NYC and College Trips by Red Shirt Joe

It was a real pleasure to spend the day on Thursday with Kayleigh (Director), Kelly (Sports Director), Jon, Efrain, Loeb, and Joe (Purple Shirts).  Generally spending eight hours with anyone during a day is something I try to avoid, especially in the confines of a fast-moving van.  In this case, I enjoyed the company immensely.  What made the day enjoyable was how comfortable everyone was with each other.  I think that getting away does that, which is why I think that trips will be a great tool going forward to get to know our home teams better.

We first made our way in to Manhattan.  We arrived a bit early, so we ate at one of my favorite pizza places.  Here is a picture of Kelly mashing food into his face and Kayleigh apparently carrying on a conversation with a pizza pie.

From there we headed to the BCNY building in lower Manhattan to meet with three representatives from the clubhouse.  I was impressed with the questions and answers that each of the Purple Shirts offered--they knew that this was a business trip first and foremost.  We then got stuck in some rush hour traffic, but the guys did get to meet some of the BCNY high school students from Queens who are using the Project Coach curriculum.  One goal for me is to get BCNY to come up to Springfield--I think it'd be great for the Blue Shirts to share their coaching experiences with other students in different locations.  From there, we headed north to lovely Bethlehem, CT where my dad had cooked up a great meal.  Jon Cotto can sure eat.  Then it was back to Springfield.

Sunday was equally enjoyable.  We met Liam at UMASS and he led a tour of his old stomping grounds.  We got some pizza delivered to the basketball courts near the dorms, which is where this happened: