Imyourcoach: My Site News

WEll...we just spent our first day in Amsterdam.....WOW! this place is crazy. I am not even going to go into description of the Red Light District on here...out of control.

The highlight of the trip has been the ANne Frank Museum. They have the annex Anne Frank and her family hid in for two years during the war. It was incredibly moving. I have been wanting to go there since I was seven and to actually walk in the same rooms that she was in is a privilage that I am so thankful to have had.

The rest of AMsterdam is actually very pretty...Serena and I probably walked five miles today just to see everything. THere are canals going through the streets and the city is very old so it has so manyinteresting building.

Serena and I mostly enjoy people watching. Serena walks very fast by the way and nobody let us know it was winter over here. Everyone is in leather jackets and scarves and we brought one warm outfit and the rest is shorts and tank tops...cool. GOod thing we walk so fast to keep our bodies warm. haha....talk to u all later

Yesterday we beat Slavakia and then San Marino in the gold medal game to win the Pool B Gold Medal. Serena pitched both games and I caught. At the end of the tournament Serena was awarded the Best Pitcher award. She dominated. THere was no one else even close to her. I was given the Best Hitter award and the MVP award. I was shocked I got the MVP because I really thought Serena deserved it.

Anyways....it was a great experience to play with the Greek girls and we made many many friends. I had so much fun and we were so sad last night when we had to board the overnight train to Amsterdam and say goodbye to them. But we are in Amsterdam now and it is quite the spectacle. It's like New YOrk only with legal marijuana. People just smoke it on the streets. It's weird. I feel like they are going to get arrested any moment! That's all for now.

Well....we are playing tomorrow in the medal rounds for the tournament. We have gone 5-2 over the last five days....it has been a lot of softball. Serena has been dominating the competition but will face her biggest test tomorrow. We play Slovakia in the morning to decide who gets the bronze. The winner will go on to play San Marino from Italy in the Gold Medal Game.

We have played San Marino twice. We pitch Anna, our Greek pitcher against her in both games. They have been good games but we lost. This is okay though because tomorrow is the important games. Serena has been hitting super well. She is probably batting around .500 for the tournament with several doubles. I am doing well also, batting around .750 and leading the tournament in Doubles, RBI's, Batting average and runs scored. None of that matters though because what matter now is what we do tomorrow. We have come a long way in a short time to get to this point. Our team has gelled together very well. San Marino is a very very good team and they have about six Americans on their team which helps considerably. We can beat them though. Anything less than the Gold is going to be a disappoint.

Saturday night after the tournament we are going to take a sleeper train to Amsterdam for the fun part of our trip. We plan on going from Amsterdam to Paris.....where we are going to walk to the top of the Eiffel Tower...that is 1662 steps by the way! I'll let you know how that one goes....then From Paris we are going to London. Lots of travellig lots of fun.

Well...we play at 9:30 am and it has been a long five days so I am going to hit up the buffet then go to bed. I miss all of you in the states and look forward to seeing you at my CLIENT APPRECIATION PICNIC!!!!!!!!!! be there!

:)

Well...it's been a while. Let me start with yesterdays game. We won yesterday against Britain 11 to 3 in 6 innings. Serena pitched four innings....she faced twelve batters and struck out 11 and got the other girl to pop out to me at catcher. She was pitching great! Her balls were moving really well. I was super happy for her. I was four for four yesterday with 2 singles a double and a triple. Serena also hit a triple yesterday.

 Today's game was not much of a game. We won 14 to 0 in 4 innings. Serena hit a grand slam. The ball went about 300 feet. IT was a blast. I was 2 for 2 with 2 walks.

Last night we went to downtown Prague and walked across a famous bridge. Prague is beautiful. Tomorrow we start tournament play. WE play at 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m....I have to go for a massage now and I am really excited. Talk to you all later.

Hello. Well, we had our first two games today here in Prague. We won both. The first game I started at third and was 3 for 3. I had a single, double and a triple. Serena played first base. In the fifth inning he put Serena in to pitch and I went in to catch. She struck out 4 and forced two to pop up and we won 2 to 1.

In the second game, Serena pitched and also hit a triple and an in the park homerun!!!!! I played catcher again. Serena and I work well together and are having a lot of fun. I am enjoying the environment over here and it is GREAT playing for a super supportive, positive coach. Serena and I woke up last at about 2 in the morning and could not go back to sleep...w.e are still on American team. We had to leave the hotel at 6 a.m. to get to the field for the first game....we are quite tired. We plan on showering and gong to sleep!

We have only one game tomorrow and then we get to sight see finally....things have been super duper hectic. I am excited about getting to sleep in tomorrow....maybe I'll get 8 hours of sleep in a row instead of all this weird napping sleep pattern we are on.

I hope everyone in the states is doing well! We miss you!

Hey everyone....well I am getting ready to leave Byron to go to Chicago to get on the plane. We fly out at 7:45 tonight and will not land until Thursday night. It's going to be quite the trip. I am a little nervous....those planes are huge and I am not sure how they stay in the air! I put my backpack on this morning. It's really heavy and I am not sure how this walking around thing is goin to be but I bet I lose weight and put on some muscle.....haha!

My parents are going to the Prague part of it. I am a little worried for them. They rented a car and my dad has road rage in America. I am not sure how he is going to react to being on the other side of the car, on the other side of the road, on roads that are only as wide as an alley.....LORD HELP US ALL!  :)

I'll write to you guys the next chance I get to get on the internet.....talk to u later

:)

well...we are here. We got to Greece last night at around 5 local time....Greece is nine hours ahead of America so you are all asleep right now. We were very tired when we got here because we did not sleep much on both the plane flights. It was 7 hours from Chicago to London then another 4 hours to Greece. We just slept for about fourteen hours and we feel much better.

We met our team yesterday. They have all only been playing softball since 2002. There is only one softball field in Athens. I told them that America was quite different. We are staying with a girl named Emma who plays on the team. Her father is quite wealthy and they have a house here in Greece. People drive like maniacs here by the way. And motorcycles just cruise on down the center line between the cars.

Serena was being pushed around at the airport by some crazy lady. It was quite funny. The lady did not seem to realize that she kept bumping into Serena. I thought Serena was going to punch her. I am glad she did not because that would cause some serious problems. haha...well we are off to meet with our coach about the tournament.....talk to you all soon!

Hello everyone. Well, since the season ended Sunday I have actually been pretty busy. I am in the midst of moving apartments and also getting ready for the trip to Europe! I am going to Gander Mountain tonight to pick out my backpack for the backpacking part of the trip.

As I am looking at all these wonderful places on the other side of the world I am once again amazed at everywhere sports have taken me. Softball brought me to Rockford where I have met tons of amazing people and new friends.....and that guy that's at a lot of my games named Josh  :)  But now it seems just unreal to me that I am going all the way across the world on an amazing adventure as a direct result of softball. The sport that has taken me all over the country is now taking me all over the world!

It's because of how much softball has given me in my life that I feel the urge to coach. I feel like I owe so much to the sport and the fans that I look forward to a Sunday where I have lessons scheduled from 10 am to 10 pm. I cannot wait til February when my high school team starts up again. That's the most gratifying part of what I do. Helping young people realize their potential not only as athletes but people.

Well...I fly off in a week, stay tuned for news from myself and Serena!