Phoenix VS Blitz: The Journy There
They say an army moves on it's stomach. This assumes of course that everything else involved with moving that army is already taken care of.
As their first "full fledged-full membership" season with the IWFL the Phoenix can be said to operate on a shoe string budget- and that's giving shoestrings a lot of credit. They managed to fund themselves almost the whole regular season through dues, donations, and paying out of pocket. After a 7 and 1 season the barrel was dry for playoffs and the ever present championship game in Chicago. But before Chicago, they have to move 28 players, two coaches, and a blogger to a different country- and back again. It seems simple when you refer to 28 players as a group. The reality is when traveling you are moving a player and a player and a player (keep going until you reach 28, then add a coach, a coach, and a blogger (or after this gets published the "official team tattle tail").
So here's the break down, two coaches, a blogger and ten players climbed into a fifteen passenger van and a support vehicle. We left at 8am Friday morning. Our trip took us north to Liverpool NY where we were guest of TP's family. They had a house large enough to sleep us and were ready and capable of feeding the entier team. Saturday we'll climb back into the vehicles and drive the last four or five hours (depending on whose navigating) to the field.
Group two left about 2pm and will drive strait through to Montreal. They will arrive late, sleep later and rendeavous at the field.
Groups three through five or six are doing their own thing which includes getting their United Airlines flight cancelled (Boo United!) and getting hooked up by US Air (Horay for US Air!). Players as of Friday night, in New England, in NC, and somewhere on the highway between here and there.
If all goes well, all 28 players, two coaches, and a blogger will be at the field just outside of Montreal Quebec Canada at 5:30pm for the kickoff. Pray for us.
One more thing that separates football, and I suppose all team sports, from fencing occured this week. The IWFL mandates that each team must supply the next team they play with the game footage from the last game they played. Some teams don't do it, and they get fined for it. In one case that I am aware of the snubbed team got the film from the team the offending team played last. Its playoff time and now the gamesmenship has driven into overdrive. Two days after playing their last game, the Phoenix had the game authored to DVD and in the mail to Canada. The Montreal team made sure the game arrived the day before we had to leave. The rule about getting the film exchanged was fufilled without actually allowing it to be useful. Well played... So if the Phoenix win, they did it without the game footage (woot!), if they lose this pre-game foul will have had something to do with it. I can see it from their point of view- Win at all cost! Hoo raa!! Whatever. Lame.
The best team should win based on skill on the field not BS off the field. Rant off and goodnight!
