Croatia Blog: Coach Sinisa Momic
May 26, 2008 | Women's Volleyball
May 26, 2008
Waking up in my home city this morning, but realizing we were on a team trip was an interesting experience for me. This is a great adventure for many of the girls and a great way for the players to learn and appreciate more about their differences and similarities. We will be much better at working together as a result of this trip.
We had no trouble sleeping, and were ready to start our day. After a good breakfast we took the team to the levee on the lake by my old volleyball club, Mladost, for a morning jog and circuit training. Talk about worlds colliding! As a young player we used to train in these same spots and it is interesting to have this team here working out in the same places that I spent countless hours of my life training, competing, studying, training, and coaching. This area is the heart of volleyball in Zagreb, even the gym is named Dom Odbojike " Home of Volleyball". There is a strong volleyball history in this city and country. Some of the world best players and coaches have graced the court at Mladost and these girls will get to be a part of that, very interesting.
The workout was much needed after the long travel the day before, and the team knows that we will continue to push them to improve and take advantage of each opportunity that presents itself.
The next event of the day was a team outing to the Radosevic's home. Sara's parents invited the whole team and all the other parents over for a visit. The hospitality and generosity was wonderful! There was an obvious excitement, in everything from the balloon players and archway they has positioned outside the house to welcome us, complete with both Croatian and American flags to the menu which featured classic food and drink from the different regions of the country. The taste of Croatia was a hit! It is important for young people to immerse themselves in the culture of a new place to truly learn it and appreciate it, and that's exactly what they did today. The whole atmosphere was welcoming and very family oriented.
I can remember visiting Sara's house years ago, when I was recruiting both she and Luna to come to Tulane to attend school and play for our program. It was great to be there today three years later with the whole team and to look back and remember how this connection started and to see the successes they have found on the court and in the classroom and they are headed into their final year of undergraduate studies.
In the afternoon we returned to the lake to watch the rest of the beach tournament and then headed straight to the gym for our first competition. The tournament environment was high energy and fun and we wanted to make sure to transition well to our own match. That is one of the things we want the girls to learn on the trip. They had a great opportunity to work on preparing themselves for performance and being able to focus properly.
We played the Zagreb Junior team, one of the best Junior teams in the country. You could tell that we had not played in a few days. We really struggled with our first contact and did not play a very pretty game of volleyball today, but ended up winning in five games. Needless to say, neither coaches nor players were satisfied with the performance today, which is a good thing, because the competition only gets tougher as we continue on the tour.
Day two ended with a meal back at the hotel and instructions to get a good night's rest, we will need it because we will push harder in training tomorrow, the only way to get better. One of the reasons why we have found success is not being satisfied with wins and this team knows that we are always learning and working to better, win or lose.
- Coach Sinisa Momic
