At the Net Blog with Lindsey Lerg
9/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
• Michigan to Start Home Slate with Big Ten/ACC Challenge
Each week, we will give fans an inside look at the Michigan volleyball program with the At the Net blogs. This week, junior Lindsey Lerg talks about team's comfy flight home from Arkansas, the Welcome Home event at Crisler and the first day of classes at U-M.
After a 2-1 weekend in Arkansas, I think everyone was ready to get back to Ann Arbor, enjoy the rest of our Sunday, and get back to work in the gym. It was an early Sunday morning with our bus leaving the hotel for the airport at 6:30 a.m. We arrived at our airport and jokingly said we may be the only ones on this flight since it seemed we were the only ones in the airport. Well, we weren't too far off ... there were 60 seats on the plane, 30 people on the flight, and 23 of them were Michigan players and staff. Needless to say, most of us got our own row of two seats to ourselves and fell asleep until we landed in Detroit.
Monday, we spent Labor Day with small group practices, watching film of our match versus Arkansas, and a team lift. After lifting, the newly formed Center for Leadership Development and Career Preparation, which is being pieced together by some of the best people in our Athletic Department, put on the annual Welcome Home event, but this year was a little different than the previous two. They wanted to make sure the freshman felt welcomed into Michigan Athletics so they arrived at Crisler while the sophomores, juniors, and seniors were there with a standing ovation before everyone broke into "The Victors." After many speakers, we were escorted to the concourse to get food, but as you can probably guess with nearly 900 hungry Division I athletes, it was a little chaotic. They had a variety of food, but the line for each station seemed endless. At the end of the evening, I think everyone at least got a bite to eat and we were off to prepare for the first day of classes.
The first day of classes always seems to be nerve-racking (even if it is your 16th first day of class, including kindergarten, like mine). It is a matter of finding out if you know people in your classes, whether you like your professor and just how late you can manage to sleep in before you must get out of bed to rush to class, because trust me on this one, the ten minutes of "Michigan time" really comes in clutch when you are forced to schedule an 8:30 a.m. class every day. It is also very important to make sure you are heading to the right classes on the first day of school. Not to throw any of my teammates under the bus (cough cough, Caroline Knop), but knowing that the first day of classes is Tuesday, not Monday, could really save you a few extra hours of sleep when you did not need to be awake and walking to your 8:30 a.m. math class. It is okay though, the rest of us made rookie mistakes our freshman year too.
Another aspect that makes our lives easier nowadays is the "Grab and Go" breakfast that is offered to student-athletes because of the new NCAA food deregulation rule. I am no expert on the rule, or what it even is (hence why I did not go into much detail about it), all I know is that it means we can go to Yost in the morning before class for breakfast, and who does not love free food? We are also told that the athletic department is working on setting up hydration/refueling stations where we can get a quick bite to eat. We do not know many details, but with how much we work out, and how much we can eat (you know what they say: Big Ten, big girls, big appetite), we are excited for these to be in effect to say the least.
Following up on the annual Welcome Home event, the Center for Leadership Development and Career Preparation invited each class to attend an event on a specific night this week. Although we were all separated by grade, the freshman, sophomores, and juniors had the privilege of hearing from Dr. Derek Greenfield, a motivational speaker. I could go on forever about everything that happened in this two hour event, but since I am already rambling on, I will leave it at: a lot of tears, a lot of hugs, and "today is the first day of the rest and best of your life." Although it is still under construction, the Center for Leadership Development and Career Preparation is already setting up many events to help student-athletes including networking, Let's Go Do community engagement program, and much more that is on the agenda for this upcoming year.
Not going to lie, it has been a busy week for all of us, which reminds me that I have not talked about volleyball at all. Well, to make it short and sweet, we had a good week of practice, lifting, and even had our very first spin class with our strength coach Mike Favre. On behalf of the team, I think we are all ready to play in front of a home crowd at Cliff Keen Arena with two great, competitive matches in front of us. We cannot wait to see all of you this weekend.
Take care and Go Blue!
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