Good Evening Warrior Football Fans!
Today was a long day for us because of the travel. We had about a 9 hour bus ride up to Marquette, with a couple quick stops of course. We had a quick lunch break just after the Mackinac Bridge at the McDonald's, yum, and also our bus driver had a stop to fill up on gas.
During the 5 hours it took to reach Mackinac, we watched a couple movies, my bus had on 'The Departed' with Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Mark Wahlberg, among many others. This was a great movie. I had never seen it before and although it was long, at least 2.5 hours, I enjoyed every minute of it. The second movie we watched was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, another good movie, full of excitement and action.
We reached the bridge at about 1 in the afternoon and, having left at 8 am, we were ready for some lunch, and a good bathroom break opportunity. Alas, our ride was just only half over and it took another 3 hours to get all the way to Marquette.
Upon our long waited arrival, we went straight to the Superior Dome, where NMU has their games, and had a quick practice to get acclimated to the environment. It was a little chilly here this evening and I'm glad the game will be in a dome instead of outside. The Superior Dome is made of a wood frame and is very nice, on the inside, despite being 18 years old. The turf is a little different than we are used to; many schools have field turf which is basically long, fake grass with rubber pellets mixed in. Here, they have Astroturf, which is like what was in the Pontiac Silverdome, when the Lions played, but the turf here is a little longer than what was used in Pontiac.
After a good practice, we came back to the hotel to check in and have dinner. The Holiday Inn here is very nice and dinner was excellent. We had mashed potatoes and gravy, baked chicken, steamed vegetables, dinner rolls, and, of course, a nice salad as an appetizer. In keeping with a strict schedule, there is no time to waste; right after dinner we had meetings. Special Teams met first, to go over the various stages of the kicking game, and offense and defense met directly after to go over the final game plan.
After our meetings the coaches gave us a quick snack before bed, just a Gatorade and a small sandwich or granola bar. Lights out is at 10:30 and we will need to get plenty of rest, our 8:30 wake up will come fast and then before you know it, game time will be upon us and another exciting Warrior football game will be underway.
With that said, it is time for all of us here to hit the sack. We have a busy day tomorrow and we need to be rested and at our best.
Good night and GO WARRIORS!!!
Drew Chiatalas
