Feb. 28, 2009

"Would you be my Valentine?" This was an often asked question on our road-trip to Xavier University on February 14th. Yes, we were lucky enough to get to spend Valentines Day with the people who we've all grown to love throughout the year: our Flyer family! Traveling on Valentines Day will forever remind me of our "lovely" adventure to Rhode Island two years ago. On that trip, we experienced one of the craziest snow storms ever! It covered the entire east coast. While it caused us to depart Dayton late, we were able to barely catch our connecting flight in Detroit to Rhode Island. We flew all the way to Rhode Island, only to find out the airport had shut down due to weather! Believe it or not, the closest airport that was open was DETROIT! After a scramble to find rooms at the airport hotel, we finally got to bed around 1:30 a.m. The kicker was our 6 a.m. wake-up to catch our new flight! But, we won the game, so we can look back it all and smile.

After our Valentine's Day meeting with Xavier, the team took a trip to play Richmond. This was a rather short, mid-week road trip. I, unfortunately, was unable to attend this trip. But, like I all our adventures, there were many aspects to keep it interesting!

Louis and the Ladies has reached an interesting point in the year: I've interviewed all but one player! Fear not, I have chosen to interview other members of the Dayton Flyers! This week, I've asked Freshman Brittany Wilson and freshman team manager Chelsea Gambill to speak with us.

Brittany Wilson
Our trip to Xavier was our second overnighter in Cincinnati this year in which we stayed in the same hotel. Some of the girls swear that it is straight out of The Shining!
"When we first went there I was spooked. It looks like it's from Disney's Tower of Terror! I looked inside my closet and it had another door in it! Kendel (Ross) and I tried to open it. Kendel was like `Ok, B-Dub (Brittany's nickname) if anything happens to me, I want you to know I love you.' We still don't know what was in there! Looks can be deceiving, though, it was actually really nice."

The game, which was actually played on the 15th, was Xavier's WBCA Pink Zone Cancer Awareness game. In honor of that, Xavier wore pink jerseys.
Well, they were wearing pink and we were wearing our road red's. It definitely made me think of Valentines Day. I also thought it was funny to hear the refs call `pink's ball!'

I've often mention we are apart of the Flyer family. Well, I decided to ask Brittany who she thought from the team would make the best Flyer mascot (that'd be Rudy Flyer).
Kendel Ross. I think she's really entertaining. She has a lot of energy! Even when we had our athlete talent show, her, Aundrea (Lindsey), and Ashley (Brown) participated and Kendel was Rudy. She has the energy and the experience.

Chelsea Gambill
As managers, every now and then we get sent on special missions. Apparently Chelsea was sent on one of these missions before tip-off against Richmond.
Well, it was Richmond's Pink Zone day and they were giving away free Crocs. The coaches asked if we could get them some. So, Amanda (Fischer), a fellow manager, and I went on a mission. But, they said the coaches had to come up themselves. They were obviously busy, so while a big group was coming in and they weren't paying attention, Amanda and I snagged everyone a pair. We went straight down to the court and put it into our manager's bag before we could get yelled at.

Being apart of the team can lead to a lot of new experiences; like waking up earlier than you ever had before!
We had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to catch our flight back to Dayton! It actually wasn't as bad as I had thought. Maybe because I didn't get enough sleep to realize how tired I was. But, I consider myself a morning person, which helps.

And who does Chelsea think would make the best Rudy?
You (that'd be me). Just because you're so outgoing, you don't care what people think, and you're a people person. You'd be able to dance like you always want to! (For the record, Chelsea thinks I'm a terrible dancer!)

Please be sure to support the Dayton Flyers Sunday, March 1st on senior night in their season finale as they take on St. Joseph's at 2 p.m. ET.