Blog #3: The joys of a charter flight, by Ashlea Muckenhirn

Blog #3: The joys of a charter flight, by Ashlea Muckenhirn

Updated: 10/29/2009 03:37:55 (ET)
By SDSU Sports Info

Selection Monday by Stacie Oistad & Ashlea Muckenhirn

Warkenthien and Meier scout TCU and Pack for Texas

Courtesy: GoJacks.com
http://www.gojacks.com/

Well, it's about 5 p.m. here in Texas (I guess the same in S.D.) and we arrived in Lubbock about two hours ago – ahead of schedule! I can't say we've ever done that flying commercial, I think I can get used to this charter business!

The day started off in the gym at about 8 a.m. to get taped, dressed for practice and to pack my bags. The lockerroom is always an interesting place before a roadtrip, stuff EVERYWHERE! People checking and rechecking and then rechecking a third time to make sure nothing is forgotten, others asking if they can borrow a grey-t or two to make it through the weekend with clean clothes.

You have to play hopscotch to get from the door to your locker to get around all the bags, which includes a school bags, draw string bags, the Nike bags that we travel with and then a bag to bring your clothes and belongs to and from the gym...if my math is correct, that is four bags x 14 players = a lot of stuff, and like Jenn mentioned earlier, we are girls – there is no such thing as "packing light".

Practice was a productive, focused two hours. We have devoted practice players, anywhere from five to seven guys that showed up at 9:30 a.m. on a Friday to come make us better today. They are the best! However, they did hit a couple of half court shots to bring the coaches within four points of the players. Every year we have a half-court contest between the coaches, which includes anyone not a player basically (so anyone in Frost arena that they can recruit to shoot), and players (only 14 of us). The team is still in the lead though!

From there we showered up and got on the road. We took a bus down to Sioux Falls, and much to our surprise and pleasure, the administration had put together "good luck" bags for everyone on the bus...full of goodies! It was awesome, thank you so much!

This isn't an ordinary road trip for us; normally just the players, coaches, trainers and managers travel commercially. Today though we had some administrators catch a coach bus and charter flight from Sioux Falls directly to Lubbock with us. WOW! What an experience! No hassle, no airport security, no headaches...just 45 or so people driving right out on the tarmac and getting on a plane.

Tonight, we'll head to dinner and then watch some more film on TCU. I've got a good feeling about this place, in the airport there was a sign that read: "If you chase two rabbits, both will escape." Well, there will be five of us on the court come Sunday, and 14 strong wearing yellow and blue!

A.Muck #42