A Bus Ride

Hey All,

This is Coach Husted; I'm the volunteer pitching coach this season for the 'golds and since it has been many years since I've coached at the college game; this is my first time riding the bus in a very long time.

Sure I ride the rental car shuttle from some airport to some rental car facility on a regular basis but this is a full on coach bus experience.

Last week was my maiden voyage, a trip to Whitewater that lasted 4 hours maybe. Right now, we are on the way to Oshkosh.

Here is what happens on the bus...

1. A lot of sleep. As I sit here we have 2 AT's sleeping in the row behind me; Jessa has been out cold since we left and I think Amber is also sleeping. I'd nap BUT the reality is that I'd snore and that probably would get me kicked off the bus. My entire goal is to not get kicked off the bus.

2. We watch movies. So far, here has been the movies we've watched in 2 trips. First we watched "The Blind Side" and "Cars" on the way to UWW. I had never seen "Cars" and based on the first part, I'd probably watch the 2nd half if I found it on cable. On the way back we watched something about Harry Potter (I have no clue). This trip we've started with Pirates of the Caribbean.

3. There is also a decent number of kids who use this time to get homework done. Being a student athlete means you have to have great time management skills and so post game homework is often a key part of that time management process for our brilliant athletes.

But here is my favorite part of the bus trip -- getting from the front of the bus to the back of bus for the water closet. It is the ultimate challenge of under, over and past sleeping legs. You have to look for random players sleeping anywhere and with a small pathway to navigate often you have to use creative problem solving to get to the back. Even more fun, on the way back; kids have shifted etc so you may have a different "course" to tackle on the way back.

I have my trusty stopwatch here, maybe Coach and I can do time trials to see who is quickest; actually... she has a lot more experience at this; maybe I don't want to challenge her after all.