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Maurizio Basso
Head Coach Sr Boys Basketball
SOSS sent the following:

Day 1. December 16th Long trip. We departed Oliver at 7:30 am and would not arrive into Hawaii until 12 pm Hawaii time which was 2 am Oliver time. It was late when we arrived and we were a very hungry team, as we had been up for many hours and a 6 hour flight with no food service made us a somewhat grumpy team. After settling into our hotel we ventured across the street to the Burger King much to the surprise of the staff. The Hotel is in the perfect location, around everything that we could possibly need: the beach, many stored and incredible views. However, our rooms where a little small for 3 to 4 guys per room but we will make due.

Day 2 December 17. We woke to a beautiful hot morning on the beach, finding wifi was also a bonus. We went from the beach to our first game in Kalaheo High were we played our first game against Damien Prep from Hawaii. The humidity in the gym was something that we were not prepared for as we were drenched in sweat even before the game started. We played a decent game yet we fell short in the end 53-36. I scored 14 points followed by Kulbir Grewal with 9. This was a very low scoring game as all of the games will be as there is no shot clock and teams hold the ball for longer periods of time, something we will have go get used to. We finished the day off by going out for this very cool team dinner at a retro 50’s diner, and then we walked around Waikiki.

Day 3 December 18. Another gorgeous morning in Honolulu so we went directly to the beach to get something to eat and to catch some sun. We had an earlier game today but again the humidity was very tough to deal with. The game was against Kamehameha High. It was a better game for the us as we had a comeback victory 44-40 after being down 17 in the third quarter. The scoring was pretty even in this game as I had 12 and Blake Miller Yuckin had 9 and Raj Bahniwal had 7. We spent the rest of the day at the beach as the typical tourist we were becoming and Waikiki was becoming more like home for us. This night we went for a great team dinner at the Hard Rock Hotel it was a great finish to a fun day.

Day 4 December 19. Got news that Gurshan Dhaliwal and Anmol Malhi will not being playing in the game today due to injuries. We started the day at you guessed it the beach. It was a great day as we also went on a sailing trip for 1 hour in the bay, it was a blast lots of waves and great views. When we got back we hung out at the beach for far to long but hey we are in Honolulu. Problem being is we had a game to play and needless to say it was not that great of a game for us. We were playing Milialani, a very tall team with 6’9″ and 6’7″ players who dwarfed our tallest player at 6’2″, we did not have a good start as we were down 9-0 right away but we were able to fight back to take a 2 point lead at the quarter 18-16. That is the best we would do as the sun and surf caught up to us the rest of the game as not enough guys and a team much taller and much deeper than us as they beat 65-40. I was able to score 14 points with Kulbir and Blake both scoring 6. By the time we got back we were beat, so we just swam in the pool for a bit then headed out to watch Oak Hill Prep a team with a bunch of NCAA destined players on the team and maybe an NBAer or two, it was a great game, as it was close and there were tons of huge dunks and acrobatic plays. What made it even better was they had a dunk contest at the end of the game and that was amazing.

Day 5 December 20. Another great day in the tropics, we had an early game so this made for a great day. The game was not the best as we Punahou a school that Barak Obama went to. Any how it was not our best game but when you have injuries you do your best. Blake had a great game as he scored 22 points. After the game we drove to Hananuma Bay to snorkel and swim with the turtles. For some of the guys this was their first time snorkeling it was a blast. After the bay most of the guys just hung out downtown while a group went to the Final game of the Iolani Tournament to watch two of the best teams in USA play. All in all it was a great day.

Day 6 December 21 This was our off day and it was the nicest day of the whole trip not a cloud in the sky it was beautiful. We started the day off by climbing Diamond Head the famous peak in Honolulu, the view was so awesome and the size of the crater of Diamond Head was huge. The actually hike was a bit of a challenge but the end result was worth it the effort. Right after the hike we headed to the North Shore we stopped at some beach but the waves and the coral made it impossible to swim in so we headed for the Pipeline. The day before they had the world championships there. It was an awesome sight as a lot of the surfers were still there so it was quite cool and the waves were huge. After getting some food we headed to Waimea Bay, this was the best part of the day as we got pounded by the huge waves, the waves were so big that they eventually cancelled swimming in the bay. By that time we were spent any how so we jumped in the vans and headed back to the hotel. Another great day in Paradise.

Day 7 December 22. Rain and lots of it greeted our morning, It kind of sucked but oh well what does one do. We basically hung around until our game versus Castle High of Kailua. We only had 7 guys for this game a game that we led for the most part but in the end we ended up losing 56-53. After the game Castle High hosted us for dinner and it was an great experience as we were able to talk to all the players from the other team. The food was awesome and it was fitting way to end our play in Hawaii, even though we didn’t win we had a lot of fun played against some really good competition and played our best given that we had a lot of injuries and had to deal with playing in very warm buildings.

Day 8 December 23. Our last day in Hawaii it is going to be a long day as we do not leave to until 11:30. It is a cloudy day so we decided to head to Pearl Harbor to see the monument to the USS Arizona and the battle of Pearl Harbor. It was a very educational day as we got to actually see what we had learned in Social Studies 11 and we got to immerse ourselves in that history. We were lucky to get into the monument as standbys because all the tickets had been sold by the time we arrived. After that we headed to the beach to soak up our last days of sun. It was a great day finished off with a team dinner at The Cheese Cake Factory. When we arrived at the airport we learned that our flight had been delayed by hour and half and this would make for a tight connection in Vancouver for our Kelowna flight. Well guess what we did not make our connecting flight, but luckily we were placed on another flight at 1 pm , and our journey finally came to an end on December 24th at 4 pm. It was a great trip full of lifelong memories.

Article on the trip written by Austin Basso