First Game of the Regular Season

Tonight we had our first game against SSV Lokomotive Bernau at home. I was suprised at how many people turned out for the game, cause I'm pretty sure we had close to 100 maybe more. Bernau is supposed to be the best team in our division and they are looking to dominate our league. They had an American guy who had a lot of hype about him by our coach, their coach, the paper, their website and other sources. Honestly, he didn't impress me at all. The game started good, I hit the first basket of the game and we were playing hard and smart. However, we finished up the first quarter down 16pts (15-31) after an 18-0 run by them. Second quarter started the same way the first finished, with Bernau controlling the whole game. At halftime Bernau was up 38-51 and I only had 8pts. It wasn't as though I wasn't shooting I just wasn't hitting. I had a lot of assists that my guys we blowing under the basket. But hey, thats basketball, so I didnt sweat it, and just played through it. In the third quarter we made a little run, but Bernau was just too far ahead to have it make that much difference, but we didnt give up. By the time the fourth quarter had started we had cut the Bernau's lead to 7pts (67-74) I was playing well but I was missing my free throws....Again!!! We ended up losing the game by 9pts 82-91 but we played hard and battled back from 21pts down. I finished the game with 19pts 7ast 2rbs with only 2TO in 33 minutes to lead us. However my free throw struggles continue as I was only 7-12 from the FT line. I believe thats around 58%-60%. Horrible!!!!! So I should have finished with 24pts if I would have made all my FT. Bernau had a big Polish guy who killed us. He finished with 23pts and 18rbs and was just a beast inside. Besides my FT's and the loss, I'm please with how my team and I are progressing each and every game. After the game however, my knee was killing me, so I am glad to have a day off tomorrow...much needed R&R. One of my teammates filmed the game so when I get it i'll break it down and try to make a little highlight tape and post it for all you readers out there in blog land. Our next game is October 3, 2009 against SG Oslebshausen Roosters and it's away. Thanks for reading.

Exhibition Game #2

Today we had our second exhibition game against BiG Oettinger Rockets Gotha who is in our same league but a different division. This time the game was at home, which was nice to play in front of our HUGE home crowd of about 10 people, not including the ramdom people that accidentally walked into the gym thinking it was open to shoot around in. My team played this team before I arrived and they lost by 3pts, so I was excited to get the chance at a rematch and prove to them that we are the better team. The game took a very long time, approx 2.5 hours, which is long for a basketball game. The game started out fast but then moved into a more slowly paced game. I was 0-4 shooting in the first quarter and my coach, Hans Werner-Schmidt, got on me in front of the team and I became more focused. I scored 9pts in the second quarter on two 3's, a jumper and a FT. I missed 2 FT's for the game and I'm pretty pissed about that because I'm usually 90%. Tonight I was 4-6 from the FT line, which if my math is still up to par is about 67%, give or take a couple of percentage points. At halftime the score was 34-31, which is pretty low scoring for a couple pro teams. The second half started the same way the first did, fast but then slowed after a little while. Halfway through the third quarter this big russian guy, Virijevic or something like that, elbowed me above my eye splitting it wide open. I was pretty pissed cause blood was leaking out and I had to come out the game. After a while the bleeding had slowed to just a drip. I'm not sure if it will need stiches or not but who cares, chicks dig scars right!!!?(See Pic). My dad always told me to be tough so I'll probably just do it the "Rama Way" and super glue it closed...if I can find super glue. Anyways, back to the game. The refs again sucked more than a hoover vacuum. They called 6 techincal fouls and fouled out 3 of our players. I guess it was cool cause they sucked for both sides giving their team a couple T's and tons of fouls too. We ended up winning the game 75-64 I think. I finished with 17pts 4rbs 3 stls and 3TO to lead us. If you hadnt noticed i didn't put assists in there because I did not have any. Well according to the stats people I didn't. I think that may be a first in my career. Oh well, at least we won. We have our first real game against SSV Lokomotive Bernau on Saturday September 26. They are supposed to be pretty good cause they beat the team we lost to in my first exhibition game and they have a couple good American players. My knee is feeling a little better but it still hurts and swells after practices and games. It's still only about 70% but thats better than it was when I first got here. Anyways, until next game, keep reading.

Thursday Sept 17, 2009

Yesterday and today were pretty relaxing days. I had the whole day off yesterday so after my morning workout/lifting I just cruised around town checking out the city of Goettingen a little more. I also had to do some grocery shopping, so I figured I'd do that while I was out and about. Now, first things first. The grocery stores are about 1/4 the size of the ones in the states and with a smaller selection. Plus you have to either rent a shopping cart or buy your own plastic bags, which I didnt know. Later however, I found out you can bring your own bag from home if you have one. So, me being the new, non german speaking dork, I was walking around holding all my food, which had to be pretty funny to the local people. Anyways, while I'm walking around looking at food, which I can't read the name of, I noticed the a butter container with my name on it, RAMA (see Picture). I guess I'm a big deal out here more than I thought..haha...Today, was a pretty beautiful day so I decided to walk to my gym. It's not that far, about 12min walking from my apartment. After my workout I had to coach my 16u team and I introduced them to the offense today. I hope they got it because some of them looked at me like I was from outerspace or something. We'll see when the first game comes. Following that practice I had my team practice which went pretty good except I was very slow to start out. for some reason I couldn't get focused until after I made a couple dumb plays. Coach brought in a couple other guards to test me against and I did pretty good, so I think he was pleased. My knee is feeling better, still not 100% but its getting stronger every day. I hope by the first game it will be at least 90%. Anyways, I have posted more pictures of the town from my walk home from the gym and another picture of my car. So I hope you like.

Week 2

Well, it's half way through week 2 and I think I'm starting to get adjusted to life here in Germany, kind of. A couple strange things happend to me today, Wednesday September 16, 2009. First I decided I need to do laundry cause my clothes were pilling up. So, I went to my laundry room in my apartment and what do I know, the whole things in German, figures. So I call one of my teammates (Lass) and he comes over and tries to figure it out for me. After a couple we figure it out and everythings good, so I thought. I ask him "Which ones the dryer?" he said "there is no dryer, haha!" So I find out I have to air dry my clothes, which wouldnt be a bad thing if I hand hangers and stuff to hang dry them with. After I get over that I decide to go out to dinner tonight, cause I get a couple free meal tokens for some restaurants around me, so I thought I'd treat myself. I decided to go to "Saulsalitos", which by the name you might be able to guess is a so called mexican restaurant. I walk in and it looks and smells like a mexican restaurant, with flags and cactus and stuff. Except its missing a VERY important ingredient, Mexicans or some kind of person from latino decent. Now it wasnt the best mexican food but it wasnt bad, considering I got it for free. Other than that its going pretty good. I still get bored during the day cause I can only work out for so long. Anyways, i'll write again soon.

Newspaper Article

Today I was in the Goettingen newspaper with an article about myself. I don't know what the article is about but I'm sure it was a good one. The writer who interviewed me didn't speak english so I'm sure he messed some things up but thats ok at least I got some ink out here in Germany.

Ernie Rama soll die Veilchen aufblühen lassen / Regionaler Sport / Sport / Nachrichten / Goettinger-Tageblatt.de

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Team Photo

Here is a picture of my team BG 74 Goettingen. Also, attached is the link to the write up about the game. http://goettingen.eins.de/articles/779802-zusammengefunden

First Exhibition Game

Well, today I had my first exhibition game about 2hrs north of Goettingen in a town called Braunschweig, but the trip was actually pretty short when you're going 130mph..lol. The team we played was Spot Up Media Baskets Braunschweig, very long name to say ... Crazy, I know! ... I played ok for the first half, but by the time the fourth quarter came around I was dead tired. I'm still trying to get into "game shape" and that has been hard for me because I have always been in shape when the seasons start. Oh well, it's a work in progress. My team lost 89-74 but we battled hard, I guess. We have a LONG way to go before we are even near ready to compete at a high level. I scored 15pts had 6ast to go along with 3rbs and a couple steals. Also I and had a couple dumb turnovers :(... Lucky it was only an exhibition and not a real game cause I would be a little more upset at myself and my team for the way we performed. As you can see from the picture the court "Sucked" it was a type of plastic that was really hard on my knees and body. The German game is a lot more physical and agressive but the players arnt as good as they are in the states. The team we played had only one American but he wasnt all that great. Speaking of not great, the refs were terrible. They would call travels that weren't travels, fouls that weren't fouls and not call fouls when someone got hammered...Also, there were numerous lane violations, 3sec and little ins and outs that they didnt call. I tried to talk to them a couple times and of course they dont speak english so they give me this dumb stare like I was retarted or something... All in all it was fun to finally get out there and show what I can do against some pretty good competition. We have a couple more exhibition games before our first game on September 26, so hopefully I will be in "game shape" and my knee has healed up a little more before then. Because right now my knee is only at about 60% , once I get that back to normal I'm going to start taking names...lol

More Pics of Apartment - Outside

Pictures from outside my apartment... The last one is actually my building. My apartment is the one on the left side, up top on the third floor...

Day 3

Day 3: Today was my first practice with the youth team I'm coaching. The kids play hard but need a lot of skill work. We worked on their skills for about an hr today then worked on their defense. This is going to be a marathon with them, not a sprit....My knee is killing me today because It wasnt used to working out like that. Oh well, give me a few more weeks and i'll be killing them at will again. The food is different here. I am not a fan of their cheese or water. yuck. They have carbonated water only and EVERYONE drinks it. It's pretty bad. I am longing for Kat's protein shakes. This morning I walked around the city of Goettingen and took some pictures. Life here is very different from the states and it will take some getting use to. I also signed up for my gym membership that the team pays for. The gym is small and the weights are all in Kilograms...i'm trying to lift like normal but my math conversions are not very good. The pictures attached are of the town that I live in...

First Day of Practice

Just got done with my first practice with the team. Everyone seems really cool. I'm looking forward to contributing to the team and can't wait to have our first game. My knee hurt a little and I am a little out of shape but in a few I should be 100%. I'm going to start running a little to get my cardio back up because I really want to show these guys how to play Defense full court. I am still on Vegas time...so I am tired all the time. I hope that my body adjusts soon. Going to bed so I will update more tomorrow.
-Ernie-

Finally Here

Just arrived in Germany.. A little cold here. Reminds me of back home in Washington. The team gave me a new VW Golf to Drive while I am here (see pics). I also have my own one bedroom apartment in town (see pics). I met the team I will be coaching today and I also met the team I will be playing with. Exciting Day. I am going to try and blog everyday so that I can stay in touch with my friends and family. If you wanna chat I am also on Scype, youtube, facebook, and my space... look me up. Will write soon!

-Ernie-