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#21
August 10th 2003 Slovenia

This is the first of I don’t know how many updates from the team KRKA and Slovenia. I have been here for about a week now and to let you know this is totally different than Minnesota. The people are great and my teammates are good players and even better people. One thing that I have noticed during my short stint of professional basketball is that everyone seems to understand the bullshit that you have to deal with. I am here trying out for a team in Slovenia called KRKA the defending Champion of Slovenia. KRKA is also in the Adriatic league as well as the Euroleague. This is good if I can make this team it will allow me to get more exposure to other teams. We will play the toughest teams in Europe as well as players like Ariel McDonald ETC. This team is trying me out for 5days and then they will decide if they want to keep me or not. The thing that I hate about this is that I came here out of the blue from a European agent that was told about me and really doesn’t understand my game. Hell I don’t even understand my game or even know how the hell that I do what I do with the lack of athletic ability that I have. So that is my biggest concern while trying out. I think that this team expects a player to come in here to dominate and dunk over guys. I am not that player that is why I am little concerned when the general manager gave me a ride the other day and basically said that I have to start doing my thing. I was thinking,” man I am doing my thing, I never stand out from a crowd but I get the job done at the end of the game.” I am not the prettiest player on the court but I bust my ass. So we will see if this team wants to sign me or not. I hate always having to prove myself everywhere I have to go. It seems that I always have this hurdle to get over in my basketball career. I wish that there would be a point in my life where I could just not worry about making a team or worry about being cut or released. That would be a dream come true. Everyone thinks that this professional basketball thing is peaches and cream but in reality it is not even close to what people think. Sure I get to travel the world playing the game that I have grown to love but always worrying if I am going to get paid, get released or even make the team really is tough. That is the price that I have to pay for not being the most athletic player in the world but what can I do. So here I sit seriously considering quitting the game that I have played all of my life and go back to school and pursue a master’s or minor in something. I will make that decision when the time comes and it will be a tough one.

Until then I will keep you all posted on what will be next in my journey of Europe.

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#22
Approved!

The last couple of months have been hectic not knowing what is going to be next for me. At one point I was heading over to Europe and a month later I was back in MN trying to figure out if I was going to quit or try playing somewhere. I had it in my mind that I was going to quit and go back to school since no one else was knocking on my door. That would have been a difficult decision but I am not going to wait around all my life waiting for someone to give me that chance. I love the game of basketball but not the point where life revolves around basketball. I still wanted to play but no one was there to give me that opportunity until Adelaide called. I was happy they called because the atmosphere there is like no other in Australia and I loved it last year. The problem was getting me under the salary cap and that proved to be a little difficult. Through talks with the team they informed that guys on the team were going to take pay cuts which shocked me because I never asked anyone to do that. So after a few weeks they had fit me under the cap but I still needed my working VISA to come into the country. The VISA took a lot longer than I or anyone expected which was a pain in the butt. I sat around MN for a month waiting to here back from the people in Washington DC without any word on how long it will take. Finally I get an email saying that I need to fill out more forms and send in my passport so it can get the VISA stamped on it. URGH! More stuff to do for this damn thing it was driving me nuts! So I did what they wanted and had everything on my end done and another email came to me saying that I needed the 36er’s to fax sponsorship approval to them proving that I have working contract. Well it turns out that the 36er’s can’t fax it to her because of some privacy act so I had to somehow get to a fax machine and fax it in myself just some more bumps in the road. It has been over a month and finally my VISA/passport is arriving on Monday. YES! I can’t wait to start playing again and most of all start enjoying the nice weather. I will be in Adelaide soo

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#23
Sluggish Start

A lot has happened since the last time that I had written in my journal some bad and some good. Three months ago I was seriously thinking of quitting basketball going back to school to start the rest of my life. I am glad that didn’t happen and I got given the opportunity that I needed and was looking for. I am having a great year as well as having fun playing in Australia for the second time around. I am currently 3rd in the league in scoring, second in rebounding and 1st in offensive rebounding. So I am very happy the way things are turning out although we could use some more “Win’s” in the second part of the season. Now that we have gotten things together off the court we are starting to get things rolling on the court.

The season didn’t start off the way a lot of people had expected but it is coming around. The season started with a couple of tough loses, some to teams that we should have beat but didn’t and some to teams that beat us out right. I didn’t get here until the 4th game of the year and our record was 0-3. I got into town right when the guys were on the road playing Brisbane; Brisbane’s very tough this year and we were not supposed to win that game but the guys played great pulling off a one point victory putting our record at 1-3. Beating Brisbane came at the perfect time giving us our first win before I got to play with the guys. I was excited to get on the court again after thinking that I was never going to play a professional game ever again. The first couple of days at practice were tough as hell since I was obviously not in game shape not far from it. My feet felt like they were in cement shoes as I was trying to run and my legs just didn’t want to move. The good thing is that I had a week to practice and get into some kind of shape before our game against New Zealand.
My first game was good as we got some revenge on New Zealand since getting beat by one point on the first game of the year beating them by 20 something. I still felt out of shape but was getting things back together. Our record was 2-3 and we were looking good going into a 4 or 5 game road trip so we thought. The win against New Zealand was good but our team was still scattered with off the court issues. Brett was only playing games with us because of the health of his little boy; Cat was expecting a baby and injuries also playing a huge roll. You could say that our minds were else where during the early part of the season which is understandable.

The road trip was tough as we lost all of our games that we could have and should have won. We were going into games just thinking that we were going to win against teams like Hunter Valley, Perth and the Tigers but it takes a lot more than thinking to win you actually have to play to win. We gave another team their first win of the season (Hunter Valley) losing to them by a slim margin. It didn’t feel good losing to this team especially when the other team has Michael Kingma was talks the most shit when his team is winning that doesn’t happen very often. Kingma looking like a science experiment blocked one of my shots at the end of the game and decided that he would get into my face and start screaming. I don’t mind a guy talking trash but he has to earn the right and to top it all off I almost past out because of his bad breath ha-ha. So much for the first game of the road trip we were supposed win. It wasn’t pretty from there as we kept losing extending our record to 2-8.
We had gone through the worst part of the year losing games and almost turning into a team who would start to excepting losing or happy with moral victories. The truth of the matter was that we were a team that had lost its focus and no one really knowing what roles to accept. A lot of people including myself were trying too hard to win trying to do it alone. When you try to do things by yourself you tend to try really hard but force things. You don’t ever realize this because you want the team to win so badly that you will do anything but when everyone does this chemistry fades. The season didn’t look to good after out home lose to West Sydney giving them all kinds of easy points and guys trying too hard. I wasn’t happy with the way that I was playing or the way the team was going at all. I knew that I had to try and change my game or we had to have a team meeting and get things straightened out. Then it happened, Cat called a team meeting one day after practice. I have never liked team meetings because you really don’t get much from it guys that want to say something negative or constructive are too scared to point the problem or the person out. Simply I am saying that no has the balls to tell another teammate what they need to be doing and how they are messing the team up. Cat really surprised me when he came out and stated pointing fingers at guys that should be pointed at. He basically did what he was supposed to do as a leader of this team. Guys responded and we have been on a winning streak ever since giving us some light into the playoff hunt.
Now we have things back together as a team and looking good winning games once again. With the addition of Derek Moore, Nash and Jacob coming back we should be able to contend for the title. By the time that everyone gets back and into gear we should be ready and rolling by the New Year’s Eve game against Hunter Valley. This is a good game to start off the New Year with a bang getting revenge.

I am enjoying myself a lot this year trying to enjoy the fine things that Australia has to offer. One of the things that I have always wanted to do was see and hold a koala. So I did some looking around and finally got some information on a wildlife park close to Adelaide that allowed people to hold then and take pictures. I had a friend up that week so we both went up to the wildlife park to see the koalas as well has kangaroos, dingo’s, tasmanian devils and many others that Australia has to offer. I had a great time and loved the Koalas even asking if I could have one as a pet but they told me that it is illegal to keep one as a pet?. I have done more this year than I did all last year when I was here. I figured that I might as well take time to do things since you never know when it all will come to an end.
I have also been doing well on the court as well giving that extra effort. I recently won player of the week for week 7 and then awarded with the Player of the Month for November. I was shocked to hear about the Player of the Month since I didn’t think that the NBL had that award plus I thought that Cat should have got it for his play during month.

It is weird how things play out in the game of life! A year ago I was just getting cut by the Liberty Giants making it the worst Christmas of my life thinking that ball was going to be over for this Minnesota kid. A few months ago things looking in the same direction first trying Europe not getting the opportunity, positive that I was going to hang up the shoes for good. I am now glad that I didn’t quit but there are so many stories of people who were on the verge of quitting or giving up and then life throws a curve changing all of it. I just find it fascinating how things work out for each person on their little road of life.

I will keep the journal updated more often now since I have settled down. Hope to see you all on New Years!

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#24
Rumble Down Under

It is the start of a new year and hopefully good things to come. The first part of the year has been really interesting with so many things happening. So I think I’m safe to say that everyone is excited for 2004 to start and leave 2003 in the past. We started the New Year with 4 games in 7 days starting on New Years night against the New Castle Hunter Pirates and end with the Liberty Giants in Melbourne. I don’t understand the NBL’s scheduling of games this year. For example we play 4 games in 7 days and then we go for a few weeks playing one game per week. I personally don’t like that but I am not the one that makes the decisions. The people that make decisions got to start off the New Year with a bang! Not only did we experience the worst loss in club history but we also happened to get ourselves into a little scuffle and a new addition that they won’t let play.
The first game of the year is a good draw for us as we play bottom dwellers the New Castle Hunter Pirates. Hunter beat us earlier this year for their first ever win in club history. We needed to win this game to start off the year good but also to get some revenge. It is hard to play a team like Hunter because they are the worst team in the league which makes them the hardest team to get motivated for. That was the problem that we had last time we came out flat and got burned. We didn’t want to do that once again or we would be in serious trouble of losing to them once again. Well I want to tell you that we came out hard and blew them out but that wasn’t the case. We came out very flat and played just good enough to win the game. We had never really felt threatened to lose the game but in the last quarter Hunter actually made our heart rates raise 100 beats. We managed to hold them off for the win tying the series at 1 game a piece. This game wasn’t the prettiest game to be apart of but we got the win and that is what counts in the end. Our next opponents are the Wollongong Hawks and it is easily said that they are one of the hottest and toughest teams in the NBL at the moment.

Going into the game against the Hawks we knew we would be up for a battle since beating them a month ago at the Distinctive Homes Dome. They are a very physical team that will and did get a lot of calls from the refs. The Hawks like to play a very physical type of basketball and that is what they played the night the 36er’s came to town. I personally have not played in such a physical game of ball since being in Australia it was like we were playing football and nothing was getting called. They like to come out of the gates hard to try to get the lead and intimidate you with their physical style. That is exactly what they did running all over us the whole game. We were without Captain Brett Maher with a pulled hamstring which was going to sideline him for 5 games or 2 weeks and Jason Williams with a shoulder injury. Without these two guys it hurts us and makes us small in the back court. Well without making too many excuses the game was a blowout and no it wasn’t us blowing them out it was the other way around. We had a broken a club record for getting beat by the most points (46). I had not felt more humiliated since I was in college losing to Michigan State on ESPN national TV by 36. The season didn’t start the way we wanted but we had to bounce back and get the series against the Liberty Giants.
The Giants are a team that is on the bubble of making the playoffs this year and needed to win the series against us in order to secure the season split over us. We had beaten then at home earlier in the year coming back in the final quarter to win by 10. I don’t think that they liked us beating them especially since I did really well against them scoring 36 and grabbing 14 boards. I was a little nervous coming into Melbourne for the first time to play my old team. I wasn’t sure how the fans would take me since I left. I was hoping that they would welcome me back since they were so supporting when I was there last year. The game started and the Giants must have watched the Wollongong game because they came out with physical full court pressure. That pressure was consistent all game long and it played a big roll. The game got a little ugly with some pushing and shoving between the two teams. The Giants played hard but sometimes they got a little to physical and were allowed to play as physical as they wanted. Cat didn’t appreciate the physical play by some of their players especially that of Marcus Wright. Marcus basically goes into game to spark the Giants and bring is physical game to upset the player that he is guarding. He did do that to Cat that night getting into him and being physical or some might say he is a cheap shot artist known to many in the league as a dirty type player. The game was tight until the fourth quarter while the game was close we ran out of gas since it was out 2 game in a row. We ran out of gas and the game had been lost but the war has just begun. Among the shacking of hands after the game Marcus and Cat ended up real close to each other resulting in an all out brawl. This was the first brawl that I had been apart of since I was a freshman in college. There was no reason for the fight but when you have that competitive instinct one can get a little rowdy. Once the fight had been cleared the NBL had announced that they were going to take a look at the tape to see if there should be some suspensions. The NBL decided that they would hold a tribunal on the day before the second rematch between the Giants and us. Cat was accused of fighting so was Marcus Wright and Rob Feaster and Mark Wright got something of the same. As it was held the commissioner asked everyone how they would plead everyone pleaded not guilty except for Cat. The tape shows everyone that was accused actually doing something but the only person that got fined was Cat, Marcus and Rob got off free and Mark Wright got a fine as well as both teams. Cat also had to serve a game suspension for his part in the fight.

The odds were against us going back to Melbourne for the rematch after the Rumble Down Under. We were without Cat, Brett and Jason but had high spirits and wanted to win this for them. Looking at the game from paper it would look as if we would get our asses kicked but that wasn’t the case. We came out as a team and everyone played a great game to come out with the victory that we needed to give us the season series over the Giants. With 2 wins and 2 losses to the New Year we were ready to take on the top team Brisbane.
Brisbane has changed a lot since last year as bottom feeders to top of the NBL ladder this year. They have talented 5 starters and a deep bench which makes them really tough to match up against. We had beaten them earlier this year by one point at their house and they wanted revenge. They came out gunning as we couldn’t stop Derek Rucker or Stephen Black. They would shot from anywhere on the court and it would always find the bottom of the net. They kept the pressure on and ended up giving us another pounding that hurts. Getting beat by 30 on the road is easier because you don’t have to face the humility of facing your fans. All that they ask of you is that you try your best and don’t get blown out. Well we didn’t come out hard enough and we sure did get blown out the water. Embarrassing!

The start of the New Year hasn’t been that great to us but it will get better as we get all of our players back. Oh yeah I almost forgot that we played Hunter this past weekend which gave us the season series against them putting our record 11-13 in 6th place. That is pretty much all that has been going on so far nothing too exciting but boring off the court. I hope that the next time that I enter in my journal I will have something else to talk about besides basketball…

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#25
Seasons End….

The season has ended with a hard fought loss to the Melbourne Tigers last Friday night March 5th. The loss ended a season that was up and down with many distractions on and off the court. This is my last journal talking about the 2003-04 season so I will try to make it good. I am not going to talk about specific games as many of you already know the outcome of them all and if you don’t know go to nbl.com and dig them up. For the most part the season was fun because of the kind of team that we have and the relationships that everyone forms. There is not one guy on this team that I would look at and say he is a prick. Getting along as a team is great but finishing 8th isn’t acceptable and there are going to be some changes to come for next year. I don’t know of any changes for sure but you would think that something has to change cause no one wants to see a losing team.

One guy I think that we need to go after is Derek Moore just because he would bring an athletic big man that can run the floor and shot the outside jumper. I did miss a player like Big Fella Paul Rees with his physical play and his fearless attitude to knock someone’s ass off if they came down the lane. Plus he would always pass me the ball when he got in trouble. It is difficult for a guy my size to guard players that are 2-5 inches taller and 15-25 kilos larger than me. Other than whining about who we didn’t have or what if situations we just let a lot of games slide this year with mental errors. There is a hand full of games that I thought we had but didn’t come to work for the full 48 minutes. We are the kind of team that can’t have many mental lapses or we will loss that edge. I just think that there are going to be some changes next year some for the better and some not so good. It will all come around sooner or later.

My plans for the off-season are to go home, relax and heal anything that is bothering me. I am going to run my series of basketball camps during the month of June in Northern MN. I also plan on trying to get on an NBA summer league team somewhere and give that a shot. I am realistic with trying to make the NBA, it won’t break my heart if no one will give me a shot but you will never know unless you try. I am not afraid of failing because you have to fail before you succeed. Its life’s little test to see if you are strong enough as a person to over come the obstacles. I think that I have been through a lot over the years since I was a little kid tearing up the courts of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. From day one I have had people telling me that I will get passed up by all the other kids by the time I got to high school. When I got to high school I had people telling me that I could not play at the highest college level, I DID! Now I have people telling me that I could never make it at any professional level in the world let alone the NBA, I WANT TO PROVE THEM WRONG! Just give me that chance!

I know many of you have emailed me asking if I am going to stay here in Adelaide. Well I can honestly tell you that I want to stay and play here but like I have stated before I need to get paid what I am worth. You may read this and think that I am greedy but I really am not. The reason that I am playing ball is so I can save money to help jump start my life when it is all over with. I did sit down the other day and had my meeting with the Coaches. They expressed that they would want me years to come but we have yet come to terms on the contract. I do hope that we can find something and agree on it very soon. I will keep you all posted when I hear something.
Well that is all that I can think of right now so I am going to go and watch the rest of the Timberwolves vs. Lakers game.

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#26
Last Couple of Months

It has been awhile since I last updated my journal and I’m sorry for that but it was extremely difficult to find internet connection for my laptop so I had to wait until I got home. I’ve had quite a few experiences since we lost our first round playoff games against the Tigers. I’ve been to Kuala Lumpur, Dubai (United Arab Emirates) in the last month playing for the Malaysian National Team. Once I was done with that I prepared for the long long trip back to Minnesota.

How the Coach for the Malaysian National team found me is beyond me but he is Australia (Brian Lester) and I believe from Adelaide. Actually Darren Ng’s Father was talking to Brian and recommended me as an import that would do a good job and not be cocky or hard to coach. Brian then contacted me right as I was scheduling my flight back to MN so just in time. I have been looking for an opportunity to play for a month or more since last year to earn extra money and then this came up. It gave me the opportunity to play against other teams from the Middle East such as Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Sharja and other teams such as Hong Kong, India. The teams were pretty good with good imports but our team was out of place. The reason I say that is because the Malaysian nature is passive and when it comes to sports you can’t be like that or you will get eaten alive. We didn’t do that bad as we were in most of the games until the end. The other import that we had was Scoot McGregor from West Sydney which was a nice addition helping us with a mobile 3 man that can step out and shoot the three. No matter what Scott or I could do we still lost 5 of 7 games. That was still better that they did the previous year so we felt good about that but as competitive as I am I still hated to lose.

Two weeks prior to the tourney we were in Kuala Lumpur practicing with MABA (Malaysian Amateur Basketball Association) getting ready for the tourney. Kuala Lumpur is a beautiful city and the people there are welcoming and very friendly. Scott and I stayed right in the middle of China Town at the Hotel Maylaya. I wouldn’t say it was anything close to a 5 star place but it did the trick for the 12 days that we were there. China town was very interesting with all the fake merchandise they were selling. Anything from underwear to DVD’s to hand bags to watches were being sold as they bargained with you. I was more worried about getting my pockets picked then buying something because it was so crowded. The one thing that I didn’t like about Kuala Lumpur is that there are a lot of homeless people around and in China Town rats, rats, rats, rats! I didn’t think that a rat could get as big as the animal we were seeing, looked like a small cat or possum. Overall I had a wonderful experience in Malaysia now it was time to go to the tourney in Dubai.

I have never been to Malaysia let alone the United Arab Emirates so I was a little worried about the safety conditions. Since there is war going on around that area I was a little skeptical of going but I was reassured that it was a wonderful place and far from the battles of Iraq. As we landed into Dubai the scenery was beautiful and no it wasn’t the desert I was looking at. The United Arab Emirates is one of the Wealthiest places on earth with its riches coming from the oil industry. This was one of the hottest places that I have ever been to and it was driving me nuts. I am used to winters with snow and ice not places that are so hot that you can’t handle it. This would pose to be a big problem for me as the weeks went on. They love there air conditioning over there and that is very understandable but when you got from 115 degree heat to 70 degree gym and then back to a cold hotel room something is bound to happen with your body. Well I am not used to going from one extreme to another and ended up getting the flu during the whole tourney. That disappointed me because I wanted to be at full strength to play at my best. I played all right but I was constantly coughing and weak. I ended up averaging around 27 and 16 which isn’t bad but I believe that I could have done a lot better.

After it was all over I was so ready to head back home to see my family friends. It has been a long 8 months since I last seen them so going back was going to be exciting. The thing that I wasn’t looking forward to was the flight from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur to LA to Minneapolis and then the 4 hour drive to my home town of Grand Rapids. OUCH! I know! Yes I did suck it up but I never liked that flight and never will but it does get easier every time you take it.

Now I am home relaxing visiting family and friends trying to get on a NBA summer league team. I also bought a house in Minneapolis and that was exciting to get my first home. I sit back get on the net to read what is going on with the 36er’s off-season moves or if we’re going to make any at all. I also have been getting a lot of emails about my camps and how they are going. Well to tell you the truth I had to cancel my camps in my home town because I low enrolment and that really disappointed me but I would have taken a loss and I couldn’t afford to do that. I am still waiting to see how my Virginia camp goes but it looks as if I will have to do the same. It is so hard to get the word out when you are out of the country but I guess that is the price that I will have to pay. I also forgot to mention that I went to the Gold Coast with some teammates and a friend from America. I will post some pictures up so you can see the fun that we had.

I hope that I can update more often as it will be easier for me and you. Until then have a good winter/summer.

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#27

Summer 2004

It just seemed like yesterday that I got off of that the plane from Australia. I arrived in Minnesota late May after playing with the Malaysian National Team in a tournament in the United Arab Emirates. Every since it has been very busy times for me here since I bought my house there has been a lot of money and hard work going into that. As you all know I tired to get on an NBA summer league but no one would allow me to play on their roster. It’s depressing that no one will give me a chance and that is all I want is a chance. Ever since the day that I was born people have been telling me that I can’t do this or I am not good enough to do that. Well just give me that chance and if I fail I fail and then I know that I wasn’t good enough to play at that level. If I don’t get that chance I will always have that “what if” in my head wondering if I had gotten the chance that I wanted what would have happened? It will always be a struggle for me to get a chance since I am not the type of player that will make you jump out of your seat. Instead I am the guy that everyone in the crowd wonders why I am out there since I can’t jump or doing anything athletic...Hahaha enough of wondering what if…

I was sad to hear that Martin Cattalini left us to go to Spain but can you blame him for that kind of money. I can’t and I sure understand it is to set him and his family up for awhile. With Cat leaving that allowed us to get some other guys to help fill the void in Willie and the Big Fella. It will be another interesting season in Adelaide and I am happy to be coming back for yet another season.

Well I must be going …..I will try to update more often.

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#28

Surgery repair, 2003 basketball camps to regular life and basketball are the topics of this summer recap. Well the summer didn’t start off the way that I would hope it would have. I found out in early May that the pain in my lower side of my stomach was not just your regular stomach ach it was a small tear in the muscle (hernia). Finding that out was not a big deal at the time since it was early May and I was on my parents insurance still, so I thought. It turns out that I was no longer on my parents insurance plan and had to find my own which made things a little more difficult that expected. Trying to find insurance is a pain in the butt with a lot of paper work to be filed. It took about a month to get things figured out and to be qualified for the right program that would take care of my surgery expenses. By this time it is June 2nd and my surgery is scheduled for June 6th a couple of weeks before my camp. I was told by my Doctor that it would be no more than 3-4 days before I could start running. I thought it sounded a little too quick to be back on my feet so I asked around. People thought that I was nuts thinking that I would be able to come back that quickly. So I planned for a week or so but it took about 2 ½ weeks before I could really start moving without any pain. By the time my first camp came up I was just starting to walk and I mean walk with a lot of pain. It was difficult to run my first girl’s camp in Virginia MN but since the turnout was a little low I could handle it.

This brings me to my first week of camps of the year in Virginia MN. I wasn’t expecting too many girls to show up and I was right only 5 girls arrived. At first I was a little scared thinking to myself how I am going to run a camp with only 5 girls. I would have to say that this camp was the funniest camp that I have been apart of. I think that the reason that I had so much fun was because the girls made it fun. They all could have said this sucks and left me there but they all stuck by us. It was a great week of camp, and I thought it would have been a bust. The girls worked hard and wanted to learn! That is all that you can ask from your campers and that is what we got. Girls from Virginia if you are reading this; thanks for a great first week of camps! You girls made Coach James and I look forward to the rest of the camps this summer and for years to come! Thanks!

Now my second week of camps had a better turn out and it was for boy’s grades 6-9. Again the turnout was a little better but not much and I think that most camps would have cancelled but I could not do that to these guys. We had about 10 boys show up for the Virginia Camp and it might not sound like a lot of kids for the average camp but it was double what we had the week before so we were pumped. Once again Virginia provided us with some great campers that wanted to learn and proved to have talent. Coach James and I had a blast with these kids because we got to know them. By the end of the week we had nick names down and knew what other sports they played Etc. We also got a lot of positive feedback from both Virginia Camps and plan on having them next year. I would also like to thank Chuck Klinker for making this all happen without him I would have not made that contact to get this all started. Thanks to the players for both girls and boys! We had a blast and hope that you all did too! See you next year.

Now that the Virginia Camp where over it was time to look forward to my bigger camps in Grand Rapids MN, which is my home town. The turn out for these camps was better which was expected since I was from the area and had help from my old High School Coach Dan Elhard. Coach Elhard made this whole opportunity happen very successful for me. The boy’s camp was first this time around and we got a good turnout for it comparing it to my Virginia Camp. We had about 30+ kids attend this week which was a huge jump from the weeks before. Again I was nervous wanting to give the kids a great camp experience and a good time. This was going to be a tough week for me and because I had to leave in the middle of it to go and workout in Chicago for some scouts. I didn’t know if parents would be mad that I had to leave but I made up for it when my friend Michael Bauer filled in for me when I left. I had a busy week and tried to make it the best camp that I could. You never know if the kids are having a good time or not but I know that I enjoyed this week. I would also like to thank Coach Dave Galovich from Crosby and Coach Ryan James from Simley for helping out. Overall we had some good talent at the camp and GR hoops looks promising and bright! Now that three weeks are over with we had just one more week left.

The final and last week of camps was here and it came quick! I guess when time flies you are having a good time and fun is what we had. I was really not sure what to expect from the girls camp since I only had 7 girls signed up but we had about 10 girls walk up so that was a big relief. Once again I was really nervous for this week for many reasons. I wanted to provide these girls with a positive camp that they will talk about for awhile. So I had to get on the phone to try and get some credible women athletes to speak. I know that when I was in camps the best parts were when guest speakers came to tell their story. I find other success stories interesting because everyone has a different road to the top but similar. What is so similar about them all is that everyone puts time and hard work into what they believe and want. That is exactly what these two girls did to reach their goals in basketball. Kim Toewe was the first to arrive at the camp and she had a very successful career at UMD. All of these girls have heard Kim speak before or know who she is but the story never changes. You need to be reminded that it takes a lot of hard work and I remember Kim always being at the YMCA with me and Eric Webb while growing up. The second student athlete was Corrin Von-Wald, University of Minnesota star. Kim, Corrin and I all have different paths to how we were successful but one thing was that we all spent hours in the gym working hard when out friends were out having fun. That is what you have to do to make it, it is not all glamour. Overall I had another great week of camp and am coming back again next year. Hopefully we can get a bigger turnout so I can get more Coaches and special guests.

That has been my summer so far and it has gone by so fast. It just seems like yesterday that I came back the country and now I am ready to leave again. I am planning to take a job in Slovenia and hope that goes well but you never know. Basketball is more than a game now days it is a business and way of life. You have to be on your toes at all times or you never know when things can get bad and you get released. I will keep all of you updated with my experiences. Until then, keep visiting D-Rych.com Pictures of the summer soon to come it is hard to update the site, I am so busy but I will do my best.

 

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# 29
Pre-Season 2004 NBL Blitz

Once again I have been slack in updating the journal on D-Rych.com but since the day that I arrived on Aug 16th, 2004 I have been super busy and really no time to sit down at my computer. Plus I didn’t get cable internet until 2 weeks ago and I am like a lost puppy when I don’t have the net. We have been traveling all over the place during the last couple of weeks first by going to Port Lincoln then New Zealand, Cairns for the NBL Blitz and our last pre-season destination is Cadena. (I don’t know where this place is and I surely don’t know how to spell it)

We started off the pre-season by heading to Port Lincoln a small South Australian Country town that is famous for its seafood industry. It is a great town and reminded me of the town that I grew up in not for the seafood but for its community. The people of Port Lincoln really showed us a great time and treated us very well. They took us deep sea fishing, shark exploring and provided us with entertainment and some of the finest seafood that I have ever had. One of the funniest things was on during the week as a few of us ventured out on the town for a look at the local talent during karaoke night at the local tavern. We weren’t there very long but it started out good with a couple of ladies really singing their hearts out and sounded good while doing it then these two guys went up there. They were so wasted that they not only were horrible singers but couldn’t even read the screen let along keep up. It made me feel like I was a singing super start and could go up there all-night long. For those of you that know me and have heard me sing it isn’t a pretty at all. We had a good laugh at that and then headed back to out apartments on the marina. I thought it was good to get away from the city and go somewhere as a team to get away from any distractions and to get to know some of the new faces better. Yes we did play some basketball while we were there also having a few practices and then an inter-squad scrimmage Saturday night. Some of the activities that we did was go deep sea fishing but there wasn’t much fish catching going on. I think the whole time we were out at seas we caught 5 fish and they weren’t keepers by any means. The real even that everyone was waiting for was the shark adventure. We were supposed to be able to take a shark cage out but some of the boats that were going to take us out bailed on us so we had to take all of us on two boats. Since all of us were on one boat that meant it was too many of us to take the shark cages out. That was disappointing because we all see the shark cages on the discovery channel and want to see these huge great whites up close. One thing is for certain basketball players don’t have sea legs or stomachs because once we were out at seas most of us felt sick and other were throwing up over the side of the boat. Darren NG went from a light brown color to turning yellow it was pretty funny but I felt bad for the guys. Nick Hambour also was one of the few that were hanging over the boat to feed the sharks as well... ha-ha We did eventually see two sharks and that was a pretty awesome site since the closed I have ever come was the discovery channel. Overall it was a great weekend and I had a lot of fun meeting the community of Port Lincoln.

Our next trip was for New Zealand playing at their new stadium which I have to say is pretty impressive. They have a brand new facility with everything they need in one area. The teams were Wollongong, Adelaide, Hunter and New Zealand. All of those teams are looking stronger especially Wollongong and New Zealand just with their presence of big men. I do have to say after that weekend in New Zealand I was getting really nervous because we dropped three games and lost them pretty badly. Not getting blown out by 30 or anything but it just seemed as if we didn’t and couldn’t get anything working right as a team. Our defense was slack and we weren’t moving as a team on offence which made it difficult to score. It was just getting frustrating when nothing you do works and then you start to think what the hell is wrong. Is it me or what is going on here even more frustrating when you can’t do anything about it. During this week I was thinking to myself damn this is going to be along season but luckily we had some more time to get to work on things as a team and throw in some more offensive sets. The new sets really opened the court up for us as we entered the NBL Blitz in Cairns.

I think if you had asked most of the guys on the team going into the Blitz on how our chances were 99% would have said we would be lucky to win one game. I don’t think many of us were too confident after out performance in New Zealand a few days earlier. We started the blitz out by playing Perth beating them by a good margin. The Tigers were our second game as it sure didn’t look good at the start of that game as we went down by as many as 14. Being down by 14 isn’t that much but when you are only playing a 24 minute game it is like being down by 28 points. Somehow we clawed out way out of that and beat the Tigers by 5. Reaching our last game of the day we were up against the Hunter Pirates. This team is going to cause us some problems because they are a team of guys that just want to prove that they belong in the league. They work extremely hard and work well as a team. Hunter got the best of us this game but it really didn’t matter because we already were in the next round of games with a 2-1 record. Sunday was tough because we were all a little sore from the previous day and knowing that we had a full day of travel ahead of us. We started the day playing West Sydney at 9 in the morning which for the record I haven’t done since I was in middle school playing in 4 game a day tournaments. What was interesting about this game was West Sydney’s import is a guy name Nick Horvath who which played against me in the Minnesota High School league. I have known Nick for a few years now. Nick went on to Duke and played as their 6th – 8th man during his career. We ended up beating WS by 2 but I missed a lay-up with 4 seconds remaining and they got the rebound and had a chance to win but missed the three point attempt. The rest of the games went pretty good beating Townsville and then Sydney in the Grand Final. Overall this weekend was good for us to get out confidence up not only for us as players and coaches but for our fans as well.

The Blitz was and interesting event as I hope they continue to do this for years to come. You play against all of these guys but you really never get a chance to sit down and talk to them seeing how they are as individuals. I have to say that ever guy that I thought was a dick head is really a nice person. Some people have this image about them and you look at them thinking that they are jerks but you never get to talk to them. Well I had the chance to talk to many guys this weekend who I thought were rough but in reality were nice guys. The whole league in general is going in the direction that I think it wants. I just hope that Australia backs every team and comes out to see the games.

That is all for the moment.. The season starts soon come out and cheer us on!

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#30
5 Games down and plenty more to go 2004-05

The 2004/05 season has finally kicked off and we are 5 games into this beautiful year. We have had tough games against the Crocs (2), Breakers(2) and Pirates. All of the games have been pretty close and exciting games for us to win. We started out in NZ to Townsville then finishing up at home with 4 straight until we move on Sydney Nov 3rd.

The pre-season for us was a really tough one because we were all over the Nation getting ready for the upcoming season. So when we found out that we were going to play the Breakers at their place the first game of the year and then to Townsville for their first we all knew that it would be tough. First games of the year home teams really make it incredibly tough for the visiting team because of the adrenaline and excitement for the upcoming season. Going into New Zealand for the second straight year for the first game was important for us as well. Last year we lost this game by one point and that really started our season off on a bad note. New Zealand was going to be pumped for this game since they had brought in a few more players and were ready to prove that they could make the playoffs and be a force in the NBL. They just completed their brand new facility and the fans were energized for the first game of the year. First Fox game as well so you know that this would be a good stepping stone to show the league what you are all about. I know that I was feeling as pumped because it was my first game of the year and if you are not up for the first game of the year then it will be a long one. Luckily for us we came out the gate firing or at least I did. I think we had one pass and it didn’t even go around the perimeter once and I took it at the top of the key and let go a three pointer that hit nothing but net. I knew it was going to be a good night after that shot it felt so good like sweet music. We matched the intensity and excitement of New Zealand beating them on their home court by 12 points. This was a great win for us as we get to start the season over .500 for the first time since I have been in this league..lol Last year we had to come back for a 2-8 start and that isn’t fun at all so this was good to get revenge and start on a winning note.

Game two is against the Townsville Crocs in Townsville for their first home game of the year. Once again this game is going to be tough as any game of the year. The crocs have added some fire power and younger legs to the mix this year Brad Newley, John Rillie as well as two new imports. I have played against one of their imports in college in the NCAA Tournament in 1999. Casey Calvary played for the University of Gonzaga Bulldogs and we went head to head in 99. In that game I had 25 points and 18 boards as a red-shirt freshman for the University of Minnesota. For those of you that don’t know my story I was a walk-on at the U of M paying my own way to try and prove myself at that level. Many thought that I couldn’t play at the D-1 level let alone starting for the U of M. I worked my ass of for two years and this 1999 game was the game that I won a scholarship and the rest of my time at the U of M I was an all-conference player and three year starter. Not bad for a kid that no one thought would ever play more than 2 min a game for the U of M. What is ironic about this game is that Gonzaga’s head coach is Dan Monson whose dad Don Monson coached Adelaide in the early 90’s. It sure is a small world that we live and I met people all the time that some how have ties with the people back in Minnesota. Back to the game with the Crocs going into this game I was a little worried since this was out second game in a short time and we had to travel from NZ to Adelaide rest for 12 hours and then come back to Townsville. For those of your that don’t travel that much let me tell you that it takes a lot out of a person especially when you have to run around and play ball. You can sure feel it in your legs and fatigue sets in pretty fast. We didn’t start off the game well and went down by as many as 15 or so by halftime. We knew that if we were going to turn it around that we would have to come out in the 3rd with some energy or we would get beaten badly. To our credit we came back and locked the game up until the end. Back and forth the game went until the buzzer losing by a mere 3 points. This puts our record at 1-1 for the season leaving us with 4 straight games at the Distinctive Homes Dome.

Now is the time for out little home stretch of the season as we play one game a week for the whole month of October. This is great because with out pre-season and all the travel so far this season out team really needed this time at home and hopefully use it to catapult us with some much needed momentum for the season. Starting good is important to me and the team since we know what it is like to start slow and then have to claw back which isn’t fun at all! We start the 4 games with Townsville, Hunter, New Zealand and Cairns. If we can win these games it will give a nice buffer for the start of this season. The first game of the season for us at the Dome is always exciting but you still have to come and play. Sometimes you can get a little over excited and not play your game but this wasn’t the case for us. We have won 3 of the 4 games so far and have Cairns later this week before we move onto Sydney. I must admit that I feel that we will win every game that we enter and that confidence is team wide. Last year I would always think what team would show up and play. We were so inconsistent last year and you never knew what team was going to show up. Having that confidence this year has a lot to do with the addition of Rees and Cooper. This gives you the comfort that someone will be behind you to help out if you let you player get past you and it also gives you that shot blocker in Cooper.

I just hope that we can keep winning and prove that we will be on the best in the NBL this year. Saying this we need the best fans in the league to show up for the games. It looks empty in the Dome and it would be so much more energetic if we had a couple thousand screaming Sixer fans supporting us! I don’t know why the attendance is so low this year but I hope that you all come out and support us because from a player’s point of view it gives you that much more confidence knowing that everyone is behind you.

See ya at the dome! Bring that energy!

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# 31
The lesson that sport teaches you.

It has been awhile since I last updated my journal and yes it is because I have been lazy. I am sorry about that but what can you do when you have to choose between TV, naps or a hot sunny day? By the time that I check my emails and chat to friends and family on messenger services I am too tired to write in my journal or at least put some descent effort into it. So this time around I turned off my yahoo, msn and emails for now just so I can bring you something worth a read or maybe a laugh. I think that the last time that I logged in we were 5-1 and rolling along just fine but have recently hit a little bump in the road. We are currently 7-4 coming off a close win against the Perth Wildcats at home 95-93.

The thing that I want to talk about first off is not our record but sport in general. Most people love sport and have played sport in their lives. I think that sport helps us deal with real life situations and makes you or breaks you. The reason that I am thinking of this is because when we lose it feels like the end of the world and nothing goes right or feels right. I am a person that is hard on me after we lose or I play a bad game. Recently on our losing streak I played two bad games or at least I thought they were bad and felt like quitting. I know quitting is giving up but over that two week period nothing was going right for me. I wasn’t winning in practice, I wasn’t winning in games and nothing seemed to go right for me. It brings me back to the days in college during my first couple of months with the University of Minnesota Gophers as a skinny freshman from Grand Rapids, Minnesota. I remember calling home to my parents telling them that I was going to quit because nothing was going right and I felt out of place. They pretty told me not to quit and it was going to get better well I didn’t think it would but it was the best decision I made. This is a totally different situation but it never stops to amaze me how sport keeps challenging me. Like life there are going to be a lot of ups and downs but that is what practice is for to help prevent such high ups or such low downs. Well I really don’t know if that made any sense to you but it made sense to me.

I just have a question for all of you supporters out there is it me or does no one give us any credit? I mean we never get mentioned in articles on the NBL website, no individual honors or monthly honors, nothing. Surely Brett or Willie deserve player of the week or month honors but not even a mention for either one of those two. I don’t get it at all and probably will never get it or maybe I am bias you tell me. Enough of me whining about something that I cant control sorry. So far the season has been dominated by the home teams around the league. Teams don’t seem to win on the road and dominate at home. I feel that if we can go at least 500 on the road we will be ok and hold home court. The crowds have started to pick up a little at the dome but I still wish that we could get some more people out to our games and cheer us on. I don’t think that people realize how much better it is there with a full crowd that is energized. That picks us up as players as well as fans giving us that extra boost that we need.

What about that brawl with the Pacers and Pistons?! Damn that was something else and I wish that I could have seen it live. I don’t know who to blame the players or the fans? Personally I don’t understand Artest for going into the stands like he did. Sure people say that fans give a lot of verbal abuse to the players but personally I have never heard a fan in my life say anything because I am so focused on the game. I wonder how many of those fans are going to file law suits and get rich from NBA players being stupid and not using their minds. All I know is that if I was that loaded I would hand cuff my hands in my pockets because no one is touching my money that I worked all my life to get. The fans are too blame also and what they did was uncalled for but it made for some great entertainment. Now if that was me I would have ran in the other direction and never looked back. What does a guy get out of going into the stands to beat on a kid that thought it would be funny to throw a beer at you? I don’t think I would want to lose my contract over a little beer that cost Artest 6 million. That beer must have been pretty damn good! Haha

Well I hope to have more later and more of the games. Next up is Melbourne at home.

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