Week Two: My Debut

So after being forced to stand on the sidelines during the season-opening sweep last Sunday I couldn't wait to get in the action this weekend. But first came a week of practice, watching "Mad Men," eating Swedish pancakes and a six-hour van ride to Orkelljunga (sound it out). The ride wasn't that bad since I had "The Other Guys" loaded onto my iPod and we had a traditional all-you-can eat Swedish meatball dinner at a truck stop.

The week crawled by and finally match time came around in "The Shoe Box," as our coaches call the tiny Orkelljunga gym. After an overly lengthy warm up and a pretty ridiculous home team entrance that included a smoke machine and one of those flashing red lights that they use for goals at hockey games I was ready to play in my first pro match. It was basically all downhill from there...

While the gym was small, even smaller than our home gym, it really made for a great home court advantage for Orkelljunga. They really packed the place, well over the actual number of seats they had. Add to that the kids beating on drums and blowing those horrible horns from the World Cup and it really was us 13 against a whole town. The atmosphere at these matches is nothing like I've ever played in. The crowd was very into it and got loud after every big play they made and then dead silent whenever we would make one (which wasn't often). Also, I could do without the 10 seconds of dance music in between every single point. Lady Gaga is the last thing I need in my ear after missing a play.

From the beginning of the match we knew we were in for a battle. In both games one and two we fell down to early big deficits, including 8-1 in the second. It was a frustrating match to say the least. We definitely weren't prepared for the speed of their offense and were really helpless to stop it. The match ended in a 3-0 sweep to the bad guys, with game three being the only one that was even competitive at 25-23. Overall, I played well offensively and led the team in points but my blocking was pretty disappointing.

We were all pretty disappointed by the effort, which didn't make the six hours of driving home any easier. Even the traditional Swedish comfort food of Big Macs and fries didn't help much.

These first five weeks will be absolutely crucial for how we end up doing this season. After beating the defending champs last weekend we played the runners up this weekend. This week we are back at home against a decent Hylte team. Hopefully our crowd will push us back into the win column. After that we play a good Sollentuna team and then first place Falkenberg. We need to get our game together quick.

Well it's off to practice for me now to work on that, but for now I'll leave you with a picture of one of our neighbors walking his cat (yes, on a leash and everything).



The cat pretty much sits there and stares, even he doesn't know what's going on.