Wesmen

A few days ago I was asked if I would be interested in writing a blog about my World Championships experience and obviously... I decided to do it. The man who approached me was Larry McKay, who just so happens to coach of the Men's Volleyball team at the University of Winnipeg. Larry suggested I write it for the Wesmen website, and it seemed fitting due to the amount of Wesmen flavour on this trip:
1. Justin Duff: Yup... that's right, I am a proud Wesmen alumni and on this trip.
2. Larry McKay: Even though the Volleyball Canada news releases won't tell you, we are graced by the presence of Larry. And what a presence, and pleasure it is!
3. Dustin Schneider: Dusty played 5 years with the Wesmen, in which he garnered so many accolades and awards that to list all of them would exceed the word count of this blog.
Although I am a little bias, to see members of our Wesmen community involved at the International level is indicative of the quality of our program. <--  In case anyone's interested, you may use that quote for recruiting purposes.
And... "off the record", in an "on the record" sort of way: It's comforting for me to see familiar faces.
All right, enough inflating our own tires... although the reason I did may be apparent after this;
Match 3: Czech def Can 3-0. There's not much to say, we had our chances... until they took them. I would make a few more comments, but I should allow the volleyball.ca website's game summaries some traffic.
*Non Volleyball Part begins*
During some downtime, i searched downtown LItomysl for a shot glass with the town's name on it for my friend who collects. Long story short, I didn't find one... unless the Czech's do shots out of Mugs and Cups, which is possible when considering the almost disrespectfully low price of liquor here.
At this point, I should mention something about my room mate / new best friend for life Gord Perrin. Gord is the youngest player on the team [out "younging" me by 15 months] and played this year at Thompson Rivers University [Oddly enough I decided to mention a non-wesmen player in my post titled Wesmen.] He was awarded 1st team All Canadian honors, and lead his team to CW 1/4 finals. Like me, he was originally named to the national 'B' team at the start of the summer, and bumped up for this World Championship run. We've lived together since mid August resulting in many hours spent watching Bachelor Pad season 1, and many random episodes of Family Guy, Simpsons, and South Park. He was right there during my shot glass hunt, so I feel he deserves a shout out in the traditional TRU way; "GGG G to the P"

I've noticed that a few more things about the culture;
1. Alternative energy sources seem to be a priority. Between our hotel and the gym there are several fields of solar panels [that's right, fields of them] as well as multiple windmills. I'm not an environmental buff [nor am I necessarily sure if the panels collect enough energy to make up for the amount they use adjusting their angle to follow the sun] but a friend of mine is, and I think she would like it.
2. "Bubbly" is all the rage... apparently. At each meal we were presented with a different fancily bottled carbonated water. I'm told by the elder members of the team [who have spent most of the last few years of their life in Europe] that I will acquire a taste for it, but for now... I'll stick to the tap.
Also for now, I will end this post. We head to Bled, Slovenia tomorrow to play exhibition matches against one of the top professional teams in Europe this past season. I'll be sure to let you know how they go. Until then, all the best.
-j.duff