Bowden: Making the call
Bowden's nationals journal
- March 11 2010
Our flight arrived in Halifax early Tuesday morning from Ottawa and we picked up our rental car for the two hour drive to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, home of St. Francis Xavier University.
John Bower thought the volume control on the steering wheel activated the loudness of the horn - good try smarty. Stopped in at the Keating Centre to pick up our credentials and were given a tour of the facility by Krista McKenna, St. FX's sports information director.
John was giddy when he saw the set-up of the press box. Left there to go check into our other home for the week, The Sunflower Bed & Breakfast in Pomquet, owned by Bernice & Robert Doiron.
We unpacked and got settled. Worst thing Air Canada did on this trip was break a couple of my suit hangers.
Having not eaten much today we ventured back to town looking for a restaurant - only thing we could find was a Boston Pizza.
Then headed back over to the arena for a production meeting where we showed up late because we couldn't decide what time it was, my Blackberry hasn't switched over to Atlantic time for some reason.
Caught Game 2 of the St. Mary's-St. FX men's AUS final. Great crowd of 2,200 - (standing room only) unfortunately SMU won 3-2 in double OT. Decided to call it a night, but had to stop at the local Sobey's to pick up some snacks.
Must have taken 20 minutes to check out with six items, but hard to get mad cause the people here are just so laid back and nice. Flipped on Sportsnet just in time to see the Leafs score in OT.
Was out before my head even hit the pillow I think.
Woke up Wednesday morning to the smell of homemade blueberry pancakes and sausages. Enjoyed the view and the warmth of the sun reflecting off the lake looking out from the breakfast nook.
Could have stayed there all day but alas there is work to do. We taped our weekly, now daily, show before heading out. John went to the press box to work on some editing while I went on a campus tour.
Kiley, my tour guide, a fourth year accounting student from Halifax showed me around this beautiful yet small university. Who knows, my son might attended here in 2020.
The coaches and captains met the media at the noon press conference.
Laurier head coach Rick Osborne mistook my jacket for his own and almost did a Chris Farley in the movie 'Tommy Boy'.
Watched a couple practices in the afternoon and did some Rapid Fire interviews with players. Headed back to the B&B to get ready for the banquet - took a little nap on the couch as well.
At the banquet, sat at a table with Moncton's Marieve Prevost, a first team All-Canadian selection.
Saskatchewan Huskies and CIS coach of the year Steve Kook walked by us on his way to get dinner and exclaimed "Hey, there are the SSN guys". So for the rest of the tournament, when I see him, I'll go, "Hey, there is the coach of the year guy".
Meal was excellent, but I was hoping lobster would be on the menu. John attended the coaches' meeting ... I miss being behind the bench at this level, but passed on attending because sitting in that room with those great minds may tempt me to make a return, something that may cause my fiancee to kill me.
So I packed up our equipment in order to make a quick get away. John and I sat at the same kitchen table we started the day at some 16 hours earlier, working away on our laptops before turning in to get ready for Day 1.
1 Comments
Kevin Burton Mar 11 12:28 p.m.
Great stuff ...