Pre-Season Part 4

Well another day, another Zlotych (Polish currency)! Our record is now 5-3 after the last tournament. We opened the tournament with a poor showing against a team we had already beaten in the pre-season. But we followed that loss up with a great win in our second game and a rather convincing 30 point win against the team we open the season with. I am still trying to find my groove but after these last to games I have gained some confidence and I'm looking to build on it. We travel to Poznan this weekend for another tournament. We'll play Friday and Saturday against 2 Polish teams and end with a match against a Czech Republic team on Sunday. This is our last tournament before the season starts. I'm hoping we end with a bang because we only have 2 more exhibition games after this and then the games start counting.

Robyn if you ever read this I am going to post your graduation pictures soon. Until next time. Love

"Enjoy the Journey"
Love
Bud

Pre-Season Part 3

Were sitting at 3-2 right now in pre-season play. Although practices have been long and tough time seems to be flying by. I've been here for almost 2 months now, training rigoriously, eating well, enjoying my time in the small village and skyping with Lele & family.

Since my last post we've played 2 games. Won one and lost one. Both games were winnable and both we had double digit leads in. I did not play as well as I'd liked in the first game. I struggled a little bit defensively and I missed the game winning shot with 22 seconds left that would have put us up 1 but they end up winning by 3. In the 2nd game I did a little better. We watched film of our loss and I spoke with coach about my play and the teams play, made some adjustments and I had a better understanding of what coach wanted me to do on the floor. Granted the team wasn't as talented as the first, we bounced back and got the W. We travel this weekend to Rewal in northern Poland on the coast of the Baltic Sea about 4 and half hours away. We'll play 3 games all against teams in our league. The last team we play is who we open the season with on October 10th. I hope we can walk away from this tournament with 3 more wins under our belt. I'll let you now how goes when I get back.

Enough basketball talk for now. One of my closest friends Jason "Carp" Carpenter arrived here a few days ago and man it is sure good to see him. He's on is Euro Adventure and my apartment in Poland is his homebase. He has only been here 2 nights and has already left for Munich, Germany to attend the much haileded Oktoberfest. I sure wish I could be apart of this experience. He's meeting up with a couple of my Santa Clara friends, they'll be doing the tent hopping and a castle tour. I'm looking forward to hearing about all the stories when he returns.

I just got off the phone with my nephew and he has his third game of the season tonight against Anderson. We leave for the tournament tomorrow morning at 8:20am so I'll be up at 6am to skype with him so I can get all the highlights. Good Luck Baboon ! Play hard and have fun.

On an ending note, I think we have finally finalized my sister and Lele's trip out here. They will make their appearance in late December just after Christmas. Carp will be here for 3 months and then the girls will show up after. I love it! I miss you guys and I hope all is well. Until next time. Love

"Enjoy the Journey"
Love
Bud

Being bored....

Blogging just to blog tonight. I just finished a killer dinner that consisted of chicken, broccoli and Potatoes. Now I'm at cafe Aruba across from my apartment with one of my teammates having dessert and trying to watch some Eurobasket 2009 action streamed over the Internet. It didn't work so back to facebooking lol. It's nice getting out of the apartment every now and again to change the scenery. You get so caught up in the routine that it's nice to do something different. I was talking with Lele the other day and realized that I spend 6-7 hours a day in the gym and relatively the same on the computer. Life of a Polish basketball isn't all it's cracked up to be but it beats sitting in a cubicle all day for now. I just started started skyping with my boy Spoon who is stationed in Honduras right now with the military. He just got back from El Salvador and judging from the pictures it was an experience in itself. It's funny how we both try to stay up on current events back home. He said he's trying to catch up on the last 12 days of sports before he has to go back to work Friday. I just spent the last afternoon doing the same only the last 3 days though. Anyway, they're about to close up shop here and Ricky Martin just came on so I'm out of here. I love and miss you family. Uncle Erasmo if you read this lets skype soon. We've been playing tag. Until next time. LOVE

"Enjoy the Journey"
Love
Bud

Pre-Season Part 2

This one is going to be short and sweet. We fell to 2-2 in the pre-season with an 75-76 overtime loss to PBS Bank Poznan. They're in our league so hopefully we will get them when it counts. Each game so far I feel we have improved as a team in one category or another. I am still making slow strides to reach my point where I feel comfortable and able to help the team preform at it's highest level.

Our next game is saturday against Trefl Sopot. Another team in our league. The game will be open to the public and friday evening we have a meet and greet with fans at cafe Aruba. 'm looking forward to meeting the fans everyone tells me are extremely supportive of us. Wish us luck and I'll let you know how it goes. Until next time. Love

"Enjoy the Journey"
Love
Bud

Pre-Season

Let the games begin. We've played 3 of 13 pre-season games to go along with our 26 regular season games, which start October 10th by the way(write that down). The first 2 games were played against a team from Germany's Bundesglia called the New Yorker Phantoms. We split with them winning the first game by 10 and losing to them by 9 in the second match. Overall, we played decent I think it was just nice to be playing against some different competition. From an individual standpoint I still got a ways to go. I am still trying to get acclimated with my teammates and coaches but once I find that groove I think I will be able to contribute a lot. We played them in a town about 3 and half to 4 hours away from Starogard called Kolobrzeg. I don't think I mentioned that the transportation routes in Poland are not quite as advanced as some countries in Europe I've been. The bus ride was quite bumpy to and from Kolobrzeg. I could care less though we watched "Death Race" on the way home. The facilities we stayed at and played at were well kept. The gym was part of the hotel. In addition the facilities also included futbol fields, fitness center, swimming pool/water park and spa. In between games we had a little down time so myself, 2 of my teammates, Uros & Tony, walked down to the center of the town had hung out before our curfew. We returned home late on Wednesday night and we had until Saturday before our next exhibition game. The practices were hard and intense and defensive oriented because coach felt we lacked a little bit in that category the first 2 games. We ended up winning this game by 20.

Moving on though. My team website put up our profile pictures and no surprise here Mom did not approve. Might of been because they didn't mention to us that we were doing it and I hadn't shaved for about 3 weeks because I wanted to see if I could grow a beard (still can't). And according to the comments on my facebook profile pic neither did a lot of other people lol. What can I say, they did the best they could with the talent they had.

Lastly, I have to comment about my nephew's preformance this past week in his high school football debut. A forced fumble, fumble recovery, an interception and 2 touchdowns! Not a bad start to the career. There is only a few things pulling me away from being over here and one of them is not being able to sit in the stands and be there cheering him on. As much joy as I get out of hearing about it, I sure wish I could witness it. I love you dude. Keep playing hard and have fun.

Our next game is Tuesday. I'll let you know how it goes. Until then.... Love

"Enjoy the Journey"
Love
Bud

Media Day... Photo Shoot... Basketball?

Well not much has changed other than I'm a few kg lighter. Pre-season practices have been long and intense with a little conditioning mixed in there too. Since my last post we've had several practices and a couple of media plugs. Last week we took a bus, a really really small bus to Gdansk where our President set up a live interview with the sports network there that covers our region and our games during the season. It was a fun and interesting trip. Fun form the standpoint, we got to be on TV and tour around old town Gdansk which is where I plan to take my visitors from the states (Lele, Bobby & Carp here is a sneak peek). The interesting part was the beginning of the TV interview. We were asked to put on make up before we went on and I've done a few interviews before and have never had to do it but I figure why not might as well do it, it's all part of the experience anyway. After the interview we headed home.

This past week I had a full schedule. Monday morning we found out we were going to be shooting pictures for a calendar I believe with a gangsta theme. This was an experience all in itself. Something I've never done before but had a good time doing it. We shot in several locations around the village, each of us wearing and doing different poses. Lets just say modeling is not second nature to me and I'll stick to my day job. Mom I hope you enjoy the pictures.

On another note, we made friends with the owner of a cafe across the way from our apartment and he offered to bring us back KFC once a week because he picks up pies/cakes for his cafe and brings them back. The coach and the president told me when I arrived the community really backs the team and I think I am starting to get a feel for it. As the season nears I am becoming more and more excited to play a game. Next month we have a few tournaments so it will be nice to play up and down against some other competition. My body has been really sore as of late, especially my hamstrings but I can also feel that I am starting to get back into playing shape.

Well, that's all I got for you for now. I hope all is well back in the states. My nephew has his first high school football scrimmage today and I can't wait to here about it. Man I sure wish I could be there. Good Luck Baboon. Play Hard and have fun!

Love

Bud

"Enjoy the Journey"
Love
Bud

Let the Journey Begin...

Well, its been a while since my last blog so I have a lot to catch you up on but I won't get into to much detail. I had a great summer. I had the chance to see a lot of family and friends which I was extremely happy about. That's one of the greatest perks in my line of work is getting the summers off. The first month and a half I was back in the states I spent most of the time in Redding, but traveled to Arizona 2 times to visit family and attend Carp's graduation. The second month I spent in Santa Clara. I tried to begin training again but wasn't real consistent with that attempt. Had some teammates from Switzerland visit during this time and it was nice to show them everything I had told them about while we were playing. The third month I moved back to Redding to spend some more time with my family because during the middle of June I flew to Starogard Gdaski, Poland for a week long tryout. I later found out this would be my destination for the upcoming season so I wanted to get as much time in with them as possible. Which leads me to where I currently reside. I arrived here on August 4th to play for SKS Polpharma Pakmet-Starogard Gdanski (http://www.sportowa.com.pl/). When I arrived here I was greeted by the President of the club and the website operator/ Translator. We stopped at the Polpharma factory and the town square to take pictures for the team website. After that they showed me my new home away from home. A nice modern looking 1 bedroom flat. We then proceeded to the gym where the team was practicing. Luckily I had the night off, it's pretty tough after a 15 hour trip and the time change to jump right on the court. I was interviewed by a Polish Journalist at the gym and after that they took me back to my new home. I didn't have a chance o eat dinner the first night because the restaurant's slash pub below my apartment complex kitchen was closed. Bummer I was starving the next morning. Anyway, the first practices have gone decently well. They're introducing a lot to me right away. I have to be a good visual learner because everything is explained in Polish. I am one of two Americans on the team so I think this will be a challenge all season. Fortunately, broken or not, there is a few people who speak enough English to comprehend what is being said.

As for the town, it is a smaller town with a population around 50,000. I haven't had much of an opportunity to site see yet. I am still trying to get adjusted to the time change so I I've been sleeping during the day. But what I have seen so far of Starogard seems to be a little bit older and not as current as the towns of other countries I have visited. Not that I m disappointed because I open for anything to experience. It is all part of the journey. I am anxious to learn about the history of Poland and hopefully get a better idea of what eastern Europe is like. This situation seems a little more time consuming than what I was used to last year. I don't believe I will have the freedom I had last year to travel and some of that can attribute to my location last year and Switzerland being central Europe. Regardless, I am excited to be here playing a sport I love. I already miss my family, friends and America a ton. Hello to everyone back home and I look forward to skyping, emailing, facebooking, etc... with all of you soon. Please keep me updated on your lives. I love hearing about everything that's going on back there. Even though I might not ask I am always wondering. Until next time. LOVE

"Enjoy the Journey"
Love
Bud