Well, today is Tuesday, June 30th. We just finished lunch after a good hard training session. Fairly hot and kids did not respond too well to our conditioning and fitness at the 9 AM training session. Sean played with them to try and show them how they should be playing and at what level. He did quite well with them and it seemed to help a lot. After training we all went to the pool to stretch and relax before lunch. We have another training this afternoon at 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM. We will try to get them to understand our system of play and how to execute it. Shachar Hovan (My Israeli Goalkeeper from Haifa and my BSC Team) is helping each day with the training of our Goalkeepers and he is doing very well with them.
Tomorrow, we will scrimmage the Youth Team, which is the Under 19's,(rising seniors in high school and incoming freshmen in college). It will be good for them. On Thursday, we will scrimmage an Israeli Under 16 team in the early evening.
On Friday, the rest of the US Teams will arrive for pre-camp (touring Israel). Aly will arrive on Friday afternoon. However, she is staying at a different location and I am not sure when Sean and I will see her. Hopefully, we will see her soon. Her competition begins on July 14nd we and 15th. Sean and I plan to attend her competition both evenings and we can't wait to watch her compete. We know she will do great!
Once we start our tours, I will start posting some photographs that Sean will attach, because he has a Digital Camera. I still use my film camera and cannot bring myself to switch to a digital one yet.
We hope everyone is doing well and we miss all of you and my "Gang of Five" (Stach, Cassie, Max, Kol and Kippi)!
Preston and Sean from Israel
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Hello from Israel!
Well, we left Birmingham this morning at 6 AM and arrived in Newark, NJ (via Atlanta) around 11:30 AM. What a chaotic start to our trip....first we arrived about 45 minutes late to Newark and then Sean's bag from Birmingham did not make the flight! After checking with baggage, we found out it had never been scanned in, so they had no idea where the bag was. Luckily, it came on the next flight from Atlanta and arrived at 12:30 PM. We were waiting in a very long line to go through the "profiling" at El AL before we could check in for our flight, which was leaving at 2:30 PM. To make matters worse, Sean and I were not even seated together. Once we were finally seated, I knew exactly what a Sardine must feel in its case....very cramped, hot and not too pleasant of an aroma. We had many very religious people, men, women and children who were praying all the time, especially when the sun started to rise, not to mention the lectures about being Jewish, to any and all that would lsiten, including those that did not want to listen!
We arrived in Israel (Tel Aviv), about 8:15 AM ( 45 minuted late). Now the fun began....did you say Chineese Firedrill in reverse? I thought so, because that was exactly what it was like getting our baggage and clearing customs! I have never seen so many disorganized people in my life, not the least of which was the rudeness and breaking in line all the time. Marie, this was almost as bad as Rio de Janeiro in 1988!
Well we finally cleared customs and got on our bus and made to our hotel for Pre-camp. It is very nice and the food is very good. the people here are extremely pleasant and helpful. The team is now swimming to try and stay awake until training at 4 PM. We will have a very light training session, just to lossen up our muscles from the long flight (10 and 1/2 hours). After our 1 hour session, we will go back to the pool for a coll down stretching sinner session. Dinner will be at 7 PM and then a team meeting with the Maccabi Staff and then a coaches meeting will follow. After that we will go to bed and crash.
Tomorrow (Tuesday), we will have our first true training session at 7 AM until 9 AM and then from 4 PM until 6 PM.
I will post again tomorrow and I hope everyone has a great day!
Best regards to all,
Preston and Sean
,
Well, we left Birmingham this morning at 6 AM and arrived in Newark, NJ (via Atlanta) around 11:30 AM. What a chaotic start to our trip....first we arrived about 45 minutes late to Newark and then Sean's bag from Birmingham did not make the flight! After checking with baggage, we found out it had never been scanned in, so they had no idea where the bag was. Luckily, it came on the next flight from Atlanta and arrived at 12:30 PM. We were waiting in a very long line to go through the "profiling" at El AL before we could check in for our flight, which was leaving at 2:30 PM. To make matters worse, Sean and I were not even seated together. Once we were finally seated, I knew exactly what a Sardine must feel in its case....very cramped, hot and not too pleasant of an aroma. We had many very religious people, men, women and children who were praying all the time, especially when the sun started to rise, not to mention the lectures about being Jewish, to any and all that would lsiten, including those that did not want to listen!
We arrived in Israel (Tel Aviv), about 8:15 AM ( 45 minuted late). Now the fun began....did you say Chineese Firedrill in reverse? I thought so, because that was exactly what it was like getting our baggage and clearing customs! I have never seen so many disorganized people in my life, not the least of which was the rudeness and breaking in line all the time. Marie, this was almost as bad as Rio de Janeiro in 1988!
Well we finally cleared customs and got on our bus and made to our hotel for Pre-camp. It is very nice and the food is very good. the people here are extremely pleasant and helpful. The team is now swimming to try and stay awake until training at 4 PM. We will have a very light training session, just to lossen up our muscles from the long flight (10 and 1/2 hours). After our 1 hour session, we will go back to the pool for a coll down stretching sinner session. Dinner will be at 7 PM and then a team meeting with the Maccabi Staff and then a coaches meeting will follow. After that we will go to bed and crash.
Tomorrow (Tuesday), we will have our first true training session at 7 AM until 9 AM and then from 4 PM until 6 PM.
I will post again tomorrow and I hope everyone has a great day!
Best regards to all,
Preston and Sean
,
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Well, Sean and I are all packed and ready to depart tomorrow (Sunday) for our Maccabiah Experience. We will leave Birmingham at 6 AM and fly to Newark, NJ, where we will board our El Al flight for Israel departing at 2:30 PM. We are due to arrive in Israel at 7:45 AM on Monday morning.
Aly will depart on July 2nd and her competition will begin on July 14th.
We will take the morning to get acclimated at our hotel (Kfar Maccabiah) and have a light training session in the afternoon. We will then train twice a day for 4 days until the entire delegation arrives on July 3rd. At that time we will continue our training every morning and then have our tour of Israel, which is going to be fantastic.
On July 9th we will then move toour permanent hotel (Kibbutz Shefayim) for the actual games. Our first game in Pool Play is against Canada on July 12th at 9 AM. We the will play the defending champions, Israel on July 13th at 9 AM. That evening, we will all go to the Opening Ceremonies.
I will try to post each and every day something about our day in Israel.
Until then, take care and wish us luck,
Coach
Aly will depart on July 2nd and her competition will begin on July 14th.
We will take the morning to get acclimated at our hotel (Kfar Maccabiah) and have a light training session in the afternoon. We will then train twice a day for 4 days until the entire delegation arrives on July 3rd. At that time we will continue our training every morning and then have our tour of Israel, which is going to be fantastic.
On July 9th we will then move toour permanent hotel (Kibbutz Shefayim) for the actual games. Our first game in Pool Play is against Canada on July 12th at 9 AM. We the will play the defending champions, Israel on July 13th at 9 AM. That evening, we will all go to the Opening Ceremonies.
I will try to post each and every day something about our day in Israel.
Until then, take care and wish us luck,
Coach
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