It’s GAMEDAY! These trips can get long. Days like yesterday, just sitting in the hotel room working, aren’t much fun. Thank goodness I forgot some socks so I got to break up the day a little!
Seriously, it’s gameday that make my job fun. It’s gameday that makes all the hard work by the players worth it. Games are supposed to be fun!
Here’s the run down of the day:
8:30am Wakeup Call
8:45am Breakfast
9:15am Depart the hotel for practice
9:30am Record Coach Serratore’s Pregame Interview
10:30am Team Practices…I set up the equipment for the game
11:30am Practice ends. The guys will shower and then go through a video session to breakdown the Falcons special teams one last time. This is normally done throughout the week (of a normal week), but since the team is coming off break, this is a much longer video session than normal.
1:00pm Team’s Pregame Meal…always pasta and lean proteins…like chicken. This is why Kelly and I don’t eat pasta the rest of the year. We get our fill on the road!
2:30pm Pregame Nap. This is the best part of the day for a player (and maybe me too!). Players LOVE pregame naps.
4:45pm Depart hotel for the game
7:05pm GAMETIME!!!!
10:00pm Postgame meal…usually soup and sandwich and salad.
I shot some video earlier in the week to show you what the Cadet Ice Arena is like. It’s a MASSIVE building that houses the hockey and basketball teams, plus volleyball, wrestling, and track teams. Every Air Force Falcon team has locker rooms here as well.
Here’s a 360 of the rink:
Here’s a 360 from the press box. This is the only place I’ve ever been to that I could announce a hockey game and a basketball game just by spinning my chair around!
Here’s a video of the indoor track and training area:
EVERY Cadet has to be on a sports team. They offer 11 male programs, and 10 female programs. As you can imagine, being a good teammate is important to the Air Force when these Cadets get into the service portion of their commitment.
Here is what their website says about their mission and vision:
Mission: Provide a world class environment to prepare and motivate leaders of character through athletic training, testing and competition.
Vision: A globally renowned enterprise forging resilient leaders of character through transformational competitive athletic experiences.
Practice time and practice hours are some of the most enjoyable for the Cadets. They aren’t in class. They aren’t studying. They aren’t committed to doing anything else but being with their teammates.
I give the Cadets all the credit in the world. I have seen firsthand how much time commitment is given to being a D1 athlete. I can’t imagine the extra commitment to being an Air Force Cadet too.
Yes, it looks great on a resume to be a Cadet. Yes, they will make a lot of money in the real world once their commitment to the Military is complete. I still couldn’t do it!
Until gametime…
Brian