Aug. 10, 2007
Howdy y’all!
Ha ha – sorry I couldn’t help myself. Taking that I’m back in the lovely South (North Carolina, where I live), I’ve been thrown back into Southern culture and the manners that go along with it. I have had a few “yes ma’ams” and “yes sirs” come out of me. Ha ha
Ok, so our basketball operations director, Stephanie Menio, asked me to write to you all about a new video thing we’re gonna be doing here on UND.com called E-TV (E’s my nickname and it’s on TV … it fits!). I’ll try to add some humor to it, but I don’t know if I can compare to Lech and her Slovakian Apple Throwing. I think they are trying to make it into the Olympics next year, so that it can be properly judged and awards can be official. At least I think it’s in the works. For the sake of Lech, her teammates, USA Basketball, and that lovely Slovakian cop, I hope it all works out!
Now back to E-TV. Stephanie approached me with the idea of something like E-TV a bit before the spring semester ended. We had originally hoped to use it on our trip to Spain this summer, which actually ended up being postponed (I think … at least I hope!). Our main goal of E-TV is to help give you, the fans, an inside look as to what goes on in our lives. So often you only see us when we are on the court or at autograph sessions and the like. We also wanted you to see that we go to class, we go out into the community, and we also like to joke around (with this team for the ’07-08 season especially). Hopefully, you’ll get a better look at what were like off the court, because that is a huge part of who we are as people. We aren’t just basketball players…
If any of you were fortunate enough to be part of Ashley’s section, and were rewarded with a pizza party at the end of the season last year, then you saw my “talents” as an emcee – or lack thereof, depending on how you though it went (I hope you all pick the first! Ha ha). I really enjoy making jokes and just being a goofball like that. If you know me off the court too, you’ll see that I like to crack jokes and I’m usually just in a giddy, happy mood.
So, E-TV … our inaugural video (which you can see by clicking on the link at the top of this BasketBlog entry) was a tour of our dorm rooms that we stayed in this summer at Welsh Family Hall (we call it Welsh Fam). I took the camera on a tour to almost all of our dorm rooms from this summer. Most of our team lived in doubles, but Lech, Lindsay, and I all split a 3-room quad into three singles. I hope you get that whole 3-room quad thing. From my point of view, I thought it was pretty nice. I had my own TV, I could play my music all the time, and of course, as my teammates like to joke, I can set my alarm for 5 a.m. on days we work out (it’s really only 30 minutes before I have to leave … I’m big on the sleep button!).
Becca Bruszewski and Lindsay Schrader were two of the many Irish players who recently enjoyed a fun afternoon at the Yoder residence in Nappanee, Ind.
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Our second video with E-TV was when we went over to the Yoder’s house in Nappanee, Ind. It was great going over there. We got to hang out with two small girls AAU teams at a BBQ. It was pretty neat because it made you realize that we were all that age at some point in our lives, looking up to college or high school players that we are now. Somewhat full circle, I guess you could say. Got to mention, though, that the girls there were AMAZING. I had a pretty competitive game of corn-hole going with some of them. My partner, Cassie Yoder, and I ended up coming out on top, defeating Cassie’s older sister, Inger and her friend Caitlin. After that we ate, and started playing games again. Somewhere in there, someone thought it would be a great idea to play 5 on 5. It was a lot of fun, but then it kind of turned into 7 on 7. Ha ha Got a bit out of control, but we all loved it, especially us players. The highlight of the BBQ for a lot of us though was the Amish buggy ride. Going to Notre Dame, I don’t know if we get to experience all that Indiana has to offer. On top of that, a lot of the players that were there (Lindsay, Dev and Britt) are from urban areas, where they wouldn’t be exposed to the Amish culture. I really enjoyed it, just to learn about a different way to live your life and, of course, the buggy ride was pretty cool. All in all, I think everyone loved the trip. Thanks again to the Yoder family for hosting us. I’m sure we’ll be seeing lots of you this year. Also, thanks to all the girls that were there. We loved hanging out with you and getting to know you.
I hope you have enjoyed this tiny introduction to E-TV. We’ll be back periodically throughout the year with some more footage, and hopefully in the near future, my co-host will join me for one of our specials. Ha ha I can’t say much more than that, but all I can say is that you’ll most likely enjoy it or at least get a laugh out of it!
All the best and GO IRISH!!!
Erica Williamson #52