Name: Rachelle Harty-Edwards Position: Post Year: 4th

Name: Melanie Schlichter Position: Post Year: 4th

January 9

Schlichter in black text and Harty-Edwards in red text.

So Rachelle and I have been letting down our millions of fans that loyally read our blog. We sincerely apologize for not keeping you updated on all the exciting news that has been happening with our team for the past several weeks. We’ve decided to summarize our first half of the season in one quick sentence: we had slow start but are continuing to improve finishing with a record of 4 wins and 6 loses.

As Mel said we had a slow start after our preseason action, we ended up splitting with Winnipeg in our first weekend. We won on Thursday and after taking them for granted the second night they had a little more urgency then us and ended up coming out with the win.

After that we had our first road trip of the year in regular season play. We headed out to good old Brandon to play the Bobcats. After some inspirational words of wisdom on how to beat a Bobcat from Cal Botteril we swept them for two great wins.

We then hosted UBC and UVIC for some tough action from the Coast, we battled very hard with both teams. Especially Mel and I, as we were both outsized by our checks by at least 2-3 inches both games. We worked hard, but were upset both nights by both teams.

We were then off to B.C. to play SFU and Trinity Western University. We battled with SFU and once again Mel and I worked hard against the huge posts. We ended up losing two straight that weekend.

After returning from a successful road trip, we came home after a great weekend to head out on another road trip to Regina, home of the Cougars! We prepared hard to play our second biggest rivals of the year, the Cougars. With this being our last weekend of play for the year we worked hard and came out with a great win on Friday, but ran out of steam and urgency on Saturday.

With the first half down, we finished 4-6; we all studied for our exams, packed our bags and headed to the Cayman Islands on December 16th for a well needed break from “Winterpeg”

Now that you are all caught up with our team, we will dedicate the rest of this blog to our amazing/wonderful/beautiful trip to the Cayman Islands. And may I say one of the best weeks of my life.

The trip began on an ordinary cold Sunday morning. We all met at the airport at 4 a.m., most of the team had not slept at all that night. Or in other words, some of us decided to celebrate finishing the first term with a new dance routine, taught by our very own Rachel Hart. Rachel came to visit us in Winnipeg for a couple of days before we left and taught some of us a great new dance! While others decided to celebrate with others friends before taking off. As soon as we were seated on our flight we all passed out even before the plane was in the air. About six hours later we started feeling some heat even before we reached the ground. We went from minus 30 to plus 30 in a matter of hours and we were loving it! I even wore my shades most of the time on the plane!!! LOL so did Mel…j.k. Schlichter!

When we were waiting outside in Cayman to get our vehicles we noticed two major things immediately: we were already sweating, and we were pasty white. Well not me Mel (haha, true). Since I am the oldest member of the team I had the choice to ride shotgun in one of the vehicles. I decided to go in Jana’s vehicle…big mistake!! Since Cayman is a British colony everyone drives on the left side of the road. Luckily, Jana was able to pick this skill up quickly…the roundabouts on the other hand…not so pretty. I’ve never seen an adult in complete hysterics before…and I’m hoping I’ll never have to experience it again (sorry Jana, this was supposed to be our vans secret…oops). Since Mel took Jana’s van I had to ride shotgun in Coach Hill’s van, and I have to say that Mel actually choose the right van for sure. Not only was Coach Hill scared (I can’t say the proper word but you know what I wanted to say), he was also distressed that he had to drive the entire week. Coach Hill turned to me upset and scared, and after cracking a joke that I was 25 and could drive the vehicle he realized I was lying and was only 21 and couldn’t relieve him of his duties.

We finished off the day by going to Jae’s (a.k.a. Jaenas) bar in Georgetown and were served a variety of delicious foods. After we drove to our condo’s in Bodden Town (Jana was still having minor freak outs at this point) where we made ourselves comfortable since we were staying there for the entire week.

Monday I woke up to the sounds of the ocean and brushed my teeth on my balcony watching the waves (I’m not even exaggerating). Yah, that was probably the only thing I was upset about on this trip was that Mel was older and got to have the ocean view room. You’re too lucky Mel!! We had to go straight to an indoor gym/roller hockey arena to play some ball. We had a practice which was then followed by a camp for some of the local kids. I’ve never sweated in any practice as much as I had in those Cayman practices. Luckily we were allowed frequent water breaks so we wouldn’t get completely dehydrated! I have never sweated so much in my life.

After the gym we went grocery shopping for the whole week and finished the day off lying outside by our pool starting to change our white skin to a nice golden brown! Well that first day Mel, Kait, Leigh, and I all decided to find a better place to swim in the ocean because the water was so rocky in front of our condominiums. Also, I decided to bring a huge bag of Spitz on the walk to share with the girls, while wearing my brand new flip flops. During our hour long walk we all enjoyed the Spitz while enjoying our first day on the beach, we then finally found a spot to swim where there were no rocks at all. So we all kicked off our flip flops, I put down the bag of Spitz and we jumped right in. Well after about a half an hour of swimming we decided to head back home, after coming out of the water Mel and I both soon realized that we were both missing our left sandals, as well as my huge bag of Spitz (Rachelle was actually more disappointed about losing her bag of Spitz than losing her sandal). Both Kait and Leigh had their sandals but not Mel and I so we headed back into the water to look for them. We swam for another 20 minutes looking for them, but we had no luck! We started heading back when a couple local boys asked us if we were missing a sandal, in excitement Mel and I both shouted YES (we were actually skeptical at first of the boys thinking they were trying to hit on us…but then we found out they had actually spotted a flip flop far from where we originally were swimming)!! I then looked out 100 yards into the ocean and saw my blue flip flop floating away. I immediately ran into the water (that was only knee deep) and swam out to get it. I made it out there safely but to my disappointment there was no sign of my huge bag of Spitz?. And Mel was still without her left sandal! That was definitely a painful walk back to our condos.

Tuesday morning was the same as Mondays: brushing teeth on balcony, practicing, and bball camp with the kids. I brushed my teeth in my bathroom, thanks again Mel. After basketball was complete for the day Jae had an amazing surprise for us at the East End Beach. We went to a resort where we were able to use waverunner’s (a.k.a. sea-doo’s). Well since we are talking about waverunner’s, let me tell a little traumatizing story about the sea-doo’s. Leigh and I decided to be the first ones to go out on a sea-doo and for about 10 straight minutes we got salt water in both of our eyes. All of a sudden our waverunner completely stopped working far out in the ocean. Next thing we knew we were drifting out far away past the poles of safety, and after about 10 minutes of yelling and screaming we started to realize that maybe we would drift away and be eaten by sharks. Luckily the tour man saved us with a new waverunner!! We were also able to use a banana boat, kayaks, their hot tub and pool, and equipment to snorkel and windsurf…which I was a pro at… It was definitely a great day for us all!

Wednesday we followed our usual morning basketball routine. At this practice however we were lucky enough to get Safu from Canada Basketball to join us and coach our practice. I think I can speak for everyone on the team when I say that we really learnt a lot from him in a limited amount of time. It was great to see things taught from a different perspective as well. We definitely appreciate all of his help and enthusiasm at our practices! Our screen and role will be unstoppable in the second term!! After basketball we went and joined the hundreds of cruise ships at Seven Mile beach. We once again finished the day off in a pool taking jumping photos while Jae made us steaks and burgers.

Thursday was definitely a special day and will remain in our memories for the rest of our lives. It started off as a usual day in Cayman. We played some ball, laid out in the sun and did some shopping in Georgetown followed by a lovely supper. And just so everyone knows the shopping was not as touristy as some may think, there were a lot of shops for all the rich cruise ship people. After supper is when our night started to get interesting. A few of us were getting tired of staying in our condo’s at night and decided that we wanted to see a little more of Cayman. Luckily Jana volunteered to drive us around (at this point in the trip Jana was driving around the roundabouts like a pro). So eight of us piled in her vehicle and began driving. We had no idea what we wanted to do so we decided that at every intersection we would turn left and see where the road would take us. We surprisingly spotted a few stores that were still open and managed to buy a few more things. We even met a few interesting individuals on our little journey. At one stop we walked by a man kicking a can, who felt the need to share a few words of wisdom with us, or with anyone who would listen…at this point we decided to get some exercise and dash back into our van! I had a great time translating what the man was saying to the girls as they could not understand his strong island accent. A few left turns later we spotted a sign that would make this random night, the most randomness night of them all. The sign: THE SHORES!!

I’ll start the story of The Shores by describing the scene. The Shores is a large gated billionaire community. It’s my theory that Michael Jordan owns a house in there (I heard his house is actually in another bigger gated community). At first sight we all knew that The Shores was something special and something we wanted to be a part of…or at least experience it even if only for a few hours. We decided to try to get into this heavily protected gated community and so we drove up to the gateway hoping that it would be motion censored…it wasn’t. We then decided to try another gate and see if that would open for us…it didn’t. We noticed a numbered key pad that required a code to gain entry located behind us. Jana put the vehicle in reverse and was going to try one code to see if we could get lucky. Before she was able to reverse another car drove up behind us. This time we all had a mini freak-out and wasn’t sure how we could get out of the way. Before we had time to figure out our next move the doors miraculously opened!!! We made it in The Shores! Being the calm and cool people that we are, we all started screaming and celebrating. Rachelle even had her head and camera out the window…I think we blended in well… Well actually Mel I was the only one who blended in well, LOL. We were all enjoying the scenery and the amazingly huge mansions and fancy cars when we drove upon a happening party. We continued driving around in The Shores for a while (Rachelle’s camera was still hanging out the window) until we came upon the party house once again (we drove in a circle). Jana slowed down the vehicle as we all took a good long look at the party. Most of the guests were outside and looked to be enjoying themselves, it was a classy event. Jana parked with the other vehicles while we were contemplating our next move: do we try to join the party, or do we leave now and remember the gorgeous houses from a safe distance?? So we did what every rational, clear thinking individual would do, we decided to crash the classy party (mainly because we noticed that it was catered). The next question in our minds was how do we get into the party. Just as we started to have second thoughts, fate intervened and Kait spilt her left over fettuccini Alfredo all over her lap. Obviously Kait needed a washroom. Lucky for us we were parked right outside of a house that was guaranteed to have numerous well-furnished washrooms. Four of us jumped out of the vehicle and began sprinting up the driveway (clearly in a calm/cool fashion) while the other four hesitated slightly before joining us. As we approached the main entrance a few of the guests were heading home for the night and left the door wide open for us…so we entered. Kait asked the first women that approached us if she could use the washroom. The women showed her to the room where Kait and another three of us followed to help her clean up.

Kait, Leigh, Mel and I ran into the shower almost immediately where we took pictures of this luxurious bathroom. Not only did we have a mini freak out session in the bathroom, but Kait was struggling to figure out what to do with her sopping, wet shorts! While half of us scooped out the rooms, the other half, specifically Mia, made friendly chit chat with some of the other guests. Strangely enough, no one has yet to question our presence at this event. While still standing inside at the front entrance of the mansion, we were able to figure out what the party was for. It turns out that Kent was celebrating his fortieth birthday. Jana was quick to point out that we actually happened to know a kick-ass birthday song that we would love to sing for Kent. The women didn’t share our enthusiasm about the idea but still said that she would make a suggestion. So we continued waiting at the front door having some nice conversations with some of the guests (one of which was Kent’s wife, lovely lady). We also had a quick but intense cram session of the Bison Birthday song…which no one has actually fully learnt for a few years now. After that night I realized that I had been spelling birthday, B-I-RT-CH-D-A-Y all time! Just as we were all starting to get comfortable we heard a slow old school version of the happy birthday song that the D.J.. began to sing. Our dreams of singing to Kent were crushed. We all dropped our heads and began turning towards to door. Just as the tears were starting to develop in the corner of my eyes the music was cut off mid sentence. We all glanced towards the backyard to see a hand giving us the approving welcome wave in. A wave of excitement and nervousness hit me all at once. We entered the backyard with at least a thousand sets of eyes on us. I think Mel is exaggerating a little too much once again, maybe like 50 people. Jana calmly grabs the microphone and begins a speech wishing Kent a happy birthday. I should mention again that no one has yet to ask us any questions about why we are there. We all huddle around the microphone and start singing and clapping the Bison Birthday Song. The crowd loved us!! At one point in the song they all erupted in laughter. We delivered the song perfectly, everyone stepped up their game and performed the song when the pressure was on. We got a standing ovation (probably because they were already standing) and everyone cheered. Since we sung a song for Kent, we decided the next appropriate thing to do would be to take a picture with him. We stuck Kent in the middle of the eight of us and handed our cameras to all the rich women standing around us to take pictures for us. Not only were pictures taken with our cameras, other guest began taking pictures with their own…it was a long photo shoot…one that made Kent feel a little uncomfortable. We decided to leave before the cake was cut so Jana wouldn’t have time to start handing out her business card to the other guests. We should have stayed for cake it looked amazing and they probably stuffed money in there too for all the guests! We wished Kent a final Happy Birthday and said good bye to our newfound friends. We departed The Shores with a warm heart and were proud that we were able to add a little spice to Kent’s party, with no questions asked!!

Friday morning we had a nice little 4 on 4 tournament instead of a normal practice. We then held our final basketball camp, which basically consisted of a bunch of fun basketball games. We said good bye to all of the kids and hope that they enjoyed their time with us. I know we all enjoyed working with them and hope that we’ll be able to return to Cayman soon to check up on their skills!! Later in the day we went back to the beach and played some beach volleyball. It was sooo hot, after every game we had to run into the ocean to cool off. Our Friday night can definitely be classified as an extraordinary night. Once again Jae hooked us up!! He had a party bus pick us up at 8:00pm and drive us around that entire night. We went to 6 bars in 6 hours…as I said before, good times!! Also, the clubs gave us endless amounts of free drinks…let’s just say we never got thirsty!! We finished the night off at Jae’s bar, District 6, which is by far the best bar in Cayman…definitely better than any Winnipeg bar.

Jae’s bar was amazing; we had never been to anything like it before in Winnipeg. There were two floors, and a VIP section with a balcony, which Coach Danis decided to hang out in and watch over us from while we were all on the dance floor….Well maybe just me since she seemed to wave at everyone else but me ?….LOL That’s ok though cause I think she was just trying to learn all my dance moves!!!

We were treated like V.I.P the whole night (thanks Jae). I would say one of the highlights of the night was at the Royal Palms. They had a live band that loved us and taught us a some nice dance moves (1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, dolla/money). The song does not actually have the word money in it but thanks to Kayla, who that night and the morning after, decided to continue singing the song with the words being 1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, money, money, money, money instead of dollar, dollar, dollar, dollar. Oh Kayla you’re hilarious. Since we are her loyal teammates it is our duty to constantly remind her of her little mess up by singing her version of the song whenever we feel the need!

Saturday night was the first day that we had absolutely no basketball so a few us decided to get up nice and early and see the sunrise (6:50am). Unfortunately it was cloudy and we didn’t see the sun at all…so we went back to bed! Yah I decided not to partake after looking out my non-ocean view room I saw the clouds and went back to bed. Another major highlight of the trip occurred later on this day. Jae organized a boat tour for our team equipped with a DJ and all. Our first stop was at a place where we could go snorkeling, which also happened to be the place where we all had our first encounter with a stingray. Our next stop was the famous Stingray City. Now I thought that we would be prepared for this, we’re strong, independent, and a tough group of women…wow was I wrong. I’ve never seen a group of 14 girls scream and hug each other in such a tight little circle before in my life (a lot of team bonding occurred here). There were so many stingrays and they would constantly swim right into us. There was no way you could avoid them, we were even afraid to lift our feet because we would probably step on one. At one point Sheena was completely wrapped around Mubo, she was like a koala bar climbing a tree, but in this case Mubo was the tree.

I have to say something about this because the only reason why I freaked out so much was because our tour guy never told us what a stingray could do to us. For someone like me who remembers how the crocodile hunter was killed by a stingray I was extremely scared. After jumping in the water, which was surrounded by stingrays I asked the tour guy if they could harm me. He then finally decided to tell me that the stingrays were harmless and that their actual stingrays had been removed so no one could be harmed. Well then I relaxed, grabbed one and kissed it!!! If only he would have told all of us this before it could have prevented some girls jumping on each other, and exposing themselves (I am not naming any names or body parts) in front of some of their teammates….LOL Sheila!!! Good times with the stingrays.

So after a few more minutes of freaking out most of us settled down and stopped screaming/nervously giggling. We got used to the stingrays rubbing on our legs. We got so comfortable with them that we held them, kissed them, and even got a back rub from them (rated PG)! Yah too bad our tour guide decided not to keep it PG, eewww. Stingrays will always be dear in our hearts and I’m sure we all want to visit them again soon. After Stingray City we visited Rum Point (another beach and tourist attraction) for a bite to eat then we were back on the boat heading for home. Saturday night half of the team decided to go out for one last night in Cayman. This time, however, we went to a local bar (The Matrix)…Well let me just say it was the first time I did not feel like a minority in a bar…LOL. There were so many people starring at us, I felt like we were stars or something, or maybe it was just that they had never seen anyone who was white before, who knows. But after about twenty minutes of dancing we had to relocate our little circle because of a local boy who came up to couple of us and forced his way on us trying to get us to dance with him and none of us were interested at all….Mubo was actually a little scared I think of him! Let’s just say that it was fairly evident that we were not locals. It was definitely a great time and I’m glad we got a chance to see another side of the Islands! I think we should stick to District 6 and The Ritz if we want to go out again in Cayman. But lucky for us the bars and the entire country closes down at 12am, we only spent an hour or so at the Matrix, where we then headed home.

Sunday was our final day on Cayman, so what did we do? We laid out in the sun!! We hung out by our pool and slowly/sadly starting packing up. We went to the airport around 1:00pm and began our four hour wait for our extremely delayed flight. When it finally arrived we said our final good-byes to Cayman and boarded. Now this part of the trip is something that I like to call “The Amazing Race”. We arrived in Toronto at 10:25pm and our flight to Winnipeg was boarding at 10:35pm, basically we were in trouble. We knew the odds of getting on a flight on Christmas Eve and Christmas day was slim, therefore, if we missed our original flight we would have to spend Christmas in Toronto (it reminded me a lot of our trip to Europe, back in the day). Yah I thought for sure we would be staying in the Hilton again and not arriving in Winnipeg like we should have. To summarize, we had 10 minutes to run through the massive Toronto airport, grab our underneath bags, go through customs, check in, run some more, then get to our gate (basically a 99% chance of not making our flight). As soon as the Cayman flight hit the Toronto runway the race was on, it was everybody for themselves at this point. We all tightened up our laces and began running as fast as we could through the entire airport. We were dodging families, running on those flat escalators; just full out given’er. When we arrived where our luggage was going to be delivered we were out of breath and beginning to lose hope. However, being the determined team that we are we decided not to give up. When the luggage carrousel began moving we all got prepared and our eyes were locked to see whose bag would be first. To my amazement it was none other than my own! I was shocked for about a minute then I got my head in the game, grab my bag, threw it over my shoulder and began the short sprint to the connection zone. With my team cheering me on from behind (ex. “don’t look back Mel”, “you can do it”, “run Mel run”, “stall the plane for us”, etc.) I sucked it up and forced my tired legs to move as fast as they could (which was truly not fast at all…I had a 50lbs bag on my back). As I crossed the finish line (a.k.a customs) I started yelling, “Winnipeg, I’m going to Winnipeg”. I don’t think I have seen Mel run so fast before in my life!!! J.k. The staff on duty immediately woke up and called down to our flight and made them hold the plane for our entire team just as the time was running out. The entire staff could not believe we actually made it in time, our race may even go down in the Pearson airport history of races. Before we boarded our final flight to Winnipeg our team gave celebratory high fives all around. We made it all thanks to good old Schlichter, even though I had my doubts, she saved us all from not making it home to see all of our family in which we greatly missed.

To conclude, Cayman was incredibly/ridiculously amazing…plus we’re all going to be nice and tanned for our first game after the break against the U of Winnipeg. Yah and I must say that our entire team looks great tanned, and to all those haters out there our team did not fake and bake….We went to Cayman Islands Baby and had the time of our lives.See you all this weekend!!

November 5

Both Schlichter and Rachelle Harty-Edwards are in black text.

Well a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. We had a social at the O.C. to fundraise for our upcoming trip to Cayman Islands this Christmas. We raised tons of money and want to thank everyone who supported us!

We hosted our pre-season tournament on the weekend of Oct. 12-14. Our first game was on Friday night against the Concordia Stingers. It was our first actual game as a team this season and even though things were…sloppy at times, we still managed to pull off a win.

On Saturday night, we battled a hard fought game against Toronto. Despite the fact that they had some really big girls on their team we managed to pull away from them in over time for the victory. That night was also our ‘Pack the Place Pink’ night in support of breast cancer. It turned out to be a great night thanks to all the other athletes, family and friends that came out to cheer us on. Specifically, the football team was cheering loud and hard for us and making it extremely obvious whenever a player on the other team would make a mistake by yelling, “it’s all your fault” over and over again. Clearly they helped with throwing the other team off their game. Thanks guys!!!

On Sunday, the final day of the tournament, we had a close battle in the first half against SFU. Unfortunately we suffered our first loss of the year but at least we know what we have to work on before the actual season starts!

The following weekend (Oct. 19-20) we took a lovely road trip to good old Dryden, Ontario. Our team split up within three vans with the two of us (a.k.a. the best drivers in the world) and Coach (a.k.a…definitely not the best driver in the world) behind the wheel for our four hour fun filled trip! The trip basically consisted of us cutting each other off and fighting for that middle spot behind Coach. Good times!!

Once we finally arrived at our hotel we noticed that we had the whole floor to ourselves. It was like another team slumber party (similar to Skownan). This is apparently a reoccurring theme with our team this year…don’t exactly know why??

We played Friday night against Lakehead and were victorious. We wore our new brown uniforms for the first time and definitely made them look good! The only problem is that they are extremely heavy so we had to tie our draw strings tight. A few of the girls that didn’t tie them (I won’t name any names…Tessa) learnt their lesson quickly!

The following day we lost to Lakehead then headed home right away…after a quick stop at A&W! I think we were all happy to head home and finally get a night away from each other. It was pretty obvious we were getting tired of each other when our two vans started to fight because one van had a larger bag of chips than the other. I swear the one and only thing that can break this team apart is food!

Any comments or feeback please Email: bison_sports@umanitoba.ca

September 25

Schlichter in black, Rachelle Harty-Edwards in red text.

Being the two returning fourth years, we decided that since we are the oldest/ wisest/ maturist/ most-sophisticated players, it would be our duty to take on the team’s blog this year! My fellow colleague/taxi driver (j.j), Mel Schlichter plays a huge part in our team on and off the court. She is also a very funny person…that always laughs at my jokes. My fellow teammate/loyal passenger, Rachelle is a strong post with even stronger elbows! She is a huge part of our team this year in more ways than one.

Our season has once again commenced, and who could think of a better way to start than with some lovely testing! Our team is looking a little different this year with the loss of two graduating players and four fresh new rookies joining our crew. With the majority of the core of our team returning, we have set high goals for this up coming season.

As September was approaching, Coach Danis handed us our monthly practice schedule. Everything looked relatively normal except that we noticed we had no practices on Wednesdays. Before everyone got too excited, Mel piped up and pointed out that we actually have hot yoga scheduled instead of ball that day…and that it was at 6:30 a.m. in the morning!

With our sessions already booked at Moksha, we put our baggy shorts and cutoffs aside, pulled out our tank tops and short shorts (i.e. tights) instead and set off early in the morning. After all the push ups and the beatings we take from one another it was nice to be able to stretch and sweat out our soreness.

On homecoming weekend (two weekends ago) we once again honored our tradition at the football game and made our rookies look hot! With old school 1980 tracksuits and painted faces, which included uni-brows and moustaches (of course), they were feeling confident as they put on a great halftime dance for everyone.

This past weekend we headed off to Skownan First Nations for the second time as a team. We participated in the classroom, interacted with the children, and took part in a buffalo teaching…which was actually not even about a buffalo…but we are still very grateful we were allowed to take part in it. Between having a full team slumber party in a stinky classroom, hangman, and teaching full out exciting math lessons, it turned out to be an enjoyable weekend for everyone!

We are having our team’s social this Saturday, Sept.29 at the O.C. All are welcome (must be 18 years old) to join us in one last crazy party before all the seasons start up all over again! Give me a call if you’re interested and I can hook you up with some tickets!

Any comments or feeback please Email: bison_sports@umanitoba.ca