Are You There, Vodka?

That title just about sums up how I am feeling right now. How did I come up with this title? Let’s just say I was inspired by one of Jen's books, "Are You There, Vodka? It's me, Chelsea." by Chelsea Handler. I haven't read this book but according to my wife it’s very funny.

Last night’s game wasn't exactly the best performance we’ve had all season. It was one of our worst performances of the season. We got our asses kicked by damn near 30 points! To be exact, we lost by 28 with the final score reading 87-59.

In college I got used to handing out ass whooping to teams; well I'm getting a taste of my own medicine now. It doesn't feel too good either. Ouch!

I think the downfall for last night’s game started way before I got to the game. Before I left the apartment, I stayed just long enough to catch the start of the Division II National Championship game on CBS only to watch the replay of the 2007 National Championship game. For those who don't know, this is the game we (Winona State) lost a seven point lead with 45 seconds left in the game - 45 SECONDS! This would have given us our second straight title but 45 SECONDS and Atkins kept that from happening. I’m not hating though – I’m over it and so are the 2 rings I have sitting on my fingers  Haha - that actually wasn't the downfall of last night’s game, instead it was something else: Coach.

The game began the exact same way it has all season long with coach screaming, stomping, and complaining at the players and at the officials. I believe us players (some more than others) are tired of it and becoming non-responsive to him. I have a coach who yells about anything and everything and I mean EVERYTHING. For example, during shootaround a few weeks back, one of our younger players decided to wear a new pair of basketball shoes to break them in since we were having a light practice. Instead coach screamed at him telling him he can't do that in front of the whole team – even though some of our veterans have done that. It’s like he just needs to find someone to yell at. Stupid huh? It doesn't stop there, earlier in the year I was sick with the swine flu. His response, "you're not sick, it's all in your head." right after the team told him I had a 102 degree temperature and he still wanted me to play in the game. That is just a couple of examples of his many, many episodes. I think it’s hard for me to explain really. It's getting bad though; in fact it's so bad that the fans are sick of him. One of the fans that live in the same building with me was complaining about coach. That fan speaks very little English but he made it clear about his feelings toward coach.

Back to the game...well there is not much to tell about the game. We started off slow and sluggish and our opponent was red hot. They were ready for this game and definitely wanted it more from the start. That was no surprise as it was an important game for both clubs in terms of the playoff as we both were tied for 9th. We just couldn't get anything going nor could we get a stop on the defensive side. By the time I got into the game (I don't start for this team), we were already down 10. I tried to spark a little run, getting 6 points and we were able to cut the lead down but then I was whistled for two fouls. I had to sit the rest of the half. As the first half ended we found ourselves down 13 points. Then the second half comes around and we usually make a run and get back into the game but not this time. The fans had to painfully watch us suffer on the court. They had to watch me struggle as well as I finished with 9pts in 21 minutes on 3/8 shooting yikes...

It was apparent that some of the players have given up. I think it doesn't help that some of the guys just want the season to be done now and not make the playoff so they wouldn't have to deal with coach. We had a long week of practices and a hard week of practices too. With an extra day of preparation for this match one would usually think coach might give us an extra day off to recover from the long, long road trip. Instead he responded with running us into the ground all week in practice. After reading some of the coach's post game interview, he had the nerve to tell the media that we have some tired players and players that are hurt. I think it fair to say coach gets an A+ for jackass and a D- for coaching. In addition to that, we have a scrimmage game on Wednesday, a full 40 minutes scrimmage game. Who in the hell would schedule a scrimmage when there is only 6 games remaining in the regular season? I guess coach needs the extra practice to brush up on his coaching skills? Better yet he needs to take a class on how NOT to piss your players off...

Ok let’s take a step back. After reviewing what I wrote, you would guess I'm a little pissed off but honestly I'm not. It kind of just leads me back to my title, Are You There, Vodka? Haha. I guess I'm really lucky to have Jen here to take my mind away from basketball. Don't worry I haven't pulled out any bottles of vodka :) but I did enjoy a nice margarita during my dinner with Jen at Buffalo Grills last night. Then we were able to ease the pain away by watching West Virginia beat Kentucky, yea boy! I wish I could have seen the Butler and Kansas State game. Judging by the highlights, we missed an exciting game. Congrats to both team on making the final four as it is very much deserved! I wish the best to both of them but especially West Virginia whom I have winning it all in one of my many brackets.

Well you have been a wonderful audience and thank you for tuning in as Jonté brings you exclusive coverage from Vichy! Till next time love, peace, and happiness!

Rainbows

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you have all had a good week. It’s Jen again and I just wanted to share some cool pictures with you all. We had some interesting weather this afternoon and evening. Mostly just rain showers but they left behind some nice clouds and then even better rainbows! I know what some of you are thinking – and yes – I really am posting some pictures of rainbows! I took them from our living room -it was sweet and I don’t have a whole lot to get excited about! :)

I posted another picture of some of my new friends. Some of the other wives/girlfriends and I had a picnic in the park on Tuesday. The weather was just beautiful so the five women and the three kids set out to enjoy it. Vichy really is a beautiful town - the trees and flowers are starting to bloom now. I’m looking forward to taking lots of pictures in the next couple of months.

Jonté and the team have a big game tomorrow night. They are playing a team that’s tied with them in the standings. It’s almost a “must-win” in terms of the playoffs so hopefully everyone comes ready to play.
Catch up with you all soon – au revoir!

Under .500 Again

Good morning everyone. It's 5:30 in the morning and we're still on the bus. We've been on this bus since 10:30pm and I just can't wait to get off. I believe we still have 2 hours to go. I was able to sleep for a couple of hours and I'm wide awake now so I thought I’d take the time to share the game with everyone. Some of the guys are still playing poker – which has been going on since the start of the trip. I don't know how to play poker but watching these guys all the time I think I picked up on the game - but I don't think I will ever play. They don't play with a lot of money, so it's more of a laid back fun game for them.

We played Gravelines which is located at the very top of France. So within the past week I've experienced life on France's southern coast and its northern coast. Let me tell you they are two very different climates. (Literally like being in Winona one week and Miami the next.) Gravelines is an interesting town compared to the rest of France. In Europe I'm used to seeing apartment complexes everywhere but this town was filled with tons of townhouses. Gravelines has a nice facility that had everything to go with it. What I mean by this is that not only did they have a nice basketball court/mini arena, also attached to the building was a swimming pool open to the public, a bowling alley, and a roller skating rink. I'm sure there was more but those were what I saw. In addition to that there was a shopping area right outside the facility that had plenty of shops.

Anyway about the game, well to start this game we didn't have our starting forward who is one of the top rebounders in the league. He’s been out the past month (couple more weeks before he is back) with a finger injury and also we didn't have our staring center who suffered an ankle injury last week. Our front court isn't exactly the best situation for us right now and it showed during the first half of the game. Their big man was just having his way with us, getting easy baskets and getting to the free throw line whenever he wanted. That just put a dent in us, and to go along with that they were just dropping threes from all over the place. We went into the half down 18 and guys had their heads down. There was a sense of feeling from everyone like “Oh shit”. We made some adjustments and went to a 2-3 zone defense along with 1-2-2 full court press for the second half. We were able to get ourselves back into the game and more importantly I was able to play more of my game style. I like to be able to run around on defense and create some turnovers or get steals. That leads to fast breaks which lead me to being more active on the offensive side of the game. My struggle with this team is that our offense is mainly for our 5 man so there is a lot of standing around on my part and having to wait to receive the ball. So basically I've become more of the catch and shoot type which I can do – but would rather not. There are games when I can go off hitting threes but as of late I've been struggling a little bit. During this game I was focusing on driving and getting to the basket and creating for others. With us playing more of an up-tempo style of game in the second half everything became a little easier for me. I got most of my stats in the second half and finished with 10 points, 4 steals, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. Anyway we were able to get the lead back to single digits but couldn't overcome the deficit. I think we ran out of gas with our limited rotation. The final score of the game was 72-61. We have a home game next week and we'll bounce back with a win!

Well the sun is rising and we're still on the bus. I can't wait to lay down in a bed and catch up on some of the March Madness. I already missed a lot of good games but hopefully there will be more plenty more today. So far, I'm doing good with my bracket picks, hope everyone else is. Before I go I wanted to give a shout out the Warriors on another successful basketball season. I was able to follow and even watched some of the games throughout the season. You guys were close but you did great things. Keep working hard this off season and good things will happen to ya!

Everyone thanks for checking in and I will be back with more next week. God Bless!

Weekend Away

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! Hope you all find some time for some green beer today :)

It’s Jen again - I guess it’s my turn to blog so I’ll fill you in on our wonderful weekend. It all started with Vichy getting a big win on Friday night over Paris. They didn’t start the game very well but took over in the 2nd half and got the win. I was especially happy they won because that meant they got the weekend off! Jonté and I had tentatively planned to travel south to the French Riviera and the city of Cannes for the weekend – but our plans were contingent upon him actually having a full weekend off.

Our drive was around 6 hours so we thought it would be best to get some of it out of the way Friday night. So as soon as he got out of the locker room we ran home, grabbed our stuff and hit the road! I was really excited but feeling bad because Jonté was going to have to do all of the driving. This was definitely one of the times that I wished I had learned to drive the stupid car! We made it to our halfway point of Valence and found a room to get some sleep. However, the room that we were given was not exactly what we were expecting. It had a double bed with a single bed bunked above it and also a loft with another bed. But the room wasn’t big enough for all of those beds! It felt like we were in a bathroom filled with beds. We both busted out laughing when we got in the room. To make matters worse – we didn’t feel as though the bed was clean. So……we slept in our clothes on top of the bed and used his jacket as our blanket! We both had on hooded sweatshirts so we put our hoods up and tried to keep our skin off of any part of that bed. Sound ridiculous I know – but thankfully we were so tired that it didn’t keep us from getting some sleep.

 We set out Saturday morning for Cannes. It was a beautiful drive and the closer we got to the coast the more excited we got. The roadways in France are very, very nice. The “interstate” roads that is. We paid a LOT of Euros to drive on those nice roads but we did notice how well kept everything was. We were also thankful to have a GPS with us. Those things are so amazing – one of the best wedding presents we got! The drive actually went really well and we got into Cannes early in the afternoon. We found a hotel that was just a short walk from the water and downtown so we took it. It was a Best Western so we thought it had to be better than where we stayed the night before. We were right – it was nice – but still small! We laugh all the time about how small everything is over here: small cars, small beds, small rooms. It’s like they design things for one person – certainly not for a 6’5” man and his 6’0 wife!

 We spent Saturday wandering around Cannes. It’s located on the Mediterranean Sea and is famous for the Cannes Film Festival that they have every May. We could see preparations already going on for this year’s festival. The waterfront was lined with beautiful hotels and some upscale shopping. Gucci, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel – you name it, they had it. Since those aren’t our “typical” stops when shopping we thought we’d check them out. We went into Gucci first – and felt a little out of place. I was looking at sunglasses – all of which were well over $300. I accidentally dropped one pair and completely panicked! I was so worried that I had broken them and would have to buy them. Luckily they were fine – but the whole thing made me start laughing. I decided that window shopping would be our best option for the rest of the “high roller” stores!


The weather was wonderful – around 65 and sunny. It was a bit windy by the shore but we loved every minute of it. It was just a nice change of pace from Vichy. We spent more time by the water on Sunday before decided to driving up the coast just a bit further to the town of Antibes. Antibes was so much more low key than Cannes but it was just as beautiful. Once we got there I took off my shoes and put on my sandals because I really wanted to put my feet in the water! Jonté wasn’t nearly as interested in that as I was but he was a good sport. We walked for a while until we found a public beach. I rolled up the bottoms of my jeans and wandered out feel the water. It was cold but not terrible and now I can say I was in the water of the Mediterranean Sea! Speaking of public beaches – that was one the interesting things we noticed both in Cannes and Antibes. Much of the shoreline was actually private. Restaurants or hotels own a good portion of the land so public beaches were a little harder to come by. I can only imagine how crowded those public beaches are during the busy seasons.


We made it back to Vichy late on Sunday night. It was a really quick trip but so worth it. It was cool to see the changing climates and countryside in France. We only went 6 hours but it felt like we were worlds away. I posted several pictures from our trip (with captions below) – we hope you enjoy them.


As for things here, our weather has been getting very nice – it’s going to be about 65 today and the sun is shining bright. The team has its furthest road trip of the season this weekend – they are going all the way up to the northern coast of France, just near Belgium. They are playing Friday night against Gravelines who I think is 3rd or 4th in the league right now so it’ll be a big game. I will be joining some of the other wives/girlfriends for dinner and then we’ll be watching the game on TV. I’m looking forward to that – some girl time :)


Jonté and I have both made our picks for the upcoming NCAA tournament. This is by far my favorite time of year – I love the excitement! We’ve got a couple of pools going on over here too – so I’m hoping to win some Euros! Go ‘Cuse!


Before I go I want to wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my older brother Andy and to my nephew Jack. Andy is celebrating his St. Patty’s birthday today. Jack turned 4 yesterday and from talking to him last night he had a great day at the Bounce House and the Science Museum. He will be having a “super hero” themed party on Saturday which he is very much looking forward to. It makes his Aunt Jennifer pretty sad that she won’t be there to celebrate with him but she’ll be thinking about him.


That’s it for now. Jonté will post once he returns from his road trip. In the meantime enjoy March Madness!


Au revoir!

I am standing in the doorway trying to get a picture of our SMALL room Friday night and then that's me climbing the ladder to the loft.

Jonté enjoying the view; walking along the major walkway in Cannes with the Sea to our right and the shops to the left.

Sailboats enjoying the day; the one good picture of us by the water!

I had to take one picture that actually said "Cannes" on it in case I forgot where we were :) The downtown Cannes area has a huge port where there were many, many boats.

I decided the guy that owned this boat probably thought he was a real ladies man - it gave us a good laugh; the other pic is the hotel we stayed at.

A couple more pictures from Cannes

Our "portraits" for each other; I think I am the better photographer - I even got the guy swimming in the background in the pic I took!

A view of Antibes; me enjoying my walk along the beach!

The last picture I took - this is from the passenger seat as we drove home. Not too bad huh?

Big Win

Hey what's up everybody. Hope everyone is doing well and thanks for checking out the blog. Right now Jen and I are in the car driving down to the south of France for a weekend visit to Cannes. We played tonight (Friday) so we have the weekend off. Jen is busy typing while I share my thoughts
 as I drive. We decided to drive part of the way tonight so we wouldn't have quite as long of a drive tomorrow. We are used to being up late so it's not too bad. We are both looking forward to a couple of days away from Vichy!


so about the game...tonight we played a team from Paris who was one game ahead of us in the standings. We got off to a slow start, especially on the offensive side. We didn't play with any intenstiy and let them push us around a little. Despite our poor shooting we went into the locker room only down five. I particularly didn't shoot the ball too well in the first half - I finished the half with 4 points.


We started the second half with high energy and were able to tie the game within the first minute of the third quarter and eventually took the lead. But the lead would contiune to change as we battled it out through the third quarter. In the mist of all that our starting center went down with an ankle injury and he did not return to the game. Our team is already depleted from other injuries and now we're down to a 7 man rotation. Even though we lost one of our starters for the night, we responded by taking our game up a notch. We turned the pressure up on the defensive side and that created fast break opportunities for us and we captailized off that. We pushed the lead to 15 points and never looked back from there and won 71-53. I contiuned to struggle shooting the ball the second half, so then I turned to what I do best and that was getting steals. I finshed the game with 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals. I was happy we won the game but was disappointed in my offensive performance. I was glad I could provide the team with my defense and created some easy buckets for us. Next week's game will be on the road and a long bus ride for us. We travel to the very northern part of France where we face Gravelines. They are a good team and third in the standings so we'll have to work hard to pull off this victory but it can be done!


Jen and I are pulling into the hotel and ready for bed. We'll post again on Monday and share our weekend adventure with everyone. Thanks again for checking in, God Bless!

A Wife in France

Hi everyone – thanks for taking the time to check in on Jonté. All of the support that we get from back home is so much appreciated. He thought it might be a nice addition if I added some thoughts to the blog – so here we go :)



I officially made the move to Vichy on December 29th. I had come over in October for a week – a much needed week with my new husband – and it was during that trip that we finally decided that enough was enough and we didn’t want to do the distance thing anymore. He left so soon after our wedding/honeymoon that neither of us were ready. It just made things that much harder on us. The decision was very easy on one hand – being with my best friend every day and enjoying our lives as newlyweds made all of the sense in the world. On the other hand – I was leaving a great job, something that I had worked so hard for. Needless to say – there were some mixed emotions and lots of tears leaving Winona but it was the best decision I could have made and I have no regrets.


Life is much different for me now. It’s been a bit of an adjustment to go from working and being on the go all the time to now having so much “down” time. I have learned to really enjoy the Wii! Thank goodness for video games, Skype and the Slingbox! (A slingbox is a contraption you can hook up to a TV back home and we can watch it over here on our computer). The time difference means I stay up WAY too late to watch my favorite shows – a DVR is the next necessity! But thanks to Andy and Krista for letting us control one of their t.v.’s!


The best part about being over here is certainly being with Jonté and being able to watch him do what he does best – play basketball. I am his biggest fan and game day is my favorite day of the week. I am so proud of him – he works so hard and has the best attitude. He puts his heart on floor every night. It’s been a struggle at times – it’s very much a business now and sometimes that drives me crazy but he just goes about his business. All of you would be proud to watch him hit open 3’s or make the big steal and seal it with a dunk :) He still does that very well! We go to the gym together most days – so he can get in some extra shooting. I must say – I am becoming the world’s best rebounder! I am able to use the weight room and stuff too – so I am getting in a workout as well. It’s good for us to share the dream together though – that’s what it’s all about.


The atmosphere on game day is really fun. The Vichy fans are great – they really support the team. There is this group that sits under the basket that beats on drums and leads the cheers. It’s so loud sometimes! I must admit that there are times I wish they would just be quiet :) but it’s cool that they are so into the game. That same rowdy group travels by bus to some of the away games that aren’t too far away. I’ve been able to go with them twice – and it’s been quite an experience! There is a lot of drinking going on during the ride – lots of singing and cheering – and there are many pit-stops so everyone can have their smoke! It seems as though at least 90% of the people over smoke – grosses me out and smells bad too. But the people are so nice to me – so I really enjoy it. Only a couple of them speak any English – and my French isn’t exactly good – but basketball makes sense in both languages :)


I wish I could tell you that I am becoming fluent in French – I know that I should spend more time getting to know the language. I know some and am able to communicate a little. Most of the people we deal with on a regular basis speak English though – so in some ways that is a crutch for us. I have become friends with a couple of the other girlfriends/wives. It’s nice to have a woman to talk to! One of the girlfriends lives in our building so her and I (and their almost 2 year old daughter) walk to the home games together. If we’re not traveling to the away games then we get together to watch them. It’s a simple routine but gives us both someone to hang out with.


I mentioned that we walk most places – I still haven’t mastered the art of driving the stick shift car. I was doing ok with it – in the parking lot. But I am not very comfortable at all with it. It’s a little car and the roads are all so narrow! So I’ve put off the learning for now – I really don’t need to drive for any reason but it is kind of weird. I hope I remember what it’s like to be behind the wheel when we get home this summer.


I attached a few pictures – all of them I have taken at various games, etc. I’m not a photographer but hopefully it gives you a little glimpse of the gyms and such. We’re both doing really well over here – looking forward to some traveling this weekend and then hopefully some more as the weather gets even nicer. Thanks again for checking in – we miss you all!


Au revoir!

Tough Week

Hey everyone… I just got home from the game and I’m not feeling too happy right now. Bad game by our team, we lost tonight making this 4 straight losses. We also lost on Tuesday but that game doesn't count against our record and it wasn’t an important game so guys didn’t give their best effort. We lost to a Pro B team and even though some of the guys didn't care about the result I did. It’s just annoying when we only play once a week and we throw away a game like that. I like it when we play more than one game a week – it gives me something to look forward to instead of having to wait until Saturday. On Tuesday we started the game off strong and had a double digit lead going into the second quarter only to let them back into the game and take the lead at half time and then eventually we lost the game by a few points. Sometimes this happens and I can accept that. It just gets a little frustrating when this is a continuous action. Tonight’s game was the same story we got a double digit lead but this time we kept going into halftime and then eventually lost it in the second half. The final score was 79-70. The team we played against came out in the second half playing zone defense and we had no answer to that and fell apart as a team. They definitely wanted the game more than we did and to make things worse this team is in last place in the league standings and haven't won a game since November. We had to let this team win against us! Now the joke’s on us as we're the laughing stock of the league right now. We are not playing good basketball and really struggling to finish games; our team chemistry isn't where it needs to be; we have too many guys pointing fingers, making excuses, complaining, and all the above. We just need to man up and stop with the complaining and excuses and play the game, and play the game like we want to win! I feel we can be way better than we are and but only if we allow ourselves to! Moving on, I played an ok game. I finished with 14 points 2rebs 1 assist and steal. Overall just not really impressive numbers. I didn't shoot the ball as well as I should have and sometimes that happens but I will be spending extra time in the gym all week working on that making sure it doesn't happen next week. Our next game is on Friday instead of Saturday and it's a home game. This game will be shown on TV here. I just wish there was a way to watch the game live on the web so you all can watch. Anyway it's a big game for us as we're playing the team that is one game ahead of us in the league standing and a game we need to WIN! I know I will be ready for this match!

Jen was able to make the road trip and will be posting her experience in the next couple of days - check back.

This is all for now. Enjoy your Sunday - God Bless!