Free Time

When I'm not playing volleyball this is what I spend my time doing... Rescuing random cats out of the walls. Believe me, I'd like to know how it got in there also, but the real question is what one does with a face like that.

*GOLD*

As the remaining tendrils of cigar smoke and the boozy haze in my brain recede, I realize, I've had little time to reflect on what has been a unique season. Thinking back to August and the beginning, all sorts of thoughts come to mind. It's been bumpy along the way. From somersaults to a gimpy shoulder to coming back from the dead in Gentofte, somehow we managed to do what I can quite honestly say, didn't seem probable at many times, win the Danish Championship for a second time in a row.

Without getting too deep into everything, I just want to say that personally, I'm incredibly proud of the accomplishment. I'm proud of the way this team had a knack for winning close matches. I'm proud that we got better as the season went along. And I'm proud that we won a league that was more competitive than it has been in a long time. So, Fellas, congratulations on a fantastic season! It's been an absolute pleasure.

For me, it's kind of a weird feeling. I've been in Denmark for several years now, and I love it. But, and I know this isn't a big surprise, I've decided to sign a contract in Germany with Wuppertal for next season, so my time here is over (at least for the moment). I'm going to continue with the blog next season, so I hope some of you will keep reading, I don't know if there will be anything too interesting to report, but I guess we'll find out!

But now, it's time to get on a plane and find my way home for a little while. That means the blog is going to be off for a couple months, I might post every once in awhile if I feel like saying something or if I play in a couple AVP tournaments... But I doubt it. Laying around in the sun, on the beach, takes up a lot of time. I'll be back in the middle of June, possibly playing in one or two tournaments on the Fanta Tour, definitely hanging around and watching some, and generally enjoying the wonderful Danish summer.

Ses!

FINALS

There is little to report from last night's first final. The gym was set up, the fans were there, and the match was slightly disappointing. As has been reported, we won the match in fairly safe style, winning by at least four in each of the three sets. We played stable but not especially well and it was enough to win a match that had quite a few mistakes in it.

There were definitely some good things from our side. We played good defense, blocked pretty well and only gave up a couple runs of points. But all in all it was a workmanlike win for us that we'll take and head back home for Monday.

It feels good to have that first win in the bank, and the security of home court for the next two. We've played well in Marienlystcentret all year so we go home with confidence. No question the next match will be more intense, from both sides, hopefully we'll be the ones holding up the trophy after it is over!

After heart attack comes the finals...

I don't need to tell everyone all the same stuff that everyone else already has. The match was ridiculous and I'm still not positive that we won. I'm still waiting for someone to come to me and say that the match isn't over and that we need to go back to Copenhagen to play the rest of it. We essentially lost (down 24-21 with Jacob passing) and won (Toke blocking at 14-12) before actually winning the match. It was a great experience, one that I will remember for a long time, but I'm not entirely sure that I could take it if I had to do it again, say...tomorrow. Luckily, we're in the finals and we can now focus on getting ready for Friday.

I'm glad that we finally got to play a match where both teams could say afterward that they played at a high level. I'm sure it doesn't make up for losing, but with the way that Gentofte played yesterday, it has to take some of the sting out of it. When you perform the way you want to and your opponent does the same it is hard to be too down about losing. And obviously, there was very little that separated us from each other yesterday, one ball goes the other way and we're going back to Marienlyst to play again tomorrow.

As far as what happened after the match, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, things were intense and I have said before that I personally have no problem with trash talking. If you really think about it, yesterday's match was probably one of the best in a long time in Denmark, it was also one of the most "talkative" matches I have been a part of since being here. If nothing else, the talking contributed to the intensity of the volleyball. So, in that sense, I loved it.

On the other hand (And please remember this is just my feeling on the subject), in my mind, there is a certain art to trash talking. The people who are really good at it have a way of making it entertaining, funny, cool and effective. Rarely does it get personal and rarely does it have to do with anything more than the sport at hand. I mean otherwise, you're not really trash talking, you're just talking shit about someone to their face. And I think what got out of hand yesterday is that a lot of things were said that would NEVER be said off the court and to someone's face. From both sides.

Obviously there is no need to get physical about it, but let's just remember there is no need to keep talking after the match is over. And this isn't to sound like a "tough guy" but if you do persist on talking after the match then you have to also be willing to stand by what you say, it was intense and that meant that any number of reactions could have occurred. I didn't hear what was said, and I honestly don't know who started the whole thing, I'd imagine both sides are guilty, so let's just put it all behind us and stop taking everything so personally.

Hats off to Gentofte and to the crowd yesterday, thanks for making the match a classic. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened in a third and deciding match...