Spartans in Russia 5

September 2nd, 2010: Sochi, Russia

5:30am: Boom!!! Huge tropical storm hits Sochi. Waves of rain and thunderous clouds bursting everywhere.

Thought #1: We have 9 athletes sleeping down by the beach…hope the waves don’t get too crazy
Thought #2: All of our laundry is outside…was outside…now scattered around the parking lot.
Thought #3 (and most important): Noooooo…the Beach Tournament finals cancelled?

Answer #1: The athletes in the building down by the beach were never in danger though the waves did get crazy. After breakfast the whole team jumped in the Black Sea and body surfed for almost an hour before the local lifeguards made the team get out of that area due to an increased undertow.

Answer #2: All laundry accounted for and re-hanging…no harm no foul.

Answer #3 (and most important): Yessss!!! The Beach tournament will resume as the storm stopped just in time for the playoffs to begin. Yesterday’s play brought out a number of new Russian opponents who all wanted a shot at playing the skinny, white Canadians. While the playoffs for the Trophy of Champions (received the night before as a gift from the Sochi team we played) was played on one court the Spartans vs Russia happened all morning on the other court. At the end of the day the 1st Annual Spartan Intersquad Tournament Trophy of Champions went to the partnership of Dan JVD & Ben Ball as they defeated Marc Howatson & Aaron Vandenbrink in a toughly fought final. Final Standings were:

1st Ben Ball & Dan JVD
2nd Marc Howatson & Aaron Vandenbrink
3rd Nick Del Bianco & John Wiebe
4th Jarrod Offereins & Branden Schmidt (filled in for by Ben Josephson due to illness)
T5th Mikiah Schalk & Stan the Russian
T5th Joel Jansen & Victor the Russian
T7th Lucas Van Berkel & Derek Thiessen
T7th Micah JVD & Devyn Plett
T7th Rudy Verhoeff & Josh Doornenbal

The beach tournament wasn’t the only excitement of the morning. As the guys would go into the water to clean off after playing the waves continued to get stronger and stronger. Many people were playing in the waves but the force of the incoming waves was beginning to get intense and was pulling people towards the sea wall. A few of the Spartans were in the water experiencing the fun of playing in the waves but were getting pulled closer to danger. They noticed and began to head to safer waters but Lucas Van Berkel was unable to dodge a portion of the sea wall and was banged up a bit. Really nothing a few knee bandages couldn’t take care of but it soon became the source of much trash talk as Lucas had to wear kneepads made of gauze the rest of the afternoon.

The sickness usually associated with overseas tours has begun to set in as it claimed Branden Schmidt today. He spent the whole day in bed trying to sleep off what ever it is that was making him feel like garbage. Good news is that by day’s end it looks like he was through it. Unfortunately he had to miss the night’s match as did Coach Ryan Adams who stayed behind, and good thing he did as he went down with sickness too that night while in the hotel. It has begun, who knows who will be next, like Virus Roulette in Russia.

We left for the match early trying to get there a little earlier than the previous day. Good idea, bad execution. Two hours later we arrived at the gym though it only took 25 minutes to get home the night before. On the bright side the team had some great bonding time in the bus…again. The match was to be against the same team but we were cautioned that in Russia if you win you can expect the ringers to come out of the woodwork, potentially even mid match. The justification is, “we are Russian, we don’t lose.” True to form, three new players all much younger and with good jump. It was a much better match. The Spartans won 3-0 but they played much better than the previous night as the opponents demanded that type of effort. This match had some added excitement as a number of the fans and friends the team had made on the beach and around the town had come out to watch the match. After the match Marc Howatson shared with all who had come out to watch a little about what Christ has done for him and what our team is about. He also did a great job talking, through an interpreter though he is getting pretty good at Russian, to the crowd and painting a great picture.

It was a day that began with a lot of excitement and ended with a lot of contentment. God is good…

Go Spartans!!!