Hey hey hey, Howard Little here. Monday was just another beautiful day in Cancun, Mexico!
After a great Bible study and team building exercise where we learned about each others' families Sunday night, we woke up at about 8:30 a.m. for breakfast. Like Sunday, great selections of food.
Our team met in the hotel lobby at 9:40 to depart to the gym. As we got on the bus, the bus driver and I did our signature handshake, and we were on our way.
When we got to the gym, right away you could tell the difference of the court on just how the lines were. Even the rims looked different. The floor felt great. We started practice with a team picture and used the rest of the time to review our game plan and get shots on the new rims.
Every year we have to initiate the freshmen, so when we have our extra shooting for 10 minutes and the clock hits zero, then no more shots should be taken or you have to run. Well as soon as the clock went to zero, everybody started passing the balls to Jay Jordan and Kevin Van Wijk, and they continued to shoot for a couple minutes.
There were several people there to watch our practice, and "ambassador" Brandon Wood went all around the gym to thank them for coming. At the end of practice, a lot of the kids came up and wanted pictures. So a group of us gathered together and took pictures with an eighth grade girls championship team, which will be appearing in the local paper here in Cancun.
As soon as we got back from the hotel, we were headed for the beach until our 3:30 meeting. I went into the pool to do some water aerobics. Some of the other guys were in the Gulf of Mexico. Some of my teammates saw me in the pool having fun so they joined. Cory Johnson, Kevin, Mike Rogers and myself played a big game of water volleyball and went 2 and 1.
I was able to relax in the lobby before our meeting to e-mail my parents to tell them about the activities that have been going on out here.
Coach Homer Drew went over our game plan for Monday and told us the starters for Monday's game at the 3:30 p.m. meeting.
Our trainer, Rod Moore, spent the rest of the afternoon getting Kevin (back) and Cam Witt (shoulder) ready to play with rehab. Thanks to him, we will be at full strength for the first game of the year!
I am excited to see how Jay Harris and Kevin do, but I also am looking forward to getting Hrvoje Vucic and Erik Buggs back out there after redshirt years. Coach has said Vuk is coming off his best two practices in a Valpo uniform, so I can't wait to see how he does Monday.
Well we are getting ready to leave for our game and very excited to play our first game against a local professional team.
Hope all is well back in Valpo!
Adios!
