Sunday back in America means one thing…NFL football! Living in the DMV (DC/MD/VA) my entire life, I’ve always been a Washington Redskins fan.  Knowing that I wouldn’t get to watch Skins games this year didn’t sit too well with me. So I caved and got NFL game pass and it was one of the best purchases I’ve made!

 

On Sundays, my go-to outfit is a Redskins shirt. So this past Sunday, I was wearing one of my many Skins shirts and just going about my business like it was any other day, until I was walking out of a local café and a group of American tourists walking in my direction said, “Hey! Are you an American?” So naturally I said yes and the next words out of their mouth were “Go Redskins!” I was completely taken by surprise. We continued to talk for a little and they said they too were from the DC area and one of the ladies actually lives in Rockville, which is where I lived. What a small world! I think they were so surprised to run into another American, let alone a Washington Redskins fan, that they asked to take a picture of me with my Redskins shirt on. That was just the beginning of it though.  About an hour later, when I was walking through town, a man and his wife stop me and the first thing out of his mouth was, “That is the best shirt I’ve seen all day!” It turns out that they were from Annapolis and Redskins fans as well. Two Americans in Galway, Ireland who were Redskins fans…I couldn’t believe it!!

 

Never in my life would I think I would come across Washington Redskins fans here in Galway, let alone twice in one day! That night I started to think seeing them was good luck because the Skins went on to beat Jacksonville for their first win of the season. No matter how far away from home you may be, you never know when you might find a little piece of home. GO SKINS! HTTR!

Hello from Limerick! The first two weeks of training in Northern Ireland and touring in Ireland were nonstop; this week we (meaning me and Marian, my stellar Victory Scholar roommate) had a little bit of downtime to get settled in our new university before classes, coaching sessions, and practices start up.

 

Let me start off with a little description about the University of Limerick: it’s a museum with a university stuck in the middle of it. The campus itself is something spectacular – a running stream or something of the sort running through the middle of the campus with bridges joining one side of the campus from the other, running and bike trails circling the university, even multiple bars and shopping places on the campus grounds. Lets just say this is nothing like my previous, small university (no offense, Explorers).

 

Here’s a little round-up of the happenings here during our first week at the University of Limerick: basking in my first ever full-sized bed (finally upgraded from a twin – needless to say, I feel like an adult), screaming at walking face first into another one of the thousands of spider webs on our concrete jungle of a campus, finding trails to run around and trying not to get lost while doing so, bringing bags on bags on bags of things for our apartment back from the city on yet another bus ride, sharing a bottle of wine with our two Ireland roommates and planning future trips around Europe.

 

Can’t wait to see what is in store for us here at our new home at the University of Limerick… until next time!

I’m currently pursuing my Master’s of Science in International Business – and the first week of classes were great to say the least. I’m excited to get to know my professors and classmates even better – and I’m even starting to get excited about writing my dissertation for the year (kinda). I know it’s only the first week though, so I’m anticipating a lot more to come in the next weeks!

 

I’m starting to finally get into a nice groove surrounded by my class schedule, workout/practice schedule, and coaching schedule with UL on the weekends. After this weekend’s practice I felt even more comfortable working with the 18u, 14u, and 12u girls teams and I can’t wait until the matches start up to see how our girls will do!

 

I was even greeted with a nice surprise after coaching practice on Saturday – Toni, one of the moms and managers for the UL Huskies Club, had helped me find a second hand bike! Limerick is about three times bigger than Elon, and my daily treks to and from the Arena were starting to take a toll on me (not to mention the weekly excursions to the grocery store). I’ve never been so excited about a bike before – I may have to take it out to the river trails and get reacquainted with riding again since it’s been years since I’ve consistently ridden a bike! (currently flashing back to the good ol’ days of riding bikes and scooters around the neighborhood).

 

To finish the weekend off, Jon and I went back into the city to explore a wee bit more. We ventured over to King’s Island, which includes several historic areas and churches – complete with King John’s Castle! It’s amazing to see how far back and how the historic sites are so well taken care of and preserved.

 

Last but certainly not least, I’d like to wish my dad a HUGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY all the way from Limerick, Ireland! My parents are also celebrating their wedding anniversary this week! (I figured a picture of us Facetiming would be appropriate for this post but my mom didn’t quite agree… so instead I had to settle for a picture of us taken before my flight).

 

P.S. Check out my Facebook page for loads of pictures from the past month in Ireland!

We are really starting to get into the flow of things in Dublin! I am currently sitting outside on one of the greens at Trinity and the sun is high in the sky, about 65°F and only a little wind. This campus is beautiful and our weather has been perfect.

 

These last few days have been BRILLIANT. Shelby and I took a tour of the city and surrounding attractions on a hop-on hop-off bus to get our bearings, and then went to see Riverdance, in Dublin at the Gaiety Theatre last night! What a show. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Irish Step is pretty popular in the Boston area, highlighted by Christine and Madelyn’s lessons when they were younger, but this production blew my expectations out of the water. The dancers were so talented, and all could sing like angels as well. The main two dancers could move their feet like nothing I have ever seen. Shelby and I were joking that our children will take Irish dance lessons just for the footwork!  The musicians were something else as well, especially the fiddler and the drummer. And for the rest of our lives, we can say we saw Riverdance right off the Liffey River, which it was based on!

 

A huge thank you is due to Vinny, Hugh, Dave and all of the children and parents at Kubs, we have been working there the past few days, and they have been so helpful. Dave showed us his getaway in Howth and Vinny has graciously driven us around the city and helped us find the hot spots—including our first experience with fish and chips today at Leo Burdock’s!

 

Training with the Meteor’s is going great, and Shelby and I are going on a tour of the country Monday.

 

Happy Days!

Before I had gotten to Ireland, Deirdre had mentioned that part of my community service would be done through a program that was supported by Arsenal Football Club. I thought that maybe she was joking, or that maybe I had misheard her. As most people who know me can attest to, I am probably a little bit overfanatical regarding my love for Arsenal. Well, it turns out that Deirdre wasn’t joking. I got to meet Barry this week, who will be helping me coordinate my community service in Limerick. Barry is from very close to the areas in which we will be working, and will definitely be a helpful guide as far as my coaching, playing, and service goes in Limerick. So here’s the good stuff: Barry is already a pretty cool guy as it is, but he is also a representative of #AFC. So this is real, I am actually doing community work and coaching under a program that partly run by Arsenal. Can’t even believe it. I am so pumped. I also got to watch a good Under-19 soccer match this weekend between Limerick FC and UC Dublin….it was such a good weekend of getting back into and around the beautiful game. I am highly excited about the people that I met who are huge influences in the Limerick community, and I am looking forward to representing Sport Changes Life in the massively vital work that is being done within this briliant community. Can’t think of a better way to wrap up a solid first week of classes. The ball is rolling lads.

The first week of practice went well. Definitely not picking up a basketball in a few weeks didn’t help with my conditioning, but we all get an individual strength and conditioning program after our fitness test. I’m really looking forward to working with everyone on the coaching staff to get back in shape and increase the strength in my knee. It will be one year this December, since I tore my PCL, MCL, and meniscus. Playing without my brace thus far has been the best thing for me because it forces me to play without any dependencies and strengthens my knee to endure more contact.

 

Enough about my crazy knee though, I finally got a chance to meet Katie and Maria (the ladies who work in the International Office). They are lovely and they told me about different clubs to join. Orientation is next week, so I will register for classes and really focus in on my schoolwork, my conditioning, and the community work once it starts. The international club also has access to the student run radio so don’t be surprised if you hear my voice on the 1s and 2s.  The first meeting is September 6^th.

It’s all about networking at this stage and getting to know people by pretty much throwing myself out there and seeing what works. I do have experience sports broadcasting though, so I won’t sound too silly (shout out to WNSB Hot 91.1). I would also like to write for the school newspaper, which I did at NSU (shout out to the Spartan Echo). Getting involved is really important to me in case you haven’t noticed.

I’m also suffering from a serious case of SWS. That stands for Scholar Withdrawal Syndrome. Most people affected are with the Sport Changes Life Program and side effects may vary. I see everyone exploring their surroundings and wish I could be there with them, but there is plenty to do in Limerick, once I find it. I’m really looking forward to classes starting. Our roommates are fabulous, one is form Dublin and the other is from Belgium and the campus is starting to come to life. UL is literally its own little town with multiple shops and pubs. This campus is really breathtaking and I wouldn’t have to leave for anything unless I wanted to. It seems like we are going to have a great year! 

 When you go into your regular gas station (AKA pedal station) you find rows, shelves, stacks and any other organizational fixture filled with candy, chips, ice cream etc. Literally filled. This was a surprise to me when I was looking for a classic protein bar that I could quickly pick up to refuel myself after a work out, but they were nowhere to be found! At this moment I had figured out where the kids got their extra super crazy energy from here!

 

I haven’t talked much about the Irish food-culture in my blogs, (surprising due to my love of food) but I have now found a significant enough reason to bring an issue literally to the table, or to the spoon…or finger, and that is my love for peanut butter. I did not realize how much I loved peanut butter until my college days when my roommates and I introduced ourselves to the grilled P&J, had morning peanut butter and apple or bananas before early morning practice, mixed it in our oatmeal, and with nutella (which we only allowed ourselves to have once in a while), and pretty much anything else that we made available to us.

 

My shock of the Irish disgust of my beloved and sacred additive/main meal at times came while Christine and I were coaching a girls group last Saturday at Kubs Club. During a break I pulled out my small container (Christine’s sister, Maddy will hopefully be bringing over large containers when she visits! ..YES) of crunchy peanut butter and spoon out of my bag as I do on the daily, and began putting it on my apple. Immediately as Christine and I are passing it back and forth the looks of disbelief and disgust cross the 13 year old girl’s faces! They could not believe we were eating this repulsive paste! And with apples?! No way. They couldn’t handle the smell…oh the food peer pressure; I remember those days when it was only cool to eat Scooby Doo Gogurt instead of regular yogurt. Even though they think eating peanut butter let alone having a minor addiction is unheard of, we have gratefully accepted their bags of bacon chips and the classic Irish Breakfast!

Hi everyone. Just wanted to post a quick little blog about our day at the Giant’s Causeway. Monday morning Gareth picked us up in the van and we made the drive North. It took us about an hour and a half and was a really nice drive. 

 

The Causeway itself was really cool. Lots of great views and interesting rock formations. We walked around for something like two hours and took in the different sites while taking an absurd amount of pictures haha. I wish I knew more about geology and could better understand the hexagonal rock formations. Think I’m going to google it up a little bit and try and figure things out.

 

Before we headed home we stopped in the town of Bushmills. And while we didn’t get a chance to visit the Bushmills whiskey distillery, the town itself was really nice, plus we got to grab some fish and chips which is never a bad thing. I’m definitely hoping to check out the distillery another time.

 

It was a really fun day and great to see yet another part of the country. Looking forward to many more trips and sight seeing opportunities

It’s that time of year again…Basketball Season!! I may be in a different country, playing for a different team, with new teammates, but the game is still the same (well, for the most part). This past weekend my team, the NUIG Mystics, and I travelled to Dublin for a preseason tournament, which happened to be our first games of the season! I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous going into the first game, but also very excited. While we did not get the outcome that we wanted, it was nice to play with my new teammates and start to build chemistry. It was a good experience and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season with the NUIG Mystics!

 

Basketball in Ireland is the same as in the States, for the most part. It didn’t take long to find out these differences. We were getting ready to warm up and of course, me being American, I go to the basket opposite our bench only to realize that none of my teammates were behind me. So I quickly learned that in Ireland you warm-up at the basket closest to your bench and then in the second half, you shoot at the opposite hoop. There are also some different rules that I had to get used to… like you can’t throw the ball in the back court on inbound and the paint is also much wider so rebounding free throws felt kind of awkward. But, I’ll get used to it all soon enough.

 

The best part of the tournament came at the beginning of our second game when I was walking on the court for tip-off and saw some of the other scholars walk through the door. 🙂 I can’t even express my excitement when I saw them. I was so happy and beyond thrilled to see them! Even though it had only been like 2 weeks since we separated, it felt like forever! I knew they were in Dublin for a horse race that day, but didn’t expect to see them at my game. This just shows how much of a family we are! It was so nice having them in the stands watching and cheering my team and I on. It felt like I was playing in front of family again. So I want to give a HUGE thank you and shout-out to my fellow American scholars- Christine, Jen, Ronnie, Ryan, and Caroline- and Katie (a former scholar) 🙂 You guys are the best!!

 

Whew, it’s good to be back. After a great week spent in Dublin and Clonmel the UUJ scholars returned to Belfast this past Friday night. No rest for the weary though, as we moved right into the BNI/Cork girls basketball camp on Saturday and Sunday. It was a great event with a lot of young talent and kids who were willing and able to learn. ‘Happy Days’ a phrase I am becoming partial to using whilst here in Belfast.

 

Since then, the Belfast scholars have been taking some much needed downtime the last couple of days as we prepare for this year. But while the start of classes is still a couple weeks away, Ulster Elks basketball practice begins tomorrow night. Some exciting news on that front: I’ll be coaching the team this year with the help of some veteran players, along with Gareth and Deirdre. I’m sure I’ll need all the advice I can get. I am taking over from Victory Scholar Matt Graves who lead the team to the BNI League Semi Final narrowly losing out to the Sport Changes Life Creative Content Producer Marc Mulholland’s team the Andytown Tigers, so hopefully we can get a bit closer to the final this year. I was honoured and flattered to be asked to coach the team and am really looking forward to this season. I’m sure it will be a great experience for me and a great opportunity to grow. On that note I’ve got to go write some plays down for this year. The squad is going to be in top form in no time. Coach Mintz, out.

Mike Krzyewski, Phil Jackson, Geno Auriemma, Bill Belichick, Jack Esworhty, and Vince Lombardi all have something in common. They are a coach at some level in some sport in their respective fields. I thought it was only right for me to add myself to that list as I debuted in 3 friendly matches this weekend with my u16 girls’ team.

I arrived at the gym, after my 1 mile run from the train station, ready to go and eager to play. I was so excited to coach I felt as I was about to suit up and play in the NCAA Division 1 national championship game. I dream of coaching and I love being the leader. I understand I wasn’t about to go out and coach the Duke men’s team. I also understood I was going to get a chance to coach and that is an opportunity in itself. No matter how big or small an opportunity may be, it is a chance to leave your mark whether it be big or small. That’s just what my girl’s did.

After 3 days of practice the girls were ready to hone their skills. We had worked so much on fundamentals and small details that we didn’t spend much time working with plays. We talked a lot about hustle, running the floor, and being a team that implementing plays got lost in practice time. They had worked their butts off and it showed as we went 2-1 on the weekend with a heartbreaking 2 point loss in the championship game.

I had implemented goals for each of them to reach and they did that and more. I saw a young Erin change in front of me and become more aggressive, Maya and Emma showed so much more confidence, Claire was on the floor for every loose ball (Birdman Style), Grace showed flashes of the brilliance I know she can bring to the floor, and Ciara showed she could become the lock down defender I know she can be (Gary Payton style). I was glad to see the leadership of Enya and Murin throughout all the games. I know I say my team is u16 but every girl is under age for the group that we play in so it makes it even more satisfying to see their hard work pay off a bit.

The season is early but this did nothing but bring excitement to me. I now see how far we can go and what we need to do to get where we want to be. I am proud of the girls as they amazed me with the way they ran their plays and picked up on new defenses throughout the day. I know this has been a long blog but it was a great day for me. I seized the moment and gave it all I had as I ran and squatted in defensive stances on the sideline as if I was on the court playing in the game. But, most importantly the girls seized the opportunity they had this weekend and that is what I am most proud of!

I have arrived on the UUJ campus and I am happy I am finally here. It’s great to meet the other scholars at UUJ and everyone else that is involved with the Victory Scholar program. Besides the jetlag, the experience has been great thus far. Right when I arrived, I was able to go to the gym and see some of the kids from #Shehoops and watch them workout and do stations with the scholars. Afterwards, there was a session where the kids asked us questions and it was great to be able to answer their questions. Working with young people is the reason I wanted to get involved in this project as I had experience before in wanting to become a Phys Ed Teacher so telling a little bit about my background and how basketball and education helped me get where I am today was really cool.

It’s been good getting to know everybody here and getting acclimated to the Irish culture! I didn’t know how intense the Irish accent got until I heard someone for Cork (Southern Ireland) speak and it was like he spoke 100 miles per hour. Still getting used to it but I’ll come along! First basketball practice is tomorrow with Coach Mintz so I am excited to meet all the guys and get on the court with them! I will keep you all updated!

Cheers,

Brian H

 

Today I was able to visit Leopardstown race course to watch the horse races. We were the honorable guest of Polly, who had multiple horses racing throughout the whole day. Let’s just say everyone has a passion about something, and horse racing is Polly’s thing! It was interesting to learn about everything that goes on behind the scenes at the horse race. How the horses warm up hours before and cool down hours after their race. Never question a sports credibility until you take the time to truly learn about it.

Overall, it was a good day as we got to see the different horses sprint around the track. It was like being on Wall Street with all the gals and gents placing bets bets and more bets on multiple horses throughout the afternoon.

 

We also got the chance to watch fellow Victory Scholar Nicole Krusen play a match for NUI Galway at a nearby gym. It was nice to show support and cheer for her as she ran down the court shooting three after three. It was crazy to see her down in the paint battling with a 6’2 girl. It’s fair to say that our fellow scholar held her own in the paint – great job Nicole.

After the horse race and Nicole’s game, I had seen enough of running. I ended up staying in Dublin with Ryan and Caroline since we had a tournament coaching our girl’s team in Dublin. The morning of our game, we were in an unfamiliar public transportation routes as we were in search of locating the gym. When we finally reached our stop, the doors wouldn’t open (we were punching the open button). The DART (train) continued to the next stop. Fortunately we were able to get off there but we knew we were pressed on time with only 15 minutes remaining until we needed to be at the gym. So we through our backpacks on our shoulders and we began to do a little running of ourselves in search of the gym…

Next blog, I’ll let you know how we faired.

After living out of suitcases for nearly two weeks, Katie and I were terribly excited at the prospect of a more permanent residence. We are finding are feet at the moment with our surroundings but getting there. 

We are staying in great accommodation. With traveling behind us, we are actively exploring what Dublin has to offer. We took a walking tour around the Dublin Castle, checked out Temple Bar, had our first Penney’s experience, went for a scenic hike in Howth, witnessed a proposal on Ha’penny bridge, and took a run or two around St. Stephen’s Green. We even managed to run into a family from Iowa on vacation -what a small world! There is still plenty of Dublin to see and experience and I am extremely excited to be here all year.

Last night, we ran our first practice for KUBS. It was a short session, but the girls went very hard and seemed eager to learn from us. I am definitely looking forward to the challenges and triumphs that this season will bring!

Today was my third practice (“training” as the Irish call it) with my club basketball team, the Oblate (oh-bleetz) Dynamos. Awesome name no matter how you choose to pronounce or in my case, mispronounce it. In the first training session I was immediately welcomed by the coach, team and club as a whole being the only American. Oblate Hall is where our practices and home games will be held at. It was a great venue with strictly basketball lines in the court, which is rare here since basketball is not a dominate sport in Ireland.

 

Most of the players on the Dynamos are in the 18-24 range. The younger ones are either starting their first year of college, where the handful on the other end of the spectrum for example includes a woman (with impressive hustle) who has been a primary (elementary) school teacher for 10+ years! The one thing in common with these women is that they are all a part of the club because they love basketball. Some go through a variety of transportation methods that take around an hour just to get to practice. They enjoy the game and I am glad I have this opportunity to be a part of it!

 

I have noticed a difference in the pace, style and overall culture of the game in my few weeks playing in Ireland. After years of losing my voice in preseason from encouraging teammates and talking on offense and defense, the habit is permanently ingrained in me whether I want it to be or not! In the first few drills of training here, I noticed right away that this aspect is not nearly as prevalent. Communication on the floor is one thing I have adopted myself, and my team is already getting better at it! As much as I forced myself to do it (because there was always a punishment if my college head coach – Coach Zeh was louder than the group of us together- (which is actually a hard task sometimes!)) it’s a vital part of success on the court and makes drills more fun when teammates and wonderful friends like Allison Braun get into it at the highest and most enthused level! I am greatly looking forward to getting to know the girls and bringing my love of basketball to this team!

Talk about a crazy week. After finishing training, we landed at Trinity Friday night. Since then, Shelby and I have been trying to get used to the Irish way of life. 

 

We have used the phrase “When in Dublin..” to apply to most of our decisions so far, and have to keep reminding each other we will be “in Dublin” for at least the next 9 months. We found two great restaurants, one for stir-fry and the other for burritos and already consider ourselves locals, frustrated by the hundreds of tourists on our campus at all times! Everywhere we make a purchase we ask for student discounts or frequent flyer cards and are ready to start living frugally!

 

We also discovered Penneys, a discount clothing store all over Ireland with awesome European clothes, and after our first trip it has already proven to be very, very dangerous for our small budgets.

 

Last night we had our first training session with the U17 Kubs girls we will be coaching all year. We worked them hard, and are excited for all the development and winning we will do with these ladies over the year! I also had my first official session (practice) with my Superleague team, the Meteors. Definitely different than practices run by Coach LeBlanc, but the coach and team are very welcoming. Team dinner and bonding this Friday, I’ll keep you updated on how that goes!

 

Final shout out to my baby sister Madelyn who officially moved to Holy Cross to start her freshman year and to Chris who also moved in yesterday! And of course to my parents who are officially empty nesters!

 

Love and miss you all, and am really, really enjoying this experience so far!

I’ve had loads of fun exploring the city of Galway, but now its time to get down and dirty! It’s time to get back on my grind. I’m now off to a sqeeky clean fresh start with school, basketball, and my involvement within the community… the three reasons why I’m here in Ireland!

 

I started basketball practice about a week ago with the Galway Titans. The Galway Titans are a Men’s Division 1 team, playing in the National League! After going to a few practices, I realized that the team was much better than I was expecting, based off what I heard. Playing basketball in Ireland has given me the opportunity to rekidle my love for the actual game of basketball. After playing four years college basketball in the states, it became more of a demanding job, rather than playing for the love of the game. Now we practice two times a week, and I have enjoyed every single moment of it! Playing in Ireland has taught me how to love the game of basketball again, the sport that has brought me to where I am today.

 

I also started school this Monday. I have not been this excited to start school since my senior year of high school! I woke up two hours before I needed to be in class, eager to see what a MASTERS course would be like. Nobody in my family has obtained their masters yet, so this has been a big deal to me and my family. I didn’t know what to expect going in, but after going to a few classes I have realized that it definitely won’t be a walk in the park. That’s okay though, because I was born to take the challenge!

 

I saved the best for last. Community involvement. I started to coach the U16 Galway Titans on Saturday. It was definitely an eye opening experience! I got the opportunity to coach them for a two hour practice. I didn’t realize how much hard work actually goes into coachinig a team (shoutout to all the coaches out there puttin’ in that work)! It took much more time and effort preparing and revising the schedule than I thought so that practice would go as smooth as possible. Now I’m able to see why coaches get mad when things arn’t going smoothly. LOL. Along with coaching I have also coached a few camps. I was a little scared when I got thrown in the gym with 30 kids all to myself and had to coach them for 2 hours, but I managed to make the best of it and more importantly, the kids loved my session plan! I had so much fun coaching! I always look forward to coaching because I know in one way or another, they’ll manage to put a smile on my face. Playing basketball with them gives me an outlet to all the hard work I’ve been doing in the classroom all week, so I coach it up to the fullest!

 

To recap the week, I couldn’t ask for anything better. Basketball, school, and my community work has started and I am happy with all of it! I am truely blessed beyond words!

Mission 2: Training, Dublin, & Clonmel is now completed. After a week of great training, we all went to Dublin to do some camps at  “Kubs Club”. As coaches we did some basketball sessions, and had an  Q&A session. Also, while in Dublin, I also got to see a semi-final hurling game, which was a first for me. It was “Brilliant,” I tell you. So “Brilliant” that we got to go back to the club and play some hurling or I would say tried my hand at hurling.

 

We all finishing up our last days together in Clonmel.  In Clonmel, we went to the Coolmore 2013 Horse Race, I bet on Horse 11 Art Scene, and won 9 times on what I spent on the ticket. There we also did camp sessions at the Titans Club, but this time at the close of the sessions, a little girl cried because we was leaving, and at that moment, I knew exactly why I am here. The saying is “It takes a village to raise a child”, but I have now learned, “It takes sports to change a life.” I am going to miss everybody as we go to our universities and continue the work of a Victory Scholar.

 

As I go on my next mission of getting to know Belfast, I want to leave you with a song that has grown on me since being in Ireland… By the way I love to sing, but can’t find the right tune at times lol Aviccii Wake Me Up, “They tell me I’m too young to understand, They say I’m caught up in a dream, Well life will pass me by if I don’t open up my eyes, Well that’s fine by me… So wake me up when it’s all over, when I’m wiser and I’m older, all this time I was finding myself, and I didn’t know I was lost…

 

What is immersion? you might ask. My Irish readers already know the answer to this, and they are probably laughing at me. My American readers however probably have no idea what it is. I hadn’t heard of it before I arrived, and if I had, I might’ve seriously reconsidered my decision to come to this country (kidding of course). By now my American readers must be getting curious to discover what immersion is and why I’ve had such a long, hard fought battle with it. They may be imagining me in some sort of water-related fight for my life—but in fact I was dealing with something far, far worse.

An immersion is actually an electrical water heater. In Ireland, nearly everyone has one. This means that in order to have hot water, one must switch the immersion on. So, yes, my thrilling battle with immersion is actually my very serious attempts to have hot showers. In a cruel twist of fate—and perhaps as karma for my previous selfish habit of enjoying long, hot showers—for a long time, I could not persuade the immersion in my dorm to work for me. It worked quite well for everyone else; my roommates rarely complained about taking cold showers. After numerous inquiries about what I could possibly be doing wrong, I thought I’d found the answer.

 

In order to have a hot shower, you have to turn the immersion on to heat the water. There are not just tanks of hot water sitting around in Ireland like there are in the U.S. It takes time for the water to heat up. So, I simply thought that I hadn’t been waiting long enough for the water to heat up between the time that I turned the immersion on to the time I stepped into the shower.

 

Now that I had discovered the error of my ways, I was confident that I could conquer immersion. So one afternoon I turned on the immersion and waited patiently for an hour. Unfortunately though, when I turned on the shower, it was still cold. How could this be? I went back out to check the immersion to find that it was not on even though I had set it on a timer for two hours! Exasperated, I turned it back on and checked the water at different intervals to see if it was warm yet. Five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty-five minutes passed with no change in water temperature, despite my countless prayers to the immersion gods. Eventually I gave up and resigned to have a cold shower.

 

My losing war against cold showers has caused me to question why Ireland insists on using the madness that is immersion. After doing some research, I found out that Ireland is fairly energy efficient country. In fact, when looking at energy use per capita in 2013, the Irish used only 2,912 kilograms of the oil equivalence of energy while Americans used 6,909 kilograms. Per capita, the Irish used less than half of the energy that Americans did throughout the year, and immersion certainly played its part. The Irish have recognized that energy efficiency is critical in order to have an environmentally friendly impact on the world. They have taken responsibility for the fact that we are all a part of the energy problem and as such, we must all do our part in reducing energy consumption. I’m not saying that every American should start taking cold showers; I am merely pointing out that the Irish definitely have a method to their madness when it comes to immersion.

 

As for me, I think I have FINALLY managed to figure out how to use our immersion properly. Now I can find comfort in the fact that I am doing my part in terms of saving on energy consumption, while at the same time finding comfort that I no longer have to pray to the immersion gods for a hot shower.

 

 

Victory Scholar: Katie Fox

Present University: Waterford IT

US League: NEC

Club/Community Partner: Waterford Wildcats

Alma Mater: St. Francis College

Sponsored by: Teamwear Ireland

 

 

Every basketball coach I asked, whether it was Joe Coughlan of the Titans or Coach Mike and Coach Terry of the Mystics, or Gareth Maguire and Deidre Brennan up in Belfast, knew the name Pete Strickland. Pete Strickland, one of my dad’s long time friends, was a professional basketball player in Ireland. I have known Coach Strickland for years and years, practically my entire life, and always knew he’s been involved in basketball since forever whether he was playing or coaching. However I was not unaware (until this summer) that he played in Ireland and better yet was so well known here.

 

This past weekend my dad came and visited and of course he was curious about whether people knew Pete, so he asked multiple people about Pete Strickland and they ALL knew him! They even had stories about him…Joe Coughlan shared some of the best ones. Pete Strickland was a great player, especially a great shooter, and Joe was sharing a story where one day Pete was showing some drills on how to become a better shooter (one of which was the laying on your back form shooting drill). So while Joe was telling us this story, all of a sudden he gets up,  lays on his back and starts practicing his shooting form and shoots the ball in the air. Needless to say, my dad and I both start laughing. This is a very common shooting drill that I have done, but I just thought it was funny how vividly Joe remembered this from years ago and the fact that he laid on his back to demonstrate.

It was great hearing some of the stories from Pete’s career over here in Ireland and I think it’s safe to say that Pete Strickland is a legend here!!!