Danielle Scott Weblog

From Canada to Baton Rouge… and of course the flights were delayed so I arrived home at 2 am, stayed the day and traveled to Brazil the following day. Greeted by my husband who was late to pick me up. Yep, can you believe it! But that didn’t matter once I saw him, hehehehehehe. Then lots of running around trying to get my documents together so that I can play in the matches ahead. k

So after one day with my husband, my arrival day, I traveled to Franca with the team. What should have been a 2 and a half maximum three hour bus ride turned into 6 hours! We beat Franca 3-0. WOOHOO! But I wasn’t allowed to play. BOOOO! Turn out the team that I played for last year Cimed Macae, did not pay my transfer fee leaving my name blocked from playing actually anywhere professionally. Eduardo and Finasa are working together to get that cleared as soon as possible. However not before our match today against Volley Futuro. Again I didn’t play, but we won 3-0. Now we are in for a long drive back to Sao Paulo. Guestimated arrival time 5 or 6 am the morning of our only off day for the week.

At any rate, it is nice to be back in Brazil. I’ve already had McDonald’s paid for by my club team. Our trip to Franca was delayed due to air-conditioning problems on the bus, so our treat was McDonald. Otherwise, our team would never endorse it. By the way, I only eat McDonald’s when we are in foreign land, then McDonald’s is like Ruth Chris.

Hopefully, things will fall in line early next week so that I will be cleared to play in the Cup of Brazil.

Thanks for your support and prayers,

GO FINASA!

Danielle

Well, that’s all she wrote as the saying goes. Who is she? Anyway … we lost to Cuba this afternoon in five 16-18 in the fifth. Just what a finals match should be like, fight to the end. I hate to lose as much as anyone, but I have to say we did really well considering our circumstances. I would say the same had we won. It would have been so sweet. But, we had only the libero as our full time passer, that is … our opposite was a primary passer, Ogonna whom it is her first season passing, was a primary passer… I played outside (position 4) AND was a primary passer WOOHOO. (Depending on who was serving we were shifted in and out of the passing formation.) Now I think that the difference in a passer and a non passer is the repetitions the “passer” train each day. Anyone who practices passing will get better at it. That is why I am often in my coaches ears to allow me to pass rather they intend on you me or not. I think passing helps overall ball handling skills. Of course my pleas have fallen mostly on deaf ears that is except for passing short balls. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do all the correct techniques that I was taught way back when, when each player was taught all the skills… However, I think I passed OK. I don’t have the stats it might have been worse than OK or better hehehhehehe…… But anyway enough about me.

My team did and outstanding job making adjustments to the different line up and playing as a team. We qualified for the World Cup which is our first step to qualifying for Beijing.

Now I will head home for three days two of which are travel days, then I am off to Brazil. I will be there soon my dear Hubby and team Finasa of Osasco.

Blessings,

Danielle

We are continuing to take care of business. We beat the Dominican Republic in three on Wednesday and today in the Semi’s we beat host country Canada in three to qualify for World Cup. They really began to serve tough in the third set which we trailed for the most part. Finally our tough serving and blocking was strong enough to finish of the set. Ogonna is playing amazing. Our team seems to improve with each match. We are really doing a good job of minimizing our unforced errors.

Tomorrow we have Cuba for the Gold who also qualified for World Cup.

Go USA!

Blessings,
Danielle

NORCECA Championships on the way and we are 2-0 against Trinidad and Mexico, off to a good start. We had to adjust our line up. Cassie has moved into the starting line up playing opposite, and doing a fine job. Tay is back on the left (This season ‘07 she has been playing opposite for us). Ogonna is also outside, with Heather and myself in the middle, Robyn running the offense, and Nicole libero. Then we have Berg and KatieO coming in for the double sub. Third set Jen replaced me for both matches. And to add a twist today, I went back in the match third set for Tay! As you may know Tay is recovering from straining her abdominal muscle. That was fun. Tomorrow we will play Dominican Republic for first place in our pool. The first place team of each pool will have a not have to play the quarterfinals. My Daddy is here! My Daddy is here. This is his first tournament since Athens. I am amazed he actually made it. He like my mom is a workaholic. However, my mom would use her vacation time to come out during my international seasons. Anyway, I am glad to have him here. Berg’s parents and grandmother are here, as well as Heather’s parents.

Go USA!

Danielle

From Colorado to California, beautiful Orange County. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Laguna Hills. Boy, was it a busy schedule. I couldn’t believe that I was so close to Tall Girl (clothing store for tall girls and women) but didn’t have a moment to make it over there! BOOOO! We trained at Soka University. Very beautiful campus and the people were so friendly. Wiz and Logan joined us for practice. Yes, Logan Tom. She is looking to get back indoors now that her beach season is finished and perhaps join us for the World Cup. That is if with the grace of God we can overcome our injuries of late. Right now we have only one healthy outside. YIKES! I continue to be blessed and healthy, beside yesterdays excruciating migraine headache, I am over it. Please, everyone extend your prayers of healing and protection to all members of my team. We are USAVolleyball and together we will find a way! We did have one afternoon off to have a BBQ over at Bown’s house. SPECTACULAR! It was cutely decorated with cookie baskets on each table. Plus Robyn cooked her specialty ribs and pink chicken. We even had dessert! Delicious, cookies, cup cakes and a fruity dessert with custard on top.

And now we are in Winnipeg, Canada… Not freezing yet but it is on the really chilly side. Thank goodness the gym is heated. My roommate, Katie and I, luck out and got one of the better rooms. We each have our own room each with a TV, plus a sitting area. And there you have it. Competition for the NORCECA Continent Championship will begin on Monday. Our pool play opponents are Trinidad, Mexico, and Dominican respectively … the winner of the pool then advances to the semi finals and cross with the other pool after a day break from competition.

GO USA

Danielle