Road trips are something that all student-athletes will experience, esp. athletes in the SCAC conference! We’ll take you through our most recent road trip to Crestview Hills, Ky:

Day 1:

We started out on Thursday morning at 830 am. By now our Thursday professors are used to the basketball team not being in class. The ride to Kentucky is pretty easy compared to our 10 hour drive up to
Conway, Arkansas for the SCAC tournament the weekend before. Everyone usually sleeps for the first few hours waking up to eat lunch. This trip has more excitement though because it is the NCAA tournament and we are playing a team that we had recently beaten by 19. To finally win a game in the big dance would be really exciting. To pass the time we watch a million movies. Since the boys do not travel with us they are mostly chick flicks. Now, I know what you’re thinking poor Coach Sattele he must be bored out of his mind but he should be used to that since he had 3 daughters! Movies don’t ever get old on road trips since we never have time to go see movies during the season. We also start preparing for
Piedmont, watch film etc… We arrive and the weather is fairly nice, little to our knowledge that was about to change. We practice at Thomas More then go back to the hotel, eat dinner, and sleep!

Day 2:

We wake up a little before 10 to get breakfast and get ready for shoot around. We look outside and what do we see? SNOW!! Snow in March?! Not just snow flurries, it is really snowing! There is few inches of snow on the ground! We go to shoot around. Afterwards we decide to bombard coach with snow balls. What were we thinking? Trying to win a snowball fight with Santa, that is pretty much impossible! Coach has really good aim and is a lot quicker than you think. So of course the freshmen are targeted. Our 6’ 2” center Reggie got a couple snow balls to the face and then fell into the snow! While the upper classmen know to throw a snowball or two and run onto the bus to get out of Santa’s range! We eat pregame and get ready to play.

We win!! We finally won a NCAA tournament game it is great!! We stay to watch the Thomas More(TM)-Greensboro game. Then we went to eat. Since we won winning we get to take an ice bath. Thomas More doesn’t have whirlpools so we have to put ice in the bath tubs at the hotel. We all pretty much dread doing this but the difference it makes in our legs is just amazing. We look over Thomas More then sleep.

Day 3:

There is 13 inches of snow on the ground and it is still snowing!!! The shot around is pushed back a few hours and the game was pushed back 30 minutes. Luckily it wasn’t pushed back until tomorrow, we don’t know if we could stand waiting another day to play. The day is filled with excitement. To make it to the sweet sixteen would be great! It is a great opportunity to play an undefeated #3 Thomas More. This should be a good game.

We win!! We beat the #3 team in the nation. This should show people that OU is not going anywhere. Both teams played great, I just do not think TM is used to playing our up tempo game. The atmosphere was amazing. That gym gets really loud and there were a lot of people there. Our parents and fans are just great! We go to Barley’s Corn for dinner. Most of the parents came with us to eat and we got our own room. Let me tell you it is not quiet for one second. All we could talk about was the game and that we are now in the sweet sixteen! We get back to the hotel and try to sleep.

Day: 4

We go to team breakfast at 8:30 am at Cracker Barrel. We are all pretty much just as excited as last night. Still wondering who we are going to play, the game got pushed back until 12 today so we won’t know who we’re playing for a while. The ride home is much easier if you win. During the ride home the game is always what is talked about and thought about. If you lose then the ride home is like torture, you just want to get home. If you win then the game is talked about excitedly in this case there is just a buzz on the bus. Most people sleep for the first hours but homework has to get done. Luckily the team is pretty diverse academically so if someone is having trouble in classes there is usually someone that can help. There is snow on the ground for the first few hours of trip, this is a long cry from our spring break plans of sand, water, and sun! We are about an hour and half away from OU. Most people were sleeping or watching the movie when all of the sudden our front tire blows out! We wake up to the bus heading towards the railing on the side of the road. Luckily we had a great driver who controlled the bus and no one got hurt. He steered the bus towards the closest exit and parked it in a gas station. After an hour the guy arrived and fixed the flat. It was pretty cool to watch the flat get fixed! We finally made it back to OU where fans and family had decorated the gym and made us cupcakes. It was great! We have really awesome fans! Now we have to get ready for William Smith and more cold weather!!!!

We are lucky to have our great fans! Our trainers came and really helped with our bumps and bruises. Hopefully we can have the same fan base in New Jersey.

Good Luck to all the teams! Until next time, try not to miss us too much!!