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May 24, 2008

Bok! (hello in Croatian) Finally, our long awaited journey has begun! After a rigorous training period for the last 9 days, filled with practices, workouts, trip preparations, packing (then repacking), and even language lessons(courtesy of Luna Rebrovic) we are finally heading out for our team's European trip.

We all know this trip will have its ups, downs, twists and turns, but the level of excitement was high as we head out to the airport early to catch our flights from New Orleans- Chicago-Munich-Zagreb. This trip will be a huge positive for us in so many ways. We will have amazing opportunities to bond as a team by travelling to experience new cultures and languages while training and competing against teams from an area in the world rich in volleyball tradition. It will be great to play different types of teams and players who have been reared in a very serious volleyball environment. This trip is uniquely special to this group because not only will it be an amazing adventure, it will be a homecoming of sorts for one of our coaches, Sinisa Momic and two of the girls, Luna Rebrovic and Sara Radosevic, who are all natives of Zagreb, Croatia. Ksenija Vlaskovic is also looking forward to going back as she hails from the neighboring country of Serbia. What a great treat it will be for the girls to be able to play in front of their friends and families, something that they have not been able to do for the last three years of their careers.

As the leader of this group, I have come to expect the unexpected and am confident in our problem solving abilities, but it was exactly one hour into our trip that our first "challenge/ opportunity for growth" presented itself. One hour! In the excitement to get the trip started, one of our players (who shall remain nameless, ahem, Bridget Wells) forgot to bring her passport with her to the airport. Luckily, at Coach Sinisa's urging, we left early enough for her to be able to place the frantic, "oh my gosh, I can't believe I might not get on this plane with my whole team, please help me" near tears - no, actually in tears, phone call to the first heroine of the trip, Rachel Waxler ... Bridget owes you big time!

After averting near disaster again in O'Hare, while Jen Linder and Jenn Miller were trying to board plane to Munich, we discovered that travelling with paper tickets is not cool anymore.

Our arrival in Zagreb was one of warmest, most memorable welcomes I have ever seen (really, Hallmark caliber, I promise) We had more excited, happy, Croatian and Serbian parents and relatives waiting for us that we had in our travel party! We were welcomed by Coach Sinisa's parents, Sara Radosevic's parents, Luna Rebrovic's parents and grandfather,and Ksenija Vlaskovic's parents. It was a frenzy of hugs, kisses, laughter, tears, and many photos, but most importantly, it was truly a great example of the family atmosphere that has come to be a tenet of this group and program. The genuine excitement was really a great testament to the kids and families associated with this program and for the handful of players who were making their first international trip, what a great way to be welcomed into a new country and culture.

This team is a pretty resilient group who enjoys a challenge, so their first task was to attempt to master the 7 hour time change and avoid the common effects of jet lag. So we knew we needed to keep the group active this first day. We left New Orleans on May 23rd at 10:30am and arrived in Zagreb the next day at 8:30am, it sounds a lot longer than it really was! We needed to make sure we didn't go to sleep until the evening, otherwise we would be falling asleep during timeouts during afternoon matches, and waking up in the middle of the night. Day one started with time to familiarize ourselves with our surroundings, unpack, and have our first experience of delicious Croatian food. We are staying at a hotel in Zagreb that commonly hosts sports teams that come into the city to compete (there are beach volleyball, judo, and soccer teams staying here too) so they were excellent at getting our requests met and setting up a sports buffet menu of food choices that I have to admit is excellent. My Croatian players have been bragging about the difference in Croatian food and American since the first day they arrived on campus, and I can honestly say Sara and Luna, you were right...Croatian food is excellent!

After lunch, Sinisa arranged for the team to view the VIP Open at Lake Jarun, a stop on the 2008 Swatch FIVB Beach World Tour. Given the rising popularity of the beach game in the US (even the consideration of fielding a collegiate beach team) seeing some of the world's best beach players was an excellent segue into the main purpose of the trip, volleyball! We arrived just in time to cheer on the team from the USA in the semifinals, Matt Fuerbringer and Casey Jennings. It was a great surprise for one of our players, Jen Miller, who played club ball in Long Beach and was coached by both Matt and his wife, Joy. The girls were very excited about being at the tournament, and left with all the standard giveaways. Miller introduced her teammates to the players. It was also fascinating to meet a lot of Coach Sinisa's former teammates and friends in the volleyball world. When you are as involved in the sport as long as he has been, you can't go to a volleyball event and not be recognized. I was teasing that "he was running for mayor", but its evident that his very well respected and rightfully so. We are planning on returning tomorrow to watch the bronze medal match and the finals.

Despite everyone's waning energy level, we took our first jaunt to the city center for a short walk after dinner, mostly in effort to keep going long enough to get a good solid night's rest. It is a beautiful and vibrant city that has this marvelous combination of old and new.

Day one finally came to a close around 10pm, when we bid each other good night and I have no doubt anyone will have trouble sleeping tonight. Tomorrow we are set to start training the next morning after breakfast (in Croatian, dorucak)

-Liz Kritza