Aug. 15, 2012

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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State women's basketball incoming freshman Ruth Hamblin was named to the Canadian Junior National Team three weeks ago and opens play today in the FIBA Americas U18 Championships, being held until Aug. 19 in Guarbo, Puerto Rico. Ruth has been checking in with osubeavers.com throughout her journey as she aims to help Team Canada medal in the event for the fifth consecutive time. The team begins with a 3 p.m. PST game this afternoon against Brazil. All games in the tournament will be streamed live on the FIBA Americas website. A full schedule is below.

Takeoff - August 11

This morning we had our last practice of training camp - all 16 days of it.

It was long and grueling, but I just took it one day at a time and have become a lot better if a basketball player in these past 16 days. It's been worth it.

Tomorrow at 8 a.m. our bus leaves for the Toronto Pearson Airport, where we leave for Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico!!!

This is going to be an amazing adventure: representing my country, playing basketball and giving my everything on the floor.

We play Argentina on Monday in an exhibition game. This is going to be a far cry from BC Single A high school girls basketball where I would have found myself playing just six months ago.

But even that experience has helped prepare me for this journey. I admit, I'm nowhere near the basketball player I have the ability to be, but that's my incentive every day. It's why I wake up, why I push myself physically and mentally, and why I don't stay in my comfort zone.

I will get there. But tomorrow...I'm going to Puerto Rico!

Go Canada!!

The Adventures of Getting To Puerto Rico - August 12

August 12, 2012...Travel day to Puerto Rico for the FIBA Americas.

It started slightly early and at 7 a.m. my alarm went off. I woke up, finalized my packing and went downstairs where a charter bus was waiting to take our team to the Toronto Airport.

I mainly snoozed on the bus ride and it seemed to go quite quickly because when I sat up for the first time we were at the airport already!

We checked in and tagged our luggage. Michelle (Hudyn) and I went through security first because it took everyone a long time to get checked in and had breakfast in one of the two food options in our wing.

I was just walking back from window shopping with Cheyanne (Roger) and Michelle when Sarah (our team manager) stopped us in our tracks.

Our flight at noon was delayed until 6 p.m. and we were going to have to stay in Atlanta overnight. It was just 11 a.m. at the time.

I decided to FaceTime with my parents for a little while since I suddenly had the time. We were having a lovely, peaceful chit-chat in a quiet corner when suddenly Coach Sparks came running across.

"Ruth, get your bags!"

Ack! My heart raced as I quickly said goodbye to Mom and Dad and ran to where my bags were. I grabbed them and rushed with some other girls to our departure gate.

It turns out that they were arranging to get us on different flights to Puerto Rico because we had our exhibition game against Argentina the next day.

We waited for quite a while and then we found out that Coach Scott, Sam and I would be going on a flight to New York City where we would meet up with part of the group to connect to Puerto Rico. They ended up splitting us into three groups, two connecting through New York City and one through Atlanta.

We were on a small plane and the ride was about 50 minutes long. When we got off at NYC it was warm and humid. We waited for the other group of eight to land and then we all took a shuttle to our next terminal.

We ate dinner, and relaxed in Terminal 4 at JFK until once again it was time to board.

"Hmm, I wonder what this `PREM' on our ticket below the seat number means. It couldn't be first class seating ... Could it?"

That's right; the only available seats when they rearranged our flights were in first class. This is one experience I will never, ever, forget.