Hello old friends

Thursday was a big day for Hoops Sagrado. In the morning we met at the school where the students will spend the next few studying Spanish and about Guatemala and the Mayan culture.

We were greeted by our old friends and long-time partners Tito Morales Sam, Jaime Garcia, Malba Raymundo, Maria Salanic and Yanira Yaxon as well as some new friends who have joined the program to teach. Following an introductory lecture about Xela and Guatemala the students split up into several groups and went on a tour of Xela with their teachers.

In the afternoon, the directors of the four aldeas we work with: Xejuyup, Pachaj, Chiriquiac and Chuisuic met us at the school and took the students to their respective villages where they will be spending the next 10 days running the basketball clinics. The students seemed to have a really great time on their first day of camps. We'll have each camp write a post for the blog as the days go by.

Following the camps and dinner we all walked to the gym for two games versus our old frenemies, the local Xela team. Over the years, we've become more friends than enemies with the Xela team, but that still doesn't mean we want them to win the games when we play each other!

The Young Guns were up first and they were quickly introduced to the side of Guatemala basketball that we tried to warn them about. Fortunately, despite the many obvious fouls (that of course weren't called) everyone remained calm and they worked together as a team against the Xela sub-21 team. Unfortunately though it wasn't enough for a win and the Young Guns fell to Xela.

Young Guns: 31 vs. Xela: 46
Alec: 3R
Daniel: 5P/1R/1A
Demani: 5P/1R/1A
Sanu: 13P/10R/1A
Carlton: 2P/2R/
Carlos: 1R
Manny: 1R
Nigel: 1R
Malik: 6P/6R

While the Hoops Sagrado Old Heads were on a bit of a winning streak against Xela in the past few years, this year the streak was broken. Yesterday was the birthday of our friend Alex who plays on the Xela team, so we'll say it was our birthday gift to him.

Old Heads: 52 vs. Xela: 56
Bryan: 8P/3R/3A
Hitch: 5P/4R/2A
Josh: 17P/7R/2A
Mark: 12P/5R/4A
Diggs: 2P/3R
Alex: 5R
Malik: 6P/4R
Daniel: 1R/1A
Sanu: 2P

On Friday, it will be the first "normal" day for the students: Classes in the morning, camps in the afternoon and dinner at the school Friday night.

So quiet you can hear the wind in the trees

On Thursday we said our good-byes to the ancient city of Antigua and headed towards Xela. Before we got to our final destination though, we stopped at Iximche, the remnants of the Kaqchiquel's 15th-century capital.

While Iximche doesn't pack the punch of Tikal or other, more famous ruins, it is no less significant.

 
We spent some time learning about the Mayan culture from our friend Jaime. He talked to the students about the significance of the Mayan calendar and a bit about the history of Iximche. 

The students were given an hour or so to roam through the ruins. The sky was perfectly blue and it was so quiet in the ruins (even with 13 teenagers there) that you could hear the wind whistling through the trees.

After our time at Iximche, we boarded the bus and headed to our final destination and our home for the next few weeks Xela. We arrived around 5pm and the students were introduced to their families. The families were super happy to meeting the new, temporary members of their families. Most of the students live within a block or two of each other and this year we were very fortunate to be able to have an adult in almost every house. The students all had their first meals with their families, which everyone claimed to like and then the whole group met up in Parque Central for a quick night tour of Xela and then it was off to bed because the real work was set to begin at 9 a.m. on Thursday.

You win some, you lose some

After settling into our hotels and having a quick rest, Hoops Sagrado headed to the local gym for a match up against Suchi.

The "Young Guns" were first up and although they went up early it was a close game. On their very first game in Guatemala, the students were introduced to the creative foul-calling and score-keeping of our Guatemalan friends. Although the clock said the game was tied at the end, the Young Guns were really up by one at the end of regulation. There was five minutes of overtime and the Young Guns prevailed by one bucket.

While not everyone on the Young Guns was able to score a bucket, everyone got some playing time. We'll work on making sure that "everyone eats" at future games. 

Young Guns
Hoops Sagrado 54 vs. Suchi 52 (final score reflects scoreboard score, not actual score)
Alec: 6 points
Sanu: 15 points
Demani: 11 points
Malik: 5 points
Ronnie: 2 points
Carlton 4 points
Daniel: 8 points

The "Old Heads" played a tight game that had each team exchanging leads throughout the game. Sanu and Daniel made their debut playing for the Old Heads and were each able to get in the books with some points.

Unfortunately, despite having possession with 12 seconds to go and only down by two, the Old Heads weren't able to get their first win. That will just have to be against Xela on Thursday...which will be sweet to say the least.

Old Heads
Hoops Sagrado 56 vs. Suchi 57
Bryan: 12 points
Josh: 3 points
Mark: 17 points
Hitch: 7 points
Diggs: 5 points
Roppolo: 6 points
Sanu: 2 points
Daniel: 4 points

Following the games, everyone came back to the hotel for our first group meal in Guatemala and thankfully, everyone ate it. Always a big accomplishment.

We're off to Xela today to meet families and get settled into our home away from home for the next three weeks. We'll post again soon.

And we're off!

With just moments to spare (of course) everyone made it to the airport, got checked in and most importantly got through security with no problems! All three flights (it's a long story) are now racing towards Guatemala. The students are all on one flight and there is a lot of snoring coming from the back end of the airplane. We'll make a pit stop in Houston and then it's on to Guatemala City.

Our first night will be in Antigua. We have games scheduled for 6pm (the young guns) and 8pm (the old heads). Let's hope there is a lot of plane sleeping because if not, that 6pm game might be a bit rough.

We'll post again at some point in time today and will introduce to you each of our team. Until then, we'll be flying the friendly skies (wait, is that United's?).

Hoops Sagrado 2014 

And we're back!

After a two-year hiatus, Hoops Sagrado is back and better than ever. We leave early tomorrow (July 22) and will be in Guatemala for three glorious weeks. We have a fantastic group of students with us this year who you will meet in the coming days.

Today we are busy doing 10 million last minute things including deflating 80 basketballs to given to the children in Guatemala as gifts.

Speaking of gifts, before we get into the tales of basketball glory, we wanted to take a moment to say a very heartfelt thank you to all of our friends, family, colleagues and in some cases complete strangers, who donated money or items from our Wish List to this year's trip. It's through your generosity that we are going to be able to provide a wonderful trip to the students from D.C. and some great, useful gifts to the children in Guatemala.

We'll do our best to keep the blog updated every (or every other) day and you can also follow us on Facebook and on Twitter!

Thanks again everyone for your donations and well wishes.

Vamos a Guate!

Keepin' It 100

It was a busy weekend of games with three trips to the coast and one game in Xela (which we won't talk about on this blog). Our final trip was late Sunday afternoon to the town of Mazate.

The court at Mazate has to be one of the nicest onces that we've seen, it's also a bit off the beaten path, which is why there were very few spectators in attendance, which probably pleased the Young Guns and the Mazate Old Heads.

Young Guns 42 vs. Mazate 48
Despite their best efforts, unfortunately the Young Guns fell to the team from Mazate. Everyone gave it their best efforts, but the Mazate team (which also had a few over 21 players on it) prevailed in the end.

Brandon 17p/1a/17r
Jailen 7p/2r
Gibril 9p/1a/6r
Phillip 9p/2a/10r
Shanice 1r
Manny 2r

Old Heads 101 vs. Mazate 71
The theme of this year's trip is Hoops Sagrado: Keepin' it 100...and that's just what the Old Heads did by scoring 101 points against the team from Mazate. Everyone who played for the Old Heads scored giving Hoops its first "everybody eats" game of the trip.

Bryan 17p/7a/3r
Sam 10p/3a/4r
Aniekan 11p/2a/2r
Dario 15p/5a/10r
Josh 10p/3a/9r
Diggs 19p/1a/3r
Stan 7p/3a/5r
Phillip 2p/3a/4r
Brandon 10p/2r

EVERYBODY EATS!

Hoops Sagrado vs. San Felipe

San Felipe, about an hour and half from Xela is known for two things: chicharron and carnitas and losing to Hoops Sagrado! :)

Sadly, all the chicharron tiendas were closed by the time we hit town on Saturday night, but we were able to keep one of the traditions alive!

Young Guns 52 vs. San Felipe 44
At first glace we thought for sure that the Young Guns were going to be out-matched by the much taller group from San Felipe and while there were some close moments, the Young Guns held it together for an 8-point victory--a victory which included the scoring debut of Kia!**

Brandon 16p/6a/19r
Jailen 18p/1a/2r
Gibril 9p/2a/2r
Manny 3p/2r
Phillip 8p/7r
Kia 3p
Canethia 1r
Antar 1a/1r

Old Heads 78 vs. San Felipe 59
Things were a bit different from the start with the Old Heads clearly dominating the game against San Felipe. Despite the commanding lead, tempers flared amongs members of the Old Heads team with a few angry words tossed about, but fortunately no shoes were thrown. In the end, everyone kissed and made up the Old Heads won by almost 20**.

Bryan 13p/5a/2r
Sam 5p/1a/2r
Aniekan 8p/2a/3r
Josh 11p/4a/9r
Stan 4p/1a/1r
Diggs 7p/1a/3r
Dario 27p/4a/15r
Phillp 2p/2a/3r

**Apologies to all the Hoops Sagrado players as these stats may not tell the complete story since Stat Girl was also responsible for running the board for the both games.