I had a great weekend. We had three days off so it was a much needed break. Thursday night, my mom and I drove to Holland, Michigan because we were going to visit Hope College the next day. We stayed in an amazingly contemporary hotel called the City Flats Hotel. It was crazy. The room had extremely high ceilings, two queen sized beds facing each other, and a flat screen television for each bed. The bathroom was big too. I could actually stand underneath the shower head, which is a great accomplishment for me. The toilet had two different flushing settings. Overall, it was a hotel that I wouldn't mind visiting again.
Hope College was great as well. I got a tour of the campus and got to meet with the head coach and a player from the basketball team for lunch. Both of them were very nice and welcoming. They made me feel welcome to the campus. The visit definitely put the college up to the top of my list. I now look at Hope as my favorite.
My favorite part of the visit, however, was visiting the DeVos Fieldhouse. This is the home of the Hope Flying Dutchmen basketball program. Some interesting facts about the facility:
-It can hold approximately 3,000 fans.
-It has been sold out every game since it's opening in 2005.
-It has a 6,500 pound scoreboard hanging over the court.
-The floor is parquet.
-The student section which basically sits on top of the court is called the Dew Crew.
-The team has only lost one game there since its opening.
-The team has led the NCAA Division III in attendance over the past 5 years.
I hope to continue my basketball career at Hope College. The program amazing and the people in and around the program are friendly and welcoming.
Saturday, I went down to Huntington to watch and play football with some guys from Huntington North. It was a fun day. Nothing like watching football with the guys. We were able to see Iowa knock off third ranked Penn State with a last second field goal, Alabama win in overtime against LSU, Texas Tech pummel Oklahoma State, and sadly see Notre Dame get shut out by Boston College. I hope my Irish can get out of the rut they have been in over the past few weeks.
Anyways, today I slept in because I had some back pains. When I woke up, I watched some football and sat around the house some more. I had to get a physical for basketball practice by tomorrow, so I got that done. Then I watched the Colts hold off the Steelers for a huge victory.
Tomorrow, basketball tryouts begin so that will be exciting. It seems like time flew during football season compared to last year because basketball season came up in a hurry. Our team should be very good this year, and I am hoping to be the favorites to win the Northeast Hoosier Conference title. However, I hope even more that our student section is crazy beyond belief. Nothing is better than playing in front of a loud, raucous crowd. From what I have heard, the student section will be crazy, but we'll have to see at our scrimmage on November 22 against Whitko and at our first home game on December 5 against Wayne.
