After a very late night for everyone it was always going to be hard getting up the earliest we have had to in days. We are headed home today from our campaign for the U16s Australian Junior Championships. Truly a surreal experience indeed.
Tip #1: Have an exit plan. Make sure each member of the team has a specific job/area to be responsible for, this saves confusion and lots of kids basically wandering around doing nothing.
The girls are woken at 7am. They hit breakfast probably not until 7.30am as it would appear that around 3am a few woke up to begin chatting again. As they have their phones back I SMS them all what their areas of responsibility are. I knew they would all be lying in bed with their phones at an arms reach. I was right! I soon hear one of the girls reading out my message. They all hit the breakfast bar and start to go about the tasks that I have asked of them. Some of them were smart enough to get their bags packed last night so are ahead of the rest. It's after 8am when I decide to check their progress only to find a handful of girls straightening their hair. Their priorities are obviously different to mine. I tell them that hair is secondary to the other things that I have asked them to do. We have a massive house and lots of cleaning up to be done. Let's be honest, this has not been their strong point throughout out time here. They come out of various areas of the house with garbage bags and items from the bathroom 'ewww-ing' and all I have to say is 'I know'. It is interesting how they have simply ignored these things all week until they have to clean it up.
We farewell a couple of team members as they have chosen to travel home by car with their families. So I now only need to count to 8, after having to count to 10 all week.
We do get on the road in time, and make our way to the airport. With one stop at the stadium to pick up the copy of our Bronze Medal match. Devastation to hear that it had not been recorded. Of all the matches to be missed? How did this happen? Our coach uses his contacts (his mum) to locate an alternative copy and we are on our way again.
I am driving the car this time as one of our coaches isn't traveling with us so our head coach takes the bus driving duties. It's an easy drive, all freeways really and nothing is looking familiar on the way back. It seems like a life time ago that we arrived. The girls look like they are having a good time on the bus as I follow them all the way to the airport. They are taking selfies and smiling and waving out the back of the bus.
We pull into the airport and hand over the car and bus and make our way to the terminal. All smooth sailing through check in except when one of our girls suitcase is over the limit. We get some help to remove a couple of things and then we can continue.
I send off the girls in groups of 4 to buy lunch and then instruct them to meet us at the gates at a set time. I grab some lunch and of course a coffee too and head to the gate. Thinking it would be great to just have a seat and a relax before the flight home.
The flight is on time and smooth, and the coach has taken the opportunity to have a snooze, I think he has hit a wall. I am sitting there thinking about the time that has past and all the things that happened. I smile as I look down at the medal we've won. What a special treat to be part of something so special.
We touchdown in Sydney and all the girls power walk it out to the carousel to collect their luggage. They still have their bright material bows on their bags and the system works again as all the luggage is pulled off by whoever sees it first. Parents, grandparents and family members are there to welcome us home. Lots of hugs and thanks as we all part and go our separate ways home.
My husband picks us up with the Coach and we head up the freeway home. On the trip we fill in my husband on all the stories he has missed out on. Giving him some game insights and the funny things that happened both on and off the court. It was nice to debrief about the time knowing that its all over and the craziness is now at the end.
What a very special experience to be a part of and I am not nearly as weary and worn out that I thought that I would be. It is a constant flow of requests and hard work, but good organisation with a level of flexibility and a whole lot of patience is exactly what is needed to make it a memorable time for all.
I have so many other tips for the jobs required of a manager for training camps and the other items and planning. But will blog about that another day.
Thanks for following us,
Signing off
Team Manager of Bronze Medallist Team at Basketball Australia's U16 Australian Championships 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment