Alborg gets us again!

On Thursday, December 18th we played in the Pokal Cup semi final. As I've said there are 3 things we are trying to win, the league, the playoffs and the cup. The league and playoffs are pretty standard but the cup is a tournament that is played over the course of 4 months, so that the pre-quarters were in September, the quarters in October, semis in December and the finals will be the end of January. It is single elimination.
So our semi final match was in Alborg. The team we had beat two weeks prior at home in 5 sets. We took a fan bus with us and headed out towards Alborg which is usually about a 2 and a half hour drive. However, we did not count on two traffic jams to slow us up! Our match was scheduled for 730 and we arrived at the gym at 710. They pushed back the match to 745! gee thanks! Anyways we had a quick warm up and before the beginning of the game both teams left the gym and lined up in a tunnel. We had little kids lined up with us (like in soccer games) and they had a smoke machine when we ran out of the tunnel to flashing lights and an announcer. It was pretty cool, with so many fans there as well!
And that's about where the fun ended!!!
It was definitely not our day to play well. The first set was a pretty tight battle going back and forth, We were up 23-22 and then 3 hitting errors gave them the set 25-23. After that we lost a lot of momentum and lost the next two sets 25-19 and 25-16. Something was just missing from our offence. Mind you, they are a very big team that blocks well, but we seemed to be a little bit out of rhythm. So we have been eliminated from the Pokal Cup championship which is kinda disappointing as I believe it's on national TV.
Having to end the first half of the season on that note is kind of disappointing however especially over the past month we have improved greatly as a team. We knocked off the first and second place team in league and seem to be playing more in rhythm. Coming from playing with the same guys for 4 or 5 years you forget how long it has taken to grow comfortable until you're put in a situation where you need to get comfortable playing very quickly. I have only been playing with these players for 3 months now and we are definitely starting to play better. Hopefully in the second half of the season we can see the same kind of improvement. We still have two more goals to win in Denmark (league and playoffs) and one in Sweden (Nordic Championship) so we have lots of opportunities to play well.

Top 4 contends for the finale spaces in the cup

From Volleynet.dk
translated by gramtrans

The semifinals in a the men's national cup will be played on Thursday and on Saturday and involve the country's four clearly best team just now. Aalborg HIK and Middelfart will meet each other on Thursday, and on Saturday Gentofte and Marienlyst will fight about the other place in the finale on January 25th. It's the same four teams, who collided at last season's DM-semifinals, even in the same showdowns, thus there also are things and cases, which are to be avenged. Since then the four have established themselves solidly on the top 4 in this season's league for picked teams. Aalborg HIK and Middelfart met each other only two weeks ago in an exciting five-compositor, who will well promise for still a dramatic fight on Thursday. Middelfart won the showdown, but it was at own track and in a fight, where Aalborg HIK didn't hit the day. Thus the north Jutlanders will be intent on avenging the effort and going at their first cup final since 2003. Finales there have been lots of for Marienlyst in recent years, and the Odense-aners are defending masters of a both cup and league. But in defiance of this and the immediate first place in Elitedivisionen goes Marienlyst only in to the semifinal towards Gentofte with a narrow favourite dignity. That is due to not least Gentofte's home arena advantage and more years' tradition for dense and unpredictable fights between specifically these two teams who have delivered some memorable dramas. As late as last Saturday Gentofte and Marienlyst met, and it stayed in Odense to a rather safe victory for the home team, thus there is no doubt that Gentofte has to find some tactical tricks in order to get acrid on Marienlyst. But that also uses to be one of the specialties with coach Peter Borglund's crew. The cup final will be played on Sunday January 25th in connection with Pokalfestival in Odense. The men's cup semifinals Aalborg HIK - Middelfart VK Thursday December 18th 19:00.30 in Aalborg Stadionhal Gentofte Volley-Marienlyst Saturday December 20th 15:00.30 in Kildeskovshallen

A little bit of my volleyball history

Well we've had this week off to prepare for our big semi final Pokal cup match on thursday against Alborg so I thought i'd write about something else. Everytime I speak in public about volleyball, one of the questions i get is when did you start playing volleyball:
I first remember learning to play volleyball when I was only 7 years old. At Linklater Public School, Mr. White, my gym teacher, taught me how to properly hold my hands when passing the ball. He told me to make a fist and cover it with the other one! To this day that is how I pass the ball. Thanks Mr. White! I was into a lot of different sports at a young age including bowling, basketball, soccer and cub scouts!

I didn't really play much volleyball until I was about 12 years old where for two years I played on the senior elementary school.

I went to Regiopolis-Notre Dame for highschool and really learned how to play volleyball. Before going to Regi my sister informed me that Regi wasn't really a volleyball school and maybe I might be able to help them win a game or two! In my first year, I was a setter. By my second year I had grown a little bit and got to be a power hitter. For atleast the first half of highschool, I focussed much more on basketball then volleyball. Usually heading to the YMCA to shoot more after practice. Basketball taught me the hardwork, dedication and stamina that has gotten me through a lot of volleyball matches.
All throughout highschool we had a very strong volleyball team and even won the provincial championship. My coach for all of highschool was Pat Farrell. He started a club for all of us to play on so that we could get extra practice and even drove us about two hours so that we could try out for a regional team in Ottawa. I sincerely do not think I would be where I am today without the dedication of Pat! So many players from my highschool have gone on to keep playing and it really is a volleyball factory now. He is one of the reasons I want to be a coach!

I was recruited to a few different universities and chose McMaster based on my campus visit and the brand new volleyball program it was starting. The year before I got there the team had a dismal 2-16 record but got a new coach. I still remember a conversation with Steve Murray, a former teammate, while i was still in highshool who was thinking about going to mac as well. And I asked him "Do you want to start something here? Let's do it"

We weren't the only ones that were thinking about making a difference. 8 recruits decided to come to McMaster that year. Although we didn't make an immediate impact on paper, after 5 years of hard work we went 20-0 in the regular season and won the OUA championship.

I'm a big beleiver that you can only be as successful as the people you surround yourself with. I've been very blessed to be surrounded by such great people who have pushed me to get to where I am today. My family, friends, teammates and coaches all have gotten me to where I am. I just keep playing the sport I love!

Article from Team Website

BIG WIN OVER AALBORG!!

from middelfart-vk.dk
translated by gramtrans

"The Blue" won via Ålborg at home

In front of about 150 spectators, Herre Eliteholdet won on Thursday evening with 3-2 via Ålborg.

Lady 1. the team had taken care of drums etc. of "The Blue" so that it were added up to a good evening for Middelfart.

The fight was sometimes well played, but with big swings be in the pipeline, and marked on both pages by personal mistakes.

But at 5. sets it was this time Middelfart who had the will to win, and after 3 defeats in the other 5 setters the team had played, losing was not an option.

The set figures turned 25-21,23-25,26-24,21-25 and 15-10.

Especially Parrish Offer was the well-games and celebrated many of his winner smashes with a small dance, to puplikum's great pleasure.

George Filho also showed class, and was Middelfart's best in large parts of the fight.

Team Pic

back row l-r

Jacob Peterson, Søren Brunke, Matt LaBourdais, Peter Thaysen, Brian Degn, Ulrik Degn, Suichi Mizuno

front row l-r

Parrish Offer, Scott Townsend, Brage Roalkvam, Georgs Filho, Bo Amelung

Side Walk Sale

Each year there is a Jule (Christmas) Sidewalk sale with little shops set up for over a kilometer.
This year there were about 15,000 people in attendance, not bad for a city with 14,000 people

One of the pub/restaurants decorated with lights

George playing with Jacobs kids! Very cute kids i must say

Brage and I having a Jule ol (Christmas Beer) on a patio

A few pictures from our First Tourni

This is the tourni we came third even with 5 players.Astrid, Marie, Marie, Ag, Line, Henriette

Back to .500 with win over Skobakken

Friday November 28th we played Skobakken in Arhus. They were in last place with a record of 0-7 which can be a dangerous situation going into their gym. I commented earlier that they were a young team, however this time around they had picked up a new older setter which made them much more stable. They also play pretty impressive defense. Balls just seem to bounce up off of them. We got out to a 5-0 lead in the first set and played somewhat consistent ball. After 4 or 5 questionable referee calls (keep in mind with rally point that is an 8-10 point swing) we found ourselves locked at 24. They ended up blocking me (my only offensive error on the night) at 24-25 and won the set. We rebounded and took the next three sets and won the match 3-1. Some things to note about the match. You have to bring your A game to every match. We beat the number 1 team last week and were pushed by the last place team this week. Another thing is getting used to the refereeing.. If you're reading this in Canada, wow you have it sooo well. Instead of focusing on making the in or out or touch calls, most of the referees are trying to make zaney calls. For example, in the 4th set at 22-21 for us, they went back to serve and it was quite noisy in the gym. The server did not hear the whistle and looked at the referee for confirmation. The ref stood there and you could feel him counting, almost hoping he wouldn't serve in time so that he could make that call. After the 8 second call, a player kicked the ball and the ref gave him a yellow card (and a point) making the score 24-21 and in essence ending the game. It wasn't really how the game should have ended but 2points is 2points in a tight playoff race. Next we play Aalborg on Thursday, a team that dominated us the first time around. But boy are we feeling ready this time!

another article

From Melfar Posten
translated by Gramtrans.com

Victory over the masters

Safe victory to Middelfart at home over Marienlyst

Af Tommy Beck

Volleyball: After having lost to the four teams in front in Volleyball the league and thus for the first time in fairly many years being outside that top-four placement which gives access to the semifinal game about the Danish championship, so that we Friday evening a fairly convincing and lit Middelfart-team that put the masters from Marienlyst in that degree on place with a safe 3-1 victory in Lillebæltshallen.

There is hardly doubt that Marienlyst had gone to the west-Funen in the safe belief that the fight would become a "fairly normal day against Middelfart at the office". Completely different was the local team put up, and first during third set they put a little championship game over Marienlyst. The figures in the fight stayed: 25-21, 25-22, 19-25 and 25-21.

At the day depended the visitors' games very much with the star Shaun Powell's games. At the first two sets he arranged far too many mistakes. At third set he was strong with his great jump force, but at fourth and last set he failed again far too much, and it surprisingly but rather safe victory for the hosts was a fact.

At first sets the two teams we went to 9-9, but with four balls i-pulls together got the home team the lead which helped to secure the set.

The visitors didn't come closer on than 17-16 and 19-18, and typical of the set scored the home team its 25. point at a serve mistake by the visitors.

At other set an especially the home team's server and blockades were completely on the top. With big safety the visitors' Michael Søes and Shaun Powell were blocked. At other set the visitors led only at the position 4-5. The teams we went together to 13-13 in the middle of the set, where the home team again took decisive to 17-13. The densest, the visitors put into the final phase, was at the position 23-21, before the home team again moved off with making sure the two next point.

Third set started again very just, but from 10-9 to the home team Marienlyst went to 10-12 and the rest of the set there stood Marienlyst on. At this point came the thoughts, whether the home team would go the distance, but during fourth set there wasn't more doubt about the home team's strength at the day.

The visitors' last lead at fourth set was at 3-4. From 9-9 the home team went to 14-10 and 16-11. Here was the fight really decided. Later it stayed 20-13, but closer on than 23-19 didn't put Marienlyst.

With the victory Middelfart played oneself back i top-four, and with the game last Friday proved the team that they also belong to there. The art is forward-oriented to manage to raise the bottom-level up to what they achieved against the masters.

On the winning team Matt Lebourdai's were strongly the game joints, but also Scott Townsend, Parrish Offer, Søren Brunke and Ulrik Degn beautifully showed games.

The team's next struggle is at Friday in Århus against the bottom team Skovbakken, before HIK Ålborg will come to the town on Thursday December 4th at 19.45. Especially the last fight will be decisive for Middelfart's prospects in the top of the row.

Victory tastes Sweet!

Recently we've been struggling a little bit with consistency. We are a very good team, but often during games we have a period for about 5 points where we seem to either forget how to pass, serve or attack the ball. We've been training very hard the last couple of weeks to overcome this. Last week, we lost a thrilling 5 setter to Holte (a team we were tied with in the standings) and again during the match we lost strings of points.
This Friday we played Marienlyst who was 6-0 coming into the match and hadn't lost to a Danish team in about 20 games stemming from last year. They had beaten everyone (including us, 3-1) the first time. Our hard work paid off early as both teams traded points. A few late errors on their part and we won the first set 25-21. More consistent play through the second set gave us the set 25-22, We faulted a little bit in the 3rd and lost 25-19 but rebounded in the 4th to win the set and match 25-21.
Personally, i was pretty quiet in the first two sets. I concentrated on my passing and defence. In the 3rd and 4th set they switched their setters and Scott gave me alot of opportunities to attack over top of him. It was fun! lol

Beating the number 1 team is really good for our confidence but it didn't seem like we were playing THAT much better. I think it's because we often had times in previous match when we were playing as well as we did last night. It's because we cut out those 3-5 points each set that made the difference. It also felt like a boxing match. As DP used to say, just keep jabbing at the other team, you're gonna take your hits but see who is standing at the end. Well fought match and hopefully we keep moving forward.

Stats
8 Kills, 2 Errors, 16 Times Attacking, 1 Ace

Article in the newspaper

http://www.melfarposten.dk/article/1123465:Melfar-Posten--Volleyspillere-hos-optikeren

Translated by Gram trans


Not a word about lack of ball eye - only one gentleman from MVK's picked team needed new glasses Middelfart:

No - that wasn't thought as a comment for their performances at the track or lack of ball eye.

But the gentleman's-picked players from Middelfart Volleyballklub were all consequently invited for a check with optician Benno Jeppesen in Algade the other day.

The visit probably was an element in the sponsor cooperation, and all the players on the gentleman's-picked team managed to test their visions, and sight motor function.

Then the players know this front, if the results at the track fail.

At the tests that were arranged the team lay in the scoring very high, and they were divorced generally very positively out.

Only one player needed new glasses.

Benno Jeppesen is by the way the only optician in Middelfart, who is trained for to arrange this test of the sight motor function.

J day

Each year the first Friday in November is called J Day here. It is the first day that stores and bars can sell Christmas beer. They can begin selling at 8:59pm so at some places there is even a countdown like new years! Christmas beer is a little sweeter and a bit stronger- usually about 6.5%. We all went to Cafe Razz and had one to test it out. Pretty cool holiday if you ask me! And they give out free hats!

Brage, Mizuno, Mrs. Mizuno, George

George, Me, Brage
George and Brage.. with me in the background!



George, who doesn't drink!
My newest hat!

Match vs Ikast

On Saturday, November 8th we traveled to Ikast to play. They are a new team that moved up from First Division last year. It was a good chance to get on track and put a win on the board in our own league. We had a pretty intense week of training with lots of jumping and were going into the weekend with a lot of confidence. We got to the gym and there was a girls match before us. It kinda felt like a university game as the match obviously went five sets!

We started off our match a little bit slow and it was tight until about 10's. After that we went on a bit of a serving tear and won the first set 25-21. They struggled a lot with our serving and we won the next two sets 25-15, 25-17. It was an important win that we needed to take care of.
Here is a news video of the match:
http://www.tv2regionerne.dk/reg2005/player.aspx?id=453045&r=6

Norway

On Thursday October 30th, we left for Norway to play in the Nordic Cup Championship. There are 2 pools of 4 teams and then our pool which only had 3 teams in it.
To qualify for the finals in Finland you needed to win your pool plus there was one wild card spot for the second place team with the best record. We first got on a train in Middelfart and went to the Copenhagen airport.
We flew from Copenhagen to Bergen, Norway, which was a beautiful flight. Coming into Bergen all you could see was water and mountains. Next we rented cars and drove for about 3 hours to Fjorde.
It is much different then Denmark which is very flat. I almost got sick the roads were so windy and moutainous. About two hours into the drive we had to take a half hour ferry ride to go another island
After the 12 hour travel day of trains, planes, automobiles and even boats, we finally arrived at our hotel. The first thing you notice about Fjorde is that it is completely surrounded by mountains, much like Banff. The sun never directly hit the ground in the city while we were there. It was a very self contained city. Impressive to say the least. We were greated with dinner at the hotel restaurant. A succulent seafood buffet, that we soon realized would be home to all our meals.

I really started getting used to 3 all you can eat meals a day and even weighing in when i got home i was up about 6 pounds!

After our meal we checked out the facilities and watched the team we would be playing practice a little bit. They looked pretty good!
We had a good night sleep and practice and it was game time. We played the home team Fjorde in the first match. An hour before the match people started showing up with pots, pans and drums. The feeling in the gym was electric, if thought there were maybe 100 people in the stands. Fjorde's starting setter was injured so they had their backup in and their offense was pretty slow. We capitalized on lotsa blocking opportunities and won 3-0 quite handly.

The next day we play played Nyborg. They had beaten Fjorde 3-0 the week before so we knew that it would be a much tighter match. I personally started off the match on fire. I had 8 kills on my first 8 attempts. We won the first set 32-30 in quite the battle. Nyborg rebounded and won the next two sets 25-22 and 25-23, the fourth set with our backs against the wall we took 25-23 which lead us to the 5th set. Feeling fired up we came out ready to take the match, unfortunatly we didn't get off to a great start...or really finish! We struggled early with passing and then Nyborg was relentless in their defence. We lost the 5th set 15-6 in a disapointing way.
However since we lost extremely close we were waiting to see if we qualified in the wild card spot. It wasn't until we reached home the next day that we heard that we had qualified so we now head to Finland in January to compete in the finals.

My 15 U girls team

The DU15 girls team traveled to play in the Korsor Slagelse Volley Klubs Ungdomsstaevne 2008 on Saturday October 18th. The team started with only 6 players which meant lots of playing time for everyone. The girls competed against Lyngby first and after taking the first set 25-23 gave up the next two sets to lose a tight contest 2-1. Next, the team took on Grondal. Halfway through the first set, star setter Line came down with an ankle injury. Having only 6 players to begin with the remaining players were forced to play with 5 players. Abandoning the new system they had been learning, each player took turns passing, setting AND attacking. Henriette was a force at the net with each attack. With only 5 players, they beat Grondal 2-0 and beat Korsor-Slagelse 2-0 as well. The difference in the games was the girls ability to pass the ball directly to the setter and to consistently put the other team under pressure with serving. Marie Risse unleashed her cannon of a serve as opponents would duck for cover. Ag was automatic in their passing and
side out and come up with some very crucial blocks. The girls qualified for the semi-finals the following day. In a very even matched game against Gentofte, the girls continued to play with 5 players, however they were defeated 2-0. Feeling down but not out, the girls competed for the bronze medal against Amager. Splitting the first two sets, the girls went on to win the 3rd and final set 19-17 and secured the bronze medal. Astrid proved to be a very effective player, hitting shots around the block to score while Marie N was able to use a variety of shots including tips as well as hard hits to find the floor.
Although the DU15 girls were not able to implement their game plan that they have been working on for the past few months, they were able to demonstrate the variety of skills that each player has. They always stayed together and even when times starting to get tough, they seemed to know just what to do as teammates to bring each other back.
Congratulations!

Top Ten difference between Canada and Denmark

10. The street lights go from red, to yellow to green. Once it turns yellow you can start moving.
9. All the transport trucks are small and stubby in the front.
8. Everyone drives 140-150 on the highway, gets you everywhere nice and fast.
7. Everyone goes to Germany to buy beer since it costs about 25 dollars for 3 two fours.
6. Blonde hair and blue eyes, guys/girls... everyone!
5. People can drink here... clubs stay open until the early morning and the busiest time at the club is somewhere around 4am.
4. It doesn't just rain here. It can rain then be sunny, then rain again, the weather changes dramatically in just a few minutes. Conclusion: always have a rain jacket!
3. Power sockets are different. Do NOT, i repeat do NOT plug a Canadian power bar into an outlet, can cause a funny smell in your room!
2. Most television shows don't have commercials during the program. Even the American shows cut out the commercial beak until in between programming
1. They actually show volleyball on TV here. Mens/Women is all shown on TV.

And the very biggest difference about being in Denmark vs being in Canada....
I'm getting paid to play volleyball!!!

Being a Star in Vejle!

I was asked by the management of my team to be a guest at a Kidsvolley camp. Kidsvolley was started in Holland but has spread here. Basically, there are different levels depending on age and development. At the very begining, players are allowed to catch the ball at every position, but as they get older, different contacts must be volleyball contacts. There are even rules such as the first serve must be underhand and there must be 3 contacts or the other team gets the point. Anyways, I developed a powerpoint presentation and brought my projector and jumped on a train to Vejle. It's about 40 mins away. Olav was my chauffuer and picked me up at the station. During my presentation, I shared with them information about myself, found out a little about them, taught them the history of volleyball, and showed a video of japanese kids playing volleyball about their age (thanks dp!). The interesting thing is that not all the kids could speak english so Olav was also my translator!

After my presentation, we got to play a little bit of kidsvolley and i joined one of the teams! It was tonnes of fun and we even made a cheer (to, tre, frikadilla!) Frikadillas are a danish meat ball, but i love the word!

Anyways at the end, the kids said thank you and i signed a bunch of autographs! One has me sign his ball, his shirt AND his waterbottle!

I think being there was more fun for me than the kids! However, after speaking with Olav, he wants me to come back and do more tutorials as well as coach as many times as twice a week!!!

It's been a good week!