Left Coast - Part 1

As the bus trundled out of the OMAC parking lot at 5:30am the mellowing sounds of the Notorious B.I.G. (Going Back To Cali) permeated through the bus. Coach Noonan has always been a big fan of west-coast hip-hop and tapped his feet gleefully to the sounds of the California-themed CD. By the time the bus reached Attleboro the majority of the boys were fast asleep and stage one of our three-part journey to Santa Clara was underway. Despite the early start, traffic was heavy on I-93 heading towards Logan Airport but we arrived unscathed and with plenty of time to check-in and negotiate security in this yet-to-be renovated Terminal B at Logan International. The boys settled down to some light breakfast fare and casual reading as we awaited boarding, looking especially dapper in their new travel suits.
The American Airlines 757 soared into the early morning sky and banked left towards the west - we were now well underway and heading for the pacific coast. The flight passed without incident (minor turbulence over the midwestern states aside) and we touched down into San Francisco International 30-minutes ahead of schedule. Bags were collected and within fifteen minutes we were aboard bus number two and heading towards Santa Clara.
Throughout all of this travel our very own tourist (aka Coach Phil Jones) and myself had been working behind the scenes to figure out two things: (1) How would we get a new coaching board to the hotel, and (2) When was the best time to "inform" our nervous-flyer-hence-cranky head coach that the coaching board had been left on the bus outside Logan Airport..... After a half-dozen phone calls and a credit-card transaction over the phone while the aircraft taxied across the SFO tarmac it was decided to "wait until we're at the hotel." Overnight shipping was confirmed and we now at least had a plan in place..... His reaction when told...... laughter...... what?? All that stress and he laughed? What's going on?
A few hours after a hearty pasta-dinner at a local Italian restaurant we trained on the field-turf at Santa Clara. The training session was light, and punctuated by the tourist injuring his shoulder while jogging (he apparently "turned the corner too fast")!!!!???? Other notable moments included some stellar ball control by Culpey as he assisted with goalkeeper training and the very-much-unwanted distraction of the boisterous Santa Clara men's swim/water polo team standing poolside at the outdoor facility next to our practice area....
Day Two tomorrow - let's hope the boys are as ready for this game as they have been for games 1 through 5.