DAY TWO:
I had a chance to talk with senior pitcher Greg Koehler during breakfast about the flooding in the Nashville area three weeks ago. He explained that his parents made the trip to see the Ospreys play Belmont and stayed at the Opryland Hotel. They went out to eat for dinner and when they returned they were told to check out of the hotel. It reminded me of a trip to Stetson with the men's basketball team back in January. We went to practice and while we were there received a call that our hotel had caught on fire. We were forced to evacuate and had to get an escort to our rooms to remove our items.
After breakfast, I asked Chris Whitehead what he thought the over/under was for the postseason mustache. Several players, including members of the coaching staff, are sporting one for the tournament (Coach Shepherd and Coach Loveland, along with Dahl, Eldredge, Hillan, Hannon, Karmeris and Smith). I was told Koehler could grow one in about 30 seconds. Others it might take 30 days. I've given the new look the “Postachio.”
We practiced for an hour at 11 a.m. The field was in great shape, unlike the last time UNF played there against Belmont. Coach Rhodes mentioned that the bullpen area in right field was under water. I also spoke to Jerry Shaw of Lipscomb Safety & Security who told me that during the flood every basement on campus was flooded. He said there was 3-4 inches of water just in the security office. He added that the road that runs behind the field, Granny White Park, has a bridge that leads to houses up on a hill. The houses on the hill were OK but the bridge that led to the houses was completely under water. He also told me that the student activity center housed over 50 people for almost two weeks because of the flood. Parts of Nashville were completely devastated – including the Opryland Mall which is closed until December.
One of the things that Chris and I noticed at Dugan Field was that the JU logo was missing behind home plate. There are bookend NCAA logos, along with logos for each Atlantic Sun Conference team that is participating in the tournament this week. The UNF logo looked great. But, Jacksonville's logo wasn't present. I'm assuming that someone will catch the error and put their logo up too. I'm not saying anything, but we passed JU on the way up, their logo wasn't up at the ballpark and we took the field for practice before they did.
When we got back to the hotel, Chris and I went to lunch with certified athletic trainer and BBQ connoisseur Mark Power. We walked about a half a mile to Corky's BBQ only to end up at the worst table in the house – which wasn't so bad because we were the closest table to the food. It was very good. Nice choice, Mark!
Tuesday night was all about the banquet. Each team wore matching shirts with dress pants or khakis – except East Tennessee State. They had different shirts on than other members of their team. They must not have gotten the memo. We had BBQ again – but the food was very good. The video presentation? Well, I guess I'm a little old-school because my parents taught me that if you didn't have something nice to say then don't say anything at all. That's all I'm going to say about that. It was nice to see a couple of Ospreys named to the All-Conference team. Congratulations to first-team member Preston Hale and second-team member Justin Preckajlo. Coach Rhodes brought up the fact that UNF didn't have much representation on the conference teams. He told the team that it didn't matter - to “Go play. Go win four games.”
The preseason stuff is out of the way. It's time to play ball.
Go Ospreys!
