26,000 Feet

Hi all,

So what are you up to right now?  I am writing this blog from 26,000 feet above the Earth.  This is one of the things I love about the USA, the convenience and ease of things!  I mean why wouldn't you have internet on a plane?  Most people are traveling for business anyway!  It only cost $9.95 and I probably didn't need to have internet, but what a novelty! 

A few years ago, well a lot of years ago, 1996, I went the Ben Franklin Museum in Philadelphia on 4th of July.  It has the only operating post office in the USA on 4 July.  So I madly wrote out a bunch of post cards, had them stamped 4 July and sent them home.  That was fun :-)  This kinda feels the same.  I think most Australians would recognise this has a pure novelty....to be able to write a blog or email from a plane.

So we are on the way to Florida to play the Disney Classic.  Yes we will actually be playing on the grounds of Disney.  We play 5 games including one against Notre Dame.  They are a big school and that should prove to be a tough game. We look forward to the challenge.  Then we are back to Farmville at 2am Tuesday morning and then have a game in the afternoon and then off to Hawaii on Wednesday for 8 games.  Whilst in Hawaii I will get to go to Pearl Harbour which I am absolutely thrilled about.  Apparently most of the girls want to go to the beach instead, so the trainer Jenna, Director of softball Amy and I will most likely go.

We play a couple of interesting games in Hawaii.  Playing Hawaii itself will be interesting as they have a girl from NSW pitching for them.  I saw her in our summer at home.  She is very good and left handed.  Speaking of which we have 4 pitchers and 3 are lefties...it is rare to see a lefty all season normally so to have 3 on a team is pretty rare and special.  The other team we play is a school team from Japan.  So that will be fun :-)

So our schedule for this week has been very busy.  Sunday we played 2 games and won both so the team currently has a record of 8-0.  Then Monday we trained for about 9 hours.  Coach Riley scheduled each hitter in 1 hr slots from 0730 until 3 and then we worked with the pitchers from 3 until 5.  It rained so we had to pitch indoors on the basketball court.  I was throwing riseballs and broke some panel off the wall...opps.  Then Tuesday we had off, but the school put on a lovely lunch for the international scholars (includes me) and an intern from France.  The scholars include a Psychologist from Ireland, a Chinese teacher from China, an accounting teacher from China, and another lecturer from Turkey.  The lunch was with the President and Vice president of the school as well as the two members of the international studies office...All great people.  I was disappointed the lunch finished so early as I was thoroughly enjoying the conversation.  But a couple of us traded information and will be catching up again in our spare time which will be nice.  The yesterday we practiced all day again...same deal with the hitting and then the pitching again.

So a word on the set up for student athletes.  This is how we refer to them.  Not athletes but student athletes with the emphasis on 'student'.  There has been a lot of shinanigans in the past with athletes being paid and having others do their work for them etc, so a lot of rules have been put in place.  The NCAA rule book is in fact a couple of hundred pages long!  I have to do the recruiting test so that I am qualified to recruit if necessary. Lots of rules there about when you can approach players etc.  As we are traveling, some of the girls will miss classes and it is actually up to Coach Riley to approach the lecturers and get clearances for the girls.  The girls also have to study whilst traveling as well as take tests prior to traveling if there is one scheduled while away.  They also must have study time while away and this must be supervised by a coach, its called study hall.  Whilst in Hawaii, one of the girls must find 8 hours of supervised study hall as dictated by one of her lecturers as an example.  There are also rules about not playing if your GPA (grade point avaerage) is not high enough etc etc.  Each school employs one person just to keep ahead of the NCAA compliance for student athletes as well as employing a 'counsellor' to ensure the kids are studying and staying ahead as well as teaching life skills and helping them with any problems they may have.

Lastly, I now have a bunch of Longwood Lancers athletic apparel. It is all Adidas gear so I am very happy about that.  Traveling as we are is all very professional.  We all wear team gear so we are recognised as being from Longwood.

Anyway I feel the plane beginning its decent so I must sign off.

I look forward to getting back to you again soon.

D