I'm back......Greece and Asia Cup

Well I've decided to make a comeback to blogging. Not exactly sure if it's gonna be a successful Lance Armstrong style comeback, or a Tony Lockett why did you bother type comeback, but we will see how I go.It's been almost 2 years since my last post and a lot has happened in the meantime. As i believe I had posted earlier in the 2008-09 season I would be playing for Apollon Kalamarias in the Greek first division. I was rather excited to be heading to a pretty high level European league.

The first month in Greece was actually rather nice, we did a lot of pre-season on the beach in 30 degree temperatures, and I was feeling pretty fit and strong heading into the season. However before the season was to commence I had to go back to Thailand to play the Asian Cup with the national team.

It ended up being a pretty terrible travel to Thailand (Thessaloniki-Athens-London-Thailand) Then waiting 12 hours for the team to arrive, then embarking on a 4 hour bus ride to the town where we would be playing the tournament. Then we had to train that afternoon! Jet lag can affect people in many ways, and apparently I was pretty jet lagged when I took my nap a couple hours before training. My roommate Tommy Bawden told me that while I was sleeping in my bed I was yelling out 'it's hurting, its really hurting' then proceeded to go back to sleep. Tommy then left the room and when he returned I was asleep facing the other way on his bed on the other side of the room. He returned later and I was back in my bed. I remember none of these events and thought it was all pretty funny when he told me about it the next day!

As for the tournament, it was not really successful for us. Essentially we started well and dropped a game we shouldn't have to Japan in the pools. This in turn pitted us against a decent Chinese team in the quarter finals. We lost that one and then won the next 2 to finish 5th. The team had a fair few younger boys on the tour, and on a positive note guys like Adam White, Greg Sukochev, Travis Passier and Tom Bawden did some impressive things throughout the tournament. It would leave them in good stead for further national team matches.

On a personal note I was pretty disappointed as well, I had a pretty decent year and had hoped to carry it into Asia Cup. I started pretty well in the first few games, but then started having some problems with my knee due to the terrible floor (built in a shopping centre) we were playing on. On our rest day before the Japan match I had some dry-needling for my knee, and it didn't really respond well and actually had a detrimental affect. I played on against Japan and China, didn't play very well and then sat out for the last 2 matches. The knee would continue to be a real pain for my time in Greece up until about January.

The boys in Korat, Thailand for Asia Cup

So back to Greece, we actually had a great first up match winning in 5 sets. Had a few more competitive matches and then it all started to go pear shaped. It became clear that the coaching was pretty bad. Trainings were error filled and nothing was ever done about it. The organisation of the team was not great, money for our salaries were coming in later and later and before we knew it we were a couple of months behind. As a team we were near the bottom of the ladder fighting for relegation. Personally I didn't have a great first few months, but then hit some form just before and for a few months after Christmas. We managed to win a few more matches heading into the relegation playoffs. After our first relegation game that we lost 3-2 In a match I unfortunately served out match point down in the 5th, at which case a supporter of our own team tried to jump the fence and approach me to show his disgust.....he was stopped by security.

Playing with Apollon

So back to my original story, the 3 foreigners in our team decided enough was enough, we were 4 months behind in our pay and we were sick of asking for our money and getting the same old bullshit replies. So we decided we were going to go on strike and not go to the Monday training. We tried to call the coach to tell him, but no reply, so we got a msg through to an assistant coach to pass it on. At about 20 minutes after training was meant to start we got an angry phone call from our team manager telling us to come in and explain ourselves. So we proceeded to go to the stadium and simply say we didn't know what else to do, we had asked and asked and nothing had been done, so we did this to show we are serious. What then happened took us completely by surprise. The Vice-President of the club said that he now didn't trust us and that we did not care for the team at all, he said that we could be taking money from another team in the relegation zone to do this, and then he fired all 3 of us.

We were all taken aback by this extreme over-exaggeration, and got on the phone to our manager who was good friends with the president. After a few hours of us guys planning how quickly we could get home and out of this mess, we got a call from the management saying we were reinstated in the team!!! In the end it didn't really help us at all in our money situation!!

In the end we managed to avoid relegation by 1 pt in the last set of the season. I had actually made some friends by the end of my time in Greece, so apart from the awful club situation, socially things were starting to be a lot more fun.......and then I had to leave!!!

Sightseeing when Bowie came to visit!

Acropolis, Athens

Me and my Brazilian teammate Carlos