The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Let me begin with the good. Last night was very cool. They bussed us all down to the Duomo in the city center and had a brilliant opening ceremonies there. The created a parade of athletes that marched from the Duomo to the Piazza della Signoria. There they held the opening ceremonies for the tournament. Many vans lined the parade route and the biggest surprise to me was just how many Americans showed up to support our team. In fact, when they lined up all the athletes from all of the countries in the Piazza della Signoria, a live band performed the national anthem of each country. When they came to our anthem, a boisterous American contingent sang out loud to the music. Many of the guys said they felt goose bumps during the anthem. It was pretty emotional and moving. After the anthems they took us inside to the room of 500 where the town hall is. The mayor welcomed us and wished us good luck. It was certainly the best opening ceremonies that I have been to outside of the Olympic Games.



Now let me get to the bad and ugly. Unfortunately, we had our first game tonight and our team forgot to show up. That is how it seemed from the bench anyway. Italy came out on fire and we could never match their energy. We were down 8 - 1 at one point before we woke up and fought back a little. The final score was 10 - 4. Honestly, it was a bit embarrassing - I guess as the coach I take on a great deal of that responsibility for getting the guys ready to perform. We have been training hard but honestly - we were beat on all fronts tonight. They were better than us offensively and defensively. They looked crisp and full of energy where we were flat. I guess the reality of it all is this is where we are right now. We are in pre-season form - where we can step up every once in a while but we can not play consistently at a high level. I can not really think of any real highlights. We were flat out bad tonight. Perhaps the worst I have witnessed as their coach.

The good thing about this tournament is that we are still very much alive. This first round is only for seeding into the quarter finals. Tomorrow we will play China at 4 pm and then Thursday we will play the reigning world champions Serbia. After that the quarter final match ups are determined by how you finished in your bracket. If you win your pool you will play fourth place in the other bracket. If you finish second you would play third place in the other bracket, third place second and fourth plays first. So everyone is still very much alive.

Tomorrow morning it is back to the pool and try to get the guys going in the right direction. The climb to the summit looks pretty high from here. However, I feel like we can make this happen. It is early and we have been training hard. The Italians are peaking for this tournament. No excuses just the reality. We know that we are going to get better and better. Lots of work to do.

Miles to go before we sleep....

See you at the pool.

Coach