How We Got Here

After winning the FIVB World Grand Prix and taking a week off to visit home, spend time with family and loved ones, vacation and generally recharge, we started up our training block on Sept. 6 with a different intensity. After winning Grand Prix, staff and players alike, felt we had played well throughout the tournament, but also knew we had only scratched the surface of how good this Team could really be. After two great weeks of practice, we all knew we had added small layers every day and were a better team than when the training block began and we were ready to head to Brazil to play four matches against one of the better teams in the world.

Getting to Brazil wasn’t the easiest accomplishment. We started at the American Sports Centers where we train at 10 a.m. and after a short 30-minute bus ride to LAX, we boarded our first flight to Miami. Four flights, 14 and a half hours in the air and over nine hours of layovers later, we arrived in Maringa, Brazil.

Maringa, Brazil

After arriving and dropping off our luggage, we met around the pool for a team stretch and active warm-up to the lovely theme music our hosts turned on to keep us entertained. After a much needed shower and dinner, it was time for our first sleep in over a day in a horizontal position.

Tuesday, September 21st

The team woke up at 8:30 and gathered in the restaurant downstairs for breakfast. At 9:45, we loaded in the bus and headed to a local gym to get a short workout in. I can only speak for the staff, but it felt great to move around and get a workout in after spending over a day traveling. I’m sure the athletes felt the same. We then returned home, refueled with lunch and two hours of rest and then reloaded the bus to head to practice.

The gym we are playing in has what seems like a 300-foot ceiling with a skylight at the very top. It reminds me of the Walter Pyramid at Long Beach State in that it completely disorients you when you look up. I almost fell over after the first down ball I hit. There was also a thin layer of dirt that was covering the court. For the athletes wearing white t-shirts to practice, that meant looking like a 5-year-old playing with a chocolate ice cream cone unattended by the time we were done with practice.

Practice went well and ended up being what every coach and players wants - put in hard work with both your mind and body and at the end, know that you are a better team than when practice started.

Tomorrow, we wake up and do it all over again.