An Adventure in Europe 4/28/12

After a long journey overseas, which unfortunately included many of our guys stuck in middle seats (in economy class) we arrived tired, stiff and a bit cranky in Serbia. We expected to spend 8 days there training with a professional club called Partizan. This is one of the biggest and best water polo clubs in the world. Basically it is a water polo factory. All day long, the pool is filled with young (7 - 18 year old) kids training to become the next Serbian superstar. It is pretty amazing to watch. There are ten year olds doing some of the drills that we do with our national team. The first few days of training were excellent. However the original schedule for the week was suddenly changed drastically - eliminating almost half of our trainings with the club for the rest of the week. One of the factors was that the head coach’s wife had passed away shortly before our arrival. She had been ill for quite a while with cancer but the last few months had been really rough. The coach, Igor Malnovic, is one of the most celebrated water polo players in Serbia. He was the center for Yugoslavia in the 80’s when they won two Olympic gold medals and we won two silvers. I know Igor very well and had a chance to spend an hour or so with him while we were in Belgrade. He was a broken man. He and his wife have two beautiful daughters (5 and 8 years old) and he is trying to figure out what life looks like without his wife. He appeared to have aged ten years since I saw him last, just two years ago. My heart hurt for him. It was a hard reminder of how fragile life is and how we must focus on the relationships in our lives. Also, a good slap in the face to keep what we are doing with the team in perspective. We shared a tearful hug when we departed. Anyway, we were forced to make a decision to leave Serbia and find another team to train with during our time here in Europe. Fortunately for us there was a good match. A club in Italy, called Pro Recco was interested in hosting us and training with us for a week. It was a bit of a struggle but we were able to find flights to mobilize our team of 24 athletes, coaches and staff and get everyone to Italy. We also had to work within our budget to make this happen. Pro Recco offered to help on that end. They actually agreed to host us (room and board) and pay an additional $ 3,500 for transportation to help us get there. This was very helpful and made the decision to head to Italy easy. After an afternoon of flying we arrived in Recco on Wednesday night. Recco is a town just east of Genoa that sits right on the sea. It is a small and quiet town. However, their water polo team is just the opposite. This is truly a world all-star team. There team consists of three Serbians, three Hungarians, two Croatians, two Montenegrins, two Spanish, two Italians and a few other select players. All of these players are the best players on their respective teams. They are loaded with talent. We have been training twice per day with this team. We warm up and then we scrimmage for an hour. It has been fantastic. A good opportunity for us to play against the best. This is a team that is as good as any national team in the world. Another upgrade has been the food. It is not that the food was bad in Serbia. They took care of us very well but since moving to Italy we have eating like kings. Lots of pasta and carbs. A little rough on the guys that are eating a gluten free diet but the Italians have been very accommodating and have been serving those guys the gluten free pasta. It is difficult as a coach who stands on the deck, talks to his players, waves his arms around a bit and occasionally raises his voice to make a point with a referee to keep up with how much the players are eating. Obviously, they are burning the calories. We (the coaches) have had to ask for half portions to make sure that we don’t come home with ten extra pounds. Tonight (Saturday), we have an official game with Pro Recco. They are expecting a couple of thousand rowdy fans. It is great preparation for us to play a game like this against a powerful opponent with a hostile crowd. All of the scrimmages have been close so far. They have won a few by one or two goals and we have done the same. Hopefully, we will show up tonight and take it to them. The trip has also provided us with an opportunity to bond as a team. I have been able to meet individually with each player and the team has had a few dinners together. Tomorrow we will have a light day of training and then enjoy some time away from the pool together. We are trying to arrange a boat ride out to one of the local islands. Monday we will get back to good training before heading for home on Wednesday. Less than three months to go to London now... See you at the pool. Coach