ORUTerry Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 This e-mail is from Mike Minyard; I received it via the GEC so I guess it is okay to share: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alaska - Days 2 and 3: On Monday, we practiced at Colony High School in front of a good portion of their student body. The school is about an hour away from our hotel. The Alaska tournament staff does a great job of getting the community involved. Each college gets a local high school and the students are encouraged to support that team at its games. Colony HS will use their cheerleaders for us during the game and I believe they are doing some other things to help support us. A funny story... When we arrived to Colony High School, we noticed the building had the school name on it just like every other high school in America. However, there was a bit of a problem with the spelling. The "Y" was missing at the end and it brought a chuckle to all of us. Well I had a conversation with the schools principle (sic) after our practice and she said that they have an on going rivalry with another school. This is the second time that the other school had stolen the "Y". The Colony students have wanted to retaliate, but obviously the principle (sic) hasn't supported that behavior. The two schools ended up meeting in a big game, maybe a state tournament game recently. I'm assuming football. The school put up on its marquee out by the street, "You may have our Y, but we got the W!" The great thing about it, the school they have the rivalry with is Wasilla and the "as" is pronounced exactly how you would think it would be in this joke. We found out at McDonald's that it is a $1.50 menu here in Alaska. Monday was mostly a free day for everyone. I went shopping with Andrew Meloy and our manager Kyle Wills. We checked out a bunch of the Alaska stores for souvenirs and we also went to the downtown mall. Their mall actually has a Nordstroms, which surprised me. They basically had the same stores that we have in Tulsa. Monday night the team went out for dinner at Outback Steakhouse. We usually eat there the night before road games, but we made reservations at Simon Seafoods for Tuesday night. Tuesday we had a short practice at the actual facility that we will play the tournament. Each team got an hour on the court today because there is also a girl?s tournament that starts tonight. It is just a four team tournament. After practice, we drove straight over to another high school for a walk through of the USC offense. Tuesday was a jammed packed day. We stopped by KFC right after the walk through. From there we went to the hotel to change for dog sledding. All the guys put on just about everything they had packed in their suitcases. We loaded up the bus and took off on an hour plus drive. There was a hotel where we went dog sledding and the rooms cost as much as $2,000 per night. Obviously we walked around the hotel after the dog sledding experience and it was definitely a very nice hotel. The dog sledding was very interesting. We had a guy that talked to us about the history of dog sledding and he told us some interesting facts about the dogs. The dogs for the most part are Huskies, but they are all mixed in with other breeds. They aren?t like pure breed show dogs. The breeders actually scout these dogs similar to how our coaches scout the players on our team. Only we don?t breed our players unless of course you are talking about Nathan Binam, Josh Atkinson or Luke Spencer Gardner. Anyways, the hardest working dogs are kept around for breeding. It is all based on their performance. The owners don?t care what they look like or anything. Typically the racing dogs cost about $2,000, but you will never find an owner?s best dog for sale. As our guide told us, ?your best dog is priceless.? Everyone paired up with someone to go dog sledding. I went with Big Mick and we had a blast. I think some people didn?t know if 10 relatively small Huskies could get it done. The dogs they use for racing are only about 40-50 pounds each. The dogs are so much smaller than what you envision. Well they didn?t care how big Mickey was and they took off. I sat in the basket up front for the first half of the trail and then we switched places. Standing on the back is the best part because you have to lean really hard on the turns so that you will stay on the trail. I don?t know the full story but I know freshman Sylvester Spicer had a bit of an accident. He is fine. He just lost his grip and was either thrown or dragged into some bushes. It was actually pretty funny. He had some grass and branches stuck on him as he walked back to the bus. Overall, it was a great experience for all the guys and not near as dangerous as what some of us may have first thought. The drive to and from dog sledding was beautiful. Coach Steve Upshaw was telling me something like the first 17 tallest peaks in the United States are in Alaska. The frozen rivers with the snow covered mountains and pine trees are really breath taking. Words would not do the sights any justice. We?ve noticed that the pictures don?t really show how beautiful the mountains are in person. The guys had to go to an Alaskan museum, while everyone else went to thaw out at the hotel. We all met up again at the Simons Seafood. Once again, I had the Halibut. This time it was stuffed with crab and macadamian nut, with mashed potatoes and vegetables. A great meal that cost about $27. I don?t eat like that back home, but you have to when you?re in Alaska. Where can I get food like I?ve eaten the past few days? After that it was time to just hang out and relax for the players. The coaches have been watching film on Southern Cal the past few days. Coach Hankins has actually been after them for a couple weeks. We?ll be very prepared for this game and can?t wait for tip-off. USC is very athletic and should be a good test for us. It?s been really fun to see the promo commercials on ESPN. It shows Meloy pumping his fist and it also shows Ken Tutt making a shot and clapping. Well I have some work to do, but I wanted to let everyone know what was going on with us. The winner from our game and the EWU/Marquette game will be aired on ESPN360. I don?t know the details of that station. I?ve heard that it is maybe internet only??? The championship game will be aired on ESPN2. Some of the other games may be picked up on ESPN360 as well. Enjoy the game tonight and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!! Mike Minyard Student Assistant Coach Oral Roberts University Men's Basketball Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 As Mike's English teacher I would give him an A+ on that essay. Interesting, well thought out, excellent word pictures, good grammar and spelling! Thanks, Mike, for making us all a part of your (and the team's) adventure. Sounds like you guys are getting to do and see some really cool things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbone77 Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 Mike thanks for taking the time to update us.... your reports are very "cool"...pardon the pun. I would like to nominate you for the position of "ORUSPORTS.COM Road Warrier Reporter". We are all pulling for the Eagles tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vcboy2000 Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 Big Ups to Terry for posting this article for us, and thanks Mike for taking the time to write. Sounds like you boys are having a lot of fun. Go get 'em tonight. We got your back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORU Eli Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 I agree Mikey M. did a great job! It makes me miss DG and his road reports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlue82 Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 Monday was mostly a free day for everyone. I went shopping with Andrew Meloy and our manager Kyle Wills. We checked out a bunch of the Alaska stores for souvenirs and we also went to the downtown mall. Their mall actually has a Nordstroms, which surprised me. They basically had the same stores that we have in Tulsa. No mention of a barber shop at the mall in Alaska. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 Andrew WILL NOT get his hair cut while he's in Alaska - he needs it to keep his ears warm. Man, Blue, for a moment there I thought I was reading a post by EagleBackr! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stl VU Fan Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 This e-mail is from Mike Minyard; I received it via the GEC so I guess it is okay to share: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alaska - Days 2 and 3: On Monday, we practiced at Colony High School in front of a good portion of their student body. The school is about an hour away from our hotel. The Alaska tournament staff does a great job of getting the community involved. Each college gets a local high school and the students are encouraged to support that team at its games. Colony HS will use their cheerleaders for us during the game and I believe they are doing some other things to help support us. Thanks for posting this Terry, it brought back memories. I'm really glad to hear they are still getting local high schools involved, including with cheerleading at the games. It wasn't a big influence on any of our games there because we were all sitting in the upper deck, but it was a really nice touch anyway, and I thought it was a neat thing to do. BTW, that's how I got my very first VU pom-pom - from one of the local high school cheerleaders assigned to cheer for Valpo Who is playing in the women's tournament? In 2000, they were 4 of the same 8 schools from the men's tournament, including the VU women. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUIsbig Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 wow, you mean these guys are human underneath that Basketball playing shell? thanks for the window into the trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlue82 Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 Andrew WILL NOT get his hair cut while he's in Alaska - he needs it to keep his ears warm. Man, Blue, for a moment there I thought I was reading a post by EagleBackr! Gosh, Doc, am I supposed to be offended, or consider myself honored! (I'll assume the latter). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EagleBackr Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 Gosh, Doc, am I supposed to be offended, or consider myself honored! (I'll assume the latter). ...so will I.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.