The boys were able to spend some quality time with their host families this morning – some went to church, some groups met up for organised activities and others went shopping. The hospitality that has been shown to us by the people of Nebraska will certainly provide very warm memories (even with the current temperature at minus 10 degrees celsius).
We all met up at the school after lunch and headed off to our first NCAA College Basketball game – the Creighton Blue Jays vs the Nebraska Huskers. The indoor stadium is only a couple of years old and seats 16,000 people – it was a full-house. The game was played at an incredible speed and intensity, and the cheering from the stands was amazing.
Whilst Creighton came away with the win a significant highlight was Jayden Tanevski and Max Peters being chosen from the crowd as winners of upgraded VIP seats at the start of the game. The boys were up on the big screen in front of 16,000 Americans which you can see on the video below (for iPad and iPhone users please use the flickr link at the bottom), with Jayden sending a special message back home to his mum. Also, Cameron Orr scrummaged successfully for one of the shirts that were thrown into the crowd during a time-out.
We leave Gross Catholic High School tomorrow with fond memories and we are very thankful for all that the staff, students and families have done to make our first experience in America such a special one.
As was mentioned previously some of our upcoming games will be televised live on the internet. The details appear below. At this stage we think it will just be the Varsity games. We will try to make the conversion to Sydney time prior to each game.
1. Ravenna HS: Tuesday 6/12/2011 (7.45pm Nebraska time)
Note: On game day a link will appear on the home page of the school’s website. Only the varsity game will be streamed.
2. West Point Beemer HS: Friday 9/12/2011 (7.00pm Nebraska time)
3. Skutt Catholic HS: Saturday 10/12/2011 (7.00pm Nebraska time)
Note: The school is currently trying to resolve a wireless connection issue in the gym and are using a satellite card. Please be patient if the stream has some disruptions.
4. Rancho Cucamonga HS: Wednesday 21/12/2011 (tbc LA time)
Details tbc
You can find a full set of today’s photos and videos at the following link:
