Page 145 - Anthony Travel - Foreign Basketball Tours

Four countries visited spanning over 1,200 miles traveled by train and bus and we
find ourselves on our last day departing back to Bethlehem. Going into this trip, I
knew little of what to expect – I had not traveled out of the country with my family or
with our basketball program, so this was a first in many ways (I am so thankful and
fortunate to share this experience with Fran and our three children who joined

us). This trip has been on my "coaching bucket list" for 20 years, 27 years into the
profession; I can check that one off! But I will do much more than check this one off.
This has been one of most incredible personal and professional experiences of my

life. The trip surpassed any expectations I had coming into it from a basketball,
cultural, educational and team building perspective.

From a basketball viewpoint, we were exposed to three levels of competition – a
high level professional team in France, a club team in Lake Como, and a national

team from Cameroon (which we later found out finished fifth in all of Africa). We
were impressed by the play and camaraderie displayed by all three teams. The
competitive advantage of playing three games in August was significant, especially

for our freshmen and sophomores who gained valuable game experience. Little did
I know five years ago when I began planning this trip that the NCAA would change
some of its rules in the upcoming season to those of FIBA basketball which governs
the play in European countries. The team and coaching staff were exposed to
playing four ten-minute quarters (for our fans - it will be a little different); advancing

the ball in the last two minutes of the game to the front court off a timeout; we also
played with a 24-second shot clock and eight-second back court count (which will
not be instilled this year in NCAA basketball). It's a fun and fast paced level of

basketball and was another competitive advantage gained for our program.

Although playing quality competition and our 10 pre-departure practices were all
important components to that competitive advantage, for me, the true value from a
basketball perspective came from bringing our 15 players together for ten days to

experience something that will forever impact their lives. My husband, Fran (head
softball coach), and I have been coaching at Lehigh for 25 years and the most
consistent theme in the championship programs we have coached is the established

culture of the program. I'll call it the Esprit de Corps – taking a little French from my
trip! This is the spirit, loyalty, togetherness and understanding for one another that
goes deeper than just being a teammate and showing up to practice every day for a
few hours. The value of spending 14 hours together each day where we had no Wi-
Fi connection made for a culture-changing experience with this group as the twitter

feeds, Instagram likes and snapchat stories were all very limited while we were
away from our hotels. They were forced to spend meaningful time getting to know
one another (much deeper than an insta like), away from the technology that

generally rules their day and lives.