Traveling with the Tide: Alabama Volleyball on the Road
10/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.- The University of Alabama volleyball team headed north Sept. 14-16 to face the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and the University of Kentucky in Lexington in two crucial early-season SEC match ups. This feature gives an inside look at life on the road as a member of the Crimson Tide volleyball team.
Day One
Thursday, Sept. 14
6:00 p.m.: The team arrives at the Alabama tennis stadium parking lot to get on the bus to depart. The team picks up Outback for dinner before getting on the bus, which is a sleeper bus featuring two large TVs in the front and back and mini TVs in each bunk, where some of the girls sleep during the six-hour drive.
6:45 p.m.: Alabama head coach Judy Green joins Tom Roberts on Hey, Coach! via cell phone and talks about the weekend’s upcoming matches.
1:00 a.m. EST: The bus pulls into the Crowne Plaza Knoxville. The girls get their room assignments and keys and go directly to their rooms.
12:45 a.m. EST: Lights out.
Day Two
Friday, Sept. 15
9:00 a.m. EST: Wake-up call for the team.
9:45 a.m. EST: A team walk was scheduled to get the girls moving, but the weather was not cooperating as the remnants of Hurricane Humberto blow through Knoxville. Instead, the girls go to the hotel workout facility and jump on the cardio machines for 15 minutes.
10:00 a.m. EST: The team and staff head upstairs for breakfast in the hotel restaurant, which features pancakes, eggs, hash browns, yogurt, cereal and fruit.
10:30 a.m. EST: After breakfast the team and staff have time to relax and study before heading to the gym for serve and pass.
“Serve and pass is either held the day before or the day of the game depending on what time we play,” senior Bridget Fuentez said. “We usually have a very specific routine that we do during this short practice. The goal of the practice is to get lots of basic touches on the ball to help us develop a good solid rhythm to carry over into the game. Serving and passing are probably the most basic parts of the game, but the most important because they are the first touch that we get on every play that can dictate the rest of the play.”
1:45 p.m. EST: The team loads the bus, with their luggage, to head to the gym for a one-hour serve and pass session.
3:00 p.m. EST: Serve and pass finishes and the team and coaches head to the locker room at the gym for a scouting and film session on Tennessee.
“Our coaches do a great job of preparing the scouting report by watching hours of film,” Fuentez said. “They pick out the most important film clips, draw out each of their rotations, and tell us the tendencies of each player. They start by talking about each hitter’s tendencies which could be which attacks they typically run and what type of arm swing they use the most. We watch about 30 small clips of their offensive plays, so we can see the plays they run.”
3:15 p.m. EST: The team heads to Panera Bread for the pre-game meal.
5:00 p.m. EST: The team leaves Panera Bread and heads back to the gym. From there the team goes into the locker room to start its pre-game routine.
6:40 p.m. EST: Coach Green and senior Brigitte Slack meet with broadcasters from Fox Sports Net to do a brief pre-match interview.
6:55 p.m. EST: The team conducts its “5 ??til” meeting. At the meeting the coaches talk about the game plan and strategy and coach Green talks about what the team needs to do to be successful in the match.
“The pre-match meeting with the team is basically a small review session, about 10 to 12 minutes of the keys to our success offensively, defensively and the intangibles,” Coach Green said. “We try to give them something to take out on the floor with them, and right now for our team that has been the word ??Fight.’”
7:00 p.m. EST: Alabama defeats Tennessee in three games and does its post-match cool down while Slack conducts a post-match interview with FSN.
In the locker room, the coaching staff hands out the “Starburst Play of the Match,” the “Skittles Dig of the Match” and the “Airhead Play of the Game.”
“We have found out for sure that some of our players are definitely motivated by candy,” Coach Green said.
9:00 p.m. EST: The Tide leaves the court, showers, and loads the bus to head to Lexington. Angie Mlinar, the Director of Operations, has McAlister’s ready for the team as they load the bus. On the bus the girls call their families, some study, and some fall asleep. Coach Green studies film on Kentucky.
1:15 a.m. EST: The team arrives at the Hyatt in Lexington. The girls depart the bus, collect their bags, and head to their rooms.
Day Three
Saturday, Sept. 15
10:00 a.m. EST: Wake-up call for the team.
10:45 a.m. EST: The team gets on the bus and leaves for the Atlanta Bread Company for an early lunch.
12:30 p.m. EST: Back at the hotel, the team gathers in the hotel lounge for a study hour.
2:15 p.m. EST: The team leaves the hotel for practice at the University of Kentucky. The team practices for a little over an hour, working on passing, serving and preparing for Kentucky.
4:00 p.m. EST: The team goes back to the hotel for a team scouting session on the Wildcats in Coach Green’s room.
4:30 p.m. EST: The team reloads the bus and heads to Carrabas Italian Grill for an early dinner in order to get back to the hotel in time to watch Alabama host Arkansas in football.
“Carrabas was a really nice and relaxing dinner,” Fuentez said. “The atmosphere was
relaxed and calm with low lighting. They seated us at a large table near the open-faced kitchen which was pretty entertaining. A lot of the time we get our dinners ready to pick up and either eat them on the road or in our hotel rooms, so it felt really nice to have the
whole team and staff sit down for a dinner and actually eat together.
“Overall, the dinner was really enjoyable, but we were all anxious to get back to the hotel to watch the Alabama-Arkansas game.”
6:45 p.m. EST: The team catches the beginning of the Alabama game on the bus headed back to the hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel, all 13 girls cram in one elevator to make it to their rooms in time to catch the rest of the game. Periodic shouting can be heard through the walls as Alabama defeats Arkansas, 41-38.
10:00 p.m. EST: Lights out.
Day Four
Sunday, Sept. 16
10:00 a.m. EST: The girls get a late wake-up call and meet for breakfast at the hotel, which consisted of pancakes, eggs, yogurt, fruit, oatmeal and juice.
11:50 a.m. EST: The team heads to the gym with their luggage.
1:30 p.m. EST: Alabama defeats Kentucky in five games, leaving the team in a sprint to make it from the gym to the airport in time to catch the flight home.
5:55 p.m. EST: Delta flight 5140 leaves Lexington for Cincinnati, where the team has an hour layover before heading to Birmingham.
8:15 p.m. CST: The team arrives in Birmingham and boards a bus for Tuscaloosa.
9:30 p.m.: The team arrives in Tuscaloosa. Before leaving, Coach Green reminds the team to stretch before going to bed and to prepare for practice on Monday.
“I think watching our team’s confidence grow was huge,” Coach Green said. “Building on what we started is just making sure we don’t become complacent. We have a lot of ground to make up after our pre-season schedule and we have to make sure now we just take it one day at a time.”
