Kim Ewanovich Blog#9

Hello,


I know i start off most blogs by saying nothing really happened this week but it has never been more true then now. We didn't have a game this weekend (and because we won our last game) the coach gave us most of the week off. Tord and i worked out twice this week then i had handball practice just on friday.
For the weekend we didn't have much planned so saturday we drove a little over an hr away to Cannes to watch Ajaccio play Cannes in a top division volleyball game. Last year when we played in Ajaccio we were friends with a lot of the volleyball players and none of them knew we were coming so it was nice to see their reactions, and it was good to see them again. In driving to Cannes i saw my first snow fall of the season and now i am excited to come home, having Christmas just around the corner and not seeing snow doesn't seem right to me.
This weekend we play La Garde, they are first in the league and their club is located in the city next to us. I have been told there has always been a big rivalry between the two clubs and if there is one team the coaches and players want to beat the most, it would be this team.
Bisous
Kimberley

Kim Ewanovich Blog#8

Hello,
I just wanted to start of this blog saying that i experienced a little Canadian winter a few days ago here in France. An average the temperature here on a good day is anywhere from 10-20 degrees, on the bad days you can expect about plus 5 with rain and lots of wind but a few days ago it hailed for about 5 min and it made me think of all of you at home. Haha CRAZY cold weather :)
You know how ppl always say things tend to get worse before they get better well my team was experiencing the worst this past week. Having lost a few players the last month some due to personal issues and some to injury, we finally started thinking that we could move forward and start to concentrate on handball again, and we were wrong. After a exhibition match on wednesday one of the players left the gym upset and crying but nobody really knew why, this player does not live in the town and is new this year (and very shy) so nobody really had anyway to find out why she was upset so at the start of fridays practice everybody had a lot of questions for the coach. Unfortunately he didn't have many answerers except that she had decided to quit for her own reasons (another one bites the dust!!).
Our game this week was on sunday and it was about 4 hrs away, so instead of taking a greyhound bus we decided on taking 2 mini vans to make the trip go a little faster. This seemed to work because we ended up winning the game 19-22. This was the first away game my team had won and it was very important to win because everybody in the town has heard about the players "dropping like flies" and they are all saying that the rest of the season will be very difficult without these players and chances are we wont win many games from here on out. So this was kind of a big "EFF YOU" to all the ppl out there that are talking bad about the girls team (and to the girls that have quit).
I played the whole game with a 53% saving average, and i also saved 2/9 penalties (not the greatest game from 7m but 9 penalties shots?!?!).
I had 3 practices with the Toulon D1 team this week so that was cool. But they are gone the next few weeks for away games so i wont be training with them for the next little while. Plus we don't have a game this weekend so the coaches have given us 3 days off so we wont train again till friday, so i have no clue what i'm going to do with all this time off (did somebody say christmas shopping!!!).
Other then that, nothing much is new, Tord and I bought a new washer machine (6 days after the other one broke down) so you will be happy to hear we are now wearing clean clothes again. :)
Hope your all enjoying the cold, only another month till i'm there enjoying it with you :)
Bisous
Kimberley

Kim Ewanovich Blog#7

this is the House I live in,
Hello,
So this last week has been kind of crazy. My team found out that out captain is 4 weeks pregnant and will no longer be playing for the rest of the season. As well as on of the girls on my team got into a car accident and is okay but will be spending sometime in the hospital to recover.
This past weekend we played a team in last place but struggled a lot. I played 1st half we were tied 14-14, i didn't start 2nd half but after 15 min we were down by three so the coach made a goalie change and i started to play decent and we ended up winning by 3 in the end, with the final score being 27-30. This game was a very important game to win because it was against the last place team and now that we have lost our right back (captain) games are going to get much more difficult from here on in.
Outside of handball things are good, after the game my team went to a little pub downtown for a pot luck dinner and some drinks. After that about 10 girls (from my team and the 2nd team) went out to the bar. I really enjoyed this because it was the first time i have hung out with my team outside of handball and everybody had a good time and i get along with all the girls (for the most part, hahaha).
This week i will start goalie training with Toulon again (after a two week break) so i'm very excited for that.
Other then that nothing else is new, hope everybody at home is enjoying the snow :)
Bisous
Kimberley

Kim Ewanovich Blog#6

Hello,
Not to much to say this week, things have kinda gone back to the way they were a few weeks ago. We have only 8 or 9 girls at practice as well as the motivation is not there at all.
We played an away game this weekend which meant another 7 hr bus ride which for our team usually means playing really bad and loosing really bad... And this weekend wasn't any different.
We played SANFLO MURAT HB they were in behind us in placing but by just one point. After the 7 hr bus ride (and getting lost) we found the gym and were very surprised at the condition of it. The court size was smaller then the normal 20-40m court, the floor was concrete with lines painted on it. The nets were directly against the back wall so to stop the ball from going to far when somebody missed the net the team puts up these foam mattresses (like the ones used for high jump) against the walls. The biggest problem with that was the plastic had been torn on them so there was foam chunks all over the court and when a player missed the net the ball would have foam pieces on it making the ball hard to play with. The president of our club found out that the president of SanFlo Murats club was also on the board of the France Federation of handball so they get away with having teams to play games in this "shit" gym. But shit gym or no shit gym we still lost against a shit team (excuse my french) and there was no reasons or excuses for it.
But that game is over, now we need to focus on next weekends games vs Pays Apt Handball they are in last place with 1 win and 5 losses. It is a home game so as long as we don't play like we did this past weekend we shouldn't have a problem winning (knock on wood).
Tord and i went to watch Toulon play a club from Romania for a game in the handball champions league yesterday and although they lost by a few goals it was a very exciting game. I will start training with Toulon again after next week because the team has been away on games the last week and will be gone again all this week.


Here is a picture of Toulon playing yesterday, we got there kind of late so after finding parking these were the only seats available (first come, first serve).
Bisous
Kimberley

Kim Ewanovich Blog#5

Here is what happened this week...
After the last few weeks of bad trainings and games, this week was a breath of fresh air. The two girls that quit a few weeks ago have decided to come back this week which is great cause we need the players. The coach decided to change up the trainings and do a lot more physical drills with competitions incorporated into them. This has proven to be successful in motivating the team to work harder at practice and in turn playing better during the game.
This past saturday we played in the second round of the France Cup. France Cup is set up kinda like a tournament that goes on all season long between all the team from N3 to D1. The games are played once every few months and once you loose a game you are out.
This past weekend we played against Plan De Cuque, they play in Div 2 which is 2 divisions higher then my club. The France Cup isn't really taken seriously for most teams and my coach went into the game with the plan to play everybody and to use the game as a practice match.
I started the game and played really well, with over 50% saving average, at half time we were tied 11-11. Although the coach said it was even playing time for all the players, i though i might stay in net because i was doing so well but i was wrong, and he changed goalies for the second half. My team started to get tiered and made a lot of turnovers and we ended up loosing the game by 8. The coach told me after the game he was very happy with my performance but he wanted to see how the other goalie would do against a higher level team.
The president of the club couldn't be at the game this weekend but he called me today and told me he heard from some spectators and the coach that i had played really well, so i was happy to hear that.
This past week was a holiday in France and the kids had the whole week off from school so my club held handball camps all week long. They asked Tord and i if we could run a goalie practice on thursday and we agreed. I was told what gym it was at and that it started at 2, but that was it. They didn't know how many goalies would come and they didn't tell me how long the practice should be. Tord and i arrived at the gym to find 4 goalies waiting, 2 boys and 2 girls from ages 14-17. We started out with some fun warm up drills, then hand eye coordination stuff, then into the goalie drills. After about an 1.5 hrs the goalies started to look tiered so we ended the practice, or at least we thought we did. They then told us that they were told that practice didn't end till 5, and that they wanted to keep going, so we did. Three hrs is a long practice when you only have 4 goalies and your doing all the shooting but it was a lot of fun and it seemed like the goalies all really liked it.
This weekend we play away against Sanflo Murat HB, they are currently in 8th place, and we are in 5th place but we sit with just one more point then they do. So again it's a very important game for us and i hope for it to be our first away victory.


Bisous
Kimberley