• More of Lakeland’s blogs from Prague

Part of the value of a trip like this is certainly the experiences. All 11 student-athletes were enjoying their first time on foreign soil, and Prague was a good selection. A lot of people in the city speak English, but you’re surrounded by enough discussions, signs, etc., in Czech to remind you that you’re far from home. That made navigating the subway and tram and ordering off a menu a bit tricky sometimes, but all the more fun. To their credit, the players embraced the opportunity and ran with it, seeing and doing as much as they could stuff into a week, learning plenty and having fun in the process.

What made this trip even more special, and it’s something the players talked about all week, is the people. You could see the bond between this team, already pretty tight, growing stronger. It was an especially fitting way for graduated seniors Trevor McKown and Sam Schroeder to end their time at Lakeland together. Despite coming to Lakeland from towns nearly 900 miles apart (Sam from Shawano, Wis., and Trevor from Hot Springs, S.D.), the two have become best friends. Their mothers also made the trip, and they talked about seeing one another again some day when each of their sons gets married, because Sam and Trevor are certain to be in each other’s wedding. When the group parted ways in the parking lot outside Lakeland’s Wehr Center, there were plenty of hugs and best wishes for a great summer. The memories will last each time they glance at the hundreds of pictures taken this week, and during stories sure to be told over and over when the players return to campus in August, and when the parents re-connect at games this season. The two games the Muskies played were neat experiences, but when the student-athletes recall the trip years from now, no doubt the memories and stories will focus on what happened both on and off the court.

For our final two videos, we turn to freshman Michael Koeppen and junior Jake Schwarz to wrap up the trip.

In a few hours, the journey for the Lakeland College men’s basketball team begins as we head to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport for nearly an eight-hour flight to London Heathrow, then a two-hour flight to our destination – Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic. We’re scheduled to land in Prague at 10:55 a.m. on Sunday, and we’ll be here for six nights to play some basketball and take in all the amazing things this 1,100-year-old city has to offer. Now approximately 20 years removed from Communist rule, Prague is a hotbed of culture and history in Central Europe, and we’ve got plans to make the most of it during our stay.

The Muskies are scheduled to play three games, and will spend the rest of the time seeing the sites including the Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral, the Astronomical Clock, Charles Bridge, the Jewish Quarter, the Lennon Wall and the Communism Museum (to name a few). Some of the 44 people in our travel group will likely check out the 10th annual Fringe Festival, a nine-day mix of comedy, theatre and music with companies from across the world. We’ll also be there for the final week of the 66th Prague Spring International Music Festival, a showcase for the world’s best symphony orchestras and chamber music ensembles.

The team making the trip has a roster of 11 student-athletes, including nine returnees and two seniors who recently graduated, Trevor McKown and Sam Schroeder. Coaches, family members and some Lakeland alumni and friends round out the group.

The trip is through Moose Tours, which has booked international basketball experiences for teams at all levels since it was founded in 1972 by legendary Lakeland basketball coach and athletic director Duane “Moose” Woltzen. Woltzen’s son, Scott, a 1982 Lakeland graduate, is president of Moose Tours today and will be joining the Muskies on this trip.

This trip is a throwback of sorts, and many alumni who played for Moose will remember that trips to major U.S. cities and international play were a staple at Lakeland under Moose. He took Lakeland teams on trips in 18 of his 23 years at Lakeland. The Muskies played in Denmark, France, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands and Aruba.

One of Lakeland head basketball coach Aaron Aanonsen’s goals is giving his players the best college basketball experience possible. “We want to offer opportunities that aren’t possible with every program,” Aaron said. “Coach Woltzen made trips like these a priority, and I’ve spoken to our alumni who still talk about the value of those trips. We’re excited to be able to provide a similar experience for our players this year.”

Two of Lakeland’s 11 players have been to Canada, but no one has been outside of North America. “This will be a memorable cultural experience for these young men, and having a chance to do this with their teammates and members of their family will make it extra special,” Aaron said. “Playing against teams in Prague will be a unique experience on the court, and getting a chance to explore a city with such a long, rich history will be an incredible experience off the court.”

That’s it for our first installment. I’ll post again Sunday night (Prague is seven hours ahead of Wisconsin time) to recap the trip and get some early reaction from the players on their first trip to Europe. This is going to be fun!

It is currently 5:30 in the morning and we are waiting at our terminal to head back home to Atlanta. After a week full of non-stop sightseeing and traveling, it seems we are all sleepwalking through the airport and even the wonderful coffee of this country can’t help wake us up.

The last few days have been filled with a couple days at the beach, zip lining, and a game against the Costa Rican national team. The beach resort we stayed in was one of the most serene and relaxing scenes we could have hoped for, with the rainforest stretching all the way up to palm trees and the stunning beach. The surrounding landscape was mountainous so it felt as though we were enclosed in our own beach paradise separated from the rest of the world. While swimming in the pool the first afternoon we experienced a tremble and most of us really thought nothing of it; moments later we were ordered to evacuate the pool because just 40 miles away a 6.0 earthquake had taken place. Living in California in my young life, I had experienced earthquakes before but it was a first-time experience for most of my teammates to add to the list of firsts already accumulated during the trip.

The next morning we embarked on our zip-lining expedition through the rainforest canopy. We glided through the trees on 14 zip lines traveling at speeds of 35 mph on some of them. The most uneasy part of the whole experience though was standing on wooden platforms built around trees suspended hundreds and even thousands of feet above the ground. After the zip-lining we had the rest of the day off at the beach to relax and enjoy our last days of Costa Rica and its beautiful scenery.

The last day we had our final friendly game against the Costa Rican national team, only it wasn’t as friendly as advertised. The teamas extremely physical and coupled with their excessive size, the game became a little chippy from the get go. One of their best players even got ejected after throwing a elbow into the jaw of Branden Jovaag. Exhausted from a long week of travel, we did not bring our best effort and eventually fell to the team 87-64. It was amazing to play top tier competition though, as this is the team that represents the whole country of Costa Rica when competing for a bid to the Olympics and other international competition.

Overall, Costa Rica was an experience that surpassed everyone’s expectations: from the food, to the sights, to the basketball competition, to the friendly people, and most importantly the memories and companionship we formed as a team. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that everyone on this team will cherish for the rest of their lives. Saying goodbye to this country and this experience is a tough pill to swallow but the thought of sleeping in our own beds tonight is enough to ease the transition.

Halfway through our excursion through Costa Rica has our team feeling cultured and a bit tired.

The past couple days have been filled with a game against the five-time defending champs of the top professional league in Costa Rica, a community outreach activity, sightseeing of an active volcano, a relaxing night indulging in natural hot springs, and a whitewater rafting trip.

Our game against Barva was highly anticipated by me and my teammates to see how we stacked up against top flight international competition. We would not be disappointed as the Barva team was one of the biggest and most athletic teams I have personally ever played against on the collegiate level. Undersized and considerably younger (most of Barva’s players were around 28 or 29 years old), we struggled to compete early as Barva jumped out to an early double digit lead. Our team once again showed tremendous heart and defensive effort as we clawed back to take the lead halfway through the third quarter, only to eventually fall to the Barva squad. Barva’s best player, a wing from Panama, was one of the most athletic and best physical specimens I have ever shared the hardwood with.

Once again Alec Pitts was named the MVP followed closely by Sam Purdy who was once again lights-out from 3-point range. Two other players rounded out the night with double figures: freshman Tyler Courson and myself.

The next morning we embarked on a community outreach activity at a local children’s center in San Jose. We came bearing gifts of candy, coloring books, clothes, and of course some stuffed “Peteys” to share with the children. Unanimously, the most rewarding part of the trip thus far was when we spent a few hours with the kids playing on the playground, with the most favorite activity of the children being carried on our shoulders throughout the playground. Not to be outdone, Coach Ponder had a record crowd as he shared with the children some of his famed magic tricks.

When the time to depart came it was hard to tell who was more upset we were leaving: the children or the players. After departing the center, we began our 4-hour bus ride to the famed Arenal volcano located in the rainforest region of the country. The scenery throughout the ride was breathtaking as we climbed through the mountainous terrain to views that were dubbed “postcard worthy” by Price Hamilton. We arrived at the base of the volcano to take some snapshots of the scenery and to explore the surrounding lake.

Later that night we traveled to a resort to experience some of the natural hot springs formed by the active volcano. The resort included 11 different hot spring pools of various temperatures with the hottest being a scorching 122 degrees. The most popular aspect of the resort was by far the three water slides which we rode for a good 2 hours straight. The most popular slide had a steep 10-foot drop that resulted in a few injuries as Coach Tulowitzski claims he experienced a slight concussion and I proceeded to inflame my bursa sac in my elbow that is still considerably swollen more than 24 hours later. Overall, the hot springs were a great experience that helped restore our sore bodies as well as relax us from our long day of travel.

Today we began our day with a whitewater rafting trip through the rainforest. With some views that seemed to be taken straight from the “Jurassic Park” series, we traveled more than 30 miles downriver that we all enjoyed except maybe for Alex Vital whose screams of terror from the rapids echoed throughout the forest. We ended our trip in a traditional lunch that included everything from chicken, beef, to fresh sea bass which I found to be extraordinarily delectable.

Exhausted from our rafting workout and a long day in the sun, we are now enjoying a few hours of relaxation at the hotel before another great meal later tonight. Tomorrow we leave bright and early for Playa Hermosa on the Pacific coast of the country to partake in a couple of days of sun and zip lining through the rainforest canopy which has been giving Tyler Cerone nightmares for the whole trip thus far. So far, the trip has been much more than advertised and by far the best vacation I have ever had the privilege to be a part of.

My name is Andrew Steioff, a rising senior and communications major from Duluth, Ga., and a member of the Oglethorpe men’s basketball team which is embarking on a week long tour of the country of Costa Rica.

Before the trip, my teammates and I were all anxious and excited to see what the trip had in store for us. Little did we know that our first day would end up being a little hectic. We departed for the airport at 6 a.m. Monday. Needless to say, it was a little earlier than most of us were used to waking up, but our excitement had our whole team wide awake. That quickly changed, however, as the majority of us were already asleep on the plane before takeoff. The plane ride was quite turbulent and it was funny to see my fellow senior Tyler Cerone freaking out at every patch of turbulence we hit along the way.

Shortly after touching down, we ran into a major speed bump when Sophmore Alex Vital could not find his bag that he checked. Even worse, the bag contained his uniforms, shoes, change of clothes, and the majority of his spending money. After frantically searching for the bag, we came to the conclusion that a man named “Lester” had accidentally taken the wrong bag, since his was still at baggage claim.

Accepting defeat for the moment, we called Lester to inform him of the mix up and continued to go check into our first hotel, the Barcelo San Jose Palacio, which is one of the nicest hotels most of us have ever stayed in. The view from our windows overlooks the whole city of San Jose.

We proceeded to have our welcome lunch with a selection of many of the native foods. We figured out quickly that we would be spoiled as far as meals went on this trip, considering our plates were overflowing with some of the best food many of us have ever had, along with the freshest fruit I have ever tasted. During lunch our tour company showed us a powerpoint presentation, including many interesting facts about Costa Rica along with the itinerary for our trip. We then had some time to hang out in our rooms before dinner and our first game later that night.

Dinner was not to be outdone by lunch, continuing the trend of amazing meals, and as a team we devoured the selection of fresh veggies, fish, and according to Christian Molinet, the best chicken dish he had ever tasted.

The last thing on our schedule for the night was our first game against Escazu, a professional team that finished second in the top professional league in Costa Rica. Even after a whole day’s worth of international travel, we came out on fire against Escazu, hitting 12 3-pointers in the first half. Lead by Brandon Jovaag and Sam Purdy, we raced out to a 49-31 lead at halftime.

We more or less hit a wall in the second half as Escazu adapted to our pace coupled with the fact we only hit two 3-pointers in the half. We stayed strong as a team, though, hitting clutch free throws down the stretch along with key defensive stops to squeak out a win 74-71.

Alec Pitts was voted MVP of the game by our opponent and awarded the trophy of a red Powerade.

Satisfied with our win, we were eager to get back to the hotel and take advantage of some well deserved sleep, considering we had been going basically non-stop since 6 am that morning.

Tomorrow we have a city tour scheduled followed by a game against the team that finished first in the top Costa Rican league. We are all anxious for the sights and for the challenge of some top-flight competition as we continue our trip tomorrow.

Day 1 (August 25):

The team was alive and ready to travel this morning despite the fact that we were up before the crack of dawn. We arrived at O’Hare rather early so the down time was spent eating McDonald’s breakfast and bickering about top 50 NBA players. The flight was rather smooth to Miami and a first experience for some on the team. We grabbed a quick bite at Pizza Hut burning a hole through our pockets. The slight layover in Miami went quick due to the anxiousness of the guys to get to the resort for some all you can eat buffets especially (Eric) Bohrer.

After about an hour and a half flight, we safely arrived in the Dominican Republic, but the traveling wasn’t quite over. We took a short bus ride and arrived at our paradise resort with large beautiful rooms with all the amenities. The rest of the night was spent eating and recovering from the day of travel, given there was some fun injected in those last few hours before bed.

Day 2 (August 26):

Since none of us wanted to waste much time with all the activities to do at the resort, we were up at a staggeringly early time of … 9 a.m. We grabbed some more all you can eat breakfast from one of the four restaurants on the resort then immediately transitioned to the ocean front. The group consensus was to snorkel and that is what we did. Not too much action there but it was still a great experience for everyone. We also took a trial dive in the pools just to see what it was look to scuba since the $100 fee was a bit much for us. Then after a relaxing afternoon on the beach we went for an hour drive to see The Three Eyes which was amazing, a natural cave with small pools and a lot of life.

We headed to the gym afterward to play our first game against Los Padros. The game went right down to the wire but we ended up winning by just a couple of points.

The bus ride back to the resort, for lack of a better word, was chaos. Pretty much no street signs, signals, lanes or any of the organization we love in the U.S. The horn is used about 75% of the time while on the streets and a red light doesn’t mean much here.

They are having a Michael Jackson show tonight at the resort and everyone is going to be at that which should be a lot of fun. The night is young and we have plenty of energy for a fun night.

I’m writing this blog after one of the hardest and more physical games of my career but I’ll pull a Pulp Fiction and keep you hanging. Last night we enjoyed our last night in Paraty. For a small colonial town it showed a lot of life at night. We enjoyed live music and attempted to converse in Portuguese with the locals. They even let Reid step up to the guitar and give Brazil a taste of his original music. After a nice rest we boarded the bus on the way to our game. Most watched movies or tried to contort their large bodies into small seats to sleep.

We arrived at our game around 6:00 local time. There were fans waiting for us to get off the bus and trying to get autographs. The gym was the nicest we have seen in Brazil and had a lot of life to it. Music was constantly playing and the stands were near capacity. After the playing of the national anthems and handshakes it was time to begin.

Basketball in Brazil and the United States is a bit different. The court and paint have different dimensions and the rules are interpreted differently. Physical play is encouraged and things like palming the ball and lane violations are at the discretion of the referee. The team we were against was a professional team and was extremely physically gifted. The combination of our rust and the other teams athleticism led to a 107 to 57 victory for our opponents. After the game we took pictures and signed autographs for the fans. Every place we’ve played we’ve been treated like rock stars and followed until we drive away.

This whole trip has been an amazing experience. It has been a great time to see new things and spend time with my teammates. Some of my favorite activities were our adventure at sea on the Sir Francis Drake yesterday and taking a picture with my Terrible Towel at Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. I’d also like to point out that my beach soccer team of Rob, Summers, Reid, Brian Curth, Bokan and myself are coming back to Cleveland 2-0 and looking for challengers. One shout out to my father, Peter Tsudis, who celebrated his birthday on Aug. 14.

Go Steelers!

Whoa, what a trip! From Aug. 3-18, our Augie basketball team has traveled over 17,200 miles, visited eight cities, taken seven flights, rode one train, played five games, went through three of the world’s five largest airports (Chicago O’Hare, Beijing Capitol Airport and Tokyo Narita Airport), and toured many sites across East Asia. It was the kind of trip that I will remember for the rest of my life, and I’m certain that everyone else feels the same. From bartering in the markets of Hong Kong to climbing the Great Wall, we experienced so many things and saw plenty of differences between our home in America and East Asia that made us both miss home as well as view Asia in a completely new light.

From a basketball standpoint, this trip showed us how much Chinese people really embrace basketball. We know that basketball is still a growing sport in East Asia, but every person we came across was excited to see that we were a basketball team from the United States. Also, the fans at every game were incredibly great to us and cheered for our play just as much as they did for the home team. We were treated as special guests and the people made us feel very welcome because they saw how happy we were to be in their country.

At this point of the trip (roughly over South Dakota traveling at 696mph) we are all ready to get home. It has been a great trip and we have all learned a lot about ourselves both athletically and culturally, but we are anxiously awaiting seeing family and friends again before school starts on Monday.

I’d like to thanks everyone who read this blog for the duration of the trip, or even just once. I really enjoyed writing them and I hope you enjoyed reading them just as much. Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible and I hope to see everyone at the Carver Center during the season!

- Kyle Nelson

Our last day overseas. The most amazing trip of our lives is finally coming to a close. To close out the trip we had a forced layover in Japan, due to having a connecting flight to Chicago the next day. That allowed us a little bit of time for some sightseeing. We traveled into downtown Tokyo and made our first stop at Tokyo Tower. This is the largest free standing steel structure in the world. It had an observation deck to go up in. Immediately we could see why Tokyo was the most populated city in the world with about 37 million people. It was huge! The city stretched beyond what we could see from the tower and it was truly an impressive sight.
 
Next stop on the Tokyo-in-a-day tour was the Imperial Palace, located in the center of the city. This Palace is where the Emperor and his family resided. The current Emperor is part of a family that has been in the Imperial Palace for 125 generations. That is an incredible amount of time. Currently, however, the Emperor of Japan serves no purpose other than being a figure-head for the country. All political power has been removed from that position and resides elsewhere within the political system. The Palace was closed on this particular afternoon so we were not able to go inside, but we got a view of part of it from across the moat that surrounded the compound.
 
We made a brief stop at a Buddhist Temple (Asakusa) before heading to our meal. This meal was easily the best of the trip. Each table had its own little grill on it and there was a buffet of at least fifteen different kinds of raw meats that you could choose yourself and cook yourself. I’m pretty sure that everyone ate way more than they could handle, but it was good none the less.
 
At dinner, we had a special guest waiting for us. His name was Phil Hoffman and he was the Minister-Counselor of Public Affairs for the United States Embassy in Tokyo. He also happened to be an Augie grad (1974) and an ex-student for Dr. Moline. Phil spent about half an hour talking to the group about what he did overseas and how his Augie education has really helped him in his job that has taken him from Greece to India to Nepal and to Japan among other places. He was really an impressive and well-spoken man and his stories were truly one-of-a-kind because no where else could you experience what he had gone through.
 
Our flight to Chicago leaves in and hour and a half. One more blog coming when we land back home!
 
Kyle Nelson

Day number two in Paraty started out in an unusual way to say the least, as Reid, Ryan, Alex, and I woke up to the fresh smell of rain after spending the night sleeping in the hammocks located outside the rooms. Our group originally started with six members, but Brian slept inside after failing to fall asleep after an hour lying in the hammock and Colin left due to his constant fear that he was definitely going to fall out.

We were set to leave for our boat ride on the Atlantic Ocean at 9:30, but due to inclement weather that we have been getting a great deal of lately, we had to push our ride back to 11:00. So once the time came, we walked to the bay to board our boat. The first place we stopped allowed us to get in the water for the first time. We swam, jumped off the boat, and snorkeled. We tried to catch fish with a three reals bet that we couldn’t. Unfortunately, we had no success with this with endeavor.

Our second stop on our boat trip landed us close to a beach. After swimming into shore, we spent the next hour jumping off rocks, playing a game of soccer, and diving into the water in our attempts to catch a soccer ball. The highlight of our trip to this spot was our dancing. With techno music blaring from another boat in the background, the twelve of us did the famous “Party Boy” dance on Coach Gorski. We though it was hilarious, but the same couldn’t be said for Coach Gorski. Not only did he almost drop his prized iPhone, but he also came out of the dancing with a bruised lip.

After we pulled up our anchors there, we sailed a few more minutes and settled down on the boat for lunch. Upon finishing lunch, we headed to our final destination. It was here that we searched for turtles and jumped off the boat to catch soccer balls. From the boat we watched a local man climb a twenty foot high tree and throw coconut after coconut down to a group of girls. Chris even went on a solo adventure to the shore. He said he was looking to grab a coconut, but the rest of us knew he just wanted to talk to the group of girls. Lucky for him, he did manage to come back with a coconut full of juice, but we knew it was just an excuse. Most importantly, our entire team had a really impressive feat catching the soccer ball that can be seen with the videos.

We headed back to the dock to end our boat trip. Feeling both fatigued as well as sunburnt, we were ready to go back to the hotel and relax for the rest of the night. Our time in Paraty was coming to an end, and tomorrow we will head for the mountains.