Feb. 4, 2008

And so the back-half of our five day road trip was upon us. I personally was pretty excited. We were headed for Washington D.C. to play Atlantic 10 rival George Washington University (which sits atop Forbes' list of the worlds most expensive universities). We left the City of Brotherly Love early Monday morning, drove through the nations first state (Delaware), arrived in the nations capital, visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, practiced at George Washington, and checked into our hotel. It was quite the eventful day.

Before we actually left Philly, though, we had a little free time. This was one of those moments were I was reminded that I do, in fact, make up half of the male representation on the team; Coach Jim Jabir and myself that is. In this free time, many of us decided to go to the movie theater. We took a vote as to which movie we would watch. My vote lost and we ended up watching 27 Dresses. "Chick-Flick" is an understatement. The girls enjoyed it and I survived it. But, so goes life on the road with the women's basketball team.

So far, you've heard from all our players and all the managers. For this trip, I selected two of the unsung heroes of our team: our athletics communications contact Jenny Storer (she does the write-ups about our games that appear on this website, among other things) and our team athletics trainer Jessica Stanley (she glues our players back together). I'm excited to share with you their perspectives because both just started traveling with the team mid-season this year.

Jessica Stanley
This was only Jess' fourth road-trip as our team trainer. But even in that short amount of time, she has gained her fair share of funny stories.
"The best was when Nikki Oakland hurt her upper thigh, I had to wrap a pad on it in the locker room. She made it through one lay-up line and the wrap fell off. She grabbed her crotch as fast as she could, because she thought her shorts fell off! She really swore her pants fell down in the middle of the court."

Jess has the privilege of wrapping the ankles of most the girls on the team. This deems her most qualified to answer the question we all are dieing to know: who has the stinkiest feet on the team?
"I don't know. I don't smell `em. When you are an athletics trainer you are almost programmed not to smell things that you think are even going to stink." (I was seriously disappointed with her answer.)

Jess also does something no one else who I've interviewed does: she sits in the front of the bus.
"It's quiet! Very quiet. And I'm not that quiet. I'm pretty sure I probably talk more than they like. They'll look back and laugh, I'm sure."

Jenny Storer
Because it was so moving, I wanted everyone to have an understanding of what the Holocaust Museum was like.
"I was very humbled by the museum. I can't even really put it into words. Just going through the museum and seeing the pictures that you didn't see when you were learning about it in high school because they were too graphic. Seeing the actual thousands of shoes of those sent to concentration camps... who were stripped in the streets. It was all just very humbling to say the least."

This trip was neat because we drove from Philadelphia to Washington, allowing us to see the beautiful east coast.
"I was really excited because I've never been on this side of the United States. I rode through Maryland and Delaware for the first time. It was also my first time to DC. I'd come back. I would definitely come back. It's full of history and I love museums. I go to museums all the time in Cincinnati. There is always something new to see and learn."

Like I said, Jenny just started traveling with the team. In our game against George Washington, her seat was right next to our bench, where she was able to experience the energy of the team.
"The excitement of the game kind of caught me off guard. Everyone was cheering and screaming. As part of my job, I'm supposed to keep my composure during games and at times it is really, really hard."

Make sure to check out the next edition of Thoughts From the Road, as you will here about our trip to Coach Jim Jabir and Coach Lesley Dickinson's old stomping grounds of New York, New York. GO FLYERS!!!