Cluses

It has been a while.

I don't even really know why. For a few months after my last post, I kept meaning to get around to a new one, then it started to feel like it had been too long since the last one and people had probably lost interest in my get-a-load-of-me style ramblings. 

None of that explains why I've randomly started again 20 months after my last post. It's basically because I quite enjoy writing my get-a-load-of-me style ramblings, and because I've just been to a tournament in Cluses, France with the GB juniors and have something new to ramble about.

Basically, the GB senior team got invited to a friendly tournament against France, Turkey and the Netherlands but they were too in America to go, so GB decided to send our 10 of our juniors (meaning that this is the second time I've been selected for the juniors since turning too old for the junior program, while only being selected once in my entire 19 years of eligibility). That would have been tough enough, and it suddenly turned into 9 of our juniors when one of the guys realised a couple of days before the tournament that they had no idea where their passport was.

Odds stacked against us, and off to a flying start...

So after a 3:30am start from Sheffield, day 1 of the trip was just driving to Heathrow, flying to Geneva, driving over the French border to Cluses and sleeping through all manner of alarms until breakfast the next morning. 

Croissants, team training and rest, then the real fun began. I'm not going to break each of our games individually because that would probably be a lot of reading that wouldn't be all that interesting unless your as analytical/sad as me.

To sum it up, we had some pretty serious competition, a couple of the top teams in the world each missing one player, and a French squad at full strength. We weren't expected to win anything, or even come close. Looking back at it now, we shouldn't have had a prayer really, but through the five games in the tournament we only got beaten badly once, and then another game that was close for the first half before the Netherlands got away from us. The other 3 games were each decided by 10 points or less, which is a hell of an accomplishment when you think about it.

We stayed in those games through some monster performances from some of our guys. George dropping 36 on France, Gregg being completely undefendable in Game 1 against Turkey, and Charlie going beast-mode on them second time round for 21 points on 75% shooting and probably 14 or 15 rebounds.
The numbers were impressive, but it was the team spirit and complete commitment to blind optimism going into every game that really stood out to me. Not many teams in the world where you'll find that, especially in the tough situation we were in.
Everyone played their role, stuck together, picked each other up when we were struggling and stubbornly refused to admit that we had absolutely no business shoving it up any of these teams the way we were doing. The more experienced guys helped the newer guys out, while the two guys who had never been selected for GB before came out and played with no fear after being thrown in about the deepest end that wheelchair basketball offers.

All of this was pretty impressive stuff, gets even more ridiculous when you consider that we were playing in a 37-degree greenhouse of a sportshall with no air-conditioning, and a country in general that didn't offer many breaks from suffocating heat. This kind of weather led to some horribly stereotypical Brits-on-tour moments...

To the delightful mountain village of Cluses, we are sorry.
Sincerely, Great Britain Juniors.

So yeah, it was moments like this, a couple of the new guys getting pretty sharp haircuts from the Dutch Men as part of the first-time ritual, and a few of us pushing through a pretty dangerous thunderstorm in the pouring rain to get a takeaway pizza that made it as much fun as it was. My inner sociopathic competitor is still wounded from taking 5 losses, but I've taken a lot from the tournament and am really proud of the performance we put on, no shame in losing to some of the teams we lost to.

Not sure what's next for me GB-wise, if nothing else then it'll just be a summer of training hard ready for next season. If you're lucky, you guys might even get a blog post on that riveting stuff.

Going to try and get back into blogging regularly, in case anyone on Earth has actually missed this, until next time I have something (I find) interesting to ramble about, I'll leave you with the links to watch our games from Cluses!

Turkey Pool Game

Turkey Semi-Final

France Bronze Medal Game

Squad

Mark

Arrivo!

Eccomi

(Here I am)

Welcome to my first blog post since arriving in Italy, and oh my goodness, is it nice to be doing something in English.

Now official and settled in as a player of Padova Millennium Basket, and man does it feel cool to be the owner of these. 

Writing to you from a cafe in my home-town Camposampiero. And this post so far has taken a lot longer than expected, mainly because when I try and think of what to write down, I end up thinking about one of the events I'm trying to tell you about and drift off into a daydream.

Anyway, to business.

As I'm writing it, it is now the 4th of October, meaning that it's been just short of a month since I made that 17+ hour drive from Halifax to where I am now. I got so tired throughout that day that I don't really remember a lot of it now, all I remember is endless miles of wrong-way-around motorways, some incredible views while going through Switzerland, and the growing realisation that I actually was glad my Dad came with me to share the driving. (But I won't admit that to him.)

So after nearly a month here, what have I been up to in my new life? There's way too much stuff to put in a single blog post, so I'll try and keep it focused on the key things... First of all, here's what my week looks like:

• Monday: Shooting 2:30-3:30
• Tuesday: Gym 10-11, Team Training 8-10:30
• Wednesday: Day Off!
• Thursday: Gym 10-11, Team Training 8-10:30
• Friday: Shooting 2:30-3:30
• Saturday: Team Training 5-7:30
• Sunday: Games/Events

There it is, keeps me busy and, combined with the heat out here, getting plenty of sleep and going through an absurd amount of shower-gel.

That's a lot of time hanging around with the same group of guys, which can be a little intense when you're the new person in the group and don't speak the same language as the rest of the team. Lucky for me that the team are a great group of people, and all of them make an effort to speak English whenever they can. Can't even begin to say how much I appreciate that, makes me feel very welcome.

I live here with two teammates in an apartment that the team pays for, sharing with a Greek, and a Moroccan who, for some reason that seems unknown to mankind, is yet to show up. When I heard that this was the living arrangement, I thought that living in Italy with a Greek and a Moroccan sounded like a recipe for a really bad sitcom, now that I'm out here I realise that there would have to be significantly less language-barriers and more talking for a sitcom to ever be a possibility.

Outside of my fairly silent household, my Italian has improved more than I could have expected, it's amazing how quickly you pick up phrases and the idea of a conversation when it's being spoken around you all day, but I still class having a conversation with a stranger as a huge accomplishment.

Outside of my training schedule, I have time to myself. I tend to spend this time doing any number of the activities that I listed in one of my earlier blogs for keeping yourself entertained while abroad, although there are also a number of cafes in Camposampiero that I frequent if I fancy sitting in the sun with a sandwich and a coffee and listening to the locals. So, here's the list of things that I've learned about the Italian culture since I arrived here:

• Coffee is genuinely cheaper than water. I know that seems impossible, but it really is true.
• An Italian person will always look surprised when you tell them you don't understand them because you're not Italian.
• They will then guess that you're Dutch.
• When you tell them you're from England, they decide that you're from London.
• If you're sitting near a bar or coffee machine, complete strangers will offer to buy you a coffee. You're expected to do the same for them later, and I think that it's quite rude to decline their offer.
• If you go out to meet people for a meal or some kind of gathering, things can't begin or end until you've said "Ciao!" to everyone individually.. this can take a while and the word Ciao is usually said somewhere around 317 times.
• On the other hand, you can get odd looks for saying "Ciao!" to someone who you just see in passing. Found out from a friend a couple of days ago that it's meant to be Buongiorno/Buonasera (Good morning/evening) to adults, so I guess that's why.
• If you're driving, hoot your horn at stuff.
• On Sundays, Italian men gather in huge groups on street corners, drink espresso, talk very loudly and wave their arms around. Don't even pretend to be sure why.

That's just some of it, I've not even mentioned the two-course lunches, followed by coffee and a glass of grappa, and that's between two games at a tournament! Rule of Italian life: Food first, everything else fits in around it.

Had a couple of warm-up tournaments so far, with games against Division A2 teams in Treviso and Parma. Team looks to be coming together nicely with a couple of great wins so far, and a lot more potential to take into the league with us. Only just scratching the surface, but hopefully we'll be ready to put up a decent fight against Santa Stefano on the 19th!

Outside of that, we've just the other day found out about our group for the EuroLeague next March. This is my first time in EuroLeague 1 and the group is looking tough. We'll be travelling to Germany where the prelim stage is hosted by Lahn-Dill, and will be joined by Sassari, Hyeres, and my old friends the Wolverhampton Rhinos.

Can. Not. Wait.

This blog has been a little rushed as I've been trying to fit in all kinds of different things from the last month, I'll try and update more regularly and in a less random manner from now on!

Thanks for reading!

Mark

Ciao For Now

Ciao For Now

Title says it all, and I wish I could leave it at that because this blog post has been incredibly hard to write.

As of today, I have officially signed with Padova Millennium Basket for the 2013/14 season, meaning that I am leaving Steelers for the year.

For anyone who's not fully read-up on the various wheelchair basketball leagues around the world, the British league is still run at an amateur level while most of the other leagues in Europe are professional, with players earning money to play for their team as a full-time job.

This is what has been the main factor in my decision to go abroad. As I'm on a gap year, my options were either to stay at home, get a part-time job and train around it, or to go somewhere where a job and training were the same thing. Hard to argue with the opportunity to become a professional athlete, so I'm going to be heading to Italy to play in possibly the best league in the world in September!

The whole thing feels so surreal, can't even begin to describe how excited/nervous I am about the coming season, it's been about 7 weeks now and I'm still struggling to put my feelings into words. Doesn't feel like it's really happening yet, but I'm guessing the reality of it all will hit me somewhere on that 19 hour drive from Halifax to Padova.
It's such a big step, for life in general and not just basketball. I'm spending my summer learning Italian, and have never lived by myself or had any kind of job, so there are going to be a lot of learning curves and first experiences in the 8 months that I'm out there.
I don't want to go into the details of my contract, but what this deal basically gives me is accommodation in a flat with a teammate all paid for, and an amount of money every month. All I have to do is train every day, improve as much as I can and help Padova win as many games as possible.
I'm going to keep the blogging up while I'm out there, incase any of my regular readers (if such people exist) want to see how I'm doing in my new home.

I just want to take this opportunity to say a huge thankyou to Sheffield Steelers, the team that has turned me into the player that I am today. I know that I'm absolutely unrecognisable now compared to what I was when I joined Steelers 5 years ago. The five seasons that I've been in Sheffield have been the best time of my life, both in terms of basketball and life in general with all the amazing people I've met (and Joe). Steelers have given me opportunities that I really wouldn't have got anywhere else, taking me to my first Eurocup when I was only 16 and every year since, can't even put into words how much I appreciate the time and effort they've put into making me a better player, and I hope I can do them proud by putting it to use in Italy!
They're without a doubt the best club in the country to be a part of, and I hope they have an awesome season!

I'm leaving Steelers because this is the next step for me to improve as a player, but I'm only going to be abroad for a year before I come back to do uni.

If they'll take me, I already can't wait to be back!

Mark

Season's End, Playoffs & Exams

Season's End, Playoffs & Exams

Hey, what's up everybody!

I know it's been insanely long since my last blog post. If anyone has been missing reading them, I hope it makes you feel better to know that I have 3 or 4 entries that I kept meaning to get round to finishing and publishing. I'll try finish them and put them up, or just post them unfinished to give my blog a cool, scrap-book feel.

I could go through every game we've played since March, but that would be pretty painful for you guys to read, so I'll just go back about a month or so. On the 19th of May, we had something on our calendar that every Superleague team had learned to dread throughout the season; a date with the Oldham Owls.

Because of the re-structuring of the league after last season and the way players were moved around within the club, Oldham this year became an absolute dynasty, going undefeated throughout the entire seasons in Division 3, Division 1 and Superleague. We had already played them twice this year and lost by double digits both times, going into our final Superleague game of the season with only 7 players and our head coach missing the game with an illness, we seemed a little over-matched. Oldham's coached even laughed when he heard one of our guys start a sentence with "If we win today..."

Ten minutes later, it was 16-16 and the Owls had no idea what had just hit them.

I might be the only player who does this, but when you're in the middle of a game that has a lot riding on it or that you know is going to be tough, every basket or defensive stop you make comes with a small feeling of "Thank god for that", and it's a massive confidence boost when you have those moments as often as we did against Oldham.

To cut what felt like a very long game short, Oldham won 68-63, but not before we gave them a serious rattling. It was the closest anyone had come to them all season and was a big statement from us heading into the playoffs.

But before I could gear up for the playoffs, I had the small matter of exams. I finished school just a few weeks ago so have been on study leave with exams dotted around the place (it seems to be an unwritten rule that the most important part of the school year and the basketball year come at pretty much exactly the same time, because neither brings enough pressure on it's own).

I'm not gonna use this post to bore you guys with details of my exams, all I'll say is that I'm glad I'll never have to write an essay on Spanish literature or eventos corrientes.

Spanish exams finished and a couple of light days later, I was hitting the road with Maddie on Saturday night for our last Division 1 game of the year, the next morning against Lothian Phoenix.

The Lothian away game is always my favourite games of the year, playing only 20 minutes away from my grandparents' house and against a team full of friends. Friends who harass you defensively for a full 40 minutes.

Couple of pretty emotional moments for me before the game, first the speech that was given to commemorate Stevie Duff, the Phoenix coach who passed away a year ago. Secondly, looking around before tip off to see a lot of my family and friends had turned up to watch, giving the away team a bigger crowd than the home team! Really appreciate them coming to watch, means a lot and I hope they enjoyed it. Glad we were able to pull out a 72-64 win in that game. Division 1 this year hasn't been the smoothest ride, but it was good to finish the year on a high.

Which brings us to the final weekend of the season; the BWB Playoffs..

There were 4 different Steelers teams playing (Div2, Div1 Central, Women's League, Superleague), but seeing as I had an exam a couple of days later, I couldn't go down to watch like I normally would have done (not that it made much difference as every Steelers team played well even without me watching over the weekend!). Our first Superleague game was vs London Titans at 8pm on Saturday, with almost everyone who'd been playing during the day staying around to watch. I love night-time games, gives it a feeling of being important that it's hard to get otherwise.
We had played Titans 3 times already during the season, struggling to match up all year long and going 1-2 in the games against them. They chipped away all game long to carve out an 11-point lead just before the fourth quarter started, until the Steelers spirit that's been lacking a little at times this year pulled through and we clawed back into the game, strong freethrow shooting giving us a 52-51 win. Our ticket to the league final had been punched, and we were ready to meet a familiar foe.

The next afternoon, Oldham gave us a cold reality-check before we'd even finished celebrating our semifinal win, jumping out to a 21-10 lead before Matt Wild showed a flash of his former self, canning a turnaround shot at the buzzer to bring us to within 9.
The first quarter was tough to sum up in words, so I'm hoping this photo will do:

If Coach Kev's face here isn't enough to scare you into making a 9-point comeback, I don't know what is.

The same Steelers grit that had held us together in the last game showed up again in the second quarter, as we fought back into the game to go up 34-33 at halftime

Not much separated the two teams in the 3rd though, Oldham tying the game up at 50 before Wayne Boardman dropped in a layup at the buzzer to put us up by two.

So there we were, 10 minutes to go, with the entire season hanging in the balance. It went back and forth between the two teams, and then this happened..

George with the offensive rebound and putback to seal the game

With 11 seconds left in the game, the rebound of a Richard Sargent missed freethrow fell straight to George Bates, who grabbed the ball and stuck it back in to ice the game. Not bad for only a part-time Steeler.

That was all she wrote, as we upset Oldham 66-63 to grab the national championship. Season done, mission accomplished.

So, now that the season is over, what's next?

• Finish my exams
• Couple of light weeks training
• A few days demoing and promoting Wheelchair Basketball at the Mobility Roadshow in Telford
• Roadtrip to Germany to watch the GB Men and Women at the European Championships
• Serious offseason training and GB Junior World Championship selection camps
• Hopefully a trip to Turkey for the World Championships

Oh, and stay ready for my next blog, where I might have a big announcement to make...

As always, thanks for reading! Peace everybody!

Eurocup 2013

It's Monday, the day after I arrived home from what's been a whirlwind 5-day trip to Thueringen, Germany. Here's what's been going on over that 5 days!

We hit the road very early wednesday morning to get to Heathrow for 11am, after a couple of near-death experiences while following my teammate Joe Williams, we began our tradition of spending a decent amount of time waiting around in the aiport (see my last blog post). Although travelling takes longer than it should, it's always a lot of fun, here are some of the quotes that helped make the long day bearable...

"Gotta keep my trainers safe, been playing basketball in them longer than you've been alive!"
"Hey we must have a game this weekend, Matt Wild's here!"
"Who's here? Chopper, Casper, Phil, Shmeicel, Chesney, JaVale, and Tyrone isn't coming"
"Can't be security when they're letting the mentally unstable through..."
"Hey driver, how long till we're there? No keep your eyes on the road!"
"The only way you're coming to my house-warming party is if it's a garden party and I need an extra gnome!"
"He doesn't need 3G with those ears."
"Reckon you'd fit in with that Turkish team, they'd sign you if we told them you were some kind of lucky dwarf."

That's a pretty wide spectrum, but it gives you an idea of what conversation goes through when you meet your teammates at 6:45 and finish travelling with them at 9pm. Luckily for us, the fun was only just starting.

We got to the complex in Thueringen to find out that the team actually own the complex and that all the players contracted to play there live there full-time, meaning the place was packed out with TV, bowling alleys, pool tables, darts boards, private bar and other things to help people pass the non-basketball time.
We ate and headed to our room, where myself, Joe, Joe and Harry were in a 4-bed room with very little space or air conditioning, right across the corridor from the basketball court.

We were meant to have two training sessions today but for a couple of reasons outside our control we ended up with just an hour or so to shoot around. This left the afternoon free for a bit of team bonding where we had a game of bowling, highlighted (or lowlighted, depending on how you wanna look at it) by Casper's epic score of 34 points in 10 rounds. After that it was early nights all round, ready for Game 1 vs the host team the next morning.

Friday got off to a slap-in-the-face of a start, where we got absolutely run off the court by an incredibly strong Thueringen squad, ending in a cold-blooded 83-22 loss for Steelers to start the tournament. Although the loss was tough to take, it helped me personally to see the huge step up and what makes the difference between an amateur and professional team. Lot of respect for Thueringen, who eventually won the group and qualify for a prestigious André Vergauwen Cup that they could win.
Friday night saw us bounce back against an SC Devedo squad that fought tough right to the end. Steelers won 59-41, finding some of the shooting tough that had gone MIA earlier in the day. It wasn't our best team performance of the year, but it gave us a much-needed confidence boost heading into the following day, which would determine who qualified for which final rounds.

We were up for the early-morning tip against French team Le Cannet on Saturday, we struggled to score all game and ended with just 33 points in the 40 minutes, compared to their 67. Not many Steelers highlights in this one, but our team spirit showed at one point late in the game. I got into a bit of a confrontation with Le Cannet #8 Christophe Carlier, as he moved towards me, my 4 teammates on court at the time moved in to stop him getting near me, aided by Joe Caudwell's shout of "Don't worry Mark, he'll surrender before you do!" from the bench.

I'm behind the referee right here as the French forward tries to explain that I did in fact foul him. Which I did.
He got given a technical foul for arguing or swearing at the ref, and then banged my chair to show how I'd fouled him, but he calmed down before being ejected.



For me, that 30-second incident was a moral victory that helped numb us to the loss, which sent us into a make-or-break showdown with KKTC Turkcell later that day for a spot in the Challenge Cup, held in Badajoz, Spain.

We'd watched Turkcell during the tournament, with a feeling they were the team that we'd have to prove we were better than to qualify for anything, and they were like a number of Turkish teams; intense, scrappy, loud and generally obnoxious. They were exactly like that against us, but we showed how much we wanted to qualify and matched their intensity for a good 35 minutes of the game. We struggled to score to close the game out and went several minutes without a basket, erasing our earlier lead and giving us a heartbreaking loss to take home with us.

That was the end of the 2013 Eurocup adventure for Steelers, leaving me with a very surreal feeling about having to wait a whole year for another chance. I found out at the closing ceremony that I had been voted into the Allstar 5 for Euroleague 2 Group C, my first ever Allstar 5 in any tournament! Boost of confidence for me, but doesn't even begin to compare to qualifying for another round of basketball.

The Group C Allstar 5 (L-R): Christophe Carlier, Joakim Linden, Selvihan Gur, Mark Scholefield, Alex Holouski.







Saturday night meant that it was time for the team to enjoy their last night abroad together after a tough tournament, with some mixed results:

Shaken bottle of champagne being opened and the cork hitting Stevie in the face.
Richard saying the word 'town' about 300 times in two minutes.. think he was trying to hint at some place he wanted to go.
Finnish Thueringen player Teemu trying to understand the different accent on the team (west Yorkshire was the winner by a mile)
Stevie telling me and Harry that he loved us like we were his own sons, and that we'd had him close to tears a couple of times this week.
Loud banging on the door and shouting at 3:30am, then going outside soon after to find our door had been blocked by a bench, two plant pots and a bin.

Up at 4:30am to get the bus back to the airport, when I wasn't sleeping on the minibus driver's shoulder (see below) we kept ourselves amused by nicking Stevie and Kev's prized posession, their travel kettle. This led to further fights, arguments and pranks through the airport and on the plane. We all said our goodbyes at Heathrow after what had been a very emotional few days, and me and Harry arrived home at around 5pm, 13 hours after leaving the hotel in Germany.

It was an amazing week with some of my favourite people in the world, and the bitter-sweet ending of not qualifying is going to motivate us all for the next year until we get our shot at redemption.
March 2014 is circled on my calender. We'll be back, Europe.

EuroCup 2013 Prep

Mark's Blog - March 2013

What's up everybody?! Right now it's the 1st of March and this is blog post numero uno from me, Sheffield Steelers guard Mark Scholefield! Gonna be keeping you guys updated on my training and competitions, aswell as what goes on in my life and the side to national and international that maybe not everybody sees. Glad to have you along for the ride and I hope you enjoy my blog.

At the time of writing this, it's less than 5 days before I'll be touched down in Germany and getting ready for the preliminary round of the 2013 Eurocup, where we'll be playing club teams from Germany, France, Turkey and Holland in what is going to be a very tough competition. We've got high hopes for the tournament and we're hoping to qualify for either the André Vergauwen Cup (held in Giulianova, Italy) or the Willi Brinkmann Cup (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria).

I played for the Steelers team that won gold at the Challenge Cup last year and it was one of the best experiences of my life, although the team is very different this year compared to last, there's no reason we can't at least match our 2012 success.

The 11 players and 4 or 5 staff will be in Germany from Wednesday-Sunday, playing two games on each day on Friday and Saturday. Almost feels pointless putting this into a blog seeing as I don't have words to describe how much I'm looking forward to the 4 games! (If anyone has any good words for extreme excitement, drop me a comment and I'll try work them into my next post).

Although the games are the reason we go out to these tournaments and without a shadow of a doubt my favourite thing about basketball, there are a lot of other things that make these trips abroard what they are, and it changes wherever you go.

You see and do things while travelling that would just never happen in your daily routine, over the past couple of years, here are some of the common and not-so-common places that I've found myself just passing time in:

Driver seat of my car while my travelling buddy snoozes away

Airport queues

Airport cafes and restaurants

In an ambu-lift waiting to board the plane, with a barely-alive Joe Williams

Looking out of minibus windows in the new country

So many hotel rooms, all with little, if any, English TV

In the bits of sports facilities that you never usually see - store rooms, outside little back entrances

A tiny Canadian pizzeria at 9am

A single shop in an Italian shopping centre that sells everything from car tyres to fresh fish and vegetables, to TVs and any other electronics

There are so many more, but that list probably gives you an idea of how much time that you end up spending just hanging around when you're travelling. It's all part of the lifestyle though and you learn to love it! Its always fun to be in new places and discovering new things with your friends, so it hardly ever gets boring. The other way you learn to get around the waiting is to build up a list of items that you always have with you in your basketball bag:

Tablet - keep a fairly fresh mix of movies and games

Headphones & Speaker

At least 1 magazine or book

Laptop - especially important for me as I need to use as much free time as possible to get school assignments done

Couple of DVD's

Music - keep a good selection of new stuff and a few favourites to get you ready at gametime.

We have one last day of training this Sunday before flying on Wednesday, our last chance to get ourselves performing at our best and ready to take on whoever we meet out there!

Hope you guys have enjoyed my first blog, I'll update again after I get back from Germany. If you've got any questions, leave me a comment or tweet me (@marcuthh) and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

Peace

Mark