Feb. 14, 2008

On Friday, February 8th, I was able to cross an item off my list of things to do: visit New York City. While I have been somewhat under-impressed with other "big cities", NYC more than impressed me! The shear size of the city amazed me in every sense of the word. When flying into New York on Friday night, I was overcome with a feeling I hadn't experienced in a long time. The only thing I can compare it to is trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve when I was a seven year old child. It was excitement and anticipation at the highest level.

This trip was also fun for me because I proudly adopted a new nickname. For whatever reason, I am a huge fan of nicknames and, in turn, have acquired many: from Electric L (that'd be my marine radio handle), to Lucky Louie (my ice fishing name), to Sweet Lou. Thanks to one of our teams biggest supporters, Kelly Keil's Uncle D, I can now be referred to as "Clark Kent." Yes, that's right, THE Clark Kent; journalist by trade, superhero by fate.

Our trip to New York City to play Fordham was a homecoming of sorts to two members of our team: Head Coach Jim Jabir and Assistant Coach Lesley Dickinson. I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to have our resident New Yorkers speak with you.

Head Coach Jim Jabir
I haven't been able to confirm it, but I assume that Coach Jabir was a pretty big deal in the streets of NYC back in the day. Fast forward to 2008 and Coach Jabir is now a successful collegiate coach. I had to know what it was like for him to go back to his old stomping grounds.
"I like to take my team to the city, even though we don't get enough time there. A couple of years ago we went to go play a non-conference game there and we went a day early. We went and saw a Broadway play and spent some time in Manhattan. I feel like it's a special place and I really do like taking my teams there. But once it's time to tip it off, it's like any other game."

Of course Coach Jabir had his own little cheering section at our game. A very entertaining group, show stopping, if you will.
"My cousin and his family were actually at the game. He basically has no control over his children at all. His son, who's about three or four, just walked across both benches, on the courts side in the middle of the game. The refs had to stop the game and they asked me whose kid that was and I had to admit `that's my cousin Ronny's kid' just one of the perks of playing in my hometown."

Coach Jabir, being the most experienced member of our team, always seems to be running into old friends wherever we go.
"First off, by `experienced' you must mean old. Something kind of funny, though, was that in our hotel my counterpart at Providence, the men's coach, was there, and the Villanova women's team, whose coach I'm also friends with, was there as well. It ended up being a homecoming weekend of sorts for us.

Assistant Coach Lesley Dickinson
This being Coach D's first year as a college coach, she hadn't yet been back home.
"It was really good. I wish it would have been a longer trip, but I got to stay at home Friday night. I didn't even get a home cooked meal though. I really wanted Popeye's! We also celebrated my birthday which was the other week. It was good to have my parents come to the game and see me on the sideline again."

While most of our flights go smoothly, the same can't be said for Coach D's experience on our flight into the city.
"When we on our descent, I'd been smelling this odor for awhile. And, you know, when you have odors it's an uncomfortable thing. I just thought it would pass. That maybe someone had passed gas and it would go away: but it didn't. I didn't say anything, Lou, because I thought it was you (we were sitting be each other on this flight). But then you noticed it and quickly claimed it wasn't you. Then Coach Jabir got into the conversation and we all came to the decision that it was coming from in front of Coach Jabir's seat: either Nikki (Oakland) or Kiki (Lund). To their credit, they were asleep and couldn't defend themselves."

As is the case with most historic coaches, Coach Jabir is known for his deep, in depth words of wisdom. We call these Jabirisms. Ok, to be honest, they're simply off-key, ridiculous comments that come out of nowhere and crack everyone up.
"My favorite Jabirism came at one of our practices and someone made a terrible pass that ended up in the first row. He went on to yell `There are innocent people sitting in the front row! We'll lose all our fans if we keep nailing them in the head with basketballs!'"

While I haven't interviewed everyone on the team, you've now heard from every position on the team: player, manager, trainer, communications, and coaches. I find this a perfect opportunity to make a statement which I hope you can now agree with: we have one of the greatest teams in the country. Of course, this statement extends past what happens on the hardwood itself.

Please join me next time as we venture to the frigid state of Massachusetts.