USA vs. Italy

USA in Florence, Italy
We arrived in Florence Tuesday evening from Holland. Yesterday morning the team had a good practice at the site of Friday's match, Nelson Mandela Forum. The only hiccup thus far in the trip is that Alfee Reft suffered a minor ankle sprain yesterday in practice. He was going to set a ball that Kevin Hansen had just gotten up when he stepped on Kevin and rolled his left ankle. He's done that ankle before so it isn't as traumatic as it could have been. Alfee is walking on it and thinks he will be back very soon, but I think team trainer Aaron Brock will have something to say about that...
Speaking of AB, I've got a little video on YouTube showing how Brock can use Jedi mind tricks to get players, in this case Brook Billings, to give HIM a shoulder massage. View the video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArDk-6M2lUw.
The local federation treated the team to a nice dinner outside the hotel last night. We went to a very old ristorante in downtown Florence called Antico Fattore. There were photos on the wall showing customers from the 1930's. They treated us right with Bistecca Fiorentino, or Florentine Steak-a little rare for some tastes, but very tasty. Of course there was a pasta dish, and chicken liver pate and mushrooms over fried polenta as an appetizer. Authentic Tuscan food! View a video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dkqc9qsYcY.
There was time to see some of the sights in Florence. Everyone except for poor Alfee got to walk around the city center. Florence is known for its amazing art and as being the cradle and heart of the Renaissance.
Check out a video of the U.S. players standing around Florence's city center at www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-mCQ8bf59A.
The volleyball community has its own card game called Finniente (spelling, origin, and meaning of the name are a mystery). In Italian "finniente" would mean "never ending" which would be appropriate on this trip. If there are a few minutes to spare and enough space for 4 guys and a deck of cards then there will be a game of "finny". Marv Dunphy holds all the cards when it comes to Finniente, but legend goes back to the beaches of Southern California with stories of Wilt the Stilt playing Finny and taking it very seriously. You will find a clip of the boys playing in Rome's Fiumicino airport at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiUthX62Oqc.

Game day was typical. We practiced very lightly, came back home, rested a bit, then headed back to the arena. It was awesome, the areana was PACKED! They had pre-sold 4,000 tickets for the event, some people traveled from Milano, which is northern Italy, just for the game. It ended up being sold out. The gyms here are made of concrete and steal bleachers = loud and crazy fans. The average had to have been 14 years old, and the crowd was dominated by girls. So you have over 4,000 screaming 14 year girls, who are more into seeing the italians in there super super short shorts, i mean, these are Magic and Bird short!

We won the first set, easily. Started a bit slow in both the first and second sets but the second set we didn't play our best and still managed to pull out a win, surprisingly. We lost the third pretty closely, still not having played our best we were in the set. Then we took it to them in the fourth set and won the match. Had we played the way did last night against Netherlands, they would have wiped us off the floor. We are a much better team than the Italians, we just have to play well, our style of volleyball and we should dominate them tomorrow here in Sicily.

By the way, we got a police escort in a military bus from the airport in Sicily. Apparently this isnt much of tourist town...needless to say as Americans we have two guards that go everywhere we go, even if that is just up the street to get gelato....which we do every night! Don't worry, i found a gym and have been keeping up the body!

This is Day 10, and I'm feeling like my own bed sounds really nice right about now! A lot of us are glad this trip is coming to an end!

I love you all!

Chris

This is a pretty famous sculpture, it is the main plaza area, they have an open air museum with a lot of famous sculptures!

This is Ponte Vecchio, it is the only remaining original bridge that wasn't blown up by the nazis in their retreat out of Italy. So now there are all these shops on the bridge, pretty cool.

Me outside the Duomo, the Florence Cathedral!
So I was able to walk around and explore Florence on Wednesday afternoon...Its probably the most beautiful city in the entire world. The history and architecture just add to the whole mystique of Florence. Instead of talking about the city, i thought I would just post the pictures...

Amsterdam and Travel Day

We had an amazing opportunity to have a whole day off on Monday. Kinda. We practiced but just for a short bit then headed back to the hotel, some of us packed our things because we wanted to spend as much time in Amsterdam as possible! So we headed to the train for Amsterdam, it was about an hour train ride from Rotterdam so not bad. Pictures and more to come! We are in Florence now so I have a lot of site seeing to do!

Holland, Belgium Pics

Some of Holland from the train.

In the town square in the middle of Antwerp, Belgium.

Pretty famous Clock, with the city name under it. Antwerpen.

This a picture as you get off of the Train in Antwerp, Belgium. Some good chocolate in Belgium..mmmm, good!

A whole new season...

Same team, same guys...much different outcome today. It looked more like the USA team we have come to respect and the rest of the world. It's not easy having a huge target on your back after winning World League last year, and then a Gold Medal in Beijing. Defending either of those won't be easy, but even more so World League is such a grind. I wrote about our first night of competition, we got waxed! Well, tonight we started the first game up 5-1 before Netherlands called a timeout...I could tell things were going to be different this afternoon. As a side note, our games were 5, yesterday, and 1:30, today, because in Europe the night just comes to end much sooner than our culture, so we start our matches out here much earlier than the typical 7 start times we are used to. Anyways, Matt Anderson was on fire tonight, he hit about .700 attacking from the backrow, he couldn't be stopped. Even when they put up commit block on him, pretty much that just means, the blocker knows its coming, they still couldnt stop it....Awesome to watch actually. Mattie, as we call him on the team, didn't go to his senior year at Penn State, instead took a 6 figure contract in South Korea to play pro there. Mattie won the natl championship as a junior at Penn State and was National Player of the Year, not bad. Most of the guys on our team play pro in Europe, a couple guys in Holland, Italy, Germany, and a couple in Russia....So our guys are familiar with some of the Dutch players and vice versus. Well....none of the dutch guys knew of Matt Anderson, but they sure know him now. He is a special talent, and a really genuine, down to earth guy. It's funny, at USC, I carried all of the gear I needed myself, and so now on the Natl Team, all of the younger guys like Mattie, Russell Holmes (BYU), and Jayson Jablonsky (UCI) have to carry nearly everything for me...its pretty cool. It makes going through the airport so much nicer, I don't have to hold up the line by taking out 5 computers, a projector, video camera, dvd player, printer....UgH, so glad those days are done.

Well after losing last night, I knew it was going to be a late night for the coaching staff, so I planned accordingly, I walked to the only open store at the time, a little gas station store and stocked up on Coke and candy (typical diet at times). I was good to go. Alan (Head Coach) had me doing a serving chart with Data Volley, and doing most of the shot charts. To explain a bit, Data Volley is a software designed by the Italians, it is what the modern volleyball world powerhouses use to stat and scout other teams. It gives me everything i could ever want on another team and their players. There is a scoutman, me, and we input code for an entire match, who served it where, who passed from what zone(1-9), who hit what set and where, and who dug that attack and in what zone...and so on and so forth. Its incredible software. Its a far cry from what they did back in the day. Rob Browning, who did my job in the 90s said they would get a tape of the match, and have two tape decks and have to fast forward till they got through every Rotation, 1-6, pausing and starting....he said it was the most tedious thing in the world. NO THANK YOU! So, to make this short and sweet, Data Volley saves coaches from being admitted to mental institutions. Rob has been a huge help to me on this trip. He is our team leader. What that means is he deals with all of the administrative things with the FIVB, and helps the coaching staff in whatever way he can. He is EXTREMELY good at it, he is very familiar with the international volleyball scene. He is the head womens coach at St. Mary's College in the bay area, he coached at BYU as an asst for a number of years before and during his time with the National Team. Where was I? Oh yea, so our late night. Well, Gary Sato, one of the assistants was having a tough time staying awake in his chair, he kept nodding off while watching the match video...so funny, he would sleep for 5 points or so, then wake up and start scouting again, not realizing he missed anything...it was entertaining! So us youngens...i.e. me and Alan, well not so much Alan, more so me. He and I stayed up till about 4am getting everything we needed to have for the guys at 9am video, I took a short nap at 4am and woke back up at 7, ichatted with Zoe before she went to bed, and I was just about to start my day...9 hour time difference is incredible. And just like that I started my day again!....It was a long but extremely fun first World League weekend...and I got my first win. Hooray! We dominated the game winning the first set 25-16, 32-34, 25-16, 19-25, 15-9....took us 5 sets, but we were in control the entire time.

Typing this took every ounce of energy I had left, so I'm off to bed at 9:30 here in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and its still sunny and bright outside.

I love you all, and will let you know how Amsterdam is once we get back tomorrow after taking a field trip.

Some pictures from our random trip to Antwerp, Belgium!

Day ONE of competition....

...and we got CRUSHED! Great, im 0-1 in my international debut. Not a good start. Netherlands played really really well, they sided-out at close to 80%, for all of you that don't speak volley geek, thats REALLY REALLY good! That would be like in basketball a team shooting 75% for the whole game, or a team in baseball hitting .600 as a team for the game. Tough to beat a team that is on like that. Granted, we played AWFUL, the guys were a few steps too slow the whole game and they definately put us on the defensive early. But, thats the beauty of this tournament is we get another shot at them again. Its sunday morning here, about 12:41 and I wanted to get this post in before I got some shut eye and have to wake up again at 7 and do the day all over again. It's really nice to be able to see the same team again and make adjustments but the flipside to that is us as coaches pull some late nights, like tonight.

A little bit about the crowd tonight, I snapped some photos, I think I'm going to post all those once I get a break and have some legit time to sit here and not have to work all the time...Anyways, here in the Netherlands, there are some of the nicest people you will ever find anywhere in the world...I honestly believe that. When the referee makes a bad call...in the states we "boo" and curse and scream...here, they whistle really loud, and not just one or two people whistle, EVERYONE whistles, its incredible and it shows you their character, they aren't looking to demean anyone but yet it gets their point across. Also, the crowd is super involved, they play music between every play, and the crowd dances and sings, the wave is constant, never stops. And most incredible thing of all, is the fact that they love all the songs that were really popular back in the 90's...I heard Chumbawumba 5 times today, some retro dance songs that I never ever thought someone would put a remix version to, and finally......somebody covering Queens "we are the champions" in dutch/english...i was like, this is not Freddy Mercury! ha.

Anyways, I'm exhausted and going to sleep! I stil haven't picked up on any Dutch, I will stick to the romance languages I guess.

BYE ALL!

A little Friday afternoon in Antwerp...

3:15pm....I was tired and wanted to take a little nap, still not quite adjusted from the time difference, then Aaron Brock, the athletic trainer called my room and asked me if I wanted to go take the train down to Antwerp, Belgium. I said sure! Antwerp is north of Brussels and absolutely beautiful! Pictures to come soon!

So many names, all the same place....

There are so many names for this place. Everyone here calls it Holland, so when in Rome. I made it! The 11 hour plane ride wasn't all that bad actually, I have been on more 3-4 hour flights that have been more uncomfortable then this one. We were cruising at about 37,000 feet, in a massive double decker, jam packed plane. Not an empty seat in the plane. We flew up towards Canada then over Iceland and came down into Amsterdam at about 1:05 local time, that would be 4am, pacific time. I slept for a good 5 hours of the plane ride so that made it much smoother and more enjoyable. Poor girl that had to sit in the middle, she was miserable the whole ride. If she was only cuter I would have traded her....Totally kidding. Im sorry, no matter how cute of girl, I was not sitting in the middle seat for 11 hours.

Everything went well as far as bags and equipment, nothing major. I did though have some difficulty getting all the outlets and power adapters though to work. Turns out, right next to the door of your hotel room there is a pouch that your key goes into, yeah, you have to stick your key in there to enable the power for the whole room....I spent about 30 minutes trying to get my power adapters to work before giving up and calling someone. I felt dumb being the tech guy and having to ask that question. Now I know.

We had a quick practice today at the competition site in Rotterdam. It was a unique drive into the city of Rotterdam. Its the second largest port in the world. Everything is so green and lush here and there are rivers running everywhere, it truly is beautiful. I took some pictures, I will post them tomorrow....i'm exhausted from the travel and my body is shutting down for the night. Love you all!

All settled in...and ready to fly

11:23. One York Peppermint patty down, one more bottle of Arrowhead to go. Put my clothes in the dryer and off to bed for me. We had a sleep doc come talk to the team a couple weeks ago. It was interesting, he has a Ph.d from Yale in sleep habits, and works for NASA. World renown, from my understanding....but I wasn't impressed. He pretty much stated the obvious. Take naps, don't sleep in late, yadda yadda yadda he prescribed us all Ambient to sleep on the plane. And no, I didn't yadda yadda over the best part, I mentioned the nap.

I was nervous last night, a little stressed out. And I hardly ever get stressed but theres something about this job that makes me feel like I'm a part of something much bigger than what I even fathom. So with that, I wanted to give myself a day buffer, so I got all packed up with my gear and equipment, and EVERYTHING, so now I can rest easy tonight, stress-free, sort of. This first trip, I probably wont rest easy the entire 11 hour 5 minute flight, thinking...crap, I probably left something in my office. BUT, thats life. OH, and I am in charge of $4,000 dollars cash, which will be on my body at all times...thats not scary at all!...I did buy a book to read, 3 weeks with my brother, by Nicholas Sparks. I will let you all know what I think.

I plan on posting pictures as I get them from places I'm at, things I see. If I were my brother Nick, all the pictures would be cars...(inside joke from his junior high trip to D.C).

My story...

Because this job happened so fast, I thought it would be nice to recap a bit the order of events that lead me here....

I first learned of the opening with the job as I was searching around the USA Volleyball website. I was curious who had the job because I knew that the old men's staff was now pretty much the new women's team staff. The technical coordinator job said, open. It was April at this point, I sent a text to Andy Read (Asst. Coach at Long Beach State) asking him if he had heard who was in the mix for the job. He text me back saying "your name's been thrown around a bit". That got me thinking, oh wow, maybe I won't be staying in AZ much longer. I had planned a trip to California, where I went to see a Long Beach State vs. Cal State-Northridge game. My plan was to talk with Alan Knipe(Head Coach of Long Beach and new Men's National Team coach), introduce myself, make myself visible, and then talk to him about the job. He invited me up to a postgame party the team and boosters put on, where we spoke at some length about the job. He mentioned that I was in the mix with 4 or 5 other guys and then asked if I wanted to keep my name in the hat....that was a no brainer, I said "of course, in fact, put it in there more than once"....The week came and went, I spoke with Alan a couple times but he was very vague...then there was Sunday night, Zoe, was in town, we had planned to see Dave Matthews Band in concert on Wednesday and Alan called....he asked me If I was willing to come out "like yesterday" to start working, I said, ummmm, maybe not tomorrow, but I can drive out tuesday morning, I guess. That was cool with him, so just like that, I had the job....and I guess they say, the rest is history from there......

Well, here I am. 24 and on the verge of entering quite a journey. There may be some small journey's that come along between now and London 2012 and it is my goal to document all of them and keep a record of everything I'm doing for my family and friends, but most importantly for myself and my own family later on.

This time next week, I will be on a plane for 13 hours or so, on my way to Amsterdam. Had you told me 5 years ago when I said I wanted to coach volleyball that I'd be on the coaching staff for the USA Men's National Team and would have the opportunity to travel the world and Olympic games...I would have said, yeah right! Even me, the same confident/cocky Chris Jackson that thinks he can do anything, would have said, no way! Actually, had you asked me two months ago about this opportunity I would have laughed.