Cruisin' Ha Long Bay with the Red Storm

St. John's trip to Vietnam is wrapping up, and with our latest report from the team's trainer, Jennifer Hamilton, we learn a few things:

• Head coach Joanne Persico-Smith has The Pussycat Dolls on her iPod
  
• Jennifer has a background in cliff-jumping in limestone quarries
  
• You can't hunt squid when it's windy
  
• Water on Vietnamese cruise ships in Ha Long bay smells like moth balls

But another interesting tidbit comes not from Hamilton's report but from the Thanh Nien Daily. Turns out that Ngoc Hoa, a star for the VTV club team St. John's lost to in the finals of their tournament, has caught the eye of Persico-Smith.

In fact, she's "agreed to grant the 1.83m-tall Hoa a scholarship worth US$39,000 per year for two years" (or more if you use the Tomasevic Sliding Scale).

"Ngoc Hoa will become an international standard athlete if she has chances to compete abroad,” Persico-Smith is quoted as saying.

Now that's a pretty cool trip: travel to an exotic locale, get great experience against international competition, finish very high in the tournament, AND land another international athlete for your already varied roster.

But St. John's isn't the only one interested in Ngoc Hoa's services. Japanese club Shikuko is interested, and their coach "said he wanted Ngoc Hoa to play for his team for the last two months of the year when the Vietnam league ended."

So scholarship to St. John's in America, or play for Shikuko on the fabulous empire of Japan. Decisions, decisions.