Wayne State College head women's basketball coach Chris Kielsmeier, assistant coach Kelly Kielsmeier and senior players Paige Ballinger and Maggie Schulte are part of USA D-2 Basketball on a four-game tour in Brazil.  Listed below is the first of many blogs from the trip with this one coming from head coach Chris Kielsmeier describing the travels on the trip to Brazil.  The team plays its first game of the tour Tuesday evening vs. Piracicaba followed by a Wednesday evening game against Osasco followed by a day off on Thursday that includes free time on Copacabana Beach.


We all arrived in Orlando either Sunday night or Monday morning. We relaxed at the Hyatt hotel that is located right in the airport terminal. There were a lot of shops with many that were Disney themed. Kelly and I spent some of the morning preparing to have our only practice at our gate later in the day. 
 
At 1pm we had orientation with everyone in our travel party. Our players selected their numbers and sizes of uniforms at the orientation. To see each player in a bright red USA jersey was awesome! I think this was a significant moment for our emotions. The ones we felt at the time and the ones we know are to come.
 
After orientation we went and checked in, got through security and then went and met at our gate. Everyone then went to shop or eat for a hour before we met back at our gate for our first and only practice before we play. 
 
Having one verbal practice to play against a professional international team was a little challenging, but the message I wanted to deliver was clear and to the point. Let's have a lot of fun, make lifetime memories and always represent ourselves, our institutions, the central region and most importantly our country at the highest level at all moments on this trip. It was great meeting and getting to know new players and the practice was very productive. To share this experience with my brother, Paige and Maggie  will make this even more emotional for me. 
 
Now onto the flight. The flight for me was like sand in an hour glass, slipping down the glass as slow as possible. The monitor in front of each chair had the best selections of movies and games ever. However, it also showed your flight path and the amount of time remaining in the flight. This made the flight even more difficult for me. I was able to fall asleep for only a few minutes on a couple occasions before something would wake me up. The first six hours of the flight were very difficult for me and many others. I finally fell asleep from 4 to about 6am. I needed those two hours in a big way! 
 
We landed, got through through customs, boarded our charter bus and made it to the hotel for our pregame meal. We are all relexing at our hotel now and will leave for our game at 4pm. The men's team play at 6:30 and we will tip roughly around 8:30. Brazil time is two hours ahead of central time in case you wanted to know that. 
 
I believe this will be an emotional, awesome night for everyone on our trip. How awesome is it to play basketball and represent our country! We will play hard, have fun and do our best. Go USA!