Chris McDevitt is part of a group of Division III players (and three Division II players) traveling to Europe as an All-Star team this month. His latest blog entry follows:
Our first night in Mechelen we went out as a team. It was a blast. We made a few friends along the way. Once we awoke on Friday morning we realized we had a full day of sightseeing and a game in the evening. Our sightseeing for the day took place in Brugge, Belgium. Brugge was a much larger city than Mechelen. We began to walk around and noticed a few stores and restaurants we noticed from the United States. There was a Subway shop and also a Foot Locker which was very cool. A few of the guys purchased some clothes and accessories while others grabbed a few postcards to send home.
The D-III and D-II players pose in front of the White House in Belgium.
The highlight of the day for me was renting bikes to tour the city. We have noticed that riding bikes is an extremely popular way of getting around in Belgium. Our bikes allowed us to see other parts of the city that we would miss walking. My friend Fran and I shared a double bike which was pretty amusing to the people of Belgium.
We also grabbed lunch in Brugge which was interesting in itself. I ordered an item off a menu that I had no clue what it was. The meal ended up being a type of vegetable wrapped in ham in a cheese sauce. This ended up not being too bad. I think it is important that we try new things while over in Belgium because we may never have the chance to be back.
After the day in Brugge we set off in the bus to our first game. When we entered the arena we did not know what to expect. The gym ended up being bigger than most of us expected. The first team we played was interesting as well. There were many players on the team older than 30 but also a few very young players.
The game started off a bit rough as we struggled to score in the first five minutes. Once we got in a groove we played well for our first game over the pond. We ended up winning by 25 and had a great time doing so.
Immediately after the game we enjoyed a spaghetti meal at the gym’s cafe. Most of the gyms in Europe have cafes attached to the court for conversation after the games.
The next day was very busy, starting off by interacting with the Belgian community. Coach Chris Carideo was scheduled to talk about press defense at a Belgium Coaches Association Clinic. Coach asked us to participate to demonstrate several drills and teaching points for his press/pressure defense. This was important for us because it helped all of our players understand the way we will be playing the rest of the week here in Europe, This also helped show the Belgium coaches what our press actually looks like.
After Coach Carideo’s demonstration we helped Coach Blumenthal with his offensive drills and techniques. Then we headed to Brussels for the afternoon for some more sightseeing. Brussels was more of an up-to-date “big city,” similar to Philadelphia back in the states. During the sightseeing the coaches gave us a scavenger hunt to complete. This was made up of several tasks that involved us trying to break the language barrier and interact with many different people.
At the end of our scavenger hunt, as a team, we did a re-make of an Iceland Soccer Club celebration. If you haven’t seen this before let me explain. An Iceland soccer player scored a big goal late in the match and they celebrated by using one of their players as a fisherman, and one of the players as the actual fish. Eric Brennan cast the fishing line out and caught Alex Raymond. While Eric was reeling him in, Alex was flopping on the ground towards him like a fish. Then some of the team members lifted Alex up, displaying him as a “prize catch” while Otis Smith took several fake pictures. This was by far the highlight of the day. We did this in the middle of the city and let’s just say, we had some interesting responses from the people.
After our adventure in Brussels we headed back for our game that night against the Pitzemburg basketball team in Mechelen. This game was a bit different than our first. The Mechelen team had a few very good players and played great as a team. We ended up losing the game as we struggled with adapting to the game and how it is officiated. We played hard but we were on the losing end. We will use this game as sort of a wake-up call and I have faith we will bounce back strong in our next game in Germany.
Next post I will be writing from Dusseldorf. Keep up. USA!
