The Men´s National Team has gathered at the new home of USA Team Handball in Auburn Alabama this week for an intense week of training in order to prepare for the Nor.Ca tournament being hosted by Mexico next week, February 25th to March 1st, at the old Olympic Park in Mexico City. The MNT will face Cuba on the 26th, followed by Greenland, Puerto Rico and finishing against the host on Saturday night, March 1st, for a chance to qualify for the Pan American Championships being held in Uruguay at the end June.
The first few days have been very productive. Coach Cuesta started the week off with a very informative tactics meeting where he covered goals for the next two weeks and the MNT as a whole moving forward. He also outlined what will be the MNT´s game plan as long as he is at the head. Offensive principles were defined, movements were discussed and drawn up and an attack was formed. Having somebody as experienced and knowledgable as Coach Cuesta is great and I really feel like we have been able to implement a lot of his ideas. We have moved the ball with pace and been able to create advantages that have been missing in our offense the past couple of competitions.
We have had five training sessions in all and two tactical meetings. There are a myriad of new faces mixed in with a slew of old heads. Talent wise, this is the one of the best group of players gathered for quite some time. We have talent and experience at each position and feel confident we can compete with and challenge all the teams meeting next week in Mexico City.
Javier Coba, Chris Morgan, Gabe Goodreau and Nico are all first time NT players who have brought some fire and athleticism to camp. Coba is an electric lefty who resides in Spain and has the potential to be a stallwort for the MNT for years to come. Morgan and Nico are both big, athletic backs who should provide an intimidating presence on defense and fire power from the backline on O. Gabe is a goalkeeper who continues to improve at an unbelievable rate and has had an excellent week between the posts so far.
The hotel accommodations are passable; the beds allow sleep and the TV has cable. We have been fortunate enough to be fed like hungry athletes going through double sessions. Tropical Smoothie and Island Wing Co of Auburn have done an incredible job of taking care of us, delivering us food directly to the gym and hotel and providing portions fit for men putting in an incredible amount of work.
We had a very nice meet and greet with many of the wonderful people who have made this residency program a reality from the town of Auburn and Opelika. Representatives from the tourism board, the city council, two local news crews, the Mayor and a many others had the chance to meet some of the athletes, speak with the coach´s and other staff members of USATH and new Chairman of the Board, Harvey Schiller. Auburn University and the town itself has been very welcoming and we hope to continue to nurture this relationship and grow it into a world class handball program centered on Auburn´s beautiful campus.
We have at least five more on court sessions and two more tactical meetings to prepare us for our trip beginning early Monday morning. Our goal is to leave Mexico City not only with qualification to the Pan Am Championships this summer but also as undeniably the best team in the tournament.
No comments:
Post a Comment