Happy December!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Even thousands of miles from home, my American teammate and I managed to celebrate Thanksgiving in Slovakia!! A few weeks ago, we met an American missionary family in the local grocery store. They invited us to their house in Kezmarok (about 20 minutes from Poprad) for a Thanksgiving feast last Thursday. We were more than excited to have the opportunity to visit with an American family (who has been living in the area for over seven years!!), and have an American home cooked meal!! It was more delicious than we could have ever dreamed; an oven roasted turkey, homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (which are extremely hard to come by in Slovakia), corn, creamed corn, and even string bean casserole!! Not to mention all the homemade desserts (pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie!) Needless to say, it was a real treat for KJ and me to be able to spend this holiday with a great family eating wonderful food.

We have started our second round of games with a 3-0 record! We beat Slovan at home, and then earned a win at Cassovia Kosice this past weekend. They were both good wins for us, as we were without some players in each game. Against Slovan, we played without one of our team captains; she broke her nose against Roznava (the game before) and was forced to sit out from practices and the following game. She was cleared to play in the Cassovia game, however, our other American was out with a foot injury. This week we are back to full strength, and will face Maxima Broker at home on Sunday. Maxima Broker is currently number one in our league; they are a very strong team. But Poprad is always up for a challenge!! We have been playing solid basketball these past few games, and it is always nice to be at home. With just two games left before a month-long break, we are hoping to go out with a bang!!

This past weekend, we started our second round of games. Before our game this Saturday, we had played each team, one time. We will cycle back through the 8 team league again before playoffs begin in late February. We finished the first round with a record of 4-4, putting us in the middle of the pack.

Saturday’s game found us playing at Roznava- the team currently in last place. In this league however, you cannot underestimate anyone- especially when playing away! The first half was a back and forth battle; the score was tied at 39 after the first two quarters. We opened the 3rd quarter with a run, and held a solid 10 point lead most of the 2nd half. But trouble struck as the refs started calling the game a little closer; suddenly, with 5 minutes left to play, ALL three of our post players were fouled out! A minute later, one of our guards fouled out as well! This left us with five guards on the court- our team captain on the wing, me at the point, and three junior girls filling in the rest of the positions. The last 4 minutes were incredibly exciting, and filled with a few scares (some ill-timed turnovers, and more fouls…) as Roznava came within 6 points. With no subs left on the bench, we still managed to pull out the win- Poprad- 73, Roznava- 66. Phew!

Crazy as it sounds, we have just 4 more games before we break for the holidays!! We play the next 4 Saturdays, and will not have another game until the 21st of January! We are heading into these next four games with a positive attitude. Our next game versus Slovan is incredibly important for us. We are currently tied with them in the wins category, but lost to them in our first meeting. This time, we play them at our place, and I hope home court advantage comes into play!!

Chow for now!

Ahoy!! I’m sorry its taken a while to provide an update!! Playing two games a week with two practices a day ended up being VERY time consuming! We played five games in sixteen days- four of which were on the road. Unfortunately, we are currently 2-3. We started off the season with a solid win at home, and then won just one of the four away games. There certainly seems to be a home-court advantage in this league! Its always hard to play on the road- different gym, difficult fans, different referees, and long travel distances. This is why it is especially important to stay focused and ready during roadtrips. Our first away game was vs. Slovan Bratislava; a FIVE hour drive from Poprad. It was definitely hard to get our legs moving after such a long bus ride. It is something we will have to get used to though, as we travel to all our away games on the day of (instead of leaving the day before, and staying in a hotel to rest). Our following game against UKF Nitra was even more disappointing. We led by ten points going into the 4th quarter, and ended up losing at the buzzer. We played great basketball for 35 minutes, and let the game slip away in the final five minutes.

Being 2-3 is definitely not where we planned or wanted to be. However, we can take a lot of positives away from our games thus far. We have good shooters, and a strong inside presence on offense. We are great at switching up our defenses and throwing off our opponents. Although we lost to Nitra, they are currently 3rd in the league right now. We showed in this game that we can play with any team in this league.

From losses, you can also see the things you need to work on. We must improve our man-to-man team defense, and work on taking better care of the ball. We have a buy this weekend, so we have almost two weeks to prepare for our next game. With this much time, we can regroup, and really focus on these few things that can make us a better team. Our following game is against Presov- a team we played twice in pre-season and split in the win category. We will be on their home court, and will have to play a solid game to beat them there. I know our team is ready for the challenge!!

I wanted to say thanks to everyone for following Poprad basketball!! If you would like to see our website, please visit http://www.bkpoprad.sk/index.php?Doc=153 Unfortunately, the site is not in English, but there is a photo gallery and game updates in Slovak, if you speak the language!! Also, I want to congratulate all the girls I worked with this summer!! I have heard plenty of good news about the girls making their Select, AAU, and High School teams!! Keep working hard!

This past weekend, we returned from our trip to Hungary. It didn't end up being much of a tournament; all the teams canceled except for the host team, and us!! We drove 7 hours each way to play one team, two times. Despite our disappointment, the trip was definitely worthwhile. Our first afternoon there, we basically got off the bus and headed straight for the gym (it was pretty hard to get warmed up after driving for so LONG!!) It was a back and forth battle the whole game, and in the end we came up 4 points short.

The next morning, we had a team meeting about what we needed to work on to do better in our second match. We wanted to play a much stronger defense, and make better decisions in the fastbreak. Feeling really positive going into the game, we started off just awesome! We executed our defensive strategy, and played more together on offense. By halftime, we were up by 20. Everyone on the team got minutes, and produced on the court. It was great to see us working hard, and having fun at the same time.

Learning from these two games, we have been practicing hard all week preparing for our first league game on Sunday. We will face Roznava, a new team in the Slovakian league. We are definitely excited to get started!!

On our day off this week, KJ and I found our way to Spis Castle- the second largest castle in all of Europe!! It is located just 30 minutes outside of Poprad. It was a spectacular site! We hiked up the small hill it sits on, and walked around the twists and turns for hours! We had a great time taking pictures, and learning about the Slovakian culture.

Now its time to get focused and ready for our first game!! I'll be sure to post updates after every game!

First Few Weeks In Poprad

After a delay out of Seattle, a 9 hour layover in Chicago, and an hour delay on the tarmac before takeoff, I finally made it to Slovakia!! It has been an incredibly eventful first two weeks. Poprad--the place I will call home for the next 7 months--is a small town at the base of the High Tatras, a beautiful mountain range that borders Slovakia and Poland. I live with the other two Americans (KJ and Neek!!) in a small three bedroom flat a few minutes from our arena.

For the most part, we are still getting settled in. Besides practicing twice a day, we are learning our way around town and finding out what Poprad has to offer. This past weekend, we hosted a three game tournament. We went 2-1, beating two teams from our league to win the whole thing!! Our team played well together considering we had only practiced together for three days before the tournament. The coach and most of the girls speak GREAT English, which definitely helped.

On our first day off since arriving, our team visited AquaCity, Poprad’s biggest attraction. AquaCity is a large aquatic center that includes an Olympic size pool, various saunas and hot tubs, as well as water slides. We mostly went to relax so we spent our time in the menthol steam room, and the herbal sauna. It was incredibly rejuvenating, and a good way to start off another week of double days before we head to a tournament in Hungary. I’m EXCITED to get going!!