Category Archives: D-III overseas

Hot springs, sea bass and whitewater rafting

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Oglethorpe is on the road, all the way to Central America. They’re checking in with occasional blog posts. Rising senior Andrew Steioff checks in.

OglethorpeHalfway 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.

VolcanoWhen 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.

At the lakeToday 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.

Oglethorpe leaves for Costa Rica

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OglethorpeOglethorpe is on the road, all the way to Central America. They’re checking in with occasional blog posts.

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.

From Milwaukee to the D.R.

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The Milwaukee School of Engineering men’s basketball team is in the Dominican Republic to play some exhibition games in addition to holding a basketball clinic for some impoverished children in the country. Senior Austin Meier is writing a blog during the trip:

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.

Case in Brazil: Facing the pros

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The Case Western Reserve men’s basketball team is in Brazil, and blogging about the experience as well. Evan Tsudis writes:

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!

Augie in China: Home again

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Augustana senior Kyle Nelson and his teammates took a summer trip to China. He blogged regularly on D3hoops.com about the team’s journey.

Augustana players and coaches in Japan

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