Aug. 7, 2007
(EDITOR’S NOTE: For second straight year, Irish rising junior center/forward Luke Zeller from Washington, Ind., is traveling and touring with Athletes In Action (AIA) and a group of Division I basketball players. From August 10-23, he will be in Australia and will once again provide a diary of his travels as his squad will play games against the top NBL clubs — the Sydney Kings, West Sydney Razorbacks, Wollongong Hawks, Perth Wildcats, as well as a Tasmanian All-Star team.
Joining Zeller on the team are: Josh Carter (Texas A&M), Jimmy Graham (Miami), Matt Hall (UT-Pan American), Jason Holsinger (Evansville), Wes Johnson (Iowa State), Michael Niemi (SMU), Whitney Robinson (Central Michigan), Ray Schafer (Oregon) and Jay Watkins (San Francisco).
In August of 2006, Luke was instrumental in helping AIA capture the gold medal at the William Jones Cup in Taiwan.)
Saturday August 4, 2007
Training Camp started today. I drove to the world headquarters of Athletes in Action in Xenia, Ohio this morning. About as soon as I arrived, we went to the gym to practice and we had a great practice. We went for about two hours or so and we were very focused because we know that we are going to be competing against the pro teams in Australia that have been together for a long time and we only have five days to practice and get prepared.
After practice we had hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. Nothing like a quality meal! It reminded me of all the great times at home in my backyard. The only difference was that we did it while the high ropes course was casting its shadow on our picnic area. I experienced the high ropes course last year before going to Taiwan and to be honest, I was scared to death. Being 25 feet in the air and walking across a rope — like being in the circus–just isn’t that appealing when you have size 19 feet and don’t have a love of heights.
One of the guys that I know from last year’s trip is Peter Warden. He was our guy that did everything on the last trip – media, video taping, laundry, calling up plays at key times, getting food orders, and consoling the guys that missed their moms or the girlfriends. Peter is a great guy and he decided to partner up with me on the high ropes course. I was excited and said “sure”, but I forgot that last year Peter challenged himself into doing every one of the elements on the high rope course. So Peter tells me we are doing the toughest one first. I wasn’t real sure about it, but figured I might as well go for it. No one has died (that I’ve heard of) so why not go for it and if I die I’ll be the first one to go … I guess. The lady in charge of the course quoted Hebrews 11:6 that says without faith it is impossible to please God. So I thought, that sounds good, I’ll go for it! Jacob’s ladder is 40 feet in the air and it is 15 ropes with 2 x 4’s attached to the bottom of the ropes. You have to put your feet onto these 2 x 4’s and hold on to the ropes while swinging from one to the other to get across … while being 40 feet in the air.
After some early trepidation, Luke and his AIA teammates conquered their fears and the ropes course.
|
 |
So Peter went first and he made it halfway across and his arms got too tired and he just stopped. It took him about 10 minutes to make it that far across. So there I stood 40 feet in the air with my toes hanging over the edge because my big feet didn’t fit on this platform. Peter had to hang from the wire and his harness and pull himself the rest of the way across, which took quite a while. All the time I am standing and watching the people that look like ants on the ground. Now it is my turn — I’m still calm and see it as a challenge now. I talk myself into it and start to go. Then I realize both of my feet can barely fit on these boards so I have to make sure my left foot is positioned just right to fit my other foot on there as I go across. So I started going and was real careful at first because I was 40 feet in the air and just not sure of myself. Then I realized I was supporting most of my weight just by holding onto the ropes. I had flashbacks of watching American Gladiators on all those Saturday mornings growing up, but they had pads…all I had was the ground below me. So I went quickly and made it all the way to the last step and slipped and fell through. I didn’t have quite enough strength left to pull myself back up but I was glad to have made it that far. It was definitely pushing me beyond what I was comfortable with. After that we went and had a great dinner and spent time getting to know each other.
We are staying with host families because the dorms are occupied. I am rooming with Jimmy Graham from the University of Miami and we are staying with the Woolf Family. They are an awesome family and have been very gracious opening up their house to us. The brownies they had the first night were so good! We have really enjoyed staying with them.
Sunday August 5, 2007
We woke up this morning and went to Coach Nelson’s church. It was a good service and the pastor talked a lot about who we are in Christ and at the end of the service the whole church prayed for our team, so that was neat to experience.
After church we went back to Coach Nelson’s house and had lunch and then went to practice. We practiced about three hours today and are making good progress on getting all of our plays down and are getting more and more comfortable with each other playing on the court. After practice we had a great barbeque at the neighbor’s house. We had some good games of cornhole in the backyard and it is neat meeting other guys and hearing their stories to see where they have been and where they are going. The best part for me is the fact of hearing other people’s stories and how God has been there for them the whole way.
After practice we had team time and Coach Peters shared with us his testimony. Testimony is a little bit too fancy of a word for me. I like to just think of it as a story. I think of my life as a book in which the end is still blank. My idea of giving my testimony is simply sharing my story of how God has impacted my life just by telling where I’ve been and where God has taken me. Coach Peters helped all of us with some ideas to be able to relate to people better and show them a little more of our hearts and how God is what our hearts pursue. Then we came back and had brownies again at the Woolf household. They were grrrreat again!!
Monday August 6, 2007
Today we woke up and had team time at 8:30 before practice at 10:00. We got some good advice from Coach Woolf at the breakfast table this morning. He asked us, “What is the first section of the newspaper that you should read?” I took a chance and said the comics (because that was the page that he had open on the table) and he said “nope”. He said we should read from the sports section because it tells of man’s accomplishments, the front page tells of man’s failures. Then he proceeded to show us a couple of examples of this from the front page and sports section. He was right.
Team time this morning was really good. It was our Chaplain Ron’s fundamental talk of spiritual things. He talked about very basics things today. He used examples of Vince Lombardi telling his players at the beginning of every season, “This is a football,” and then proceeding to explain the very basics to professionals every year. Also as an example, Coach Wooden taught his players every year how to put on their socks correctly – the very basics. Ron talked about the fact that every man has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God as it says in Romans. He talked about how Jesus Christ came and died for all of the sins and through Him alone we can know God personally and experience His love. It’s like Jesus said in John 14:6 – I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. That’s a crazy concept to think the only way to God is through this man named Jesus Christ, but if a guy is making claims like that he is either crazy or he’s very sure of himself. From the way Jesus lives his life and what history tells us, I definitely think that Jesus was just very sure of himself. The last thing that Ron talked about was that we must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know God personally and experience His love. It’s a cool thing to think that if we truly believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior then we can know God personally.
To truly believe is best illustrated by a story that Ron told about this man that is a tightrope walker. This man was the first tightrope walker to walk across the tightrope with no harness or anything and he got really good at it, so he decided to do it across the Niagara Falls. Before he went across he would ask the people if they believed he could do it. Not many would raise their hands, but then he would go and do it and everyone would raise their hands saying we believe, we believe! Then the man did it with his assistant in the wheelbarrow and asked the people if they believe and a few of them said they believe and then he went across and back and then everyone raised their hands and said they believe. Then one day his assistant wasn’t there and the man asked do you believe I can make it across the tightrope pushing a wheelbarrow across the Niagara Falls and they all raised their hands saying yes we do because they had seen it before. Then he told them his assistant was gone and asked if any of them were willing to get into the wheelbarrow while he pushed it across and no one raised their hands. The people didn’t truly believe. If they believed, their actions would have followed with their words. The Bible says faith without works is dead. To believe in Jesus is not just saying it but rather saying it and then showing that you mean it by how you live your life. By truly believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior your mistakes, screw ups and shortcomings are forgiven and God no longer sees them because Jesus died for all that. I have heard that many times, but to hear it again is very refreshing. It is kind of like hearing to “follow through” on your shot when I just go through the motions and miss a free throw. It’s the very basics but very helpful.
So after team time, we had about a two and a half hour practice. It was a good practice and we are coming together well for the short amount of time that we have been together. We put in a simple out of bounds play today and worked more on our transition break plays. We worked on putting in a 1-2-2 zone today, as well. We were also reminded of rules like the no goaltending after the ball hits the rim. It’s different the first few times seeing it. I remember from being in Taiwan last year.
Then we came back to Coach Nelson’s house and had Qdoba catered in. It was some good stuff, but I like good ol’ Chipotle back in South Bend myself. Then I went and took an hour nap that was a powernap in every sense of the word.
We had another team time and talked about a few things, but one thing we talked about was why everyone was on the trip and what they wanted to get out of it. For myself I am on this trip to be reenergized both in a basketball sense and a spiritual sense. I feel like this can be a launching pad into a great year for me both as a basketball player and a man of God. Also, I have wanted to go to Australia since I was about four. I am so excited to go to Australia. I’m not sure if it is the kangaroos, the boomerangs, or simply to go in honor of the famed Steve Irwin. I’m not sure what exactly is the draw of it but I am so excited to go I can’t even explain it.
We then left for Cedarville University and scrimmaged some of their players tonight. It was nice to play against some different people and be able to see how well we mesh together. We played well and are getting better, but there were some spurts where we were sloppy and played a little too quick. We did very well and played well together when we slowed down and executed.
We came back tonight and the Woolf family had some great cookies out for us. They were just as good as the brownies had been!!
I just want to say thanks to all of my sponsors for this trip I really appreciate your support in that area. I also want to thank all of the people that are praying for us. We can definitely tell there are people praying and we appreciate it greatly!!