Hello Everyone,
So it has been about two weeks since the last update, and I have a couple events to talk about now, one being the Optimist All-star game in Frankfort, and the other being the Korean Olympics.
I will first speak on the optimist all-star game. This was a little embarrassing for me because we lost by a last second shot. The event places the high school seniors against the alumni. I don’t know what the criteria for alumni is, but it was not very good. I mean we had some guys that looked like they had not touched a ball since they left high school. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that, maybe they are swimmers now! We made the mistake of putting the better players all in the same group. We would build an 8-12 point lead and then the other team would come in and lose the lead. This happened in 5 minute intervals for 2 halves. At the end we were down by 4 so I inserted myself because I don’t like to lose. We ended up going up by one. They had a couple shots at it and we rebounded at the end. Instead of just holding the ball, the guy decided to try and pass it up the court. He threw a terrible pass that got deflected. They picked up at their own foul line and scored with .4 seconds left. I was heart broken. Not really, but I am a competitor and hate to lose, esp. like that. I’m not sure if I will be able to play in that event again.
The cool thing about it was my mother and step-farther and my grandparents got to see me play. They miss not being able to drive to butler to check out all the games. My grandmother is trying to get me to hire her as a full time cook next season! The funny thing is I told her I would love it, but I’m not sure she is ready for that commitment.
I’m currently in Memphis as my brother (Loren) is getting ordained on Wednesday to be a minister. I told a couple friends this and they asked if it was like being knighted. I am not anticipating seeing a setting like brave heart on Wednesday or any queens in the building. This is a really special event esp. knowing what my brother has overcome to get to this point. I would say he and I are as close as two brothers can get so I’m pretty excited for him. My parents and grandparents will all be coming down, so it should be a wonderful event. He is currently preaching for college, high school, and younger kids at a Korean church. Which is how I got to attend what I am calling the Korean Olympics?
I went to hear him minister this morning and he did a nice job. After church was over they invited us to this high school where like 7 Korean churches were getting together to have a sports festival. So Loren and I headed down there and got our free shirt and bag. I really had no idea what to except because Loren acted like it was just an intramural basketball game. WOW! It was a lot more then that. They divided the churches into two teams, WHITE and BLUE. I was on the White team. They had sprinting, jump rope, volleyball, kick volleyball, basketball, tennis, soccer, dodge ball, and tug of war. There were a ton of Korean people and it was a big event for them.
Now I really had no intentions on playing, but after about 7 people begged me to play I figured it couldn’t hurt anything. I participated in the basketball game. I was just out there not trying to do much, but get one dunk (people who don’t play basketball love the dunk!) I got my one dunk and we were winning by 14 so I just set the rest of the 2nd UNTIL they gave up the lead and we were losing. See the Koreans are very prideful people and hate to lose. The coach kept telling me to sub in. I subbed in got me a three and bucket to take us to overtime. Then I let them win the game for us!! I am just giving the details of the game not trying to make myself look great against a bunch of players who were not even 6’0” ft. As I was watching my brother partake in the volleyball I got coned in to doing the Tug of war!
That event is terrible; it tears up your hands so bad! We swept the series 2-0. I was with a bunch of other high school guys and a Korean that looked like he is going to participate in the worlds strongest man competition. I went up to finish watching Loren in volleyball and they lost by 1 point in the third game.
I also got to try Korean food for the first time. They had some beef, sushi, and some other really spicy thing. We also had some rice cake that looks nothing like the name. It is small green ravioli looking thing with a brown interior. I would rate the food a 6 out of 10 for the first time! I think I took a point away because they only had chopsticks and I still have no idea how to use those.
The overall best part about the day?? I went home with 2 GOLD MEDALS while Loren went home with 1 Gold and 1 Silver!!!
Until next time
This is BC gone for now
Apr 27, 2009
Apr 14, 2009
Thanks for the VISA!!
Hello Everyone,
I have moved past what happened in Poland, but I must go back for one more story. Now the only reason I am bringing this up is because I don’t think it should happen. I hope this is not how every club does it, but maybe they do.
SO the weekend before the three of us left for home, the club informed us that we did not have work visas for Poland. They wanted us to take a trip to Ukraine on our weekend off (All-Star weekend). This would have been about a 12-17 hour trip. That is really good for you to sit in a car for that long after we had just retuned for the cup trip. Well since this trip did not sound very enticing and is something we should never had to worry about, we did some investigating on our own. What we found out is that you get 90 days on a tourist visa every 180 days. This meant if we went to Ukraine the Border patrol for Poland would not have to let us back in, if he followed the law. You may be thinking they would let you in. That was not a risk I was willing to take, with everything in Poland and then not be able to come back in. SO That Monday we became illegal citizens of Poland. That was the last straw for me, and it was not a risk I was really to take by staying. Maybe nothing would have happened but the fact that there was the slightest chance for me to be put in jail, deported, what money I did have be taken, or whatever else could have happened was just ridiculous. DO I bring this up to try to rationalize my decision for leaving? NO because I don’t need to do that, I simply bring it up because I hope it does not happen to future players. Like I said that was the final straw in terms of disrespect and terrible management.
Since being home I have been doing nothing, but riding up and down the interstates in my ford pickup truck with my dog and cowboy hat singing country tunes. Actually I’m just using the stereotype of us Americans. All though I have been doing a lot of driving only it has been in my same yellow jeep that I have had for about 9 years now. Another Easter has come and went, packed with loads of food and family. I have this problem with saying no to food. I think it might be kind of an addiction. I have already gained 8 pounds since returning home. Most of this is because I have not done anything since returning home. I have just been trying to heal my hand and foot properly. I just started working out again this week! I have had some talks with some people in hopes of landing a coaching job. That is something I have had my mind set on for a long while. I will be pursuing this some this summer, but if there are not any good opportunities then I will play overseas for one more year.
I will be playing in the optimist all-star game this Saturday in Frankfort, Should be a fun experience. I remember going to watch them when I was little. It is a game where the graduating seniors from high school around our county play alums.
I’m not sure if I have talked about this yet, but I will not be having the BC 3 on 3 Classic this year. This is due for a couple reasons. Mainly the insurance and the lack of sponsorships do to the economy. (This is the short explanation). I had a great time putting this event on last year, and maybe some day it will start up again. I will be hosting a basketball camp that will last for one week at the boys and girls club.
I will try to update the blog every two weeks with hopefully some good subjects. It is a lot easier to find things to write about when I’m out of the country. Here it is just home and feels ordinary, but I will try harder!!!
Until next time
This is BC gone for now
I have moved past what happened in Poland, but I must go back for one more story. Now the only reason I am bringing this up is because I don’t think it should happen. I hope this is not how every club does it, but maybe they do.
SO the weekend before the three of us left for home, the club informed us that we did not have work visas for Poland. They wanted us to take a trip to Ukraine on our weekend off (All-Star weekend). This would have been about a 12-17 hour trip. That is really good for you to sit in a car for that long after we had just retuned for the cup trip. Well since this trip did not sound very enticing and is something we should never had to worry about, we did some investigating on our own. What we found out is that you get 90 days on a tourist visa every 180 days. This meant if we went to Ukraine the Border patrol for Poland would not have to let us back in, if he followed the law. You may be thinking they would let you in. That was not a risk I was willing to take, with everything in Poland and then not be able to come back in. SO That Monday we became illegal citizens of Poland. That was the last straw for me, and it was not a risk I was really to take by staying. Maybe nothing would have happened but the fact that there was the slightest chance for me to be put in jail, deported, what money I did have be taken, or whatever else could have happened was just ridiculous. DO I bring this up to try to rationalize my decision for leaving? NO because I don’t need to do that, I simply bring it up because I hope it does not happen to future players. Like I said that was the final straw in terms of disrespect and terrible management.
Since being home I have been doing nothing, but riding up and down the interstates in my ford pickup truck with my dog and cowboy hat singing country tunes. Actually I’m just using the stereotype of us Americans. All though I have been doing a lot of driving only it has been in my same yellow jeep that I have had for about 9 years now. Another Easter has come and went, packed with loads of food and family. I have this problem with saying no to food. I think it might be kind of an addiction. I have already gained 8 pounds since returning home. Most of this is because I have not done anything since returning home. I have just been trying to heal my hand and foot properly. I just started working out again this week! I have had some talks with some people in hopes of landing a coaching job. That is something I have had my mind set on for a long while. I will be pursuing this some this summer, but if there are not any good opportunities then I will play overseas for one more year.
I will be playing in the optimist all-star game this Saturday in Frankfort, Should be a fun experience. I remember going to watch them when I was little. It is a game where the graduating seniors from high school around our county play alums.
I’m not sure if I have talked about this yet, but I will not be having the BC 3 on 3 Classic this year. This is due for a couple reasons. Mainly the insurance and the lack of sponsorships do to the economy. (This is the short explanation). I had a great time putting this event on last year, and maybe some day it will start up again. I will be hosting a basketball camp that will last for one week at the boys and girls club.
I will try to update the blog every two weeks with hopefully some good subjects. It is a lot easier to find things to write about when I’m out of the country. Here it is just home and feels ordinary, but I will try harder!!!
Until next time
This is BC gone for now
Apr 12, 2009
Apr 1, 2009
Damage Control
Hello Everyone,
So by now you all have prob. heard that Skip, Drew, and I are no longer with the team. I would like to start off this by saying this was by no means an easy decision. I spent hours even days consulting my parents, my agent, and other players on how best to go about this situation. Yes I know a couple posts back I said everything was fine, and the team made me out to be a liar. Everything was not fine because of more promises that were broken or swept under the rug. By now you should know I try to be as honest as possible, I don’t hide things on this blog. There were many factors that went into my decision which I will discuss a few, and I will also leave one for later post that I can not get into right at this moment, but first a message to my former teammates.
I believe captain bomba said it best after the meeting with the Yarick and the other guys about “everyone has to do what is right for them now”. This was of course said after Yarick said he would not change anything to an annex that was proposed to us (basically we wanted to protect ourselves and he said screw you go home) that was the last straw for me. He had pushed me over the edge and I wanted out. The management split the team up and forced them to longer be able to make decisions as a team. I’m sorry that it came to this and I do wish you guys the best of luck in the playoffs. Personally I knew I could no longer give 100% to the team. I was very unhappy with how management has treated us all year, but even after the cup I found it even more disrespectful. I knew with me being very unhappy it would be hard to have a good week of practice and even be effective in the games. Also from what we had found out before even going to the cup is we may not have even been insured. I don’t know how true this is or was but that is another huge risk that we were taking. I do hope you guys understand that this decision was made on what I felt was best for me. Is that selfish? In a way yes but that is what management has been all year. I know many of you personally were very upset as well on how they were treating us, but since it was your home country it was hard for you to do anything. Again I am sorry it came to this but the real people to blame are the snakes that run the club.
To the fans that feel I deserted or “ran like a girl” I am also truly sorry. This is by no means the way I wanted this to end. I have a scenario for you. Let’s say I offer you a job to come work at my step-dads jail for 9 months (he is a sheriff). When you get here I’m going to give you just a little money to live off of. Every time you are scheduled to get paid I’m going to say “next week”. Then after you are here for 5 months I’m then going to be two months behind on paying you, but still tell you things are great and we have everything coming in. so you decide to stay thousands of miles away from your family, using the very slow internet I give you to communicate to the people you need to. So you decide to stay because you like who you’re working with and you’re having a “GREAT YEAR”. As soon as you can no longer take another job, I am then going to tell you we have no more money and need you to now give up a lot of your money. So since your having fun and enjoying yourself you agree to this. Well then I’m not going to follow through with what I agreed with you. I’m now going to change it again, and not meet halfway with you. I’m also not going to give you any money for a taxi or no car.
Now if that sounds like a great job for you, come thousands of miles from your family, come on over to Indiana and I can hook it up for you. I would love to see how long you stick it out. That is in a nutshell what the situation was for me. Actually I think I put it mildly. I honestly had the most stressful and close to the worst 2 months of my life these last two. The only joy was finishing third and winning the cup. Should you guys understand what I went through? No! why would you? But before you blast me with comments about what terrible people skip, drew, and I are ,I really think you have the wrong people as the enemy. I have broad shoulders so I will take the rude comments and hatred. We did not ask for any of this, we came over and worked as hard as we could to accomplish as many wins as possible and wanted to win the cup and playoffs. Also for those who think it is solely about money I go back to the post a couple weeks ago where I mentioned no one would have stayed as long as we did if it was only about money. It is also about treating people with integrity and honesty. You can only push someone so far before they push back. Do I need you guys to understand or take my side? Of course not people will have there opinions and that is fine. I am truly sorry it came to this but I had full support from many people that I love and TRUST and at the end of the day had to do what I felt was best for me.
For the people that blame the economy for what happened in kotwica has it just a little off. The economy did not tell them to lie to us about the situation. The economy did not say to keep us after trade deadline so we could not find another way to make a livelihood. I will also give the biggest factor of all in why we HAD to leave when we did, but I can not say that now because it could potentially hurt some others that don’t need hurt.
I also saw the article that first reported us as gone. I believe it said we left after receiving our outstanding debts. This also was not the case, they still owe us money. The deal was we would sign the annex and we would have all the outstanding money before the first playoff game. Of course the club never followed through with that and said they needed another meeting on April 15. If somehow we lost they could have shut it down and not gave us ANY thing for the work we have done. With the kind of people management is we could not take that risk.
Again I’m sorry it ended this way, because I really think it could have been avoided with just a little effort and actually management showing they cared about the employees just a little bit.
And i did tell everyone bye on Friday, and left all the things i gave to them with them. This idea was also suggested to us by coach, so i find it kind of funny seeing the comments he made about us in the paper. He has been one of the ones that have told us lies and kept us here so he can look good on the resume. Why should i bash him it would not matter his favorite players (Kevin, Sefton, and Kiko) are still there for him to play favorites with.
Until next time
This is BC gone for now
So by now you all have prob. heard that Skip, Drew, and I are no longer with the team. I would like to start off this by saying this was by no means an easy decision. I spent hours even days consulting my parents, my agent, and other players on how best to go about this situation. Yes I know a couple posts back I said everything was fine, and the team made me out to be a liar. Everything was not fine because of more promises that were broken or swept under the rug. By now you should know I try to be as honest as possible, I don’t hide things on this blog. There were many factors that went into my decision which I will discuss a few, and I will also leave one for later post that I can not get into right at this moment, but first a message to my former teammates.
I believe captain bomba said it best after the meeting with the Yarick and the other guys about “everyone has to do what is right for them now”. This was of course said after Yarick said he would not change anything to an annex that was proposed to us (basically we wanted to protect ourselves and he said screw you go home) that was the last straw for me. He had pushed me over the edge and I wanted out. The management split the team up and forced them to longer be able to make decisions as a team. I’m sorry that it came to this and I do wish you guys the best of luck in the playoffs. Personally I knew I could no longer give 100% to the team. I was very unhappy with how management has treated us all year, but even after the cup I found it even more disrespectful. I knew with me being very unhappy it would be hard to have a good week of practice and even be effective in the games. Also from what we had found out before even going to the cup is we may not have even been insured. I don’t know how true this is or was but that is another huge risk that we were taking. I do hope you guys understand that this decision was made on what I felt was best for me. Is that selfish? In a way yes but that is what management has been all year. I know many of you personally were very upset as well on how they were treating us, but since it was your home country it was hard for you to do anything. Again I am sorry it came to this but the real people to blame are the snakes that run the club.
To the fans that feel I deserted or “ran like a girl” I am also truly sorry. This is by no means the way I wanted this to end. I have a scenario for you. Let’s say I offer you a job to come work at my step-dads jail for 9 months (he is a sheriff). When you get here I’m going to give you just a little money to live off of. Every time you are scheduled to get paid I’m going to say “next week”. Then after you are here for 5 months I’m then going to be two months behind on paying you, but still tell you things are great and we have everything coming in. so you decide to stay thousands of miles away from your family, using the very slow internet I give you to communicate to the people you need to. So you decide to stay because you like who you’re working with and you’re having a “GREAT YEAR”. As soon as you can no longer take another job, I am then going to tell you we have no more money and need you to now give up a lot of your money. So since your having fun and enjoying yourself you agree to this. Well then I’m not going to follow through with what I agreed with you. I’m now going to change it again, and not meet halfway with you. I’m also not going to give you any money for a taxi or no car.
Now if that sounds like a great job for you, come thousands of miles from your family, come on over to Indiana and I can hook it up for you. I would love to see how long you stick it out. That is in a nutshell what the situation was for me. Actually I think I put it mildly. I honestly had the most stressful and close to the worst 2 months of my life these last two. The only joy was finishing third and winning the cup. Should you guys understand what I went through? No! why would you? But before you blast me with comments about what terrible people skip, drew, and I are ,I really think you have the wrong people as the enemy. I have broad shoulders so I will take the rude comments and hatred. We did not ask for any of this, we came over and worked as hard as we could to accomplish as many wins as possible and wanted to win the cup and playoffs. Also for those who think it is solely about money I go back to the post a couple weeks ago where I mentioned no one would have stayed as long as we did if it was only about money. It is also about treating people with integrity and honesty. You can only push someone so far before they push back. Do I need you guys to understand or take my side? Of course not people will have there opinions and that is fine. I am truly sorry it came to this but I had full support from many people that I love and TRUST and at the end of the day had to do what I felt was best for me.
For the people that blame the economy for what happened in kotwica has it just a little off. The economy did not tell them to lie to us about the situation. The economy did not say to keep us after trade deadline so we could not find another way to make a livelihood. I will also give the biggest factor of all in why we HAD to leave when we did, but I can not say that now because it could potentially hurt some others that don’t need hurt.
I also saw the article that first reported us as gone. I believe it said we left after receiving our outstanding debts. This also was not the case, they still owe us money. The deal was we would sign the annex and we would have all the outstanding money before the first playoff game. Of course the club never followed through with that and said they needed another meeting on April 15. If somehow we lost they could have shut it down and not gave us ANY thing for the work we have done. With the kind of people management is we could not take that risk.
Again I’m sorry it ended this way, because I really think it could have been avoided with just a little effort and actually management showing they cared about the employees just a little bit.
And i did tell everyone bye on Friday, and left all the things i gave to them with them. This idea was also suggested to us by coach, so i find it kind of funny seeing the comments he made about us in the paper. He has been one of the ones that have told us lies and kept us here so he can look good on the resume. Why should i bash him it would not matter his favorite players (Kevin, Sefton, and Kiko) are still there for him to play favorites with.
Until next time
This is BC gone for now
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