As I posted earlier, I felt that taking advantage of the NCAA's rule of one foreign trip every four years was a great idea, another merit badge in the coaching tenure of Travis DeCuire. It would give the team extra time to practice, to share an international experience, to bond as friends and teammates. And you would think that playing the national team of any nation would be a good thing, given they probably have been provided governmental funds to travel and compete, and are stocked with the best players that country can produce, however small that country is. It all sounded so great for us Griz nuts.
So our kids fly all day Thursday. Have you looked at a map? That's over 4000 miles, the equivalent of flying San Francisco to New York and back to Chicago. Then the very next night they play not the Costa Rica national team--HUH?--but a local-yokel "club" team, before travelling again, after one grueling flight and a game the night before, to play Laurentian University in Canada, a school that's a four and a half hour drive north from Toronto! (No, we didn't play them there, thank God!) Now,I know nothing about them, except that I'd be surprised if the school has produced a single NBA player. (Okay, surprise me!) Then our kids go to a zoo, see some crocodiles, assist at a charity, and fly back home, Chicago to New York and back to San Francisco. All in five days.
Meantime, the results of these games are delivered this way: Courier via Tica bus to the Mexican border; Greyhound bus to Boise; stagecoach to Missoula, where somebody announces the results to Kyle Sample, and he posts it to his Twitter account, with details to follow the next day. I mean, c'mon! Is there not a single member of our travelling entourage with a Twitter, Instagram or Facebook account?
But here's the crazy thing. Our friends from Laurentian University make essentially the same trip to Costa Rica. I know they're not under NCAA rules, but here's their schedule: They're there for one full week, and they play Montana, Western Kentucky (twice) and Kent State. HUH? You mean those teams are all there at the same time, but we play only a local-yokel "club" team and Laurentian? Why can't we stay an extra few days and play those teams too? Wouldn't those be great tests for our kids?
As I say, what a long strange trip it's been. For those on this board who care, I will be following up on this, going to my "sources" in quest of answers. I'm guessing, as always, I'll be following the money trail: Lack of funding. I probably need to go back and read in more detail that story about how this trip got funded. But, jeez, it seems if you have one opportunity every four years to take your team on an international jaunt, this is the cheapest, stupidest, worst possible way to have done it.
http://www.thesudburystar.com/2017/07/19/voyageurs-mens-cagers-get-early-start-on-season
So our kids fly all day Thursday. Have you looked at a map? That's over 4000 miles, the equivalent of flying San Francisco to New York and back to Chicago. Then the very next night they play not the Costa Rica national team--HUH?--but a local-yokel "club" team, before travelling again, after one grueling flight and a game the night before, to play Laurentian University in Canada, a school that's a four and a half hour drive north from Toronto! (No, we didn't play them there, thank God!) Now,I know nothing about them, except that I'd be surprised if the school has produced a single NBA player. (Okay, surprise me!) Then our kids go to a zoo, see some crocodiles, assist at a charity, and fly back home, Chicago to New York and back to San Francisco. All in five days.
Meantime, the results of these games are delivered this way: Courier via Tica bus to the Mexican border; Greyhound bus to Boise; stagecoach to Missoula, where somebody announces the results to Kyle Sample, and he posts it to his Twitter account, with details to follow the next day. I mean, c'mon! Is there not a single member of our travelling entourage with a Twitter, Instagram or Facebook account?
But here's the crazy thing. Our friends from Laurentian University make essentially the same trip to Costa Rica. I know they're not under NCAA rules, but here's their schedule: They're there for one full week, and they play Montana, Western Kentucky (twice) and Kent State. HUH? You mean those teams are all there at the same time, but we play only a local-yokel "club" team and Laurentian? Why can't we stay an extra few days and play those teams too? Wouldn't those be great tests for our kids?
As I say, what a long strange trip it's been. For those on this board who care, I will be following up on this, going to my "sources" in quest of answers. I'm guessing, as always, I'll be following the money trail: Lack of funding. I probably need to go back and read in more detail that story about how this trip got funded. But, jeez, it seems if you have one opportunity every four years to take your team on an international jaunt, this is the cheapest, stupidest, worst possible way to have done it.
http://www.thesudburystar.com/2017/07/19/voyageurs-mens-cagers-get-early-start-on-season