Five Star Hotel Leads Nebraska

The Orient Express arrived exactly on time, to the minute.  Keep the trains running on time and the people will not mutiny.

That was a luxurious sleeping car: two bunks in each berth.  The trip from Beijing to Shanghai by train lasted exactly twelve hours.  The players buzzed with excitement at the prospect of their first overnight train ride, especially across rural China.  This was a great idea put together by the coaches.

Shanghai is a city of 18 million on land two-thirds as large as Beijing. This place is crowded.  But we're not in Shanghai.  Tonight we're in a suburb: a sports village filled with arenas and apartments for athletes. This is a sports mecca for Shanghai pro teams in men's and women's volleyball, soccer, ping pong, tennis, golf, crew, and beach volleyball, funded fully by the city, part of the country's effort to feed top athletes on to the National Teams and ultimately the Olympics. This country is serious about winning medals, especially in 2008 when Beijing hosts.

The women's volleyball arena is immense: three courts wide and four stories tall.  There are no seats because the pro team gets no fans.  This is a purely city-funded effort to cultivate athletic talent.

We practiced hard today in preparation for a match tomorrow morning and then a second in the afternoon versus the Shanghai Pro Team, the five-time defending champion of the Chinese Pro League.

Christina Houghtelling personifies what is great about Husker sports: heart, character, desire, talent, humility.  She is a small town girl who represents us well.  In Cambridge, Nebraska, the ratio of National Players of the Year to traffic lights is one to zero.  She's been called "Hotel" for short for years.  After her exploits the last three seasons, it's time for a nickname upgrade: "Five-Star."

Five Star is one of this year's three seniors; we'll cover the other two in the next two blog entries.  She's a leader.  The coaches treat her as such.  The players look to her.  She has earned it.  She's the heart and soul on a team filled with talent, chemistry, and leaders. She is a critical piece, who has endured some knee pain and knee surgery from freshman year and recently a little shoulder stiffness, but nothing can keep her from the sheer joy of competing.

She has two older brothers: 28-year-old Jason is a Cambridge banker while 24-year-old Jeremy teaches and coaches high school in Winside, near Wayne, Nebraska.  Dad is a farmer and stud athlete himself, still the owner of many Cambridge High School records.  Mom works on and off the farm as well. They attend nearly every match, home and away.

Christina hopes to play professionally after this season and then ultimately become a college coach.  But it will have to be a coaching opportunity that allows her to live in a small town, preferably without traffic signals.

The individual accolades mean little to her.  Atoning for the missed opportunities at the end of the last two years is her quest.