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| 2004 MUSTANGS EMBRY-RIDDLE DAYTONA BEACH TRIP Day One - Friday, July 16th |
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| Well our fears over a heat problem from bringing an un-airconditioned bus have so far proven unfounded. The seventeen hour trip down I-75, across I-10, and down I-95 went, for the most part with the windows up and our players and coaches scrambling for blankets in what was |
| described more often as cold than hot. The seventeen hours includes three gas stops and two food breaks, and we arrived "on the beach" at 10am and turned loose the guys for an hour and a half to "get some sand in their shoes." After checking into our digs here at Embry-Riddle which our bus driver Tony Pfefferman describes as like being in a "monastary," we had lunch, and attending a pep-talk/kickoff by Eagles head coach Steve Ridder, the Mustang teams each played two games and emerged with a 3-1 record, with the varsity falling in the opener to Neace (from St. Augustine) 31-23 in a contest in which we were obviously not at all at the top of our game, and then beating Atlantic (from Daytona Beach) 44-39 in a game that we dominated for the most part. The JVs cruised to a 2-0 record, beating Lake Weir 34-30 and actually blowing out The Rock (that's what they are called The Rock School) by a 36-26 margin that actually wasn't that close. In the varsity opener, which was actually our first competition against other high school competition since last seasons' district tournament, the Mustangs showed the effects of sleeping on a school bus and of our whirlwind agenda, falling behind Neace 5-3 in the first quarter and 14-11 at the half and never recovered. Scoring in the first game was: Franzen 3, Mutsch 3, McCarthy 1, Smith 6, and Anderson 5. The quarter scores were: Brossart 3 8 5 7 23 Neace 5 9 4 13 31 The Mustangs drastically benefitted from their "trip over the track" in their second game as Jason Cooper exploded for ten first quarter points to spark a 14 point Mustang first quarter, opening a 21-9 lead late in the second period and appeared on the verge of blowing out the Atlantic Sharks, when the Sharks resorted to a zone to climb back into competition. The Sharks actually rallied back to take a 33-32 lead early in the final stanza, but the Mustangs turned them back in the final period to claim their first "unofficial" win in the Mike Code era. Cooper finished the game with 12 points to lead all scorers, followed by Michael Schenk with 8, Nathan Mutsch with 6, Brad Seiter 5, Adam Franzen and Ryan Anderson contributed 4 each, Kevin Smith 3, and Steven McCarthy 2. Seiter, Schenk, Cooper, and Smith all had 3-Point goals. The quarter scoring were: Brossart 14 9 9 12 44 Atlantic 9 6 14 10 39 The JVs had to shake the rust off in their first encounter as well, emerging victorious over Lake Weir 34-30 and then returned to form, beating "The Rock" 36-26. I did not see the JV games and Coach Rowe provides few details other than "We Played OK - We Can Play Better." The Varsity Squad was comprised of the six seniors and two juniors (Evan McDole, Nick Clark, and Kyle Lubbers did not make the trip) and sophomore Nathan Mutsch. Coach Code will continue to rotate some of the sophomores with the varsity squad on Saturday and Sunday morning. Saturday's schedule shows both squads playing four games each,with the varsity taking on Ocala Forest at 9:20am, Jupiter at 12:35pm, Taravella at 2:45pm, and Lake Weir at 6pm. The JVs play Lake Highland at 9:20am, Bishop Kenny at 12:35pm, West Shore at 3:50pm, and Atlantic at 8:10pm. Games for both squads are played all over town which keeps our bus drivers busy. Tomorrow night's report should be on the web slightly later (about 11pm) on Saturday. Seeing how all of our players and coaches have cell phones I'm sure that to most of you this report is old news. What boggles me is that on the onset of the "cell phone" era, I invested heavily in cell phone related stocks knowing that soon every kid in America would sport cell phones. I especially invested in Convergys who did not sell cell phones but did the billing for every nearly every cell phone company in America and abroad. What was purchased for $15 a share quickly went to $21 and then as high as $50. Isn't America a great country and it is good to pick a winner, HOWEVER, a strange thing happened on the way to the forum, the stock has since plunged back to its original purchase price of $15 a share and every kid in America does indeed own a cell phone as do their parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. Just goes to show - There is no such thing as a sure thing...... |