MEEK LEADS TEAM TO VICTORY OVER RIVAL ORENBURG

Guess what everyone? I am happy to share with you that we (Dynamo Kursk) accomplished a major task last night. We competed against Orenburg. And if many of you can recall, they have been our Achilles heel since I have been playing in Russia. Well on last night we were able to come away with a hard fought victory.

Not only did we win, but we got Michelle Snow back and she had her returning debut against them. We look so good out there. Our team as I have mentions has gotten so much stronger and better across the board, and we played like we really wanted this game.

Now don't get me wrong  -- Orenburg was not going out without a fight. At the end of the 3rd quarter we were both tied at 49. Now this fourth quarter was the determining factor in who wanted it more.
Orenburg has Dewanna Bonner, I was so happy to see DB, and they also have Rene Montgomery. The two of these ladies practically tried to put Orenburg on their backs and carry them to victory. Rene finished the game with 23 points and 3 assist, and DeWanna finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds. She was clearly a match up problem for us because of her athletic ability and her ability to stretch the floor. She was hitting from long range which was making our big players have to come out, as well as drive directly to the goal. It definitely took a group effort to try and contain her.

But with that being said, we had a group effort on our end offensively as well. I was and still am extremely proud of Ekaterina Lisina for how well she has been playing and how much she has worked on her game in the off season, and I was extremely happy for the production that Shay Murphy came in and gave us. Again it was a total team effort and I couldn't be any happier.

Our next game up will be against Bulgaria, this is in the Euro-cup game. We will be traveling to them this week. I am looking forward to this. I do not know much about this team yet but I will very soon. I know that our coaches are watching film and will definitely have us prepared for it.  So until then I hope everyone have a great week and check out Eurobasket.com if you want to follow myself and so many others throughout Europe. 

FINDING LOVE AND COURAGE IN A RUSSIAN FOSTER HOME

Hello all! I am so excited to bring you this news. Two days ago a few of my teammates as well as myself went to visit a foster home home here in Russia.  I was not sure what I was getting myself into other than going visit some kids that were in need, and needed to at least smile.  To my surprise this place was really nice and well equipped.

The manager of the facility was super nice, and her husband was a true Kursk Basketball fan. She shared with us how much she had to listen to him after our games until around 1 o'clock in the morning, and while sharing how excited her husband was he then called LOL. He wanted to make sure that we had made it. Then after hanging up with him she began to inform us about how things work around there. The phone rings again, it was her husband -- LOL, wanting to wish us a good luck. It was so funny and cute.

Anyways this is what is learned about the facility, (keep in mind I was getting everything translated and was trying to keep up) but I know I enjoyed every minute of what I saw and learned while we were there.

Here is a little information that I was about to gather while touring:
The facility houses 149 kids. It has 300 workers, and a psychologist that the kids can speak with when needed.

Of the 100 kids at least 80 find homes which I think is amazing; some are only here temperaily if their home is unstable and once it gets back right then the kids are able to return back to their homes.
They use to allow Americans  to adopt but their was an accident that occurred after one of the adoptions with the family and that kind of slowed that process down to almost not even really occuring anymore.

Most of the handicap kids  are adopted by foreigners mainly for medical purposes but I think that it is amazing to try and get the kids the medical attention that they truly need.

In this facility they also do something that I think is really helpful;they mix the normal kids as well as handicap kids together so they can learn from each other and not feel any different than anyone else around them.

The babies that we saw that were 0-6 months and are usually the ones that are given up for adoption but they were placed in such cute little beds amongst one another.
Something else that they do in the home is try to make it very family oriented. They help the kids to know and understand what having a mother, grandmother, or sister is like. So the younger workers that work there are called their sisters, the middle age workers are the mothers, and the older workers are called the grandmothers. 

Most of the workers that were there were not real professionals but they were women that were truly great with kids. I will be returning there to see them all again as well as bring some of my children books to them, they were very excited about that. It was a great experience for me and I am so happy that we went.

Here is a video news report:


You can also see more pics on my Facebook page: http://goo.gl/qujYK

OFF AND RUNNING IN RUSSIA!

Hello there!

Wow it is so great to stop and exhale! We have been going non-stop, but it has definitely been a great thing. We jump started the season off with meeting with the Mayor. He took time out of his busy schedule to congratulate last year team on our success, as well as welcome the new player to this years team and wish us all the best. It was truly a pleasure and an honor to be there with him.

From here the game began. We started out the season 2-0 in the Russian league. We played our first game against Spartak Noginsk. They are a very talent but different looking team this year. They put up a great fight against us, but we were able to prevail in the end and come out on top with a victory.

The following game in Russian league was against Dynamo Moscow, who had fellow American player Laura Harper on there team. We were so ready for this game, we came out of the blocks against these ladies. I was really proud of our team and how we responded to this challenge, because we know that this is a team that we will see later on and they will be much better. With that said this game put us at 2-0 in the Russian League and after the progressing season that I have just come off of; it is great to be right here right now. ( ahhhh the little things in life).

On yesterday, we had our first Euro-cup Game. This was the first of our new journey to try and repeat the championship; which we know will not be easy. And Botus the Turkih Team that we competed against was proof of it. Although we started out playing well, that team that had Former LSU Lady Tiger Quianna Chaney, Courtney Paris, and Christi Thomas on their team would not just go away easily. It was definitely a hard fought game by both teams. But I was definitely please to see how well my teammates and I are gelling together and we are still missing two big pieces to our puzzle in Ephipany Prince and Michelle Snow who will both be joining us very soon. Its scary to even think of how good of a team we can really be.

Again I am happy to be where I am right now, and the best thing about this is not only that I get to continue to play basketball; but I get to continue to grow and mature as a player, person, and a leader!!!!!

I will be in touch with you all very soon. There are more games ahead, more road trips, and best of all more fun!

BACK IN RUSSIA

Hello everyone, I am back off of hiatus. I have to tell you that my time resting was so good for me. Thanks for understanding.

I am currently back in Russia and yes it is time to get back to work. This is my second day her and I will say that through the jet lag and tiredness I am enjoying my teammates. Ill wait until the other Americans get her to speak to you about them. They will be arriving first thing next week. right now we are enjoying my teammate Bimba's birthday. We are at the bowling alley, and lets just say that basketball is definitely the sport that I was blessed with talent for. LOL. I'm not horribly bad but I won't say that I am amazing either.

It's all in good fun and I am having a blast. We'll be back in touch with you all very soon.

Meek