Posted on 4 March, 2010
Blog 2:
Hello from Stetson University,
My freshman year season is coming to an end as we only have one game to go, and unfortunately we have not made it to the conference finals.
Although we have been competitive this year we could not rack up enough wins to make to the conference championships. We lost a lot of seniors last year and we have one of the youngest teams going around. We are definitely a work in progress. Next year will also see us with an extremely young team so the challenges will continue
As you could imagine, our performances have been extremely frustrating for the team and coaches because we all know that we are much better team than our position on the ladder shows.
We have beaten the two top teams ETSU and Mercer this season, so it is clear that when we play our best basketball, we are very difficult to beat.
However, personally I have been playing my best basketball thus far for Stetson. For the month of February I have averaged 11.2 points per game, which included my career high game with 15 points, and I have been averaging 25minutes on the court.
I believe the main reason as to why I have improved is that my confidence increased and that I focused on my mental preparation prior to the games.
The guys of the team are so great it has been easy to develop good friendships with all of them.
My schooling is also going well, it will be much easier to stay on top of everything once the season has finished!
I find the school work to be similar with Australian year 12 classes, which helps me a lot, because I feel I have an advantage going over the same things I have already studied.
I’m really enjoying the classes that I am taking for my major, which is Psychology.
So after this last game against USC Upstate, the season will be finished, and I will be returning to Australia on the 6th of May,
Once I come back home, I will be looking forward to training at Kilsyth to maintain my touch and fitness, as well as catching up with all my old friends, .
I will also be focusing on weights to gain that much needed strength so I can better compete with those massive guys in the US.
I’ve really enjoyed my first year here at Stetson, I’ve had great support from coaches, team mates & the local supporters, the experience has been even better than I expected and the weather in Florida is amazing
Hopefully see you all soon
Joel Naburgs
Blog 1:
Joel Naburgs here, everything has been so busy with school work and pre season! But yes I feel finally adapted now! The pre season training has been very tough but I’m loving the challenges and to see how much my body can take, I remember Liam and my first gym session we both were nearly throwing up! But yes other than that we have not yet had a chance to have a full group training yet because it is illegal to the NCAA! But I have had a few individuals and have been feeling good! The classes are good I’m doing college writing, intro to psychology, educational psychology and sports management! I am very excited to train and start playing because i want to live up to my expectations, recently I was named in the ESPN’s top 10 freshman to watch out for in the nation!
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/notebook?page=notebook/shootaround/bestofrest
This is the link if you want it; it is near the bottom of the page!
What is strange though is I hurt my hand the first session I had, it didn’t hurt too much and I kept training and whatever, but the swelling never really went away so I got and x-ray it should I broke it bad, but there has been no pain at all and my hand can move fine so I am still training with it, the doctors even said that well if there is no pain then there is no point for a cast or surgery because it has obviously already been healing quickly!
Anyways I will keep you posted in what happening in a few weeks! Hope everything is going good at Kilsyth and hope to stay in touch with you!
