Tuesday, July 21st: Arriving in Orlando

     It was an early morning but it was packed full of anticipation and excitement. My Mom dropped me off and said her last goodbyes at 6:15 AM and from there I was on my own.

     There are 4 other Minnesota-raised guys on the team, all of which I have played against at some point in my life, so it was very settling to see some familiar faces when I arrived at my gate. At first, we were all pretty quiet, but we warmed up to each other as the day went on and we all have many shared interests, obviously including MIAC and Minnesota high school basketball.
     After arriving in Orlando, we were met by Ron Smith at the airport, the team manager. He has done all the work in getting all the logistics of this trip down so it goes as smoothly as possible, I cannot thank him enough for all he has done and the opportunity he has provided for all of the student athletes on this trip. I thought it was pretty cool he made a conscious effort to meet everybody as they arrived in Orlando, it made everyone feel welcomed and at home here in Florida.
     As a part of the "Minnesota 5," we were shuttled to the hotel where we met our coach and received all of our USA gear. So much pride and patriotism comes with wearing the red, white and blue and representing America abroad, I was in heaven unpacking all of this awesome USA apparel!

     The last event on the schedule for this first day as a team was the first practice, and a team orientation right before that. This is where I got to meet the rest of my teammates and they are all great guys, to go along with being great basketball players. I can already tell that I will be making nine new friends on this trip and will be sharing unbelievable memories with these guys. 

     As for the first practice, it was interesting to say the least. Everybody was visibly anxious while we were scrimmaging. The pace of play was so much faster than normal due to this anxiousness, and with it came a decrease in fundamentals and quality of play. But as everyone got a feel for each other and the strengths of our teammates, the quality of play began to increase. We definitely played through quite a few growing pains today, and there will be few more for us to get through as a team in the next few days. I expect practice tomorrow morning will be much more crisp from the get go, and it has to be, as it is going to be our last practice before we play our first game in Brazil on Thursday. 

      It was a busy first day, with arriving to Orlando and meeting everyone accompanying me on this adventure, but tomorrow will be a lot of relaxation after morning practice. I'm sure a lot of good team bonding will be had tomorrow hanging with the guys as we prepare to take off towards Brazil late tomorrow night!

     Until  then...