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Blog #1 - 8/22/07
I have been in Germany for three weeks now, and I love being here. The city of Schwelm is a very beautiful city in Germany, we have had four practice games against other teams since ive been here. I played well in three of the four games, I have a very experienced head coach and he loves point guards. His name is Raphael Wilder and he has been coaching for 15 years in Germany, and he is a cool person and I think that im very blessed and lucky to start my career with him. My teammates are cool people to know also, they can play the game very well and as a core we play well together. Our next game is on Thursday versus a team that’s in a higher division then us. I can’t wait till season starts; I feel that im ready to do what I have been planning on doing since freshman year of high school. That’s to play Professional Basketball and be successful doing it. Matthew Reid
Blog #2 - 8/30/07
This past week was a very important week for my coach and me. We played the previous team coached by my head coach last year. A lot of pressure was put on coach and a lot of responsibility was put on my shoulders this past week too. He was nervous the whole week, and the more he talked about how important our first regular season game is, I started to get nervous too. It was definetely a tough week for me, I have many things to do on my weekly agenda. I have individual weight lifting training 5 days a week. from 11am to 1pm also every thursday a individual workout for an hour sometimes hour and a half doing dribbling drills, speed and quikness drills etc. and not to mention abdominal workouts on Sundays, after individual weight lifting training then its off to the gym to put up about 500 to 1000 shots that takes about an hour to an hour and a half. After that then its off to a restaurant to have a good meal, after thats all said and done its about 4 to 5pm in the evening. Now its time for a quick rest till we go hard again as a team for team practice at 8 pm to 10 pm. My body is starting to get used to all of these workouts, I have never experienced so many workouts during season before, but i understand that this is a job now. After all the preparing for the game last week it was time to play on Saturday, our first and most important game of the regular season! I could not even sleep the night before, all i could think about was not letting the fans and coach down. I played well in the first and second qaurter, i only had 4 points but i did a great job of getting the right players the right shots in the right places at the right time. I stepped it up in the second half we were leading by 25 at one time, final score was 80 to 90. I ended the game with 24 point 5 assist and 4 rebounds. This is only the first game we still have 25 more games to go. All i can do is work hard every day and leave the rest in God’s hands. Matthew Reid
Blog #3 - 9/7/07
We are now 2-0 in regular season play, it was another rough game for me too. First half we were down 43-42 at halftime, coach was very nervous and uptight in the locker room. Second half came around and we stepped our defense up and started to make our push to win the game. The final score was 96-70, My final statistics for the game was 17 points and 8 assist 6 rebounds and 4 steals.
We are the favorites to win our division this year and every team that we play will be playing with the intensity and attitude of nothing to lose.
Every game will be a tough game in the first half, maybe even the whole game. Our goal as a team this year is to go undefeated threw the regular season. We are juss taking every game one by one, its hard not to think of our future as a team. Staying focused on one game at a time is a key factor for us to be champions this year.
This week there wasn’t just basketball for me, I had to attend a big event that Schwelm holds every year. In the states we would call it a 5-day carnival but in Germany they call it the Heimatfest. They close all the streets down and have partys and crazy amusement park rides going all night long, they do this for 2 days straight.
Then on Sunday they have a big parade throughout the whole city, like the big Rose Parade on new years day every year held in Los Angeles California. It was fun to interact with the fans this weekend, and eat many different kinds of German food. Matthew Reid
Blog #4 - 9/10/07
Another win this week and it wasn’t an easy one to win. We played the team called BG Hagen; we were down by 11 at halftime (42-31) it felt like everything they shot was going in the basket. I was prepared to take a lot of constructive criticism from my head coach at halftime. Being a point guard, for example, is like playing Quarterback on a football team, when things go bad at halftime or even the whole game the quarterback always takes the heat. My head coach played the point guard position when he played in his younger days, and I learn something new from him every day. After getting chewed out at halftime in the locker room I was ready to start playing better in the second half and lead us to a big comeback victory and another step towards our ultimate goal at an undefeated season. We stepped the defense up in the second half and won the game 72-64 final score, I ended the game with 13 point 8 assist and 4 rebounds. I use a basketball community called www.allballers.com to a lot of people; it’s a great way to communicate with basketball people all over the world. I use it often to communicate with my previous head coach Maurice Leitzke, and communicate with the fans out here in Germany. Next week is another important game for me; I’m playing against the best rated point guard in the division. It’s important for me because me being a rookie I will be in competition for the people’s views on me being the best rated point guard in the division. I will have to prove myself to my head coach and the newspaper also, and let them know that I’m the best point guard and I’m here to stay.
Matthew Reid
Blog #5 - 9/17/07
Another important win for the Schwelmer Baskets this past Saturday! We are now 4-0 and only getting started to having a great season. As I mentioned before in my last week´s blog, this was a important game for me because I was playing against the best rated point guard in my division. Well I’m pretty sure I proved myself to be in that same catergory this week. We led the game from start to finis! The other American player (Keith Harris- Oklahoma Christian University) had 21 first half points and we went to the locker room at halftime with a comfortable lead. The score was 53-43 and instead of me geting chewed out, I’m being told what we can do better as a team in the second half.
Our lead never dropped lower than 6 points in the second half, and my second half performance was almost perfect except for one turnover. We won 98-77 and are now in first place ahead by one game and still moving strong towards our undefeated season goal. Our other American (Keith Harris- Oklahoma Christian University) ended with a game high with 27 points, and I ended with 24 points 7 assist and 5 rebounds. Next week we play a team with a record of 0-4 right now, but it will also be a tough game for us. They will be playing with the attitude of nothing to lose, and those are the most dangerous type of teams to play. Matthew Reid
Blog #6 - 9/23/07
Another
hard earned win for the Schwelmer Baskets this week! We played the last place
team in the division (0-4), but they played us like they were the second place
team. We as a team were expecting the team to come out and play us with nothing
to lose. I was always taught to never underestimate a team, and how to beat a
last place team is to put them away quick and fast. That is exactly what we
did, the other American Keith Harris(Oklahoma
Christian) had the hot hand in the first half as he hit 6 in a row behind the
three point line and we went on a 14-0 run going into the locker room at
halftime. The second half was about controlling our lead and putting a
statement out there to the teams that still think we are not the favourites to
win the division this season. I think we put that statement out there to the
other teams; we won the game 90 – 55. I ended the game with 21 points and 10
assist, Keith Harris ended with 34 points 27 in the first half. We are now 5-0
and are 21 games away from our season goal to go undefeated the whole season.
Matthew Reid
Blog #7 - 9/29/07
Another
hard working win for the Schwelmer Baskets this weekend! We played the 10th
place team in our division; there are 14 teams in our division. Once again
another team coming in our gym with the intentions of knocking the first place
team out of first place. I felt this game was important to win, only because if
we lost there would have been 4 teams tied in first place. Another big first half for Keith Harris (Oklahoma Christian) as he
went 6-8 from the three point line in the first half. We had a 20 point lead
going in the locker room at halftime. The second half was still hard for me,
only because the other team was fighting so hard to come back and win the game.
But we held on to our lead and had our biggest win of the season. The final
score was 104-64, I ended the game with 24 point and 8 assists. This upcoming
Saturday we play the second place team in our division, I hope that this was a
good enough statement to put out to the fans of the team we play this upcoming
Saturday. Now 6-0 and 20 games away from our ultimate season goal!
Matthew Reid
Blog #8 - 10/06/07
Another
big win for the Schwelmer Baskets this week! The whole week there were all
kinds of hype going on in the media! They were saying that the second place
team fans are saying that they deserve to be in first place and Saturday was the
day that they were going to prove that they are the better team. They also said
that me being a rookie point guard, that I wasn’t experienced enough to lead my
team to a victory. That was motivation in my eyes and the whole week I worked
hard in the weight room and practice preparing myself for the big game on
Saturday. It was an away game, we haven’t had an away game in two weeks but as
a team we were ready to play regardless of the location of the game. My biggest
issue was not to come out and have a chip on my shoulder and try to prove
myself to my opponent’s fans, just to come out and do the things I have been
doing since the beginning of season.
The game was close for three quarters; we
went into the locker room at halftime with a 7 point lead. Second half was our
half; we stepped our defense up and created a 24-2 run to win the game 83-63. I
ended the game with 15 points and 9 assist, Keith Harris (Oklahoma Christian) 32 points. Our fans are
the best fans in our division; they have a slogan that the chant when we are
playing, they sing “we are having a home game at an away game” we had so many
supporters at our game we sold out the away team’s side for seating. Our media personnel
created a video of the fans after the game and put it on the You Tube website.
You can see it if you just click on the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWugsvkW8z0
Matthew Reid
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