Kim Ewanovich Blog#9

Happy Holidays!!!


Hello all,
the last two weeks have been good we played an away game up in the north of France 2 weekends ago so we flew to Switzerland and then from there we rented cars and drove 3 hrs to our hotel. Don't ask why we did it that way but my guess is it was the cheapest. We played against a team in the middle of the table and we won 27-22 with the score being 10-8 for us at half. I played the whole game but the last minute, i had a great first half saving 14 out of 22 shots and an okay the second half saving 10 out of 24 shots. This win moved us into third place. After the game we went to a really nice restaurant and then to the hotel to sleep before driving back to Switzerland to fly out the next day.
The following week was very important to us, it was the last game of the championship before christmas and the game was against the team just ahead of us so it was a must win. I started out the game with a few big saves but after making a save (and the rebound going to the pivot) i "dove" trying to get to the other side of the net and hit my head on the floor (and she scored...... fail). I decided to stay in net and finished the half okay but my team was loosing 8-12. I didn't expect to be put back in net but the coach thought i was playing well so he had me start second half and i played the rest of the game. With less then 2min left in the game and with a score of 24-24 the other team had possession and ran down the clock hoping to get the last shot. After the refs raised their hand for a passive play they shot and i saved it and my team went on the attack with less then a min left and decided to do an alley-oop. We didn't score off the play but drew a 7m with 5 second left and we scored, winning the game 25-24 and moving us up into first place for christmas :)
We have a game this weekend for the France cup against a team in N2 (one div lower then us). We will play the away game on saturday and will arrive home around 2 am and i will have just enough time to sleep a few hrs before heading off to the airport to spend Christmas with Tord's family in Norway. Then i will be back in Nice on the 27th of December to meet up with my parents who are coming to visit for a few weeks. Sooo this will most likely be my last blog before Christmas so i wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, be safe and have fun!!! :)
Bisous

Kim Ewanovich Blog#8 From Cannes France

Hello,
So it seems like my team is definitely a "home game" team. After beating the first place team by 15 three weeks ago, we lost to a (bad) team by 2 in an away game last week. This lost dropped us from first place all the way down to fifth. The championship is so tight that there are only 7 points (3 pts for a win, 2 for a tie and 1 for a loss) between the first place team and the last place team. Soooo this means that if we win the next two games we could easily be back up to first place.
This past weekend we had a France Cup game (round 5) against Nice who are currently in 2nd place in D2 (one level above us). We went into the game knowing we weren't expected to win and had nothing to loose. We surprised everybody (and ourselves) when we came out of the gates full force and were up at halftime 12-9. I played the whole game but the last 8 min, and i think i had a very good game (if i do say so myself). With 8 min left we were down by 1 and i was subbed off, after some back and forth goals my team scored with little time remaining and we ended the game 21-21. Because it is a France Cup game there must be a winner and we went straight into shootout. The coach told me that the other goalie would be in net for the penalty shots and said i would go in for the last shot if we need a save. The other team started the shootout and both teams scored the first 3 goals then a Nice player missed the net, we then scored and on the next shot our goalie made a huge save winning us the game 25-24. Both teams dedicated the game to fundraising money for orphanages in Senegal by selling game t-shirts and other things and after the game all the little "clubs kidlets" came up with books that had our picture and names in them and we all signed autographs, so over all it was a great day.
Our next game is this weekend, away vs a team in the north of France.
Bisous

Kim Ewanovich Blog#7 From Cannes France

Hello,

I hope you are all enjoying the snow, i have heard it has started and has decided not to stop. Here the weather is about plus 18 and sunny most days so you're all welcome to come visit anytime :)

This week was a good week, we were a bit nervous because we had a home game vs the first place team, but when the time came we delivered. The papers said that so far Cannes is the best defending team in the league and that Bourg de Peage was the best offensive team so it was expected to be an interesting game.

The game started with us up 8-2 and we kept the lead throughout the whole game. The half time score was 20-8 for us and we ended the game 37-22. I played the first 40 min of the game and played well, with lots of help from my defenders. We are now in first place!! Yipppiiiieeee!!!!

This weekend we play vs a team in the middle of the charts but still they are not a team to be taking lightly.

Other then handball i have not been up to much because i have been sick these past few weeks and i'm slowly getting better.

Hope you are all staying warm and enjoying the christmas music :)

bisous

Kim Ewanovich Blog#6 From Cannes France

Hello,


These last few weeks we had 2 games, one for the France cup and one for the championship. Both of these games were vs the same team La Garde (N1).
It's always nice to win the France cup game but when it comes down to it, it is the championship game that matters the most. To prepare for these games we had a long week with 2 trainings a day with me being the only goalie for the morning practices.
We used the 1st game vs La Garde as learning game to see what would work against them and to see how they played. We won France cup game 28-34 with a half time score of 10-18, i was the only goalie that dressed for this game and played a good first half but not such a great 2nd half.
Our second game was this past weekend at La Garde and it was very important for us to win if we wanted the dream of moving up to D2 to stay alive. The game started out great with us being up 10-4 after 15 min but like in past games we then went 10 min without scoring and La Garde caught up with the score being 10-9 around the 25 min mark. We ended the half up 14-11.
The second half was much like the first with ups and downs (including myself) with us ending the game with 3 points and the score of 26-25. We were happy for the win but knew that we were lucky to squeak by. After the game we received some good news because the 1st place team in our league had lost their game which puts us currently in second and we will play against the 1st place team next weekend (at home) and a win will put us in first place.
This past week due to the G20 being held in Cannes things here have been kinda crazy. 400++ cops moved in to the same resort as us from all over France to act as security for the world leaders that were about to arrive. To make things even more crazy, at random times of the day the police would close down main roads for anywhere from 10min to an hr when the world leaders were being moved from one place to another.
Once the craziness of the G20 started to slow down then the rain kicked in for 3 days straight causing many other problems. The rain here can only be compared to what i have experienced in Brazil. It rained hard for 3 days straight causing many main roads to be closed down, some roads were under more then 2m of water (see my fb video if you get a chance). Today it has been cloudy but no rain so hopefully things will start to get back to normal soon.
This week is all about preparing for our home game this weekend which is a must win for us.
Bisous
Kimberley

Kim Ewanovich Blog#5

Hello,

These past few weeks have been interesting and it all started a few weekends ago when we had a game vs Metz on the 8th. Metz is in the North/East of France so we were told that we would fly there on saturday and then fly home on sunday. What i didn't realize till saturday morning is that we were flying into Belgium then renting cars and driving to Metz. Why you might ask… well our guess is that it was the cheapest way to get there, but after a 3 hr plane ride and 3 hr car ride we were in no shape to play a game.

This showed during the game with our missed 6m shots and our many turnovers. The half time score was 12-12 and we ended the game, loosing in the final seconds with a score of 21-22. We were all set up to win the game with the score tied and us having possession with 15 seconds left, but one of the girls passed the ball and it was intercepted and Metz came back scoring on a fastbreak with no time left. I played the whole game and had a decent saving percentage of 40 but again that means nothing if you loose.

We then went back to the hotel and most of us went straight to our rooms for the night. The next day we left the hotel at 12 and planned to drive back to Brussels and sightsee a little before going to the airport. Once in Brussels the front car (only one with gps) ran a yellow light leaving 2 other cars behind and not noticing. After a few other lights the car behind us disappeared and we were all lost. After driving around for an hr we decided to just go to the airport and meet everybody there. We got to the airport a few hrs before our flight and ate at pizza hut!!! I then enjoyed a starbucks, it reminded me of home (tear) and then it was back to Cannes, arriving at 10 pm sunday night.

Moral of the team after the game was very low and we were grilled not only by the coach but by the president of the club.

Our next game was vs Nimes at home and this game came with a lot of drama, not only did we have to win but the coach made a bold move and decided to only dress one goalie so he could take and extra out player. After telling the other goalie she would play with the 2nd team this weekend "poo" hit the fan. She has been with the club for 5 years and has never played on the 2nd team so she was not happy at all and voiced her opinion on Facebook (as did her friends and fans). I tried not to let it bother me coming in to the game but the pressure was definitely on for me to play well and for the team to win. The half time score was 18-9 and we ended up winning 38-22, i had my best game of the season so far with a 55% saving average.

I'm not sure if the other goalie was happy with the result as she left 15 min into the game. Monday she came to practice and said she was quitting but then showed up to training the rest of the week.

This weekend we didn't have a game so our next game is vs La Garde (n1) in the France cup on thursday, and then we will play them again the following weekend in the championship.

Thats about all the news i have for you over here in France, i hope the mens national team is doing well in Mexico and the boys are enjoying Japan.

Also i would like to say congrats to Alexis and Josh for their little baby girl.

Bisous

Kim Ewanovich Blog#4

Hello,
Sorry it has taken me so long to write this blog but the internet has been out for a few weeks (due to a fire at the resort) and we have been unable to connect with our 3G key card. But everything is up and working again so here is what has happened these last few weeks...
Three weekends ago we played our first league game away vs Pouzin it was only about a 4 hr drive away so we took the 2 mini-busses owned by the club. I started the game and played all but the last 10 min, after letting in a few weak goals i was pulled with the score +1 for us. With 2 min left in the game we were still at +1 and the other team drew 7m, i went in net and saved the penalty and we ended up winning the game 29-27. After the game the other team treated us to wine and spaghetti before we headed back on the road home.
I think everybody felt good about the first game... maybe too good because that following week we had 4 shitty practices and one brutal running practice which lead us into our first home game vs Achenheim Truchtersheim Handball (say that 5 times fast). I played the whole game with the half time score being 12-9 for us, but after a bad run from my team we only scored one time in 17 min. When we finally got our heads out of our (you know where) it was to late, we fell behind and lost the game by 2. For any team it sucks to loose the first home game but it makes it 100 times worse when the team you play is not very good and also when you have a goal of moving up for the next season. From here on out every game will count if we want a chance of moving up.
This past week the team has become focused again and we have had a solid week of training that included a running practice (yippiee) and 2 practices on friday with the first one being only for a handful of players (me included) to work more one on one.
Because my team went all the way to Corse to play in the first round of the France cup, the second round (this past weekend) we were exempted and didn't have to play. I don't get many weekends off so i took the opportunity to hop into my beat up old car and drive 1.5 hrs to visit the club i played for last season (to watch them play in the second round of the france cup). It was nice to see everybody again and they were also happy to see me because nobody knew i was coming and i have not seem most of them since June. Anyways they won the game by 2, and there is a big chance that my team (Cannes) will be playing against them in a few weeks for the 3rd round of the france cup!!!!
Next week we play Metz, which is in northern France (900km away) and to far for us to drive so we will be taking a plane on sat, play them (at 8pm) then spend the night in a hotel and return home on sunday. Metz is one of the teams in our league that has a first team in D1 so it is always a good thing if you can play well and show yourself in an N1 game incase someone is watching.
I would also like to announce i am an auntie to a beautiful baby girl and would like to congratulate my brother and his wife for there little bundle of joy.
Thats about it on my end
Bisous

Kim Ewanovich Blog#3

Hey,
So these last few weeks have been really good my team has 2 exhibition games and one France cup game.
The 1st exhibition game was on monday vs Nice (D2) , and we tied them and i played the whole game. The cool thing about playing this team was that there starting goalie is Valerie Nicolas, she was one of the best goalies in the world and played for the France team and won the title of MVP at the 2003 World Championships when her team won.
Our second game on tuesday was vs Grass (N2) and i was told to warm up but that i would probably not play. Ten min into the game our goalie pulled herself because she was not playing well and i went into net. After about 5 min i was hit in the face by a winger and was told to come sit on the bench, and thats where i spent the rest of the game :( haha. We won that game by 15 goals.
Our first official game was on saturday and it was for the France Cup and we played against my old team (2009-2010 season), Ajaccio (N3). Due to it still being high tourist season we couldn't find cheap enough flights for our whole team soo we took the boat (ferry) to Ajaccio from Toulon. To get to Toulon we had to be up at 5 am sat morning to drive the 1.5 hrs to the ferry then take the 6.5 hr ferry to Ajaccio.
We arrived in Ajaccio and walked around for an hr or so then it was game time. It was nice to see some of the players again but i was a little sad because the mens handball and volleyball team were both playing "in France" and so i didn't get the chance to see any of my friends from those teams. The game went okay, with me splitting the playing time 30/30 with the other goalie. We won the game 39-14 and took a nice refreshing swim in the ocean after the game. It was then off to get onto the ferry again, which would now take and extra 2 hrs making the trip home 8.5 hrs to Toulon then another 1.5 hr drive to Cannes. My team decided to sleep in the "kids area" of the ferry so we slept in the coloured balls play pen, which is not as fun as it sounds. We arrived in Cannes at 8:30 sunday morning and it was off to bed for me.
This week we have normal practices in preparation for our first (very important) league game this weekend. My teams goal and ambition this season is to move up to D2 and all of the players are really feeling the pressure of this first game, hoping that winning the first game will set the pace for the whole season.
Bisous
Kimberley