Prague Castle Part 3: Revenge of the Sith or whatever

Georgia Tech continued their European excursion by traveling to Prague where, yes, they became the third team to climb to the top of Prague Castle and tell us about it.

Would Laura and Chrissy DeMichelis, today's Ramblin' Wreck reporters, get the right number of steps?

We all explored up to the "balcony" which was completely deceiving after...

Here it comes!

...288 steps.

Oh, I'm sorry! The correct answer is "287 steps," as we covered in the Pittsburgh-Illinois State Mathlympics. But thanks for playing. Buh-bye.

Other highlights of this report include the team being "awoken to the spectacular scenery around Neuschwanstein castle." (Gesundheit.) Turns out Neuschwanstein was the inspiration for Cinderella's castle.
Huh. Looks just like O'Keefe Gymnasium, doesn't it?

More European wreckage!

The floodgates are open, releasing a torrent of reports from Georgia Tech as they enjoy all that Europe has to offer. Being in Munich, the team got a chance to tour the Olympic park, and did their best to blend in:
Very natural. In no way does Ben Bodipo-Memba look like a German tourist version of Huggy Bear.


But the highlight of this report was when the team traveled to Leopoldskron Castle:

Then all of a sudden, Brittany, Steph, Erin and Nikki started singing songs from the Sound of Music. It turned out that this castle was the same one from the movie, and that a lot of the movie was filmed here!

Everybody! "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens..."

Anyone? No? Raindrops on roses, people! Anyway, on to today's food description:

Our pre game meal consisted of pork, sauerkraut and a ball of--

Wax? No, twine! A ball of twine!

--what tasted like stuffing.

Damn. I'm terrible at this game.

Oh, there was also some volleyball. The Wreck beat up on some poor Salzburg team like Mozart (one 'T') on a Steinway, and everyone grew as a person.

The Wreck is ALIVE

Contrary to our worst fears, the Georgia Tech volleyball team did not get booted from Germany, nor have they been abducted as part of some..."plan" of some kind, headed by Ga Tech import Ulrike.

Turns out they've just neglected to keep us updated, but Talisa Kellogg, obviously reacting to the inherent commentating genes in her family, helps us out today.

The difference in ball size, playing to 25 as opposed to 30, and the substitution policies have made us have to adjust and change how we typically run things.

Hasn't everyone on this team played to 25 for nearly their entire club career? How hard is it to remember that?

Kellogg tells us that after they lost to the Germans, there was a cookout, which included the host Germans, Georgia Tech, and the French junior national team. Apparently the Germans kept trying to play the French in tetherball, but the French kept giving up in the middle of the game, leaving Georgia Tech to finish the game for them.

One of the most interesting parts of these trips is the "food adjustment" each team goes through. Let's see how Kellogg describes the many delicacies offered by Germany.

They offered a variety of meats at the cookout along with bread and a few side items that were similar to our potato salad.

"A variety of meats"? That's it? C'mon, Kellogg! Would your dad describe Kevin Durant simply as having "a variety of moves"? Work with me!

Aside from the lack of air conditioning, paying to use the bathroom, and having to drink all beverages at a luke warm temperature, we are making it and accepting the challenges and taking it day by day by day!!!!

Wow! A cliche´ hat trick! "Making it," AND "accepting challenges," AND "taking it day by day"! Now you're talkin', Special K.

Whither the Ramblin' Wreck?

Has anyone heard from the Georgia Tech volleyball team lately? I don't want to be an alarmist but it was 5 days ago that we got our first report from the Ramblin' Wreck. Remember when we made fun of Ben Bodipo-Memba's freakish wingspan?

Five days later and no reports. No wacky stories of eating borscht, no harrowing tales of navigating the autobahn, no amusing shots of Bond in lederhosen. Nuthin'.

I mean, Germany's still there, isn't it? They have electricity. They get them there Interwebs, right?

Or has there been an international incident of some kind? I don't want to point any fingers (Callie Miller), but maybe someone got the team booted from the country?

OR...has Ulrike Stegemann kidnapped the team once she suckered them into her home country? Has she hatched some elaborate plan that started with getting Georgia Tech to recruit her and ended when she said, "Hey, um, wouldn't it be cool if we took a trip to my home country?"

Ben Bodipo-Memba and his freakish wing span

During Georgia Tech's trip to Europe, assistant coach Ben Bodipo-Memba prepares to demonstrate how 12 months of intensive yoga have paid off by folding his 6'8" frame into this European clown car.

It's the Bond Shymansky Showcase! Starring Bond Shymansky!

If you're looking for something else to do this weekend while in Atlanta for the Big South qualifier, and the CNN Center doesn't appeal to you because, well, you don't want to risk getting shot, you can take a field trip over to Georgia Tech for the ACC/SEC Challenge. Florida State, Virginia, Duke and host Ga Tech will represent the ACC while Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, and Ole Miss will battle for the SEC.

Then maybe you can explain to the rest of the class how the ACC only got one team into the NCAA Tournament. KER-POW.

Georgia Tech head coach Bond Shymansky said, "We are looking forward to hosting such a competitive tournament this weekend to use as a gauge of our team's progress."

Which actually means he's looking forward to luring all those recruits onto campus to gauge their interest in becoming part of the Ramblin' Wreck...

...and by "Wreck" I'm in no way hinting at that bit about the ACC only getting one team in the NCAA Tournament again. BLAM.

You gotta admire all these teams, though, letting everyone see them in the spring when they're not at their best. It's kinda like taking a girl out on a date when you have the flu and just had your wisdom teeth removed.

"Yuh looog nice dunigh. (Achoo!) [Sniff]."

Thank you...?

So, messageboard mavens already knew that former Wahine Jenn Carey was leaving her position as director of volleyball operations at Texas A&M to become an assistant coach at Georgia Tech. But it was officially announced on the Aggie website Friday, along with the following quote from head coach Laura Corbelli:

"We are proud of Jenn for getting a Division I job at a very good program so early in her career."

Huh.

There's just something off, something askew, about that sentence. After all, as DiVO (Director of Volleyball Operations, y'all) at A&M, didn't Jenn already have a DI job at a very good program early in her career? Isn't Corbelli congratulating Carey for doing something...she's already done? Yeah, the Ga Tech job is as an assistant coach, but six in one, half-dozen in the other, blah blah blah.

We can only assume that in every A&M timeout Corbelli tells her players she's proud of them for playing on a DI team at a very good program so early in the school year.

Mary doesn't read us?

UPDATE: A quick check of this gatorzone.com article reveals that the Gators are still planning to "hose" Georgia Tech this spring, a fact we pointed out last week. We're just disappointed because this means head Gator Mary Wise must not read the blog, for surely she would have had a dude from sports info's head in a vise the next day to correct the typo.

Ben Bodipo-Memba? Still outraged. This is just the kind of lack of respect for the "Wreck" that drove Sally to Winthrop.

Fun with Typos, Gator style

Hey, let's have some fun at the expense of someone's typing skills! What do you think it means when an article on gatorzone.com states that Florida will be "hosing" Georgia Tech as part of their spring schedule? After all, the Wramblin' Wreck was 20-12, 12-10 in the ACC, nothing to sneeze at. So it seems rather presumptuous to say that the Gators will hose them, doesn't it?

Somewhere, Ben Bodipo-Memba is really insulted, outraged even.

(Yeah, yeah, we know it was a typo, but too much fun to pass up.)