WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12

2:01 a.m.

Just finished getting everything ready for the trip. The biggest thing for me is to get all the other sports covered when I leave with the volleyball team. The men's hockey team has a home series this weekend so I was making sure the recap page and all the computer set-up was taken care of. Hopefully I won't be home until late Saturday night and will miss both hockey games. If that is the case, I am all set and ready for this weekend.

I was also in the office writing the basketball previews for the upcoming season. The men's basketball team has a home game next Tuesday and all the info needed to be in to the printer so we could start putting the program material together.

I was also busy loading program onto the new laptop I will be taking to the tournament. I should be all set and ready to go when the bus pulls out on Wednesday (later today) at noon. In the meantime there will be a team picture at 9:45 a.m. along with other preparations for the match on Thursday as well as making sure I have everything I need to broadcast the match (which will be interesting since I am to play-by-play as Chuck Norris is to Academy Award-winning acting!).

Stay tuned, it should be an exciting couple of days. I will try and update the journal every night as we head down to the Cities.

The itinerary for tomorrow is:

9:45 - Team Picture

Noon - Leave for St. Paul

6:00 p.m. - Team practice at St. Thomas

8:15 p.m. - Coaches Meeting for the Tournament

From there, who knows. Thanks for reading and keep checking back to see the latest updates.

11:53 p.m.
The bus was a little late in getting to school so the players are waiting around the doors and in the hallway. Like it is with every team before the start of the playoffs, their faces are full of excitement, hope and a lot less worry now that they have taken care of all their class work and the preparations necessary to make one more road trip. It’s another grey day outside it is not raining or snowing which means that the ride down should be uneventful.

The bus pulls up and the team starts to load their bags underneath the bus. It’s a ritual they have done many times before and they are getting very good at packing the bus and making sure everything gets put in its correct spot. Before the team left assistant coach Bob Jones decides that he will play a practical joke on freshman setter Amy Sykora. He gets senior Anna Tinkham to go along with his scheme and the two spend the next few minutes planning out the prank. When everyone is ready on the bus Bob gets up and tells Amy that the NCAA has started a new program where they will test for drugs before the match and then again after and that she has been selected as the player to be tested before the tournament. Anna plays the role of the accomplice perfectly as she agrees with everything Bob is saying and letting the first-year player know that it will be ok because she was tested her sophomore season. Head coach Tim Mosser then sets the hook by telling Amy and Anna to hurry up because we have a strict time schedule and we can’t be late for the practice that starts at 6 p.m.

Amy starts to get flustered and she tells Anna that she just went to the bathroom and will try to go again for the testing procedure. The two walk off the bus and Amy is nervous and you can tell she doesn’t want to let the team down by having them wait. Anna can barely get off the bus without cracking up (a trait she is well known for but that story will have to wait). Bob is practically laughing out loud as the get off the bus. The two start to walk quickly toward the building. The rest of the bus starts to get wind that this is just another one of Bob’s practical jokes and they all bust out laughing. They are waiting to see when Anna will break the news to the gullible freshman. She waits until they are just about at the doors and tells her the whole story. Amy turns around and is as red as the hair on her head. More laughter and the two climb back on the bus. Amy is a good sport about the whole scene and laughs along with the rest of the team.

The road to the NCAA Tournament has officially and it is like every other trip that the volleyball team takes – loose and fun. There is a reason this team has kept the string of national playoff appearances going. You can immediately tell they have the same character and family feeling that the very first NCAA Tournament squad had back in 2003, It’s a comforting thought that as much as players, parents and expectations change in today’s society, the coaching staff and personnel of the CC volleyball team keep their same integrity, commitment to excellence and sense of fun that they have always had.

12:06 p.m.
The bus pulls out from Concordia. You have to wonder, will this be the year that the team breaks through and makes it to the regional final or even to the Elite 8! Only time will tell and one thing the coaching staff has learned is that all it takes is three great matches and you are region champion.

12:31 p.m.
Anna Tinkham has assembled the team in the back of the bus and is about to have another one of her joke sessions. It is a tradition that started last year with former Cobber great Michelle Honek. It seems that Tinkham would tell jokes to just the back of the bus but then the team decided to make it a tradition for everyone to enjoy and it became part of Cobber road trip history.

Today’s joke is average at best. A scuba diver was going diving in the ocean, He started to dive with all his gear on when he comes across a person without any gear about 20 feet under the surface. The diver thinks that is odd and continues to go even farther below the water level. He gets down to 40 feet and pretty soon the same person floats next to him. The diver then decided to find out what is going on and takes out his waterproof erase board and writes on it, “what are you doing down here?” The person without the gear grabs the board and writes “drowning!”
After secretly polling some of the other players on the team, they all say that Anna is an ok joke teller who occasionally comes up with a very good one. However, judging from the laughter coming from the back of the bus, the jokes are more about being together than the actual joke itself.

1:30 p.m.
We are progressing towards our lunch destination in Clearwater. The players are quiet and most of them take the time to catch up on sleep as the bus rolls down the road on the first leg of the journey. I am surprised that no one goes for the DVD player to put in a movie to pass the time. The few that do not sleep are either reading or listening to music.

3:14 p.m.
The pulls into the restaurant in Clearwater. The players have sensed that we are about to stop and aere waking up and getting ready for their first road meal of the trip. The team has made a habit of stopping at the Nelson Bros. restaurant and today is no different as coach Mosser wants to try and keep as much of a routine as possible for the national tournament. His theme of just another match, just another tournament will be repeated throughout the day and the tournament.

The players sit at two tables while the coaching staff and bus driver sit at a third table. The team splits between junior and seniors and then the freshmen and sophomores. There are seven freshmen on this year’s team so the future of Cobber volleyball will continue to burn bright. The freshmen are wide eyed and eager to take in their first NCAA Tournament. They have heard the stories and seen the film and now it is their turn to live through the reward of all their hard work throughout the year. The first-year players will be called upon to come up big in this year’s playoff. They have continually showed improvement during the season and now they will have to act as veterans and make sure that CC does not fall into a big letdown during any set.

Both tables are talkative and lively and full of energy. Since it is officially “Pick On Amy” day, Bob Jones tells the story about Amy getting hit in the head with a kill shot in yesterday’s practice. Tim walks over to see if the trade mark has worn off from getting hit by the shot. Amy once again turns red and the team laughs when recalling the situation.

As with all families all the good natured teasing is in fun and Tim and Bob know exactly who to pick on and who they can tease. Amy is once again a good sport about being on the wrong end of the teasing.

Tim checks his watch and starts to get worried about the timing of getting to St. Thomas for the 6 p.m. practice slot. In the NCAA playoffs everything is run by the book and you need to be ready to go so you can use your allotted 55 minutes of practice time. The biggest concern whenever traveling to the Cities at this time of the day is whether or not the bus will run into traffic. Everything should be fine if we don’t run into a big delay and Tim estimates that we will arrive around 5:30 p.m.

Most of the players eat a salad or soup and some kind of sandwich. Bob orders breakfast and is excited to be able to have eggs and pancakes at 3:30 in the afternoon.

The meal is served very quickly which sets well with Tim since this will assure that the bus gets to UST on time. While Tim pays for the meal, Bob and Anna Tinkham head to the store attached to the restaurant to see if they have any Benadryl. Anna has a rash on her leg from her neoprene sleeve that she wears on her knee and it is starting to get red and swollen. They can’t find any Benadryl that is non-drowsy and Anna decides not to get any for the fear she might fall over in practice from being too drowsy.

Back on the bus, Bob makes Anna tell a hilarious story about summer volleyball camp. The story involves Bob, Anna and Valerie Glynn trying to usher kids out of the Olson Forum after a fire alarm goes off in the building and ends with Anna spitting water all over Bob because she is laughing so hard at one of his jokes. Bob then comes up with one of the all-time great punch lines as he is standing there with water dripping off of his face, “Tinkham, I’m not on fire!” Valerie joins in recalling the story and it is one of the funniest I have heard in awhile. Most of the players have heard the tale and laugh once again after it is retold.

5:14 p.m.
The bus pulls into St. Thomas ahead of schedule. Unlike the first time in 2003 when the team made the playoffs, on the sixth time, the coaching staff and players treat it like it was just another road trip in the MIAC. The team is greeted by Joann Andregg who is the tournament coordinator and does an unbelievable job at handling all the details and making sure everyone feels welcome. She is one of the great people you get to meet in this line of work and always brings a smile to anyone’s face when they talk about the work she does.

After meeting Joann at the door, the team heads to the locker room while Tim and Bob talk with the St. Thomas coach Thanh Pham. Thanh is another great person in the MIAC. He always has a smile on his face and, win or lose, handles himself with class and poise. The three talk about the regional and that it might come down to a pair of MIAC teams for the regional championship. A conference team has not advanced to an Elite 8 since the 1990’s and a berth would be a big step for the MIAC.

The players then file out and head to the fieldhouse to warm up before the practice. You can tell the players have gone through this hundreds of times as they automatically get into the routine and pick up their intensity. After warm ups the team practices serving and prepare to take the main floor for their 55-minute official practice. Before the team heads into the gym, there is a ball lying on the ground and junior Maggie Olson is by a wall that looks like a soccer goal with the way it is petitioned off. Bob tells Maggie to get in goal and then has me go to the ball to take a shot on goal. Maggie was a soccer goalie in high school as well and helped her team win the North Dakota State Championship in her senior year. Having played soccer a time or two, I look to play the ball around shoulder height knowing that volleyball players are better at digging the ball around floor level. The first shot sails over her left shoulder and into the “net”. The players all hoot and holler and Bob calls for another shot. As I step up to take the second shot from 18 yards out I can see the intensity in Maggie’s face pick up and I can tell she is now in her soccer goalie mode. The shot goes knee high to her right and she dives and makes a perfect stop, turning the ball wide of the net. The crowd goes wild and Maggie has a smile that says “I knew I had it in me, just like riding a bike – you never forget.” After a high five, the team heads off for their official practice.

6:00 p.m.
At exactly 6 p.m. the team is let into the main gym and can start the practice. The doors are closed behind for the “closed” door session. There are only two other people in the gym besides the team and Tim and Bob. The two NCAA site officials will oversee practice and be there to answer any questions. The first real sign that this is the “dance” and not just another practice.

Before they start their session, Tim has the team look around the court and reminds them of how well they play at St. Thomas. The team went 4-0 at the Border Battle Tournament which was held earlier in the year and was against other IIAC teams – just like the team’s first-round opponent Loras. You can see the players start to relive those moments and they are getting into their match mode.

The team goes through an uneventful practice with Tim and Bob being positive throughout the entire 55 minutes. All the players work through their bus legs and are getting into the flow of practice when they have to stop because the time is up. The only incident of the session occurred when a stray ball zipped by Jenna Green’s head. She almost pulled an Amy Sykora and the team all breaks out at the thought of Jenna getting pelted.

7:02 p.m.
The team files into a hallway where they can cool down. They also have a chance to buy a t-shirt or other NCAA gear. Those become cherished keepsakes that will only appreciate over time. Time to head back to the bus and to dinner. The captains decide to go to Subway to get something quick they can take back to the hotel and that will also fit in Tim’s schedule of attending the coach’s meeting for the tournament at 8:15 p.m. That is one of the qualities you pick up right away with this team. There are not many egos and they all look out for each other. They truly care about one another and want each other to feel a part of the family. It doesn’t matter if it is the player that never gets a chance to play, the coaching staff or the four-year starter – everyone belongs and no one person’s needs are put ahead of the rest of the group.

7:15 p.m.
After driving around St. Paul for awhile because of a missed turn, the team heads into Subway and fall into the routine of ordering their food. Once again you can tell this is a habit they have repeated many times. They know what they want and the ordering process doesn’t take very long.

Another thing you notice about the team is the abundance of nicknames that most people have. Most teams have one or two nicknames that they throw around in regular conversation but this team has a nickname for almost every player. It is hard to decipher who is being called what and where the names come from but they fit into the principle of everyone feeling like a close knit family.

Some of the nicknames that I was able to decipher:
Anna Tinkham = Tinks (a no-brainer that is easy to understand)
Erin Sykora = Ernie or Buddy (the first is a reference to her first name and the second has to do with a basketball player Bob once knew)
Valerie Glynn and Allie Burnside have morphed into Valley because of the time they spend together and are now considered one person
Maggie Olson = Blinkin (another Bob Jones special. He will comment when Maggie makes a great play or flubs up, “Maggie Blinkin Olson”)
Amy Sykora = Junior (as in little Sykora – Erin’s little sister)
Greta King = Gert or Gretzky (another takeoff on the last name)
Katie Vohntouka = VOE TOOKA (this comes from one of the ways her last name was mispronounced at a home match this season – for the record it is pronounced va-NOKA as in rhymes with Anoka)
Jaci Heath = Forrest (This is a tribute to her knee brace and the movie character Forrest Gump)
Ashley Beseman = Beezy (once again the last name game)
Jenna Green = HM (I have no idea on this one)

The team files back onto the bus and then to the hotel. I accompany Tim to the coach’s/administrator’s meeting. The meeting is well run by St. Mary’s head coach Mike Lester. He does a good job of explaining all the necessary info and leaving out all the obvious details. I have been to too many meetings that drag on because the chairperson allows everyone to discuss the simplest details. Not tonight, Mike gets to the point and moves on and we are out of there in less than an hour.

We get back on the bus and are met by Bob who is watching film of Loras. The rest of the team is at the hotel and Bob has used the time to study tomorrow’s opponent. That is another reason why the team has been one of the premiere programs in the region the last six years – the dedication to preparation that the coaching staff takes.

9:15 p.m.
That is all for Day 1. The team will have one more meeting and then head off to sleep. They will wake for one of the most important matches of their career. They have a chance to write Cobber volleyball history. They are already another terrific chapter in a great story and the first round playoff match could be another highlight – only time will tell.