Sunday, March 28, 2010

El Salvador final four!

After the amazing rush of standing on top of the podium, we were forced to regain our focus and settle into the Sheraton Presidente in San Salvador, El Salvador. It is hot, humid and there are a lot of guns!!

The hotel has assisted in making this tournament bearable. I hate to go to negative town because El Salvador is a developing nation in many different facets, however, the standards we have grown accustomed to have not been met by a long shot. Our training on the first day was tragic as the NORCECA doesn't believe in sign up times for training! There were 10 teams on one court for about an hour and a half and then we squeaked in with USA and Mexico for a solid sideout before the shut the training down. The net had soooo many holes, the sand was super shallow (black volcanic sand) and it was by far the hottest sand I have ever set foot on. It clouded over for a bit so it cooled and it was a mediocre start to an interesting voyage.

We were super bummed that our tournament was going to be played in their national training facility (mentioned above) which was built in 1970's. Luckily, for the opening meeting, we went to a mall and discovered there is a completely different venue in the parking lot of the largest shopping mall of El Salvador. The site is interesting to say the least and they did not build a warm up court for the athletes. There is a massive stage where they have hosted concerts over the weekend and today is a national holiday so it should be packed. The food has been hit and miss and there is no air conditioning for us white boys to rest in!

Our draw for the tournament was a beauty because the NORCECA ranking system resets after the first event of the year. Since we won the first stop on Grand Cayman, we had the first seed and our draw worked out to be Honduras, Costa Rica and the Jamaica to get into the semi finals. The first two games weren't very competitive but our game against Jamaica was even due to the extreme heat and humidity.

The Jamaican boys are both 6'7 and solid athletes. They serve big and hit big but lack in other areas of the game. Our ball control was superior but the heat really evened out the score. We won the first set handily but the second set dropped a notch on our side as fatigue set in. Ray's sensitive skin tone and redheaded sun prowess failed him slightly and we dropped the second set. Third set was a different story as Ray has the ability to pick his game up in 3rd sets regardless of the way he feels. I am sure he felt worse than in the second set but he was able to gather his remaining energy and focus them on winning at all costs. I hit standing on two's frequently to give him some rest and save some jumps and we went up 4-1 to start. Our comfortable lead grew with some passing errors on their part and then to close it out, I blocked them 3 times in a row. Ray then went to the bench and vomited. Somehow the mango's he ate for breakfast were completely undigested forcing me to believe we don't function properly in extreme heat!!!

We rested in our air conditioned room for the rest of the day and then returned to the mall to watch USA vs the Dominican Republic. The winner of that game would slide into our semi final match up so it was important for us to study that game. The USA team of Matt Prosser and Ty Loomis won as they out blocked and dug the athletic yet green Dominican team. We match up well with the USA team and it will be our most challenging match of our 2010 NORCECA competitions.

We are three hours from game time right now and it is time for us to prepare fully. Wish us luck and thank goodness the semis will be matched up fairly with respect to skin tone and heat capacity.

Time to get big and loud,

Martin

7 comments:

  1. I just want to say that I really enjoyed watching you guys play. I know El Salvador is far from being Canada, but I hope there are more events like this in the future.
    By the way, I love the way you block.
    Good luck in everything you do =)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You make me laugh so hard, because you said that the wheater wasn't as good as you wanted to be, and the sand wasn't white but this is not the REAL reason that you are 4th place:) and you know that.
    Dont blame it in the wheater, it's the way you played.
    but if the heat was the real problem, what did the american guys won 2nd place? and you 4th?
    i dont want to be rude, but just think about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Stop blaming it on the weather and the conditions.. Excuses. You're 4th place because that's what you deserve. Deal with it. And what's that "there is no air conditioning for us white boys to rest in!" thing? For you white boys? How polite from you to discriminate like that..

    ReplyDelete
  4. You and your partner are very good players ...
    Congratulations!
    But you as a person might be a little bit more careful with your comments ...
    At the beginning of your publication only mention the bad things of El Salvador and the organization of the event ... and you wrote all that by your perception of two places ... a shopping center and the federation ...

    Visit some other place ... Some tourist sites? ... only the hotel? and
    the mall? ...
    .. By the way ... someone had a gun near you?

    The difference between a good player and an excellent player is his attitude on and off the court ... and you only have attitude on the court ...

    I wish you luck in the race ...
    God bless you ...

    ReplyDelete
  5. let me tell u what i think and i dont mean to be rude, just real ...

    number one you cannot judge a country just because some people act wrong or you have a huge misconception about it, did you ever try to get along with people from there .. i dont think so cuz otherwise you may have a different concept from it

    Number two Yes its true you won in cayman island, but your cockiness made you guys lose, maybe you can try something be a little bit more humble cuz that can help

    number tree remember that beeb in norceca lead you to travel all over the world and have the oportunity to know about other coultures... so stop complaining about wheather and be greatful that u have an opportunity like that

    last but no least...you are a champion regarless of where you are... so work it out... its time to reinvent our strategies... wish you the best and dont take this wrong .... cuz it is what it is

    ReplyDelete
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