Men’s Pan Am Youth Team Blog – Day 3
January 30, 2010
Adjusting to Life in Hermosillo, Mexico
My room is set up with my massage table and 24 hour access if a boy is ill in the night.Last night the boys had ice baths in my and a few other rooms with bath tubs, but the water kept draining out of the tub. The boys have been healthy. We convinced the hotel to wash lettuce in bottled water, so we could eat the salad.
Alvin and I were guinea pigs(coaches don’t like salad), eating the salad first, and 24 hours later gave the green light for the boys to eat any of the salad and fruit, as well as anything else. The hotel food is delicious and we have ordered various banquets with enough variety that all the boys and adults are happy.
We set up the first 2 days to be physicially demanding, , with lots of runnning workouts and practices, to accilimatize to the heat, and the sand turf. Lots of boys were overall sore later, and after the game yesterday against Sonora a bit battered by bruises, and cuts, I saw boys for 5 hours yesterday doing mostly massages for sore muscles. Today everyone feels good.
We are now in phase 2, meaning tapering the physical activity. We are doing daily yoga stretches now, and aerobics in the freezing pool, one game is planned for the afternoon.
I have seen no other tourists since we have been here. The boys have been surprised by some of the sights- e.g.police pickup truck driving with a prisoner handcuffed in the open cab. apparently most kids leave school and are working by age 15. The local field hockeykids are amazed by our players stick bags and sticks.
We are having fun. Alvin is working like a dog making sure everything is running smoothly, and the coaches have the boys working hard and performing well.
Steacy Alexander – Physio
Canadian National Men’s U-17 Team Member
March Against Sonora University JV’s
Today began with breakfast at nine o clock with the team in the hotel.
Then we met in the managers room (Alvin) for a team video session. At the video session we went over our defensive penalty corner formation.
Afterwards we headed down to the field for our practice. This is where we applied our defensive penalty corner strategies.
When the practice ended we went inside a large stadium bedside the field where we rested and had lunch for a couple hours.
Then we had to go back to the field for a game against the junior Sonora university team. The first period was very even and the score was 2-2 but we rallied to score 4 goals in the second and third periods. So the final score was 6-2 for Canada.
After the game we headed back to our hotel and most of us had ice baths.
Finally we had dinner eight o clock at the hotel.
We are looking forward to our next match against the Senior Sonora University team.
Sunny Dhindsa – # 3 and Paul Wharton # 18
Canadian National Men’s U-17 Team Members
