Coming togehter in Tallinn

We played our last game in Estonia today and unfortunately lost big 47-86. Not quite sure what happened between yesterday and today, but it just was not the same team out there. Estonia came out ready to fight and we hung with them for a while but just could not keep it up. Tonight we took the girls out into town, because they had not really gotten the chance to properly see anything since we have been here.

We had a good night around the city and then we found a place to sit down a have a little team meeting. Sergio basically told the team that he felt like he had let them down during the game. I thought that it was really good for the girls, because it is not often that you get the head coach to step and say “my bad.” I thought it really showed the human side of him and that as a coaching staff we are not perfect and we still have a lot of growing to do ourselves. I think that we can leave Estonia with a positive feeling, knowing that we have really grown and come together as a team while we have been here.

A win in the Stag-do capital of Europe

So apparently Tallinn is the stag-do capital of Europe (for my Americans this means bachelor party central). There were about three different groups of them on our flight over here. Not quite sure why it is, I guess that Tallinn is known for its nightlife.

We played our second game today and WON 79-73! It was pretty cool, and a big feat for us, because it was a Senior team and not just an U20 team. The girls did so well, and really played as a team. At one point in the game we were down as much as 20 points and they scrapped their way back. It was a pretty awesome to see how hard they fought. We have got to keep building on this and not look back!

Headed to Estonia

We are now in Tallinn, Estonia for three test games against the Estonian Senior Women’s Team. Today we had to go straight from the airport to our game because it is some National Holiday in Estonia so that was the only time that we could play the game.
It became quit the adventure when we could barely fit into the mini bus that picked us up. We got dropped off at the wrong spot and had to go searching for the entrance of the gym hauling all of our stuff with us. Then once we finally got to the gym we only had about 20 minutes to warm up.
We ended up loosing 58-78 but I thought that the girls gave a really good effort. They fought through a lot of adversity today and never complained once. This was a loss that we can build from.

Goodbye Leigh!!

We are now at the end of week two of training camp which means we have to say goodbye to our amazing home here in Leigh. It has been such a great experience here we could not have asked for anything more from the sports hall and the hotel staff. Especially our boys in the kitchen, they were awesome.

We played two practice games against the Great Britain World University Games Team, who have been training with the Senior Women’s Team. It was a really good test for our girls. It went similar to the Ireland games. We played really well on the Saturday but still lost and then did not play well today, and ended up losing by about 20. We also had to narrow the team down to the 12 players that we will be taking to Estonia. The girls now have two days off and we will be getting back together in London to depart for our three test games in Estonia.