Aug. 31, 2009

We woke up to a beautiful day in Jesolo. Low humidity, light winds and a clear sky.  Unfortunately we were leaving.

The top teams from Bassano del Grappa (Italy, Spain, Argentina and Tunisia) arrived for the top eight.  As they stepped off the bus, the USA, Brazil, Poland and Japan stepped on and began the two-hour drive inland to this beautiful town nestled close to a mountain range. After checking in to a very nice and very old hotel, we sat down to a four-course meal served by very professional waiters. Food is once again excellent; but whereas we were taking food (as much as we wanted) from a buffet line and eating with other hotel guests in Jesolo, here we are sitting down in padded arm chairs, very nice china, cloth napkins and being served from our right and cleared from our left. The dining table is in a very beautiful room and only the Puerto Rican team will be there with us. Very different.

We had a practice in our new competition hall. It is very nice as was the one in Jesolo. Several of the parents arrived right at the end of practice after driving (and getting lost) from Venice. They looked a bit frazzled and tired. The road signs and roundabouts can be quite demanding, especially after a tourist day in Venice. All we do is get on the bus and leave the driving to them. 

We had another technical meeting that Dr. Dyck, Andy and I went to. This one only took 26 minutes as we had already heard it all before. However this one was very intriguing as Brazil said they would ENCOURAGE the FIVB to look into ways of checking birth dates and being positive about players' ages and being legal for the youth and junior teams. There has been a lot of scuttlebutt going around about countries cheating and having players older than the 18 and under which is a requirement in the youth world championships. Several countries (including us) expressed concern about the matter and agreed with Brazil's recommendation. 

Two FIVB officials approached us after the meeting and apologized for the performance of Serbia yesterday in their loss to Iran, which sent us to Bassamo. Serbia needed to beat Iran for us to advance, but also needed to score only 36 points to advance themselves. The officials questioned Serbia's intent and apologized for their effort. They lost 25-21, 11 and 23 and played very,very poorly. Iran is coached by a Serbian - interesting.

Well, we have five matches to play in the next five days so our goal is to go 7-1 and take ninth place. We begin with Algeria tomorrow morning at 10. I hope we can play with the same enthusiasm we did yesterday against Japan and enjoy an afternoon exploring the nooks and crannies of this beautiful city.

Until tomorrow,

KP  

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