Life on the road brings a basketball team together

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One by one, their arms loaded with the neccessities of this season-opening road trip, the members of the University of Maine women’s basketball team made their way to the bus, which idled quietly outside of the Memorial Gymnasium in Orono awaiting a five-hour trip for the season-opening game against Boston College.

The players had their overnight bags, Walkman radios complete with head phones, a few extra pillows and stuffed dinosaurs.

Such items may not seem neccessities to the average business traveler, but for women basketball players, a road trip without a stuffed dinosaur would seem as incomplete as a road trip without a basketball game.

Road trips bring forth a hodgepodge of adjectives, from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Road trips can be tedious, thanks in part to the planning: where to stay and eat, what to do? But, they can also be a mini-vacation, a break away from the norm, where players can see places once left only to the imagination.

“I think it’s a very nice experience for them,” Coach Joanne Palombo said. “We try to alternate roommates to help them get to know different people. Collectively, they come together by traveling together. It definitely helps build a strong team.

“It’s what college athletics is about,” Palombo adds. “Those experiences and kids enjoying them.” —

Hour by hour while on the road

NOVEMBER 30

2 p.m. – Fully loaded, the 47-passenger coach pulls out of the University of Maine headed for the Interstate 95 and Boston College. The players settle in for the trip, talking among one another in the back half of the bus. Assistant coach Lamar Boutwell has brought along a pair of movies – “Pretty Woman” and “Batman.” The team’s pick is “Pretty Woman” and for the next two hours, while some players read or listen to music, others watch Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.

6:40 p.m. – The team arrives at the hotel, almost 20 minutes away from the BC campus. Assistant coach Kay Abramhamson hands out the room keys and the players are off to their rooms, only to be back on the bus within the half hour for a special road trip within a road trip.

7:15 p.m. – In nearby Medford, Mass., the parents of Erin Grealy, a sophomore guard, are set to host the team for a special meal. It is expected that Grealy will have many friends and family at the game against BC.

10:30 p.m. – The team has returned from the Grealy residence and, while the players head to their rooms to prepare for their 11 p.m. bed check, other members of the entourage: assistant coaches Boutwell and Abrahamson, along with women’s basketball sports information director Becky Gibbs, and a team manager meet in the hotel lounge to talk basketball. Overhead, the Monday Night Football game features Denver and Seattle. None of them watch it. It’s basketball season.

DECEMBER 1

9 a.m. – Time for breakfast. The team eats together then it’s back to their rooms for a mandatory two-hour study period.

12:15 p.m. – At their own pace, the players make their way to the elevator. The team will travel to the BC campus for a shooting practice hours before the game. As freshman forward Stephanie Guidi stands outside the elevator, which is crowded but not yet full, an upperclassman inside says, “Freshmen wait for the next one.” The door closes, leaving Guidi to wait.

1:30 p.m. – Boston College features an impressive athletic facility with Conte Forum and Alumni Stadium, home of the basketball/hockey and football teams, respectively, stand adjacent to each other. Sandwiched away inside, with stands on just one side, is Powers Gymnasium, home of the Eagles women’s team. The team shoots for just over an hour.

4:40 p.m. – Erin Grealy, who the night before was playing hostess to her teammates, lays in front of team trainer Wes Jordan. She is in full uniform and Jordan is working on her right shoulder. Grealy has drawn the assignment of guarding BC’s All-American candidate Sarah Behn, a high school rival. On the outside, she looks relaxed. In her eyes is a nervous look.

5:30 p.m. – The bus leaves the hotel, another home away from home placed into the past. There are only two sounds on the bus: the coaches talking to each other over the low volume of the team’s pregame music.

6:05 p.m. – The Black Bears, wearing T-shirts which claim its “A new beginning,” takes the court for pre-game shooting and stretching. Everybody is serious. Around them, the gym becomes more hectic as game time draws near.

7:03 p.m. – The ball is tossed up and Maine center Cyndi Buetow wins the tap. The 1992-93 basketball season is under way. According to the team itinerary, “7 p.m.” means “BEAT BOSTON COLLEGE.”

9:10 p.m. – The game is over. BC won 80-65. Coach Palombo is talking with her family as other people mingle with one another on the court. Palombo is pleased with parts of the game, extremely disappointed with other parts.

10:55 p.m. – “Oh! That’s a charge!” Assistant coach Boutwell jumps from his bus seat as he watches the game tape showing sophomore guard Chrissy Strong was in good defensive position on a foul call against her in the second half.

“Good job, Chrissy!” Boutwall calls out behind him. Strong calls back, “Thanks, Coach!”

Right after the bus pulled away from Boston College, Palombo announced to the team that they’d be watching the game tape. “I know it’s easy to quickly forget about what just happened,” she tells her team. “Just think about what you did and what you could have done differently. If you weren’t playing, think about what you may have done if you had been in there.”

DECEMBER 2

1:35 a.m. – The bus rolls along through the central Maine darkness, a car or 18-wheel truck passing by every so often. The bus is silent now, save for somebody’s earphones playing muffled music. Two overhead lights illumate those still awake: part-time graduate assistant coach Rachel Bouchard, studying for a master’s final, and Dr. John McCallie, Coach Palombo’s husband, who is reading a book.

2:10 a.m. – The sign is a welcome sight: Exit 51, Old Town-Stillwater. The team is, at last, home. The road trip may not have been a success in the win-loss catagory, but the players and the team, are, at least, a little closer.