Somewhere in America

[Serafino74]

I don't know what and how, but mainly what the director of Alcorn State University was thinking when he picked up the phone, first dialing the international telephone code of Greece and then calling the number of my house to offer me the coach position of the Braves.

I had a small connection before with Presbyterian College at Clinton, South Carolina, through a good basketball friend (before he was left ''Alone'' and began his post psychedelic journey). At the meeting, the polite (but with clearly conservative attitude) director of Presbyterian made it clear that the goal for this year is, of course, faith, and the conference crown! What? With prestige just 7, among the lower 5 at 350 colleges and me, the all time most ignorant coach? Well, man, i don't even go to church.......

The Alcorn State University offered me the coach position and just wants to avoid the last place in conference. I did not express it but from within I felt that with my completely doubtful skills even that seems difficult, but after i searched about the location of the college i found that the land of the Braves is located at Mississipi, not just at the state, but right next to the river. Hmm, they are well aware of pain, sorrow and misfortune, like me, so I will love them, I will try to do my best and probably I will say goodbye by offering flowers and they'll say goodbye to me with a ''on the fly'' blues while wetting their feet in the river........In Greece we are saying that ''mountains are common in snow'' for that situations. I accepted!!!

Tomorrow I will pack my bags and leave as soon as possible for my first trip to America, i hope my love for the game will be the best helper!

[PointGuard]

Good start..bring it to us!

[Serafino74]

A huge red bus left me right in front of the statue of civil-rights leader Medgar Evers that was placed on the campus of Alcorn State University 50 years after the assassination of the man who led protests against the state's laws who supports the policy of enforced separation of different racial groups. I was on time for the appointment with the director at his office. He was over sixty, a tall man, his clothes were new, all of them, his suit was of cheap gray hardcloth and so new that there were creases in the trousers. Ηe was very sweet, something that gave me courage, and after a two hours meeting he gave me a bag that contained what i needed to start working, roster files, a school history book, infos about the facilities and a handwritten welcome letter.

I said goodbye and started finding my new home somewhere nearby Lorman, the nearest community to Alcorn State University, in Claiborne County, but I had to eat something before. Οn the bus I was watching the road surface who was edged with broken, dry grass. I took a pint of whiskey from my side coat pocket and took two quick swallows until a sign appeared in front of me, ''The Old Country Store Restaurant, World's Best Fried Chicken''...... Inside the store the owner "Mr D" sings and tells old local stories, even the Jesse James gang raided southwest Mississippi robbing the store, which was placed there before 1880! And it's true that this chicken is heavenly fried......

The house that the college officials rented for me is just west of Lorman but it looks like it's in the middle of nowhere. An old house, built at 1964, ''a deer hunters dream'' as the broker states, with an old wooden floor and a narrow bedroom with built-in fan above the bed...I sit at the small kitchen table, take the papers out of the bag and get to work. It's time for the orange goddess to monopolize my mind!

[Serafino74]

We stand at the Northwestern Athletic Division, a 10 team conference with the second lowest prestige(13) of the total 32 conferences.
We have three herds of Τigers(Texas Southern, Grambling and Jackson State), panthers (Prainie View), lions(Arkansas Pine-Bluff), bulldogs (Alabama A&M), jaguars (Southern Jaguars), hornets (Alabama State) and the devils (Mississipi Valley State). The Texas Southern Tigers and the Jaguars leading the prestige chart with 18 and 17.

My Alcorn State Braves have a prestige 5 and are in the top 8 worst of all the assosiation! We will definitely have a huge problem
with recruiting so we should definitely have a good roster this year and without a lot of seniors and try to improve our name asap, otherwise the situation will be almost irreversible. Βut yes, the roster is much more remarkable than what i expected to see in a good version of the script and a happiness mixed with relief overwhelmed me instantly!

We are quite weak in Point Guard and the Center but the other three positions are full of quite good players (on paper of course, we'll have to see them on court)but the most important thing I saw was the roster flexibility. We have four shooting guards with at least 1.5 overall with good prospect (1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 2.5) of which the two have better handling, passing and court intelligence from our natural playmakers. Ιn addition our two at Center (1.5 and 2.0 overall) are 6'8 and can be conditionally replaced by the two power forwards of the same height. Οur two best players (3.5, 3.5) play in the same position (SF) but the height of Chris Simmons (6'8) allows me to use him lower in the paint and thus have both on the floor while raising the overall quality of the five on court. I know that many experiments involve risk of disturbing the team and creating general ambiguity in the roles, but I'm willing to try different shapes to clarify as much as possible what works best and under what circumstances!

[Serafino74]

As I expected, recruiting turns out to be a very difficult case. We are looking primarily for a center but there is very little interest from almost all candidates. So we reached the start of practices for the first season (2/10) and the only thing we managed was to bring two or three players for a campus visit with relatively dubious results, so we have to focus at least for now at the current season. I talked to the guys and the staff and we organized the strategy of the team according to what the players like to play and what they are used to, so we ended up with Flex, Shuffle and 5 Out, about equally divided, and we adjusted the practice time accordingly. The quarrels and incidents within the team lasted all October (they were almost all against each other)and left me extremely anxious as the premiere approached.

The first non conference game would take place at the home of the Abilene Christian University in Texas, against the Wildcats, a prestige 5 team from Southland and from the scouting report i saw that we have a good chance of starting the season with a win! But the first game is always the first game.......

The road there contains a journey of 600 miles and our bus was not in the best possible condition, so I decided to get there the day before the game. I covered the extra cost of an overnight stay in a hotel using a donation from a well-to-do citizen from Natchez, the hometown of the man who sold the land on the railroad and thus revived the Lorman community. Ιn the back of my mind I had that this might have had a good effect on the team, although I knew that a city in Texas wasn't the perfect destination for us.

The young lads seemed to have fun and some relationships began to normalize as is usually the case during vacations and moments of joy. At least for a while......We ate all together in a cheap restaurant called ''Big Mama's Home Cooking'' meeting friendly people and then we took a walk in the Everman Park that was close to the hotel. Αlong the way I heard the sound of some empty cans of beer falling to the ground but I said not to make it a matter because the situation didn't seem to get out of control.

At the beginning of the game we seemed very confused and my will to give playing time to everyone made the situation worse. Towards the end of the half, however, we seemed more determined than the opponent and we managed to take the lead by 7 (33-26) without any of our players directing the orchestra with his scoring. In the second half everything went better from the beginning, we clearly showed that we have a better team and we reached the victory comfortably
(76-55).The courageous distribution of time on the bench gave the impression that everyone was involved in the victory and this was evident in the faces of the players. However Simon Tarver(SF 3.5 overall) gave us 15 while the starter Chris Simmons(SF 3.5 overall)swam in shallow waters with just one point and 3 rebounds! Reggie Horwath, our crazy shooting guard who in practice seems capable of the best and the worst gave as 11 with good shot percentage.

[Wayne23]

(Bows) Great start! Just caught it and I will definitely keep up with this one!

I don't know what and how, but mainly what the director of Alcorn State University was thinking when he picked up the phone, first dialing the international telephone code of Greece and then calling the number of my house to offer me the coach position of the Braves.

I had a small connection before with Presbyterian College at Clinton, South Carolina, through a good basketball friend (before he was left ''Alone'' and began his post psychedelic journey). At the meeting, the polite (but with clearly conservative attitude) director of Presbyterian made it clear that the goal for this year is, of course, faith, and the conference crown! What? With prestige just 7, among the lower 5 at 350 colleges and me, the all time most ignorant coach? Well, man, i don't even go to church.......

The Alcorn State University offered me the coach position and just wants to avoid the last place in conference. I did not express it but from within I felt that with my completely doubtful skills even that seems difficult, but after i searched about the location of the college i found that the land of the Braves is located at Mississipi, not just at the state, but right next to the river. Hmm, they are well aware of pain, sorrow and misfortune, like me, so I will love them, I will try to do my best and probably I will say goodbye by offering flowers and they'll say goodbye to me with a ''on the fly'' blues while wetting their feet in the river........In Greece we are saying that ''mountains are common in snow'' for that situations. I accepted!!!

Tomorrow I will pack my bags and leave as soon as possible for my first trip to America, i hope my love for the game will be the best helper!

[Serafino74]

Τhank you, from what i have managed to read so far ''Alone'' and ''Fedora'' are unbeatable, excellent quality Dynasty Reports. Unfortunately I don't know the language well enough but I try as hard as I can, I hope I don't write a lot of nonsense!

[Wayne23]

You're doing fine!

[PointGuard]

My dynasty reports often come out as if I don't know the language...any language!

(You know I really do hate having to AGREE with Wayne, but in this case I do...you're doing FINE!)

[Serafino74]

Hahahaha, thanx Rich!!!