| Sunday
26th February.
6.00am wake up for management,
6.30am players wake up.
 Immediately
after waking the boys got to business with exercises comprising
of 3 sets of 20 push ups and 20 sit ups. then it’s a quick
shower and off to the 7.00am breakfast. Again the menu was
tuned to suit the Australian tastes, juice, cereals, tea,
coffee, cakes, bread, jams etc as well as a nice selection
of continental
meats and cheeses. No shortage of good eating.
8.00am In the change
room and get ready for practice while the stereo blasting
music that is appropriate for this type of event.
8.30-10.00 am Practice
on the ice. The surface is large and the ice is fantastic.
The coaching staff demanding, the pace quick, the result
scratchy, it will improve.
 After
practice the boys showered and then we went for a walk to
town. Unfortunately this being a Sunday not much was open,
phone cards will
have to wait till tomorrow. Some of the boys got some local
currency from the ATM and Mark and I
bought some food to tied the boys over in between meals.
Upon our return it was
time for lunch and as usual there was soup a main of stir
fry and rice and fruit to finish off.
Then we watched the Olympic
gold medal game, had a quick rest and then back to the change
room for the second practice session for the day.
This is where we are
up to now, currently it is 6.30pm here and the boys have just
hit the ice, the training is hard and fast as always with
Vlad, they will sleep well.
Dinner will be at 8.00pm
tonight from there we will retire to our VIP room where we
have a table tennis table, television, dvd, vcr, kitchen,
and other goodies.
10.30 pm everybody in
their rooms and 11.00pm light out.
We have not quite gotten
over the jet lag, it will take a few more days.
Friday 25th February.
The Longest Day.
Wake up was 8.00 am with
a 9.30am breakfast. We had a very nice breakfast at our hotel
then went back to our rooms and finished packing. The bus
was booked for 11 am to take us to the airport, it took two
full mini bus and trailer loads to get all
the players and gear to the departure terminal, I’ve seen
movies of African expeditions with less equipment then we
had.
 As
we were fairly early we seemed to manage to get all the luggage
on the plane without too much trouble, although Cecile had
one of our team suitcases and was asked to pay about US$27
in excess weight fees, a stern look from our friendly supervisor
put an end to that. We negotiated customs and the boarding
procedure without too much hassle and were on our way to San
Francisco. The flight departed about 3.30pm, the flight was
one of the less pleasant ones I’ve had, every seat on the
plane was taken, the flight attendants seemed to want to be
somewhere else and our hope for those in seat entertainment
systems was shattered.
The 13 hour flight lasted
forever, eventually we landed in San Francisco, negotiated
the overly complex US customs procedures and
made camp at our departure gate for the next leg of our journey.
The boys then went off to explore and get snacks etc.
I went in search of the
players who were joining us here form Canada, Adam Kimbley
and Matt Price. I also needed to get boarding
passes for our flight from Frankfurt to Prague as these could
not be issued in Sydney. I got the boarding passes
found Matt and Adam and sorted out a couple of potential headaches.
About 4 hours later we
were on our way to Frankfurt aboard a Lufthansa flight, the
attendants were far more attentive the those on the previous
United flight and about 100 years younger. The 10 hours passed
almost quickly and we were in Frankfurt at
about 10 am local time. Again we made our way to the next
departure gate made camp there and the boys took off exploring
and buying stuff. I went to the nearest currency exchange
cashed in some travelers cheques and gave each player 10
euro to get something to eat.
 The
flight to Prague departed at 12.25pm local time, we were on
the home stretch, one more flight and we would be in Czech
and no more planes for two and a half weeks. The Czech luggage
handlers must have had a problem with our luggage as it took
ages to come out, in the meantime the boys amused themselves
by sending various items around the conveyor belt, including
a can of underarm deodorant that was used then placed back
on the conveyor for the next person in line to freshen up.
The luggage arrived with
only 3 items missing, a bit later it was only one item missing,
this was Adams hockey gear bag which was apparently doing
the round US tour. We reported it and proceeded outside where
the friendly faces of Vlad and Jakob were waiting.
We arrived in Slany at
3.30pm, we had been traveling for 36 hours and it has been
over 40 hours since our last proper night’s sleep.
 Upon
arrival we quickly organized ourselves into our rooms unpacked
gear and had a quick look around our home for the next 2 and
something weeks. The most excited I’ve seen the boys was when
they got to unpack their gear in the change room, which is
warm spacious and has plenty of hanging space, it is also
located about 20 meters from our rooms.
Dinner consisted of soup,
main course of meat and potatoes with a green salad (that
everybody forgot to eat) and desert of ice cream cream and
cake. Food was not going to be a problem from the look of
the menu.
The local 3rd division
team was playing that night and we watched a bit of the game
before retiring to our rooms to watch the Olympic Bronze medal
game or fall asleep trying. I hit the sack at about 8pm local
time and like a lot of the boys woke up at 2am, 4am and eventually
at 6 am.
Thursday 24th
February.
The boys gathered in
Sydney on Thursday traveling from Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne,
we were met at our hotel for the night by the New South Wales
based players. The accommodation venue (Formula 1) wasquite
nice although the rooms were very cozy. We had a few quick
visits to Krusty Cream next door which has some of the best
donuts we have tasted, yes this was part of our finely tuned
diet.
Once everybody settled
in we had our first team meeting, this was in their executive
meeting room (the area next to the elevators), we mentioned
the usual golden rules of traveling, don’t do anything stupid
and don’t upset the management.
The playing jerseys were then handed out to the players along
with their training jerseys and socks.
Apart form being a nice
touch there was a practical side to this ceremony, the jerseys
and socks come in 3 separate suitcases, they weigh a ton but
don’t have an owner, so excess luggage is a bit of a problem,
this way the load is
shared, literally.
Following the presentations
the boys had their own player meeting. Very impressive, apparently
they are taking this tournament quite seriously and aren’t
just using it as a tax write off for their parents.
Once all the meeting
were done it was time to eat and according to last years team
the Graphic Arts club was the place to
go. We booked a (large) table and proceeded to satisfy our
thirst and hunger. it was great and hit the spot really well.
After a casual walk back to Formula
1 it was a bit of television and then bed.
17 Feb 2006
Captains Announced
The coaches have announced
the captain and alternate captains for the 2006 NYT. They
are:
 |
 |
 |
Todd
Stephenson
Captain |
David
Huxley
Alternate Captain |
Tomas
Manco
Alternate Captain |
Congratulation to the
boys on their selection, they are all players that experiencedvictory
last year in Div III and know what it takes to lead the team
& succeed. They
will do a great job this year.
|
