Sunday, January 2, 2011

Day 7 - Sunday 2 January
















The morning was our first slow one - and you wouldn't believe how much we needed it. With breakfast at 8.30am and someone to make the waffles, those of us in the hotel were really spoilt, but I think the boys who were billeted were the real winners - most of them spent the evening at the local skating pond around a bonfire with not only their billets but also almost all of the local teenagers!
We met together at Nathan Hale Ray High School at 12 noon to begin our basketball competitions - the Freshman played first at 1pm and drew the game, 60 all. Highlights came from Seamus O'Sullivan who played an outstanding game in all aspects, but the surprise package was Jordan Swepson who was strong in many ways, scoring over 10 points and grabbing heaps of rebounds. It was great to see Nick Duncan score and Ryan Williams played great defence.
The Junior Varsity game was a cracker - intense defence and structured offence played by both sides. It was one of the best games I've ever seen Reid Foran play, and other great performances came from Micheal Moore and Jack LeRossignol. We finally went down 48 - 47, missing a tough shot just on the buzzer. 3pm saw the Varsity game formalities - after a traditional American basketball introduction one of the girls from the High School sang the National Anthem unaccompanied - a spine tingling rendition which we will remember for a long time. Hale Ray came out firing, hitting three pointers with ease and we struggled all game to catch up. It was fantastic to see Aidan Sassu play awesome defence and Dan Affleck shone all over the court. Both Tom and Jake Dunsmore also had great games. The final score was 45 - 61, but the 16 point split did not reflect the standard of the game or the great teamwork we showed. It was great to see a big crowd turn up to see us play and our special public relations host, Philippa Mann, who interacted with the crowd whilst giving out our tour booklets.
The school hosted our whole group for dinner in the cafeteria with many of the locals and all their players and it was so much fun talking to all the parents who had billeted - they had really enjoyed the experience of having our boys in their homes. We have a new dessert favourite - Dirt Cake - and yes, Karen is getting the recipe.
All headed off at 6pm - the boys with their billets and the others back to the hotel for another quiet night - a chance to put more photos onto Flickr (check out www.flickr.com/photos/nc_usatour) - at this point I have uploaded some of the photos Chris Tippelt has taken plus most of Karen's, Lachlan's and Michael's.
Tomorrow the boys head off to school - they are both excited and tentative - more tomorrow night!

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