So Long…For Now

It’s hard to believe that my first season of professional basketball is over. A week ago I was strolling the streets of Sundsvall, drinking coffee with friends before heading to practice in the evenings. I went from being surrounded by historic buildings and walking down narrow cobblestone streets, to driving around Richmond on freshly paved roads where buildings are torn down for new ones as soon as they show wear. I almost feel as though I’ve traveled through time. Just now am I grasping how different North America is from Europe.

After living the Scandinavian lifestyle for 6 months, I almost want to say I like it better. I like how carefree Europeans are and how they cherish the history of their cities. Among other things, I appreciate the convenience and inexpensiveness of public transportation (buses, trains, bikes, etc), their unique fashion and the creative meals served each day. Living this way was an experience that allowed me discover myself and to not take life too seriously. I’m grateful for that.

My time in Sweden was amazing, one I soon won’t forget. I played well, explored interesting cities and met wonderful people. Aside from being a bit chilly, the weather was nice - with the sun shining almost every day on freshly fallen snow. Time after time I’d find myself walking around the city centrum to window shop or to just take in the crisp spring air and enjoy the moment. A self-professed photo lover, you’d find me constantly snapping away, believing I needed “just one more shot” to capture Sundsvall.

I really couldn’t of asked for a better home this past month. I made friends quickly, enjoyed the nightlife, educated myself on the town and even tried to speak Swedish! Living in Sweden and Finland for the past 6 months have helped shaped me as a person, and both are places I’ll hold close to my heart for the rest of my life. I’m thankful for this whole experience, one most don’t get the chance to have. I’m thankful for the Malmbom family who invited me over for dinner and decided to only speak English while we were at the table. I’m thankful for Madeleine becoming such a great friend and taking the time to help me get acclimated to my new environment. I’m thankful for experiencing fika, appreciating the city's architecture, integrating Swedish style into my wardrobe, learning how to use/pay with kronas, the great teammates I played with and so much more. I'm especially thankful for my head coach Henrik who taught me about playing with my back to the basket. I've already seen an improvement in my post game, something I wish I had learned in college. Henke really took the time with us players to make sure we understood how to make a move and when to use its counter move. His basketball knowledge is second to none. Whenever Henke talked - I listened. It's easy to nod your head or wave off advice when coaches speak to you, but Henke has a skill for teaching. I found myself wanting to learn more and more from him every time I had the chance. Practices were fun. Not only was I learning, but I was getting better every time I stepped onto the basketball floor. Tack Sverige (thanks Sweden) for everything!

Though I’m home, I find myself missing Sundsvall at times. Weird right? I think it must be human nature, or maybe it’s just me – but when I'm away from one place I tend to miss the other. Nevertheless, it is great to be back in Beautiful British Columbia. I’m happy to be able to spend time with my parents and brother and take in the familiar sights of my hometown.

I’m not sure what the off-season will see me doing yet, but I’m planning on playing at least one more year of professional basketball and have already been contacted by 3 teams. I have my hopes set on France with Spain as a close second. I’ll hopefully have that all figured out in the next couple of months. Sadly, this will likely be my last blog post until I head abroad again next season. I hope you’ve enjoying reading “Bre Dub’s Blog” as much as I have enjoyed posting on it every week. Here’s to wishing you all the best and enjoying the moment…

-BW

Jag pratar inte Svenska!

I’m back online! The past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind. For the first time in 6 months I found myself too busy to post on my blog. That gives you an idea of how much fun I’m having here in Sverige (Sweden). Aside from completing our 6 qualification games, I’ve been able to travel the country, explore different cities, Jag lär mig lite Svenska (learn a little Swedish) and meet some great people.

During the week you’d often find me cheering at Dragon games (our men’s team and favorite to win the league title) with friends, going for fika (coffee), shopping for Swedish fashion (decorative scarves, tights and leather jackets are key), learning how to drive standard (thanks Madde!), planning days around eating real Swedish pannkakor (pancakes), going out in town on the weekends (beware: in a small town you see everyone at the club…including your coaches!) and volunteering to help a friend coach at her old elementary school (a place where I found my biggest fans who decided I would forever be known as “Breeee cheese”☺). Days are long and busy with great weather for the most part. You can’t complain when you wake up to the sun reflecting off freshly fallen snow – it’s beautiful. The sun is out almost everyday with the temperature rarely dropping below zero.

I didn’t plan on becoming close with anyone during my 4 weeks in Sweden, however, Madde ruined that plan. She’s awesome and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know her. We’ve really hit it off and have found we have a lot in common – aside from our different taste in men. I’m more into tall, dark and rugged while she prefers the fair haired, soft-featured types (shocking!). Madde, besides being a great friend, has been a personal tour guide and translator. In my previous posts I stated how I felt I could understand Swedish to an extent. My comprehension continues to improve and when teammates talk I often shock them by agreeing or suggesting something. Speaking the language on the other hand is a completely different matter. The pronunciation is difficult and since I can’t roll my r’s I’m pretty much hopeless. That doesn’t stop me from reading the paper out loud and repeating words or phrases Madde tries to teach me. She’s very patient and has helped me master some key phrases like: “Jag pratar inte Svenska” (I don’t speak Swedish), “Jaha!” (Oh, really?), “Helvete” (dammit), “Dra åt helvete” (Go away!), “Håll käften” (shut up) and “ursäkta” (excuse me). It’s kind of scary speaking a language that you aren’t comfortable with.Fortunately my pronunciation hasn’t affected me on the basketball court as I’ve played quite well in all our games. We won our first 4 without a hitch. Winning the 4th game automatically clinched us one of the top spots in qualifications – the Sundsvall Saints will be staying in the top division! I was happy to help the team reach its goal. After our 4th victory, the Swedish Basketball Federation suggested to our owner we wouldn’t have to play the 6th and final game against Eos in Lund - located in the southern most part of the country (about 20 mins from Copenhagen) and about a 13 hour bus ride away. After the game Wednesday, our coach thought our season was likely over and we would be having a team party Saturday night before everyone was to head home on Monday. All of us, including myself had put basketball out of our minds and were now focused on other things, which is exactly when things got crazy.

Friday morning I awoke at 8am to a ringing phone. My coach was in a panic telling me we had to play Saturday and we would be leaving that afternoon so we could play Eos in Lund at 3pm the next afternoon. A 2-day trip was now going to be crammed into one. What made the whole trip stupid is that it didn't mean anything. We had already qualified for the first division and the team we were playing had no way of getting one of the two spots to be in the top division. Basically it was going to be a nonsensical expense for our team. With 2 players out due to season ending injuries and others sick with the flu, we had only 6 players capable of playing and making the trip. I was one of those 6. That evening myself, 5 Swedish girls and our assistant coach jumped on the 6pm train to Stockholm (4 hrs) then in Stockholm caught the night train to Lund (7 hrs) arriving in Lund at 6am the next morning – the day of our 3pm game! I didn't sleep a wink on the train and was not happy with how I felt. I'm not good at sleeping in moving transportation. Tired, dehydrated and with my mind somewhere other than basketball, I knew this was going to be an interesting game…

We ended up losing by 16, which I thought was pretty good considering we didn’t expect to play Saturday, hadn’t practiced since our last game, left on extreme short notice, didn’t sleep through the night and were short on players – most of which weren’t used to playing more than 5 minutes a game. I played well, but after the first half ran out of energy. It was a challenge getting up and down the floor. We got as close as 5 points, but in the end weren’t able to pull out a victory. After the game we took a bus into town and ate dinner. It was a sunny and relatively warm day. Lund is beautiful city with cobblestone streets and unique buildings. If you ever travel to Sweden, this is a must see town. The girls went back to the hotel, but I decided to play tourist and made Madde and Johan be my tour guides as I walked around and took pictures of the cool city sights. The church in the center of town is amazing. It’s huge! It’s hard to describe with words and I feel a photo still doesn’t do it justice. It’s one of those things you need to see with your own eyes. After I had taken a ridiculous number of pictures, it was back to the hotel to get ready for an evening out in Lund.

Two of the girls on my team went to the same high school as 2 of the girls on Eos. They invited us to their apartment where they were having a get together before everyone headed downtown. I was hesitant to go at first – this was the team we had just lost to, but in the end decided to embrace it. The party was actually quite fun with both the men’s and women’s players wanting to socialize and being very complementary of my play. After about an hour the crew headed downtown where we hit up 2 different bars. The second one was really neat. It was located in an old building in the center of town. The music was great and the dance floor packed. Another great evening spent in a city I never knew existed!

Click play to watch the video above!

Running low on sleep, I’m anxious to get home and enjoy my bed. I fly home Tuesday! Hej då! (Bye!)

-BW

2 Down, 4 to Go

As the season comes to a close, I’m starting to notice how much my body aches. Muscles are tired, sore and angry at me for the long season and constant pounding I put them through day after day. It will be a relief to complete the next 4 games and head home for some much needed R&R. Thankfully, I have made it through the season without any major injuries (knock on wood). My hips are bothering me, but a quick trip to the chiropractor yesterday put my body back in alignment and hopefully will alleviate my discomfort down the stretch.

Our first game in Stockholm was a success, but not without controversy. After a 5 hour bus ride we were ready to take the floor against a very fired up Järfälla team. Anxious to play a real game for the first time in 2.5 weeks, I was both nervous and excited as I made my Swedish debut. Järfälla opened the game firing and took the lead early. This was short-lived, as 5 minutes into the game we were able to gather ourselves and take it to the home team. After leading by as many as 23 points, we ended up 11-point victors. Being one of the biggest players on the floor who crashed the offensive and defensive glass on every possession had one of the referees taking notice. He decided I was too aggressive, constantly tagging me with ridiculous foul calls. Ironically, with bruises forming on my forearms – I couldn’t get a call to save my life. My emotions were kept in check, but I finally had enough after being obviously hacked for the hundredth time on a power move inside the key. Six minutes into the 3rd quarter I got T’d up, fouling out of the game. I can’t remember the last time I fouled out of a game or got a ‘T’ for that matter, but I’m pretty sure it goes back to high school. I didn’t say anything to the ref, but as I was running back on defense I told my coach to sub me out or I might lose it on the ‘bald guy.’ Too bad the bald guy was 5 steps behind me...and ready to blow his whistle. It was tough watching the last quarter and a half from the bench, but I enjoyed cheering my teammates on and glaring at the ref every time he looked my way. Järfälla shot 35 FTs to our 3 and had 7 fouls to our 23. Draw your own conclusions.

The second of our six games was played 2 days later in Sundsvall. Eager to play without worrying about foul trouble or referees, I ended up having a great game with us winning by 14 in front of a supportive home crowd. Not changing the way I played from the first game to the second game, I was only hit with 1 foul call. Interesting. With my body aching and the team on a high from our two W’s, it was time to hit the town and celebrate. Our American and Serbians decided to stay at home, but not me! I was excited to get out of my usual attire of sweatpants and workout gear to heels and makeup. Besides not being able to get into one bar (23 and over – I was the only 23 year old) the Swedish girls and I hit up a 21 and under club where we had a great time dancing the night away and learning the words to Swedish rap songs.

Tomorrow sees us playing our toughest competition Eskilstuna at Eskilstuna – 8 hours away. I’ll likely be guarding high school rival and former Provincial Team teammate Kelsey Blair in the post. Bring it on!

-BW

Sidenote1: Game results can be found here.
Sidenote2: Happy Birthday to Amy and this guy! I wish I could be there to celebrate.