Germany.

Augsburg, Germany, August 16-17
By Kristina Matchett

We left Glarus early in the morning to get on our way to Germany. Our first stop was the Munich airport to drop off some girls and get some logistics set up. Amanda head to catch a flight up to meet with her new team in Norway, and Carol had to get a flight to France for a tryout. We also had meetings with Tim to figure out where we all were headed the next day because the tour was over. So we left the airport about 4 hours later with 2 less people.

After the airport we went to Augsburg to play our match. Their team only had four players since it was there first day of training so Kelsey and Jill played with them. We lost in four. And we played like crap. It was our least formal outing of the tour, and I think that we were starting to get a little tired. It was a shame to play so poorly the day after our best day, but we’ve learned that there are a lot of ups and downs travelling and playing on the road this way.

After the match we went to eat some Italian food with two girls from their team as well as their coach and manager. We were lucky to catch some Olympic volleyball on TV. It was the USA vs. Germany and fortunately the USA came back to win at the end.

Then it was back to the gym to sleep, but the room in which we were supposed to sleep was locked, so Tim and their coach went around the town to the fire station and the Red Cross to try and find us some mattresses. No luck. By this time it was 1:00am. They ended up finding an open hostel at the last minute so we went there to sleep till we had to be up at 8am for breakfast. After breakfast we packed up the vans and all went our separate ways. For those of us that were staying in the vans for the drive to Maribor it was a long day.

Maribor, August 18 to 21, and on
By Kelsey Kosick

After our long night of finding a hostel in Augsburg it was up early and time to all go our separate ways. Jenny and Jill were off to Spain for a little while. Tesha and Mac were heading to Prague by train for their flights home. Then there was Greta and Kristina making plans to travel Germany to see some old friends. Kelsey and Ro were heading back to Maribor with Tim to hook up a couple more tryouts. At the last minute Tim got a call from the club in Maribor informing him that the setter had been hospitalized so they needed a setter for a match or two. Suddenly Greta and Kristina’s plans had changed to a one way van ticket back to Slovenia with Ro and I. We dropped Connie and Angela in Salzburg on the way for their trains to Vienna and Venice.

The living arrangements in Maribor were all a blur to us, since at first Ro and I were to bunk at Tim’s for a few days, but now with four, not gonna happen. We arrived in Maribor after a nine hour trip back with all our stops. So we finally got back to Slovenia, not really knowing what our plans were. We ended up getting a sweet deal. Two of the ex-players here in Maribor left to play in Germany so they had a vacant flat, as they call it here. We were basically handed the keys and on our way to the super market to fill our fridge for some homemade meals. It is perfect four beds, nice little neighborhood, warm shower, close to city center, close to Bongo’s and our biggest bonus: A WASHING MACHINE! (Thanks Igor and the Nova KBM Branik Club!) After moving place to place, using sinks for washing, we were excited! No dryer but anything is a bonus! So we have a nice little nest going here, I got to be the chef last night and make some good chicken spaghetti good to get some familiar food in us!

So today we did some running around for my next tryout in Germany. I had to find and buy tickets which was kind of a hassle. Then we got a chance to train with the Maribor team. We tried to rent scooters to cruise around in but of course with our luck there weren’t any. We are all here for a few more days to watch Greta set for the Maribor team and train a little more. Hopefully things will all work out and we’ll get our contracts! Good bye from Maribor!

“Tryouts”

Tryouts are an integral part of the tour experience, and to better prepare future tour-goers for the idea of a personal (or group) tryout, we thought it would be beneficial to have some of this year’s tryouts documented

Klagenfurt Tryout (Kelsey and Kristina)
By Kelsey Kosick

Kristina and I were off for our first official tryout in Klagenfurt, Austria. The team needed an outside hitter so we were sent off from Maribor on a train. After a little difficulty finding the train we needed to be on, not realizing it was right in front of us, we were off. The coach picked us up about 20 minutes away from Klagenfurt so we got a nice scenic ride to the city. We had a about an hour to burn before our first practice so we sat by the lake, drank a coffee, and were informed about the club, the girls on the team, and the city. Then we were off to practice.

It was really interesting to experience a new style of European coaching. We did a lot of ball control games then right into game play. It was the girls first practice so it was short and to the point; just to get the feel of the game back.

Kristina and I were put up in a hostel for the few nights we were there. It was pretty nice, close to the lake and a lot of restaurants. The next morning we had training on the beach courts just down the road. We did a little circuit core training, then to a little mini two’s tournament. The beach courts we were on were used a few weeks ago for a FIVB tournament, so the sand was perfect. After the practice we had the afternoon off and practiced again at 7, so we took the time to catch up on our sleep.

The girls on the team were really nice. The coach explained the whole practice in German, which was a little confusing at first, but the girls were really good at trying to lead us in the right direction. Our American girls came the next day and it was good to get back together with them. Kristina and I played with the Austrian team so we got a little slack for that. The style of play was a lot different, very good ball control but a little different to get used to. After the game the coaches and all of us went out for Pizza. And that was our tryout.

Salzburg Tryout (Kristina and Ro)
By Rowena Morgan

On the way from Klagenfurt to Innsbruck Kristina and I were dropped in Salzburg for a trial. We met the coach of the team, and were taken to the training hall to have a look around before we started. We had about an hour to check out the complex and relax, and we found out that it was an excellent facility. It had everything from indoor athletics tracks with pole vault to gymnastics, rock climbing walls, tennis courts, pools, as well as been surrounded by mountains which made the whole place pretty amazing.

We met the girls in the team, who were quite young but spoke English well. Training was good, mostly ball control with some hitting and passing reps as the team had only started back that week.

From there we were taken to a youth hostel near the center of Salzburg were you could take The Sound of Music Tour, and it was also played every night. We got ready then made our way into the city for dinner. On the way we met another American who came and had dinner with us before he headed off to a Mozart Concert and we continued looking around the city. We found an Australian Bar for me, and then over to an American bar for Kristina where we were the only people in each.

throwing heaps further than us even though they were young and skinny so we felt a bit weak, until they all started laughing at us and we found out that our ball was about 5kgs heavier than everyone else’s. Nice.

That finished our trial so we were taken to the train station to meet up with the rest of the group again at Feldkirch. It took about 5 hours though beautiful countryside and we were picked up by Mac and Greta to continue with the tour.