2008 Olympic Gold Medalists

2008 Olympic Gold Medalists
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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Panama Beach

The weather was pretty incredible, just not the incredible I would prefer. Arrived late Friday to rain and lots of wind. Saturday was no different and they decided to cancel the entire day and play a single elimination tourney on Sunday. On Sunday I woke up and looked outside to a nice sunny day. There was some wind but not nearly as bad as the day before. I walked outside in my shorts and T-shirt and immediately walked back up to my hotel room. It was freezing!!! The day before had been stormy but pretty warm. Sunday it was at least a 20 or 30 degree difference. It warmed up a little bit throughout the day but not what I am accustomed to in Florida.

We had a bye first round and then played Jeff Carlucci and Mike Placek. Carlucci has been around for awhile and kind of came through the ranks with Rosy about 10 or so years ago. Placek just came on the scene last year and has made his way into the main draw. He used to be a tennis player and played at UCSB for Marty Davis. I was actually coaching when Placek was playing at UCSB although I didn't know him at the time. There was a very good side and a very bad side thanks to the wind. They started on the good side and were up 4-3. We got a bunch when we went to the good side and continued scoring the rest of that game. I think it was 21-13. The second game was much closer they were actually up 17-16 from the bad side but I sided out and then got an ace on Carlucci to switch 18-17 up. They sided out but we did as well and then scored 3 straight points to win the match 21-18.

In our second game we played Jeff Nygaard and John Mayer. The first game was close. We had a 20-17 lead but they were on the good side. They sided out and then John scooped me and put it away to make the score 20-19. I was able to side out the next ball for game. In the second game we were on a roll. The final score was about 21-9. In the semifinal game we played Nick and Brad. We played pretty well and they were not at their best. The scores were 21-12 and 10.

The finals were played with the sun going down. We probably finished about 15 minutes before the sun went down over the water. Very pretty setting although it was getting a bit brisk. In the first game Rosy and Jake played great. Rosy was scooping all kinds of balls and Jake was siding out to perfection. They took a 3 point lead and held it to the end. The score ended up being 21-19 in the first. In the second they continued their great play. They were up 13-10 and looking really good when the momentum suddenly changed. No particular play, but all of a sudden we were up 15-13 after a sideout and 4 points. We continued our good play and won 21-18. In the third we scored the first point but then they outscored us 6-2 to take a 6-3 lead. Then we went to the good side and took an 8-6 lead. Next thing you know it was 12-8 and then 14-8. Made some good defensive plays and Phil had a big block on Rosy. Final score was 15-9 for our first win of the season.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Todd & Phil win first AVP event of 2009 !

Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser defeated Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal 2-1; 18-21, 21-18, 15-9, in the final match of the AVP event in Panama City Beach, Florida.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

AVP Florida

First tourney of the AVP year. Weather looks abysmal but we can always hope for sun rather than rain, thunder and lightning. I leave tomorrow morning and get in late. Tough to get there. Only Delta and Northwest fly there. I am flying on Delta from SB - LA - ATL - PB. Hopefully we can get in without delays.

Phil and I have been practicing against the German team of Klemperer/Koreng. They are staying at Phil's house for about 3 weeks. Nice to have such a high level team to practice with. Also practiced against the Russian team of Barsouk/Kolodinsky and Wachfogel/Strickland. We have not practiced as much as we have the past 3 years but we have been rather busy with other things on the plate. I figure we may not be at the top of our game but then again, it is late March and I prefer not to be at the top of my game at this point in time. Rather peak come the WC, MB and other big tourneys.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Up to Speed

Last two weeks have been very nice being home and sleeping in my own bed. Kids have been sick but that means I get to spend even more time with them to look at the silver lining. Not having the HWN travel is nice. Don't get me wrong, it was worth it to go. Just nice not to have to worry about it. Phil and I actually hit the ball around this week for the first time in about 45 days. Except now he has a wedding this weekend and leaves tomorrow for Saipan for a week. His annual early spring trip for the last 4 or 5 years. The wife and kids will have to serve me at home for me to get my passing reps.

Had a couple of fun speaking engagements this week. Spoke at a men's forum locally on Monday. Then spoke to about 150 students at UCSB on the "Natural High" you get from sports and accomplishing things in general. Different talk for me but a very fulfilling talk. Then yesterday I went down to Hermosa to speak to a bunch of college field reps for Red Bull. That was a blast as it was a quick talk and Q&A then they played a 5X5 volley tourney. Good group of folks. The drive sucked there and back but the people made it worth it.

Now that I got the garden boxes producing well and completely weeded it should be easy to keep up with. I have 4 artichoke plants that are growing like weeds. Pun intended. They won't produce anything till next year but they look cool. I have 4 Romaine lettuce plants that have been servicing us lettuce for the last 2 months. Those plants I planted as small little plants. The other plants in one box are 2 arugula plants that are doing great, some carrots which didn't do as well as I had hoped for, 4 other lettuce plants and some Broccoli. All of those were from seed. The Broccoli got crushed by Snails but I am hoping to get it going since I poisoned the snails. The other lettuce was getting eaten too but it growing really well now. The other box is growing crazy. 3 garlic plants, red and yellow onion bulbs, green onion from seed, snow peas, swiss chard, and spinach which the snails crushed but came back strong on its own. Been a process for me but an enjoyable one. Now to start on my beach court. It needs a lot of tender loving care to clean up the weeds around the edge and the leaves and what not that have blown on it. The one good thing about putting so much sand in the court is that the weeds can only take root at the edges by the walls where the dirt is closer to the surface.