Anyways, welcome back. My last post was about 10 days ago prior to our game against the Kalamunda Eastern Suns. There was some uncertainty prior to the game in which players the Suns would be bringing with them. The team is sponsored by AND1 and features an American guard named Kenny Brunner who played at Georgetown and Fresno State. He has a little bit of a past behind him. Apparently. He is the “self-proclaimed” best point guard outside of the NBA and is featured on AND1 mix tape tours as “Bad Santa.” He unfortunately was injured and did not travel. The other question mark was surrounding Justin Brown, a seven foot center that played college ball at UConn. He was suspended the week before after he threw his sweatband at a referee in disgust of a call. The rumor was it was a four-game suspension from the league, but it turned out that it was just one game and he suited up to play, despite an error by their coaching staff which failed to report him to the scorer’s table for the starting lineup.
The game was hard fought through the first three quarters. At the first break we led by 4 only to go into the locker room trailing by 5 points. The third quarter we rebounded and took a 2 point lead into the 4th. At this point our team took over and the home court advantage carried us to a 19 point, 102 – 83 victory. The Suns were very two-dimensional; they rely solely on two players to do their scoring. We were able to manage and contain their two players and allowed other guys to try to step up to beat us.
I finished the game with a pretty good line: 20 pts, 10 rebs and 7 ast. We had several players contribute solid performances: Hulme (25 points), Leske (23 points), Franich (14 points) and Haney (11, 7, 7). We are a difficult team to contend with and matchup against when we play together and share the basketball. After the game our record improved to 10-5 and we continued to hold the number 4 spot on the ladder.
Post game wise it was just another Saturday night in Kalgoorlie. A couple drinks at the stadium with the sponsors and supporters of the club, get cleaned up and talk to the parental units back home, hit the Palace and Dbos before closing it down. This particular night, however, threw us a curve ball. On his way home from the bar, a player not to be named, walked past a homeless man with a dog. The dog chased this individual and attacked his leg, not breaking through his jeans or his skin. An unnamed source close to the victim explained that the individual was quite upset and made his mind up to get a rabies shot. This was until he calmed down and realized there was just slobber on his leg pant. The story was pretty entertaining and unexpected.
Sunday night came around and I placed a phone call to Mary Anne Bowler, my Kalgoorlie mother. She had recently had her knee replaced and I offered to pick her up and take her to church with me. I picked her up and as we pulled into the parking lot she mentioned that she might have to do the readings during mass. She wasn’t sure, but thought there might be a chance that she was on the roster for that night. Having been gone for a couple weeks in Perth for the operation and being a very involved woman in the community I figured everyone knew she had surgery and would not have put her on the roster to read. So, being the nice man that I am, I offered to read for her in the very rare instance that she was scheduled to read. At least what I thought was going to be a rare instance. Well this night had a rare instance and this instance was Mary Anne was scheduled to read. So, I was scheduled to read.
I was intimidated and began to look into the readings to see what I was in for. While I began to do this I was asked by the music director to work the computer slides that contained the lyrics to the music. The lyrics are displayed on the wall in the front of the congregation. I was flustered. I was not clicking when I was supposed to, clicking when I was not supposed to and finally I figured it out and had it under control when the regular attendant appeared and took over. At this point I was summoned to the podium for the readings. Acts 2 fell into my lap and at the end of the reading there are about a dozen names to pronounce. For the ones I did not pronounce properly I blamed it on my accent. The experience was a little nerve racking at first, but I enjoyed it.
Thursday I was in for a treat. The weather was not cooperating but I headed out to the “bush” to go prospecting for gold. Yes, I went out looking for gold in the equivalent of a forest with a metal detector. I was with Luke Bowler and our experienced guide Reno Borromei. Wednesday night Luke was very persistent in telling me that we had to leave by 8 am. Luke was going to be picking me up and I needed to be ready to go. Well, 8:15 rolled up about the same time Luke did. We were equipped with metal detectors, shovels and coolers for a bbq. We weathered the rain in the car for a bit, looking at nuggets that Reno had recently found before we got after it. The prospecting tests your patience and your mind. You walk around listening for your detector to make a different sound. That sound can come from any type of metal underground and sometimes your mind just plays tricks on you. Regardless, we marched on. Unfortunately we did not find our retirements out there but it was a lot of fun and something to try. I am living in the “Goldfields” after all.
Friday night was very low key. We had a game the next night so, as usual, we kept it quiet. I did make a brief appearance at the birthday party for our assistant coach and socialized a bit. It’s nice to get out and meet new people away from basketball and from the school.
Saturday was spent getting ready for the game. The Cockburn (Co-burn) Cougars were in town and this was a pretty big game for most of the guys. The former coach of my team is now the coach of the Cougars. Depending on who you talk to in town, the majority of the people were not very fond of him. He yells and swears a lot, but I don’t know much beyond that. The first time we played them we got throttled on the road. It was embarrassing.
Surprisingly the local paper and media did not play the game up as much as I thought they would have with the former coach returning to Kalgoorlie. Things have cooled in those regards after the alleged drama that followed when our coach referred to the people of Geraldton as “ferals”. The team had lost 7 straight games prior to coming to town, all on the tail of their new import arriving. That is kind of counter-intuitive. You would think the team would improve after acquiring a good player, but this has not been the case for the Cougars.
The game was close throughout. After the first quarter we held a 2 point advantage. At halftime we had used the second quarter to be atop by 4 points over the visitors. In the third quarter Ryan Hulme took over and drained several three pointers, but our lead was only 7. The game continued to remain close until the buzzer sounded and we had a 10 point advantage. It was a scrappy and much needed win for us, Giants. It was an all-around good effort by the boys and nice to get the win heading into this upcoming weekend. We remain in 4th place with an 11-5 record and 10 games to go. I finished Saturday night with 20 points, 13 rebs, and 4 assists. The most important thing for us is to maintain a top four spot to gain home court in the playoffs. We need to keep winning games.
This upcoming weekend we have a triple header. There is another national holiday on Monday, surprise surprise. We play Willeton on Saturday (they currently sit in 2nd place), Bunbury on Sunday afternoon (they sit in last place as they are winless), and Monday we play the Perth Redbacks (a game behind us). This is going to be a very big weekend for us and we need to have some success. The three games are very rare for a road trip – usually it is a double header. It will be difficult, but on the brighter side we will be home for the following three weekends.
My time here has been going wonderfully. I still cannot believe it is June already and that I have been here for almost 4 months. It is going by quickly. Since I have been here I have, however, developed a growing frustration with some customs here. Grocery shopping is something I actually enjoy doing and I find myself very limited in when I can do this. Grocery stores are not open on Sundays at all and during the week they close at 6 pm. I finish working at the school at 5 pm and usually go for a workout or to practice shortly after. I need the freedom to grocery shop when I need to. I need to be able to go on a whim and pick something up at 8 pm. The local response is to go to the IGA stores. They are open on Sundays and later. Nope. Not enough of a selection for me.
I was driving to the school the other morning and as I approached school I noticed several students in their uniforms walking away from school. I thought well that is weird, usually you walk into school when it is starting – not into town. The kids apparently take the bus to school, meet their friends and leave. Attendance is a big issue at school for many of the kids and they just openly “wag” as they say here. At home we would at least make an attempt to be secretive about skipping school.
I hope everything is going well at home and that you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. For you Aussies, Memorial Day is similar to your ANZAC Day. I hope the weather was nice, the grill was warm and the beer was cold. I am certainly missing the summer time at home and visiting the cabin. On a side note I am also missing peaches, chipotle and ice baths. They would all be wonderful.
Until next week! I hope you all have a terrific week. God Bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment