Feb. 10, 2009
It is upon us... we are in the thick of the basketball season. On Friday Jan. 30, the Flyers left for Philadelphia to play Temple University, returned on Sunday evening, only to leave again in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday for St. Bonaventure. Philadelphia is one of my favorite trips and is where I so memorably chronicled my running up the Philadelphia Art Museum Steps, ala Rocky Balboa (Thoughts From The Road - Philadelphia, Jan. 22, 2008).
Sadly, though, I was unable to travel on either leg of this week's adventure. I was made even more disappointed after speaking with the girls upon their return. Somehow, I managed to miss one of the most eventful road trips we've had in the three years I've been in the program. And, because I wasn't there, I chose two players to detail to you some of the highlights. I give you sophomore Kristin Daugherty and freshman Staci Willis.
Kristin Daugherty
After our game against Temple, the team was treated to quite an interesting dinner.
We had a laughing contest at the dinner table, which was really funny. How it works is everyone starts fake laughing and as soon as you start really laughing, you're out. Staci (Willis), Puna (Aundrea Lindsey), and I were the final three. But, once everyone started looking at me, I lost. It's hard to fake laugh when everyone's really laughing at you. Staci ended up being the fake laugh champion. It was so much fun though!
The team flew to Philly via the Columbus airport, which meant they had to bus to and from Columbus. It's only an hour and half bus ride, what could go wrong, right?
On our way back to Dayton, we were driving along when all of a sudden it sounded like we were running out of gas right on 675. When we finally pulled over to the side of the road, we realized that we had actually lost a tire! We could see it sitting over in the median! While we were waiting there, though, people slowly starting getting off the bus to get fresh air. It started with four people, just throwing snowballs back and forth at each other; but it quickly turned into an upperclassmen verses freshmen snowball fight. Staci might have this different, but the upperclassmen won! We CLEARLY dominated!
We all know that pride comes on the court for these players, but what you might not know though, is that they take pride in other things as well.
I had borrowed Patrice's (Patrice Lalor) iPod Touch and it has a game where there's a marble that rolls around and you can't let it go into the hole. I played it for probably 45 minutes and I reached level 156 and scored 8 million points. I was very proud of myself! (sometimes it's the simple things in life...)
As you've probably noticed, we travel with quite an entertaining group of people. Sometimes it feels like it's a big circus. I want to know who Kristin thinks would MOST fit in with an actual traveling circus, though.
After this trip, I would have to say Staci! I found out she can pop her eyes out of her head! It's definitely shocking to see!
Staci Willis
Sometimes when we find ourselves with too much free time, crazy thing come up. Staci happened to tell me about a dinner experience they had in Philly.
We were showing the different skills that we have. They were trying to get Kayla (Moses) and I to rap, but I wasn't really trying to go that far and show them those skills. But what I did do is I popped my eyes out. I told my mom I wouldn't do it anymore, but they really wanted to see. They don't go out that far, but they definitely stick out. Coach Jabir told me a probably shouldn't ever do that again!
After hearing Kristin talk about the snowball fight, I had to see what Staci had to say.
"The freshmen won of course! De'Sarae (Chambers) was kind of on the fence, but she must have thrown a snowball at one of them, because I turned around and all I could see was De'Sarae's face in the snow! It was a ton of fun! I think the funniest part, though, was watching Coach Jabir stand and look at the place where the tire was (before it fell off) for like 10 minutes! Like he was going to fix it or something! Pretty funny!
Who does Staci think would fit in traveling with a circus?
Definitely Assistant Coach Kyle Rechlicz! That little arm thing that she did, being double jointed. Talent wise, she has the talent to join the circus!
Now you can see why I was so disappointed to have missed these trips! And, as an update, I did some research on the snowball fight and have determined that the freshmen definitely won! Check back to Louis and the Ladies as I spend Valentines Day weekend with the team in Cincinnati to play rival Xavier, where there will be no love in the air.
