Dons Viking Voyage Review: Q & A With Coach Haave

June 9, 2009

(San Francisco) - As part of the wrap-up coverage of the USF Women's Basketball trip to Scandinavia, www.USFDons.com sat down with the Dons head coach Tanya Haave with some questions regarding the recent Viking Voyage to Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

What were your overall feelings on the trip?

"It was an enormously positive trip for our team, with absolutely valuable experiences. It was an amazing opportunity with all of the cultural experiences we were able to experience. Our team - players and staff - experienced tremendous growth being able to wander around on their own. It was a wonderful opportunity for fantastic team bonding and historically, the things we saw and learned about where amazing. For example, the Vasa Museum and the Vigeland Sculpture Park - two things we saw and experienced that were absolutely amazing and things you may not hear about when people talk about traveling to Europe."

What are some of your favorite memories from the trip?

"One of my favorite memories was walking into the first gym we played in - an average gym, by any means - and watching their faces when they realized that's where we'd be playing. It was also great watching their reactions to the beauty of Scandinavia, how wide eyed and curious they were about everything. It was fun to watch them in a different environment and how well they adapted to everything, while absolutely enjoying themselves. It was a pleasure to be able to watch them have fun and learn about different cultures and history at the same time."

If you could pick just one highlight from the trip, what would your top highlight be?

"The Vasa Museum in Stockholm, hands down. It's an interesting event that you don't hear much about in history. The story behind the ship and the recovery process is unbelievable. Its baffling of what condition the boat was in after hundreds of years and the restoration that was involved in the process. There is so much intrigue surrounding it."

Playing overseas, the team played under international rules. How do you feel the team adapted to the different style of play?

"We made tremendous progress during the trip. We started against a good, physical under 20 Swedish National Team and progressed to beating a Senior National Team (Denmark) twice. I think in 10 days we adapted great to the physicality of the teams we were playing, as well as the different styles of play. We saw things that we haven't seen from our team before and I feel that it will set the tone for the up-coming season. Overall on this trip, we proved to ourselves that we can do whatever we put on minds to."

Coverage of the Dons' trip to wrap-up through out the week as the women's basketball staff provides blogs reflecting on their experiences in Europe. For complete coverage of the Dons trip, visit the Tour Central page