Huskers in China Day 13: A Beijing Birthday

The Day began at Temple of Heaven Park.  A crowd soon assembled as the Huskers went through a 90-minute workout just below the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, a tall circular building overlooking the large park filled with groups of people dancing, singing, playing Chinese versions of hacky-sack, and one team of tall volleyball players.

Later the players went on rickshaw rides, carts pulled by drivers on foot.  Then lunch and finally a brief return to the Silk Street Market for a few more hours of negotiating bargains.  The Great Wall and the Silk Street Market have been favorite stops for the 2000, 2006, and 2010 teams.

We celebrated Gina Mancuso's 19th birthday at dinner tonight, singing happy birthday in Mandarin and English.  Gina attended the Espy's her senior year, a reward for being named the Gatorade National High School Volleyball Player of the Year. Now she thinks she'd like to work for Gatorade in marketing some day. For now, she's working hard to get some playing time on a team with three solid outside hitters.  Redshirting may be an option, but no decision has been made about whether to exercise it.  The downside would be no depth suddenly at the outside hitter position.  The upside would be an opportunity for Gina to improve and grow physically, trading in a season as a part-time starter now for a season of playing full-time in the future.

The players can't wait to play again, especially after a University team canceled on them today.  Tomorrow afternoon is the first of four matches versus pro teams in three days: a date with the #1 pro team in China, Tianjin, a city and pro team about a two-hour drive away.  We'll spend Tuesday night in Tianjin and face them again twice on Wednesday.

I'm John Baylor, describing what I see.  To fire off questions or comments, just email us at John@JohnBaylorTestPrep.com