Pumpkin Carving!

Halloween is the time of a great tradition on the Whitman campus -- no not trick-or-treating downtown, not costume parties, but rather the men's tennis team annual pumpkin carving! As is the annual tradition with this event my children pick their favorite pumpkins as winners. The team is full of bright young men who over the years have come to realize the way to pumpkin carving victory was to carve anything that resembled something to do with Pokeman. Anything Pokeman and my kids loved it. Either my kids have matured (they are 12 and 8) or Pokeman is starting to lose its popularity because this is the first year a Pokeman themed pumpkin didn't win.

This year's winners of the Annalise award for Outstanding Pumpkin Carving goes to -- Jeff Tolman and Will Huskey for Lion howling in the moon! And the Benjamin award for Mastery of all things Pumpkin goes to Nasko (for his batman rendition). Note this was especially sweet award for the Bulgarian since he is new to art of pumpkin carving.

I also prepared a HUGE beef brisket in my smoker (15 pounds) for the team to enjoy after the

pumpkin carving. As you can see from the picture it was one massive piece of meat! Everyone raved about the dinner but I'm beginning to think if I BBQ any type of meat the guys on the team will devour it and claim it was amazing food. Something about college guys and food..they never seem to get enough!

ITA Small College National Championship

One of the fun things about traveling is the sense adventure. Playing tennis has provided Whitman players (and myself) a great opportunity to explore new parts of the country. This week I was lucky enough to travel to Mobile, AL with Conor and Andrew as well as Coach John, Alyssa Roberg and Elise Otto of the women's team. Because of the nature of tennis scheduling we really never to get travel or play at the same time as the Women's team. It was a special treat traveling and hanging out as a group.

The trip to Mobile was certainly an adventure -- especially for our talented freshman Andrew La Cava. Prior to the trip Andrew spend almost the entire week in the Whitman health center or the ER. Unfortunately he caught some bug and had a temperature of 103.6. Needless to say he was down and out for the entire week prior to the trip. By the end of the week I was worried if he was going to be able to make the trip. Luckily by Sunday he was feeling well enough to check out of the health center and get in a few practice sessions.

We are very fortunate that Whitman's October break is the same week as the tournament. Since there are no classes on Monday or Tuesday there is a bit less academic stress surrounding the tournament. Still a lot for the players to manage but something that is doable. Our trip started very early Tuesday morning as we all met at 4am to drive to Pasco for our 6am flight. As usual all the players carried their tennis bags onto the flight. As we boarded the jet the players dropped their bags off on the Ala Cart luggage rack and away we went to Denver. At Denver we got off the jet and waited for the racket bags to come off the Ala Cart rack. We watched as the bags unloaded the plane (and sat in the rain) and then were reloaded into the plane! As we were sitting at the gate Coach John ran back down the jet way to find out why the bags were put back on the plane. Apparently this is something you aren't suppose to do as the gate agent started running after him yelling, and I'm not kidding, "Jimmin Christmas you can go back on the plane!"

We made it to New Orleans but unfortunately our bags didn't. Too make matters even worse there was no way to track our bags since they weren't checked. The nice United travel person said they would probably be in on the 6pm flight. Since it was only 1pm and we wanted to get to Mobile to hit we split up: I drove all the players to Mobile (about 2.5 hours) and Coach John stayed behind for the tennis bags.

Once we were at Mobile we had to deal with the logistics of hitting without tennis equipment. We ended up demoing some rackets from the local tennis shop, buying a couple pairs of shoes, borrowing a pair of shoes (luckily Coach John and Andrew have the same shoe size), and borrowing some clothing (I had my bag of tennis stuff). It was very cool to see how the players handled this situation. They had fun with the situation and ended up having a pretty good hit that evening. To finish off our day of adventure Coach John called saying all our stuff had arrived and he was on the road to Mobile.

On Wednesday we had play-in matches against the singles and doubles winner of the Texas region. Since the ITA has Texas and the PNW making up a section (strange geographic mix) the two regional winners playoff to make the final 8. In the morning Andrew faced off against Bobby Cocanougher who is an experienced senior from Trinity. In the first set Andrew forced an early break going up 3-1. At that point the Trinity senior raised his level of play to reel off 6 straight games going up 6-3, 1-0 (up a break). Big props to our freshman he didn't get discouraged and battled hard taking the 2nd set 6-4. The 3rd set went down to the wire. Andrew was serving at 5-5 and had an unfortunate game: second guessed a volley and pushed it long, missed an overhead that was in the sun, a net cord winner from his opponent and he was broken. Cocanougher served out the match for a hard fought 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 victory.

After an hour break Andrew team-up with Conor Holton-Burke to face Cocanougher and Kowal of Trinity. We knew this was going to be a tough match -- Cocanougher/Kowal have played together for 4-years and had great results. In fact last year they lost in the NCAA doubles final and two years ago they lost in the semi-finals. Going into the year they are the undisputed #1 doubles team in DIII. In the first set the Trinity duo outplayed Andrew/Conor -- they several chances to break Conor/Andrew (in fact in one game Conor served at 0-40) and the closest we got to break was one game that went to 30-30. Then a funny thing happened in the tiebreaker: we ripped off 6 straight points and took the 1st set 7-6. The second set was a reversal of the 1st. Now we were holding serve easy and having break points. In fact Andrew/Conor broke pretty early in the match to go up 3-2. They held that lead through the set and Andrew served for the match 5-3. The Trinity guys rose to the challenge nailing returns and broke at love. Just like the 1st set the 2nd set came down to a tiebreak. We had a match point on Trinity's serve at 5-6 in the breaker but missed the return. However we won the next point going up 7-6 with Conor serving. Our guys play I, Conor nails a big 1st serve, and Andrew moves to intercept the weak reply with a forehand volley and then a funny thing happened -- he carved the ball too fine and misses the volley. With new life the Trinity team wins the next two points stealing the set and more importantly the momentum. In the 3rd set match breaker the Trinity duo went up a mini-break early and never looked back winning 10-6. Tough, tough match with the Trinity team escaping with a 6-7, 7-6, 10-6 win.

Obviously Andrew/Conor are disappointed losing that match. However I have to say that it was one of the best doubles matches I've seen. Both teams played great pushing each other to great heights. Also great to see the wonderful sportsmanship displayed by both teams. Not sure about the Trinity team but I know Andrew/Conor felt like they had made new friends after that doubles match. My feelings about the doubles match were confirmed when Mr Kowal came over and told me that he has been watching DIII tennis for almost 4 years and that was the best DIII doubles match he had ever seen.

I should mention that yesterday the Trinity team won the DIII title knocking off Emory's #1 team 6-2, 6-2 in the finals. We wish them the best of luck in the Super Bowl play off this weekend.

Even though we dropped two close matches I, and the players, come away from the ITA's with the belief we can compete with anyone in DIII. I know this experience will prime the pump of passion and drive our guys to work hard this off season. Even though we lost 7 seniors to graduation I feel the Fighting Squirrels will have a special year.

An outdoor team adventure!

Over the weekend we had our annual team backpacking trip. For some on the team it was their first time camping and for many it was their first time backpacking. For me the backpacking trip is a combination of two things I love -- coaching and exploring the outdoors. I find this trip to be a very powerful team experience. There is nothing like sitting around a campfire while being miles away from other people and at a place where there is no cell phone service, no electricity, no email, no twitter or facebook. Freshman Will Husky summed it well when in the middle of trip he made the observation "I never realized how noisy my life is."

The spot I picked for this year's trip was the Elk Flats trail which is deep within the Wenaha Wilderness area. A Wilderness Area is a federally protected tract of land where the use of mechanized equipment is prohibited -- even the use of a bicycle is forbidden. The only way into such areas are on horseback or on foot. At the base of Elk Flats the North and South Fork of the Wenaha run to together to form the main Wenaha. Its a beautiful but long hike (5 miles). I also like the "pacing" of this trail. The first and last third of the trail are pretty steep whereas the middle third is pretty flat which allows for easier walking. Another reason I decided on Elk Flats is that I'm pretty familiar with the area. Earlier in the year I had done two different overnight backpacking trips on this trail. During my previous treks I was lucky enough to have seen a wide variety of wildlife including a small herd of elk, deer, and a mother bear with her cub.

For this trip I decided to drive the team up Mill Creek and along the top of the Blue Mountains. Besides being a stunning drive it is actually a shorter drive than taking the maintained mountain roads. However part of the road along the top of the Blues isn't maintained and is very rocky and rutted in places. For the trip we a rented Surburan and took my '85 Jeep CJ7. Over the years I have been rebuilding my Jeep as a mountain vehicle and was confident it could make it across the high mountain road. However I wasn't so sure about the newer Surburan. My fears of the Surburan proved to be true as it's tires couldn't handle the mountain road. Luckily I've had plenty experience changing flat tires on my trips in the Wenaha (8 flats now and counting) and am comfortable changing a flat.

Once to the top of Elk Flats and got all the gear situated and packs adjusted we headed down the trail. I was hoping we would come across some wildlife on our hike but 10 guys hiking together make a fair amount of noise and I'm sure any animal within miles scampered off before we got close.

Once at camp we had a few hours of daylight left to set up tents, gather firewood for the night, and explorer the area. I find it a good experience for guys to learn how to set up a tent. I also find it amusing to watch people who have never set up a tent wrestle with poles, move tents about and try to figure out how everything goes together. I don't find it so amusing getting out of my tent and warm sleeping bag to help someone put on a rain fly (you're welcome).

For dinner I made a mess of fajitas over the camp fire. The day prior to the trip I cooked up (and froze) steak and chicken for dinner. To save time while camping I also sliced up onions, a variety of peppers, and jalapeños. To complete dinner preparations I used a food dehydrator on several containers of salsa. I have never used a dehydrator and was surprised how well salsa dehydrated.

As far as dinner was concerned let me state it was hectic cooking for 10 people over a campfire! I had several things going at once with minimal equipment: water boiling to make rice, reconstituting the salsa, cooking beans over the fire, and had 2 big Fry Bakes (which are awesome for camping) going with steak and chicken fajitas. Not to brag but the dinner was awesome and guys wolfed down 5 pounds of the steak fajitas and about 3 pounds of chicken. And of course for dessert we made s'mores over the campfire.

Darkness comes quick and heavy when in the wilderness. After dinner we sat around the campfire sharing stories and chatting about everything - girls, tennis, life. As everyone was getting ready for bed a few guys took advantage of the surroundings and walked over to a near-by clearing to watch the stars. It is amazing how bright the night sky is when there are no lights within 20 miles!

Sunday morning everyone woke up on their time. I was the first up about 8am and others (Will and Etienne) slept in until 11am. Once everyone was up we wandered down to the S Fork of the Wenaha to explore around the water. I dared a couple people to wade across the stream in their bare feet. In the end only Andrew and Will made it across the small stream. For the rest that attempted the wade it was simply too cold and they turned back (or in Etienne's case he fell down). For the record the stream is pretty chilly. In August I measured the water temp in the heat of the day and found it be about 52. My best guess is the water temp that morning was in the high 40's.

Once we cleaned up camp making sure we left no trace it was time for the pack out. Its MUCH harder packing everything uphill and the hike really took its toll on me. I'm in nowhere near the shape of the young guys it took me nearly 2 hours to make the pack out. Conor and Steve decided to use the hike as an opportunity for conditioning and jogged part way (with packs) and made it in 1 hour 10 mins!

Drive back to Walla Walla was uneventful. Since we were down a spare on the Surburan we took the "maintained" route back to town. Luckily we made it back without blowing out anymore tires!

I posted pictures on my flickr page. I'll try to post video from the trip later this week. Lastly I should mentioned we were lucky enough to convince '09 alum Justin Hayashi to join us on the trip. He is part of the Boeing management program and was visiting Whitman over the weekend to recruit for Boeing.