National Capitals Volleyball - A New Era for Volleyball in Ottawa

Thanksgiving weekend is usually a family time filled with delicious family dinners enjoyed with friends and relatives. But not for myself, Kate, Meghan, Tess, her Dad Paul and Coach Cathy! We decided to take a road trip to the United States to check out some universities and watch some NCAA volleyball games. So we turned our backs on our family turkeys (not the human ones), stuffed ourselves into a van, and began our Thanksgiving adventure.

We left Friday afternoon and drove right to Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, to watch the Colgate Raiders take on theAmerican University Eagles from Washington DC. It was a good match with some extremely tall girls - I'm talking 'Pavan' tall. As we sat there watching, the desire to run out onto the court and play some volleyball was almost overwhelming. After the game, Cathy introduced herself to the coaches and gave them each a videotape of our 18U team playing in Ottawa, and individual information sheets; just a little bit of information to whet their appetites for some Canadian talent. The American University coach wanted to meet with us, (minus little Kate, our Grade 11 friend - NCAA rules you know) to talk about the school and programs. We were introduced to some of the girls and took a tour of their chartered busŠ nice!

Next, we headed back on the road and were faced with a rather intimidating drive to find a hotel. Here was the dilemma: drive another few hours to our hotel, or stop at Interstate 81 and sleep in the van. Right away it was clear to us which decision was most realistic - the van! A hotel would mean a comfy, relaxing night, but only for a few hours, and the van would mean a cramped and hectic night. So obviously we chose the van! We were all very adventurous, up for the challenge, and eager to rough it overnight. We changed into all our warmest clothes (actually most of our clothes) and started to plan out the sleeping arrangements. Paul and Cathy took the two front seats, Kate scored the floor, and Meghan and Tess shared the back seat of the van. What about me you ask? Well, I ended upŠ in the trunkŠ on top of all our luggage (my idea - really!). Surprisingly, it wasn't a bad spot.

After a few hours of rest, and I use that term loosely - or should I say, uncomfortably - we were up again making our way to Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. There we watched some games at the Valley National Banks Classic tournament. We watched the Iona College Gaels from New York lose in the fifth set to the Long Island Blackbirds in a really fast-paced, entertaining match. We quickly took notice of a right-side player on the Long Island team who had a distinct anger management problem, a problem that we found quite humorous. "Paging Dr. Phil!" After a few laughs Cathy got our information/video packages ready and went on another mission to find more coaches and to spread the word about the CAPS. Then we were quickly back on the road in search of more NCAA fun.

We made it to South Orange, New Jersey just in time to see theSeton Hall Pirates play the Syracuse Orangemen. This was one of the best games we saw all weekend. Those girls could hit balls with some authority, that's for sure. Seton Hall had a starting setter that was 5'6" and thin (inspirational to some of us 'less than gigantic'players). Again, Cathy rounded up the troups and we met with the Syracuse coach after the game to chat about the school and volleyball. After our talk, we jumped back in the van and headed to our last game of the day which pitted the big Pittsburgh Panthers against the Manhattan Jaspers. A good fight was put up by the Jaspers, but the Panthers just pounced, taking it in four sets.

We were finally done for the day, feeling extremely tired from lack of sleep, yet still wanting to play some volleyball to try out all the new tricks and techniques we had seen. We headed for our hotel near the Newark, New Jersey airport, ready for a relaxing night filled with lots of sleep. After an hour of desperately trying to find the place (freeway directional complications), we finally arrived. We had a quick bite of Chinese food - well most of us did. Some of us decided to have a feast large enough to satisfy thirty people.

The next morning we planned to go into New York City to do the 'tourist thing' for a few hours, and then head back in the afternoon to Seton Hall to watch the Pirates play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. OK, who thinks four teenage girls can spend only a couple of hours shopping in downtown New York? Raise your hands... no one. We had places to go, people to watch and stuff to buy! It was truly an incredible city; insanely tall buildings, yellow cabs everywhere, people honking their horns, complete chaosŠ it was like being in a movie. The first attraction we wanted to see was Ground Zero. It is hard to explain what it looks like and what you feel when you are actually there. It's almost surreal, suddenly quiet, hundreds of people but no one really talking - you just stand there, speechless, unable to put what you see and feel into words, probably because there are no words, in any language, that are truly adequate in such a life-altering and humbling place. It's an awfully emotional experience - one that I think we are all extremely grateful to have experienced together.

Next we found ourselves in the middle of Battery Park, an area we nicknamed 'heaven'. This wasn't just a park with big trees and beautiful scenery, this park had something special -shopping! YOO KNOWW! Designer purses were everywhere - a teenage girl's dream: Louis Vuitton, Prada, BurberryŠ okay, knockoffs, but good knockoffs - and in our price range (after we put our bargaining techniques to use that is)! We all found our perfect purse - except for Tess of course... and her Dad - and we were anxious to head home to show them off.

After our shopping needs were satisfied, we strolled back to the van and took a quick drive by the crazy advertisements and lights in Times Square, a number of open-air markets (oh how we wanted to stop 'n shop) and then Central Park . This completed the mandatory tourist destinations and thus we started home. As is customary with our team, we provided moral support to our drivers by promptly falling asleep.

This was undeniably a memorable adventure and one I would highly recommend to anyone who is offered such an opportunity. Thank you Paul, Cathy and our parents for your moral and, especially, your financial support for this weekend. NEWW YORRRKKK!