The focus for the second day of Nationals (Mon July 30)  was to “practice” our game day routine which meant a 6:30 am wake up and breakfast by 7:00 am.  Although we had no game to play we needed the boys to follow the same schedule we will be  following when we kick-off the U17 National Championships against Saskatchewan at 9:00 am on Tuesday.

Although the early wake up made for a long day, the results were very encouraging as all the players seem to be managing their down time perfectly. We didn’t have to force them to go to bed, didn’t need to bang on doors for wake-up calls, and didn’t see anyone dragging their butts to meal hall last minute. I think the two week training camp at St. Thomas  and UNB can be thanked for this behaviour as this is really our third week of living in residence and rising early to eat and the team seems to have adjusted perfectly.

Despite not having a game to play on day #2, there were lots of scheduled activities for our team:

  • 10:00 am – Practice
  • 12:45 pm – Player Combine Testing
  • 2:20 pm – Team Pictures
  • 4:30 pm – Head Coaches meet & greet at City Hall
  • 8:30 pm – Coaches meeting

Like every Nation Championship, the day also threw us a little adversity to deal with. When we arrived at the practice facility we quickly realized the gym was double booked. Turns out the schedule we received from Canada Basketball had listed the wrong gym and we were actually practicing off site about a mile away. Once again the team rolled with the punches. We tracked down our bus driver, packed up our gear and headed over to the other facility and still got in a good 60 minutes of practice.

We also received good news last night. All championship games will be recorded with the plan to stream them live. For those interested in watching our games you can find the feeds here…http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?c=11-8984-0-0-0&sID=251273