Game 2 @ Soest

I would first like to apologize for taking so long to put this post up. I was dead tired after the game and our internet is in and out all day everyday here. Hopefully it holds out long enough for me to finish this post.

So this was my first away game. We drive to games, no coach buses here just mercedes and bmws. Matt, Marko and I rode with the president in his Mercedes wagon to the game which was about an hour away. I had no idea what to expect referring to the gym we were playing in. Coach all week had been talking about how small it was but I was thinking like Macalester size for anyone who has been there.

Well, I walked into the gym and it was about the size of Reede Gray Elementary. No bleachers, nothing. Simply a row of chairs on each side of the court and two rows of benches on the baseline. The gym was packed probably with 100-200 people in this tiny space. Literally I would take one step off the court and be on someone's lap. I did actually end up on a few people's laps but I will get into that more later.

Another thing in Germany, there is no rules against what kind of noise makers you can bring to the game. Some of the students had like big drums that they were pounding the whole game. There was this one noise maker that was so annoying that I tried to get the ref to tell the kid to stop but the ref just shrugged (i think he was pretending he didn't understand english).

After a long warm-up (we warm-up for WAY WAY WAY too long) the game finally begun. The whole first quarter was a battle back and forth. They were making a bunch of garbage shots and I didn't really get into the game till at least half way through the quarter. In the second quarter we pulled away a bit and I think we went into halftime with a 9 or 10 point lead.

We simply couldn't put them away at the beginning of the second half and let them back into the game. We had to fight and scramble to keep our lead and it wasn't until the middle of the fourth quarter that we finally pulled away for good. We ended up winning by 13.

Tremaine had 17, Matt had 10, I had 33 (4 or 5 dunks). I think the rims were low in this gym too because everyone was dunking in warm-ups. Another difference about this league is that you can dunk in warm-ups. We have a few kids on our team that can really get up so they just show off during warm-ups.

Coach was still unhappy with the win because he wanted us to beat this team by 30. I guess in the paper they were talking trash about us and calling us 2nd class Americans and all this junk. I guess we just let the game do the talking.

Again after the game we did the crazy celebration with the few fans that traveled (with their drums) to the game. Our fans are really good and funny. I think I heard some USA chants coming from them at points during the game.

The best part of the day might actually have been the ride home. We rode home with one of the major sponsors of the team and he drives an AUDI. We drove 220 kilometers/hour on the autobon on the way home and made it home in like a half and hour. It probably took us about half the time to get home than it took us to get there.

All is pretty good here. During the game the blood blister that I had on my foot opened and the callous covering it tore off leaving about a silver dollar hole on the bottom of my foot. I saw the doc today and he put some stuff on it. I couldn't really walk sunday but I practiced today not really ever getting up to full speed but I should be ready to go by Saturday.

On Saturday we play Munster, which is one of the two teams wanting to move up to a higher league next season barring they win the league. You have to win the league to move up to a higher league. Coach has been talking about this game for about two weeks now and I am excited for it.

Also next weekend is Oktoberfest in Werne, so it will be interesting to see what that is all about.

I just want to thank everyone who leaves comments too. I read them and they are very much appreciated.

Wow that was long now its bedtime for me, its 12.44 in the morning here!
Trevor J.