Last Sunday Katy and I accepted a job with the Giessen 46ers in Giessen Germany, in the top league in Germany. This will be a huge opportunity for us. I am actually writing this post lying on my bed in Germany.
Last week after we lost our game at Knox Katy and I found out that we got this job for sure and that I might be able to get some time at home. Originally I thought I would have to leave stragith from Melbourne and fly to Frankfurt, but we found out Monday that I would be able to go home for a couple days. So, after finding that out on Monday we made the decision to fly home on Tuesday morning. It was a whirlwind night with trying to give the stuff back we borrowed from people, to packing and then finally cleaning. Even though I was only able to head back to Wisconsin for a couple days it was great.
I flew out yesterday on Air India and got in this morning. Katy is staying around back in Wisconsin until the 20th of September as she is in a wedding on the 19th, then she will fly out and meet me.
The flight was good-I had my own personal tv and it worked, unlike the United flight Katy and I flew on when we came back from Australia where the TV/movie system was broken and we had nothing to watch for the 13 hour flight back, except a world map that showed where we were along our journey.
My flight was good and somehow got in 1 hour early. I have heard of flights getting delayed, but you dont usually hear about early flights. It was nice. My coach picked me up and we had a 30 minute ride on the Autobahn from Frankfurt to Giessen. Because the apartment isnt ready yet I am staying in a hotel for the first week.
Today I met two of the guys from the team as we headed over to the gym where we will lift at this year and got a short lift in. The guys seemed pretty nice and speak pretty good english (from Serbia) although some of the things I said were tough to understand.
Then tonight I went to grab a bite to eat at the restaurant downstairs. The menu was all in german and the server didnt speak english, so I just pointed to something on the menu and smiled. To drink, I ordered water. (Because I didnt say still water I got mineral water-not the biggest fan, but I'll know next time). When my food came I was happy to see that I had picked well. I had three different pieces of meat with rice, green beans, and coliflower in a brown sauce. The meal was good. I could have eaten two more just like it but it was good. I wanted to get to the grocery store but everything is closed on Sunday here. There are no shops, no little cafes open, nothing open. The reason the restaurant was open is because it is attatched to the hotel, good thing otherwise I would have been starving. Then at the end of the meal I got this little bottle of yellow liquid. I tried a sip of it thinking it might be a fruit drink, or an after dinner sweet drink to help with your breath...wrong. It tasted like very strong booze. I put a little in my mouth and had to spit it out-nasty. I dont know what it was but I dont think I will try it again.
Now I am heading to bed as we have practice nice and early tomorrow morning.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Award
Link to article about rebounding award for the year:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=441&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=7c4aed84b7
Final against Knox
This past weekend was a tough game for us. We played our final game against our rival knox. From the start they were able to build a little bit of a lead that we just had trouble bouncing back from. In both the 3rd and 4th quarters we got the game back within 2 or 3 but just couldn't get over that hump. In the end they got us by about 15. It was a hard-fought game and it was a little dissapointing because I thought we were going to get it.
Link to story:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=440&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=ca80581bd6
Link to story:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=440&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=ca80581bd6
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Vanderbilt
This week on Tuesday Vanderbilt came to Kilsyth to play. They are out here doing a tour in Australia before they start school in a couple weeks and came to Kilsyth to play an exhibition game. While I didn't play as we have a final this weekend as didn't want to take the chance on injury, the game was still fun to watch and we had a pretty good crowd.Link to story about Vanderbilt's trip (where their head coach paid for the entire trip out of his own pocket) to Australia on ESPN:http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4391834&name=katz_andy
SEABL recognition
Link to interesting article about some recognition from SEABL:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=436&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=f327983937 Also, our roomate recieved SEABL Defensive Player of the Year: http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=439&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=6364188d79
Final Preview - Knox
Link to this weekend's final game against our rival Knox: http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=437&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=9ab4a81adf
Monday, August 10, 2009
Newspaper Story
Link to a story about the two of us in the La Crosse Tribune. http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2009/08/05/sports/00lead.txt
Saturday, August 8, 2009
One Down a Few More To Go
Preview for this weekend
This coming weekend we play our rival Knox in our second final. This should be a big game with a lot of people there. The game we had this past weekend, there wasn't quite as many people there as I thought there would have been for a finals game. But I do have to say that the people who made it to the game were very loud and made Kilsyth a good place to play Saturday night.
Last night we played our first finals game against Bendigo. It was a very physical match. Right from the beginning Bendigo came out hard and played pretty tough for the whole game. We came out from very strong right in the beginning and never really looked back. We had a couple guys who have some small injuries. Because we played pretty tough some of these guys were able to get some rest and didn't play a ton of minutes, so hopefully everyone will be available and ready to go for the big game this coming weekend. In the end we ended up winning by about 20 and it was a great way to finish off the last home game we will have this year.
This coming weekend we play our rival Knox in our second final. This should be a big game with a lot of people there. The game we had this past weekend, there wasn't quite as many people there as I thought there would have been for a finals game. But I do have to say that the people who made it to the game were very loud and made Kilsyth a good place to play Saturday night. I am not sure how many people Knox holds, a few thousand, but Kilsyth are only allocated 180 tickets. So, it should be a lively atmosphere full of a lot of Knox fans and an intense game.
Our First Final vs Bendigo this past weekend
Last night we played our first finals game against Bendigo. It was a very physical match. Right from the beginning Bendigo came out hard and played pretty tough for the whole game. We came out from very strong right in the beginning and never really looked back. We had a couple guys who have some small injuries. Because we played pretty tough some of these guys were able to get some rest and didn't play a ton of minutes, so hopefully everyone will be available and ready to go for the big game this coming weekend. In the end we ended up winning by about 20 and it was a great way to finish off the last home game we will have this year.Katy's coach retires
Katys coach decided that this year would be his last year, as has retired from coaching the SEABL women's team now that the season is finished.
Link to story:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=427&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=a0e5707bae
Link to story:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=427&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=a0e5707bae
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Finals game preview
Our finals game is this Saturday at 7:30 against Bendigo. We are hoping that there will be a lot of people there and it will be a good atmosphere to play in.
Link to preview:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=428&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=51618480ff
Link to preview:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=428&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=51618480ff
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Watch one of our games online
Not many of the games we play here are available to watch on the Internet and I don't think you can watch any live. However you can watch one of the games we played a week and half ago. Kilsyth vs Geelong.
http://courtlive.net/player/seabl.php?event=SEABL_M_20090718_GEELONG_KILSYTH&height=480&islive=false&stretching=exactfit
http://courtlive.net/player/seabl.php?event=SEABL_M_20090718_GEELONG_KILSYTH&height=480&islive=false&stretching=exactfit
Monday, August 3, 2009
Last weekend of the regular season
This weekend we had the last weekend of the regular season. Katy's team played their last game of the regular season on Saturday night. The men's team played Saturday night and then had their last game of the regular season on Sunday afternoon.
Saturday night the girls played at Kilsyth against Dandenong.
They beat Dandenong about 1.5 months ago by 20 or so. Dandenong however did not have all of their players. This time they did. They had one girl about 6'5" and three girls over 6'2", who are all good players. Katy's team played pretty hard but they only shot 18% in the first half. Because if it they got themselves into a little bit of a hole and just couldn't dig themselves out of it. Again I got to see the first half and Katy played quite well. She again played hard and had her hand on a lot of balls. She got some good playing time n this game as well. So it was fun to get to see her play. In the end they ended up losing by just over 20 points, so I was glad I got to see some of it as it turns out it was their last game.
For the girls to have made finals they either needed to win or have one of two other teams win. Because both teams they needed to win lost, Katy's team didn't make it. Its pretty sad but I think she is looking forward to being able to come to the men's game this weekend (which she would have had to miss if they would have had a game).
For the men's team, we won both of our games this weekend.
For both of the games we even had a couple guys who were out because of injuries, resting up for finals. So hopefully when they get back this weekend we will do even better. Saturday's game against the Northwest Tasmania Thunder was a battle for the full 48 and Sunday's game against the Ballarat Miners was a tough one as well. 
Sundays game was an emotional one for the other team as they had two guys from their team playing their last game at their home court. If they would have beaten us we would have played them the first round of the playoffs this Saturday. Since we beat them though we knocked them out and now play Bendigo.
We have beaten Bendigo twice so far this year so hopefully we will be able to add a third win, and get our first playoff game (a home game for us).
Link to the women's game:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=423&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=8035b4bdb8
Link to the men's game:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=422&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=87cacd4b03
Saturday night the girls played at Kilsyth against Dandenong.
They beat Dandenong about 1.5 months ago by 20 or so. Dandenong however did not have all of their players. This time they did. They had one girl about 6'5" and three girls over 6'2", who are all good players. Katy's team played pretty hard but they only shot 18% in the first half. Because if it they got themselves into a little bit of a hole and just couldn't dig themselves out of it. Again I got to see the first half and Katy played quite well. She again played hard and had her hand on a lot of balls. She got some good playing time n this game as well. So it was fun to get to see her play. In the end they ended up losing by just over 20 points, so I was glad I got to see some of it as it turns out it was their last game.For the girls to have made finals they either needed to win or have one of two other teams win. Because both teams they needed to win lost, Katy's team didn't make it. Its pretty sad but I think she is looking forward to being able to come to the men's game this weekend (which she would have had to miss if they would have had a game).
For the men's team, we won both of our games this weekend.
For both of the games we even had a couple guys who were out because of injuries, resting up for finals. So hopefully when they get back this weekend we will do even better. Saturday's game against the Northwest Tasmania Thunder was a battle for the full 48 and Sunday's game against the Ballarat Miners was a tough one as well. 
Sundays game was an emotional one for the other team as they had two guys from their team playing their last game at their home court. If they would have beaten us we would have played them the first round of the playoffs this Saturday. Since we beat them though we knocked them out and now play Bendigo.We have beaten Bendigo twice so far this year so hopefully we will be able to add a third win, and get our first playoff game (a home game for us).
Link to the women's game:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=423&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=8035b4bdb8
Link to the men's game:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=422&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=87cacd4b03
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