Basketball Part III: I'm the Head Coach Going Forward

I have written a few times about my involvement with the NU Women's basketball team.  The opportunity to work with the girls has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my involvement at the university.  In this post I will detail some of the exciting developments from the spring, including our results from the two tournaments we played in, as well as the future going forward.

3 on 3 Tournament

In early March there was an announcement that there would be a student/staff 3 on 3 tournament on a Saturday morning and afternoon.  Brett and I, along with one staff member from Brett's school and one of our players, Dinara, decided to enter.  Our goal was to win the whole tournament.   Each team could have 4 players, but play 3 at a time.  Dinara had to leave after we played our first two teams, so we were playing every game with just the three of us.  We won all of our games - five - and then played in the championship.  The team we played used five players and played all five at some point during the game against us.  It was a bit of cheating that we were upset about, but it happened.  One of their players got really hot from the three point line and all of their points came from long 3s.  We lost by 1 point when he hit his last long 3.  It was a bitter pill.  You can see from the photo of Brett and I playing how much fun we had together.  Getting to know and work with Brett has been awesome!

Commiserating with Brett during or after a game.  What a great friend.

League Season and Tournament

Brett, who has been the coach for the past three years organized a league with four other teams.  The league included 3 other universities and the "B" team from NU.  The "B" team is new this year.  We had so many girls who wanted to play, that when we selected the team in September, they decided they wanted to practice.  They spent their own money to pay for sports passes and practiced twice a week, often with the help of one of the girls from the main team.  When one of the teams dropped out of the tournament, we gave them an opportunity to play.  They didn't win any games, but they had a good experience, which will help for next year.

Action shot of our girls playing against the Agrarian University team - this team ended up in 4th place in the tournament.

The season was arranged so that each team played each other.  Each week for four weeks we had two games a night on Thursday evenings.  Our girls won all four of our games, and so we received the top seed in the tournament.  In the first round of the tournament the 1 seed played the 4, and the 2 and 3 seeds played each other.  We also won the first game of the semi-final.  In the final game we played our main rival in the city: for the second time in the tournament.  We won the championship game in a hard-fought victory - which meant that we went undefeated in the season and the tournament.

League and tournament champions!

Top 3 teams.  The team on the left is our main rival!

That was the culmination of the years efforts.  A few weeks later we were told at the last minute that the Ministry of Education and or Sport would be holding a tournament at the university.  This is the tournament that our girls took third place in last year - a vast improvement over their previous results.  This tournament was very poorly organized, but our girls took part.  Our first game was against the team we had beat for the championship in our tournament.  The game was hard-fought again, but we won.

Our second game was against the 3rd place team from the tournament we played in.  That game was one of the ugliest games we played in all year.  Nothing that we shot went in, but in the end, we held on and won.  We played in the championship against a team that didn't participate in the league and tournament that we put on.  By the end of the tournament we were the bad guys - all of the girls and fans from the other teams were cheering against us.  It was a very different feeling from that of being underdogs in the previous years.  The team we played was strong, but we held on and won.  They scored 13 of their 17 points on free throws - we scored four of ours on free throws.  We were up by two points with a few seconds left to go and one of our girls hit a long two point shot at the buzzer to seal the victory.

Qualifying game during Ministry Tournament.

Champions again! With medals and certificates to prove it.

It was a fine way to end the season.  7 of the 13 players on the team are seniors and will graduate in June.  They started the team with nothing and worked hard for three years and were able to attain a degree of excellence.  One of the biggest compliments that we received is from the father (and coach) of the star of our main rivals.  He said that we are now the example of what a team should be and that we are helping to bring respectability and professionalism to women's sports.  That is what we are trying to do for sure.

Social and other Activities

Yulia and I hosted the team at our house for an end of year banquet and awards ceremony in between the two tournaments. Our most valuable player was going to Milan for a work internship before the school year ended.  It was a very emotional ceremony as Brett said goodbye to the girls as well.  He accepted a job in the States beginning in August.  I became the head coach officially after our tournament.

Handing out awards at the end of the season.

Notice how dressed up the girls get - much different from boys basketball in this respect!

A fine group.  It is bittersweet to be a part of the changes in the next year.

Besides the end of the year banquet, we had a dinner at a restaurant after our second tournament win. The next week we had a dinner and get together at the house of one of our players who had a birthday during the tournament.  Being a part of the team means a lot of extra fun social interaction as well.

Going Forward

This year has been one of the most rewarding of my life.  The opportunity to be a part of the team has been one that has been very good for me in a number of ways.  I am a bit apprehensive about the prospect of being in charge of the team next year, but am also looking forward to the challenge of rebuilding the team after 4 of our starters and our two main bench players graduate, and of carrying on the legacy of success that the team has built in a few short years.  I am also excited for my girls to have as role models these excellent scholar athletes who dedicate themselves to a game that they love while continuing to have great success in the classroom and in life.

Victory Day Military Parade

Last week we had two federal holidays in a row. The first one was the Defender of the Fatherland Day (in other words Armed Forces Day). It is celebrated on February 23 in a lot of former Soviet Union Republics since 1919 except here in Kazakhstan where they celebrate it on May 7. I am not sure why. It is a big holiday here and can be compared to American Veteran’s Day and Father’s Day put together.

Two days later on May 9 we celebrate Victory Day which marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany and the end of WWII or the Great Patriotic War as it is often called here. The surrender document was signed late on the night of 8^th of May 1945 but in Moscow it was already 9^th of May and that is why Victory Day here is celebrated on the 9^th. It is one of the biggest holidays in a lot of former Soviet Union Republics and this year it was special because it has been 70 years since the war ended in which Soviet Union lost about 50 million people.

Usually there is a military parade on May 9 but this year it was held on May 7 (Defender of the Fatherland Day) because Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, was going to the Victory Day Parade in Moscow on the 9^th where he was one of the key guests.  For about 2 weeks before the parade we saw them practicing. On the way to church we would see some tanks and other heavy machinery. For a few days we saw fighter jets flying in different formations. It was great! We couldn't go see the actual parade because it was on the other side of the river and they cut off the traffic to the area of the parade, so we decided to go to one of the major squares where they put up big screens to watch the parade live.

Walking to Bayterek to watch the parade live on the screens

We invited our friends, the Petersons, to come with us. It was a very warm day, and the leaves on the trees just came out a few days earlier, so everything was dressed in that beautiful light green spring color. There were just a few people when we arrived at Bayterek square but soon more and more people started to show up. We found a nice spot to sit at the foot of the tower with a good view of the screens, the square, and the presidential palace where we could see the air show.

Spencer and the kids with the Peterson kids sitting at the foot of Bayterek watching the parade.

The stage with two screens on the sides at Bayerek.

The view of the Presidential Palace.

The parade was beautifully organized, and featured both historical (from the WWII era) and modern equipment. The largest military parade in Kazakhstan’s history gathered over 5 thousand military personnel, 200 pieces of military equipment and 70 helicopters and military airplanes.We really loved the air show when the military helicopters, fighter jets and other military planes flew in different formations with the last fighter jet formation being a number 70 for the 70^th anniversary since the ending of WWII. At the end they wrote a big “70” in the sky with the smoke.

Beginning of the Parade.

Tanks. 

Veterans of WWII, Just a few of them are still living.

Military helicopters

Jets escorting a transport plane (I think it is TU 134)

New Su-30 SM Flankers purchased from Russia. It is probably hard to see from this angle but they are flying as number 70

After it was over we walked to Keruen Mall for some ice cream where we also found some displays with the pictures of men and women who went to war from this area and with some pieces from their letters to home. It was really neat.

 

The square was full of people who came to watch the parade.

A display at Keruen Mall with the photographs of the people who went to WWII from this area.

I hope our kids will remember this day. All of their great grandfathers went to that war. One of their Russian grandfathers was killed at the very beginning; the other went all the way to Berlin and was there on the day the capitulation was signed. He made it home but died years later from a piece of shrapnel that was never removed from his body. Both of their American great grandparents answered the call and went to war even though they didn't see any action themselves because it was over before they got there. I hope they will remember their heritage and I hope they will remember the sacrifices that so many men, women, and even children paid so they can have the freedom.

A day trip to Korgalzhyn Nature Preserve Area

Steppe in spring

On Saturday, May 2, we took a day trip to Korgalzhyn State Nature Reserve, the largest preserve zone in Kazakhstan located about 160 km northwest of Astana. The area has had a National park status since 1968 and in 2008 became one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites but it still remains surprisingly unknown, even within Kazakhstan. It is a combination of virgin steppe and lakes, and wetlands and is a home to wolves, marmots and saiga. However the main attraction is the birds including … pink flamingo! The first time I heard that there are flamingo in Kazakhstan I didn't believe it! What?! Flamingo that far north?! But the National park is located right on the crossroads of two bird migration routs and it’s largest lake Tengiz is a final stop for the great pink flamingo coming here for the summer from southeast Asia. They usually come at the beginning of May and stay until the end of August. In that short time they manage to raise a new generation of flamingos that are strong enough to fly back to southeast Asia. This year, though, due to the late spring and possibly flooding, the flamingos haven’t arrived yet. We’ll have to make another trip sometime in the future to see them.

But even without the flamingos the trip was an exciting one. It was organized by Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (Link) specifically for NU faculty and their families. We totally took advantage of this great opportunity. There were 15 of us plus our English speaking guide and ecologist, Vera.

The long road to Korgalzhyn Nature Preserve Area

We arrived at Korgalzhyn Aul (village) which is near the National park at about 10:30 in the morning. The roads there were in a really bad condition and what could have taken us a little over an hour on American freeways, took us two and a half hours and a very bumpy ride to get to our destination. On our way there we also saw some flooded areas. At one of the places MES (Ministry for Extreme Situations, kind of like 911 for nature disasters) set up some pumps to pump water from one side of the road on which there was a totally flooded village to another where they had just steppe.

Flooded barns

Pumps that were pumping the excess water from this side of the road to the other.

Once we arrived at Korgalzhyn aul we had a guided tour of the National Park museum. It was a small but a very nice museum which had exhibits of the wild life found in the area and also a history of the Korgalzhyn National Park. After the tour we stopped by a little gift shop which had the crafts made just by local kids. We were really impressed with one picture made out of fish bones, so we bought it.

A view of the main hall of the musium

A hall about wildlife in steppe.

A little insect exhibit. We were told that unfortunately nobody really studies insects in Kazakhstan.

 

This picture was made by one of the local kids out of fish bones!

Our next stop was a lunch at a guest house – a home of a local family who prepared a nice meal for us: manty (Kazakh dumplings filled with meat), a couple of salads and baursak (kind of like a scone). And of course tea. Kazakhs do not have any gathering without serving tea at some point! We do not drink regular tea (but we love herbal tea), and so we politely declined the offer and turned our energy to treats instead. I forgot the name of our host but she was a super nice lady. She has 3 daughters one of whom was helping her serving lunch, and so she was totally spoiling our girls making sure they had plenty of candy to eat (reminded me of their babushka)! She said she’s kept a guest house for 17 years now and loves all of the visitors that come. There are a lot of students that come from different countries to study birds there, so they stay with her.   

The guest house

Our yummy lunch. On the big plate in the middle is the manty, and a little further away is a plate with baursak.

Our girls with their new "Kazakh babushka"!

Getting ready to get back on the road. Those white covers are the protectors from ticks.

After lunch we got back into our minibus, picked up a National Park rep to get us through the park’s border and went to the park making a few stops at the lakes to see some birds there. Our guide, Vera, had some nice optical equipment with her, so we could watch the birds and animals without getting too close to them and scaring them off. Some of the wild life we saw: grey heron, two kinds of swans, demoiselle crane, dalmation pelican, bittern, gulls, shelduck, great crested grebe, marsh harrier, swallow, steppe eagle, black lark, yellow wagtail, and other birds along with gophers, ground hogs and even a fox.  And of course, the vast steppe, lots of it! We were told that the soil is too salty to cultivate because of the lakes. Half of the lakes in the park’s lake system are fresh water lakes but the other half is salty. In the summer the water level in the lakes are much lower, and the salt from them is picked up by the wind and carried through the steppe.

One of the species of wild tulips. 

Spring came late this year, so the flowers are just barely starting to come up.

Our girls! And our minibus in the background.

Lexa is such a cutie!

Going to see the swans up close.

These are whooper swans.

I don't know why but I just love this picture!

Watching the wild life is much easier when you have the right equipment! There is Spencer talking to our guide-ecologist, Vera, about some birds.

I spotted some horses on the other side of the lake. 

Stilt!

I had no idea I would enjoy bird watching so much!

A pair of demoiselle cranes

Barn swallow

Watching for gophers

Found one!

This one is a different kind of wild tulip. Beautiful!

We found a lizard.

Mute swan in all its beauty!

A bittern. These are very hard to see. Our guide said that in 8 years of bird watching she has only seen them twice! So, we were very lucky to see one right there.

A female marmot.

At our final stop at one of the lakes we had a picnic style dinner, rested, and went back home arriving in Astana at about 9pm.

Our last stop of the day. Isn't this beautiful?

The girls found some swings to play on

And we found some frogs. Now, how many frogs can you see in there? I counted at least six!

Watching for frogs off the pier that was destroyed by moving ice in early spring.

Coming back home we saw some interesting cemeteries.

Some are dated a few hundred years old and just about each one had a legend to go with the name of it.

Exhausted Lexa and Sophie!

It was a long but an awesome day, and we all learned a lot about the wildlife in steppes of Kazakhstan. Hopefully we can come back some time and see the famous pink flamingos.

A gorgeous sunset over the wetlands. We are fortunate to have such a beautiful view out of our window!