Trip of a Lifetime

Now that I have been home for twenty-one hours I have had some time to reflect on what this trip has really meant to me. It was obviously a great vacation. I experienced a foreign country while playing a sport I love. But, upon further examination the trip really meant so much more.

To your average spectator Ursinus Men’s Basketball is just a group of athletes who play in the Centennial Conference that look more like a men’s choir while traveling to and from games in their matching navy blue sport coats. But in reality that barely scratches the surface. It is a tight knit family that will do everything from not recline their airplane seat because the teammate behind them is 6’10 to carrying a teammate on his back around Venice because he sprained his ankle in the game that evening. It’s having an extended network of Ursinus Basketball Alumni who will give up Sundays to coach summer league games or buy every person an elaborate four coarse meal in Florence just because he is a good guy.

The trip to Italy will not only be a lasting memory because it is the kind of experience every person would remember for the rest of their life but it has even more meaning, I feel, for the people who I shared it with because it happened in the context of being a part of the Ursinus Men’s Basketball Family.

Also, I would like to give a huge shout out to my roommate throughout the trip, Louie Meindl, who served as my editor for the blog due to my severe lack of spelling capabilities.

I hope you all enjoyed my updates from Italy. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all in the stands this season.

Over and Out,

Scott Niewiadomski

When in Rome...

In the short time we had in Rome, the group had a jam-packed itinerary. Not only did we have a ton of sightseeing and tours to complete but we also had two games against Roman club teams. The days were long and extremely hot, but they also provided us with some of the best experiences of the trip.

Our first official tour in Rome was to the Coliseum. This proved to be many of the players favorite attraction of the trip which makes sense since we are all 18-22 years of age and we were learning about fights between humans and tigers. Thankfully it was only 108 degrees for the tour which helped keep everyone in high spirits for the three hour duration.

After the Coliseum we were off to the third game of the trip. We played a Club All-Star team from Rome. The game was close through halftime but in the third quarter the Bears really started to hit stride and pulled away. All in all, it was a great atmosphere full of sportsmanship and comradely.

The next morning it was off to Vatican City. Thankfully for this walking tour it was the hottest day of the trip, this made Ryan Adams, who has been on crutches since the first game with a sprained ankle, more than excited. The weather once again could not break our appetite for taking in all that the Vatican had to offer. The Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica were both breathtaking sites that none of us will soon forget, mostly because of Kevin Janowski’s pictures he illegally took inside the Sistine Chapel.

That night was our final game in Italy. We play the Italian Club Team Pamphili of Rome. Our team looked at this last game abroad as our last chance for our entire team to work together until the official start of the season on October 19^th (that’s right alumni, no more conditioning week).

After the game was our final meal together as a group. It was bittersweet in that we were all sad to be heading back to the states but amazingly grateful to have had the opportunity to go on such an incredible trip with such terrific people.

Tomorrow we start our long journey home to the States. Be sure to check back in to read the final blog for some final thoughts on the trip.

Ciao!

“The Leaning Tower of Chisa”

Our last day before our departure for Rome was spent in my natural habitat: At the beach. On the way to the beach we made a quick stop in Pisa to take in the sights and do our new favorite pastime which is eat gelato. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is truly an intriguing sight. It literally looks like it may fall at any second. I highly recommend seeing it in person if you happen to be in the area.

Once the hour of taking pictures of each of us holding up the tower was over it was off to the warm and extremely salty waters Mediterranean Sea. The beaches in Europe vastly differ from those at the Jersey Shore many of us are familiar with. I am a Jersey Shore native and will put it up against any beach in the world but the coastal plains of the East coast of America cannot hold a candle to calm warm waters and picturesque background mountains of the Mediterranean. Also, I learned that Speedos are much more acceptable (Eric Burnett would have felt right at home).

The next morning we departed for Rome. The bus ride was a little over four hours which would not have been too bad if it was not over 100 degrees, the air conditioning did not break, and the windows could open. But, it’s hard to complain when you’re on a tour around Italy with your basketball team and families.

Once we reached Rome we embarked on a walking tour of the city. The two main stops were the Spanish Steps and the Chevey Fountain. After the tour the players had a dinner together when we witnessed the most poorly executed ‘dine and ditch’ of all time. The two ditchers continued to walk around the area of the restaurant and were eventually confronted by our extremely disgruntled waiter. Post-dinner activities included admiring various street vendors’ art, bargaining for Rolexes that were exceptionally well priced, and even witnessed a boxing match in Rome’s main square.

Sorry for the delays between posts. WiFi is hard to come by in Italy. I’ll be sure to get new blogs up of Ursinus Basketball’s Invasion of Rome ASAP. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I feel like we’ll be able to explore it all in three.

Ciao!

SuperFreak

When Coach Small told the team that Florence was by far his favorite city in the world I thought to myself there is no way that any city could compare to Venice. I quickly learned why Florence is Coach’s favorite. Surrounded by mountains and hills, Florence has everything one would imagine a historical renaissance Italian town to have and more.

The first order of business when the bus arrived in Florence was to quickly check in to the hotel and get right back on the bus to head to our second game. Our game was against “Camp Darby”, a US Military Base. I speak for all of my teammates when I say there was something bigger than just ten men playing a basketball game. It was such an honor and a privilege to play a team comprised of the men who sacrifice so much so that people like myself can enjoy the everyday freedoms that we so often take for granted. I would like to give a shout out to the entire Team Darby and my man “SuperFreak”, as his friends so affectionately called him.

Our second day was comprised of a walking tour of Florence and a tour of The Accademia, the museum which houses the statue of David. I am far from a fine art connoisseur but I can see why the statue is so famous. We then had some free time to explore the city on our own. The open air markets, fine Italian leather shops, and the street performers all added to the unique charm of the city.

The main event of the day was dinner. Mr. Mike Piotrowicz, an alumnus of Ursinus basketball and who also had his son, Teddy, play for the Bears in both basketball and baseball, picked up the tab for our entire group to eat at his favorite restaurant in all of Italy, Il Latini. The word feast does not come close to describing the amount of food that was served. Everything from Liver to flan was served and it was all delicious. The courses were as follows:

Course 1:

Bruchetta, cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto, liver patte

Course 2:

pasta fagiol, tortellini with tomato sauce and basil, penne Bolognese, boppa with vegetable

Course 3:

Veal, lamb, chicken, T-bone steak, pork, potatoes, and vegetables

Course 4:

Rasberry tarte, almond crub cake, flan, cream puffs, biscotti

The dinner culminated with speeches by two former Ursinus players, Bill Furry and Bret Jenkins. In them, they recounted past unique Ursinus Basketball experiences, memories that included the Piotrowitz family, and reminded us of how lucky we are to have Coach Small as the head of our Basketball Family. Our whole group would like to thank Mr. Piotrowicz for his generosity and a great experience.

We are currently on the bus heading to the beach to enjoy the Mediterranean Sea, stopping at the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the way. But, we had the morning and early afternoon to do some more exploring. The Duomo was a popular spot for many of us. The Duomo is a massive church with a huge reddish dome that can be seen from everywhere in the city, just like Lou’s head.

Blogs about our trip to the beach and Rome will be up soon.

P.S. – Laura (my sister), I tripped when I was on the balcony atop the Duomo and almost fell over the edge. Don’t worry, I am ok. Your camera did not fare so well and broke. Love ya!

Visuals from Italy

Wags cutting in here quickly while the boys are resting in Italy.

Ryan Adams has been creating some videos of the trip, and they are now posted on our YouTube channel.

This one is my personal favorite from their first night in Venice. Ryan comments on Jon Ward's European Style.



Also, a photo album was posted on Flickr of our game against our servicemen stationed in Italy. You can look at that album here.

Wait, We’re Here to Play Basketball?

Our first full day spent enjoying Italy is one that will not soon be forgotten. Our first adventure of the day was a walking tour through the streets of Venice. The tour introduced the group to many extraordinary sites, buildings, and monuments along with the history and interesting facts behind them. The highlight of the tour was St. Mark’s Square. The sheer size of the square and the architecture that creates it is breathtaking. The main attraction of St. Mark’s Square would have to be the St. Mark’s Basilica. The structure is unlike anything else I have ever seen before. Right across from the Basilica stands the Campanile, a bell tower that overlooks all of Venice which we think would provide excellent photo ops, or as we not affectionately refer to it as the “Oopsi Tower”.

After the guided tour our crew split up into smaller groups to explore the city. One of the groups decided to take a voyage to the top of the bell tower. Since I was not a part of this group here is a first person account of the experience by Coach Small’s son Sasha straight from his journal that I snuck out of his backpack (just kidding, I received permission but unlawful reproduction of this excerpt could be unlawful and punishable by a 500 euro fine, but Sasha would probably settle out of court for a bag of skittles):

“We were going to go in the tower to take pictures. We tried to fit the whole group in the elevator and everyone ended up fitting just fine. So we started to go up and we made it halfway. Then the elevator stopped for a minute. Next we started doing down because we weighed too much. When we got down to the bottom it made a thump. After we came down the worker counted how many people there were and then he said, “Oopsi!” We waited a long time for the door to open but it didn’t. I was pretty freaked out! It turned out since we were too heavy it went down too far. He called for someone to help so someone came to help. After a couple of minutes he called again but he didn’t answer. After awhile they finally got the door open. I was so excited to get out I almost decked one of the parents. I was relieved.”

You now know why we call it the “Oopsi Tower”.

The rest of the day went smoothly for everyone. The free time lasted from the end of our tour (11:00am) through the departure time for game one ( 4:30pm). This time was used to take in more of the breathtaking sights, hit the shops for the famously beautiful Murano Glass, eat some gelato, and for the players get that oh so important pregame meal (I had the best spaghetti and clams of my life).

Once 4:30 rolled around most of us were anxious to get to the game. I am unsure if this was due to the excitement of playing our first game in Europe or because it would provide us with an hour bus ride to rest our legs from a long day of walking.

Before we knew it were warming up for the game to American music; it was nice to have a touch of home. In his pregame speech Coach Small reminded us about what we had worked so hard on in the two weeks prior to the trip. He also reminded us to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience. Our competition was comprised of an Italian All-Star team that included players from the top three Italian Basketball pro leagues. The game stayed close. Any time the Italians Gained momentum we rallied right back. With three minutes left Ursinus cut the lead to four points via a clutch three-pointer by Matthew Donahue. After that we started to have to foul to try to make up the rest of the deficit and eventually lost by ten, 82-72. The game was close, intense, and more physical than the traditional European style which made it a bit ‘chippy’ at times. All in all it was a great experience. The team is even more excited for our next game which will be against a United States Military Base team.

The group will be spending the next three nights in Florence which will surely provide me with plenty of ammo for upcoming posts so be sure to check back soon. Until then, Ciao!

Beauty Sleep

Although it is a common phrase, a lot of thought went into the title of this blog entry. Let us first examine the first word: Beauty. In my opinion it is the best adjective to describe every sight since our flight landed. The bus ride from Milan to Venice was jam packed with breathtaking views of small towns littering the edge of the Swiss Alps. An impromptu stop in the city of Verona (shout out to my ex-roommate / ex-teammate TJ Jones who hails from what is to my understanding the original Verona in New Jersey) gave the group our first taste of what Italy is all about. As Kevin Janowski noted about the landscape of the city, “It seems like it’s something out of a movie.” Verona Italy has everything from a mini-coliseum like structure which was sure to be thousands of years old to street actors disguised as Egyptian mummies.

Keeping with the theme of beauty, we then arrived in Venice. Our first adventure was getting to the city that stands alone atop the over 1million pilings that hold it up. Three 27 ft antique style boats carried our group of twenty-seven through the narrow canals and breathtaking sights of the city to our hotel. I can honestly say that I have never seen anything quite like it before. The architecture, the intricate canal system, the crazy boat cab drivers, and the fact that the entire city STANDS ON WOODEN PILINGS completely baffles me.

Now onto the next topic: Sleep. As I write this I, as well as many of my fellow travelers, have been up for over FORTY hours discounting a brief nap on the bus. Because of this I am ending this blog entry and will have my next entry shortly after our first game against Favaro Basket. The game will take place tomorrow night so be sure to check back regularly to stay up to date.

Ciao!

-Scottie

Bon Voyage! (or should I say arrivederci?)

Welcome to my first blog entry for the Ursinus Mens’s Basketball Italy trip. My name is Scott Niewiadomski and I am a forward on the team and heading into my senior year at UC. Please be advised that I am not an English major nor have I ever blogged before, so be sure to expect very little in the way of impeccable grammar or captivating flowery prose. What I can promise is to keep you up to date on what the UC Hoops Family is getting into overseas.

I think I speak for all of my teammates in that we cannot wait get on the plane. For the past two weeks we have traded long days by the pool and at the beach for long days of practice. Some people may look at two weeks in a gym in the midst of the summer heat as torturous. We looked at it as not only a way to prepare ourselves for the competition overseas but also as a way to jumpstart our season. In addition to our basketball instruction led by our coaches (shout out to our two new coaches Pat Price and Kevin McGarvey), every Tuesday and Thursday after morning practices the team gathered in a classroom for “Italy 101” taught by none other than Kirsten Small, Coach Small’s wife. These lessons will surely come in handy with everything from examining early renaissance art to ordering gelato.

Unfortunately some of the members of our Hoops Family will not be making the trip with us. Some of our assistant coaches and the four incoming freshmen will not be in attendance. Although you fellas wills be missed, I will try to enjoy myself as I tour the watery streets of Venice, explore the Coliseum in Rome, bargain for Italian Leather in Florence, and bask in the clear waters of the Mediterranean Sea despite your absence.

Since it is dangerously close to the time of departure from my house to the airport (2 hours), I must end this entry and finish packing. Be sure to check back regularly as I will be updating the blog with scores, events, and any embarrassing happenings of my teammates throughout the trip.

Getting us started

Hello all! This is Jim Wagner (Wags to most). I serve as the Sports Information Director here at Ursinus College.

I thought I would get this blog started. I will be not be going on the trip, as my pre-season starts today with football and continues for the next two weeks. I'll be making the trip to Las Vegas over the XMas break. However, two of our players (Scott Niewiadomski and Ryan Adams) will be blogging/video casting during their ten-day trip to Italy.

There is a page which explains the entire background of the trip, but, I have a few updates to the schedule. On Wednesday, the Bears will be playing Favaro Basket at 19:30 Italy Time (1:30 on the east coast as Italy is six hours ahead of us). Game number two takes place on Thursday, August 18 at 5 p.m. Italy as the Bears will take on the US Military in Pisa. I think this is the base that Bill Murray and Harold Ramis were shipped to in the movie Stripes, but, I'm not so sure.

Game number three will take place on Monday, August 22 against Palestrina Basket at 6 p.m. in Rome. Game number four is on Tuesday, August 23 against Pamphili Basket with a time to be determined.

Scotty and Ryan will provide more of the trip starting with Monday, as they leave from Philadelphia at 6:15 on Monday headed for a stop over in London. The Bears then land in Milan at 10:45 am on Tuesday.

That's all from me. Keep checking back for updates from Italy!