Day 3 in Wichita

What a turn around today. :) We went to go meet with the director of the NBC World Series to get paper work turned in and finish registering the team, but he was not ready for us for another 30 minutes. So we tried to get a ride from the nice young lady who worked at the front to take us to the nearest Starbucks. Standing at the check-in desk was Tish, a who's son had just finished and won their game. She over heard our conversation and offered us a ride to the Starbucks. We were so grateful for the ride, coach Rudy thanked her for her heroic act (2nd time in 3 days that he had his Starbucks, compared to the daily and some times twice daily coffee runs that we make back home). And, that was just the beginning of a great and generous time spent with Tish and her daughter Ariann...

Left->Right: Nobo, Andres, Jio, Marco, Kevin, David V., Augie, Ariann, Steven, David W., Victor, Chepe, Rudy, & Tish

  Tish is the Principal-President of a local high school and offered to let our team practice at the baseball field, on a turf field, and hit in the indoor cages. We explained that we had no form of transportation and without hesitation Tish offered to pick our team up from the hotel with one of the school's buses.
As if that wasn't enough, she offered to take me to go pick up Marco and Jio who went to the airport to pick up their luggage that had finally arrived and then take them to the field so that they could practice with the team.
Next, Tish and I went to Walmart get a money order and buy some water, sunscreen, and other snacks for the team. The boys also needed some red socks, 1 hat that was missing to match the teams (or else they would not all be in uniform and not allowed to wear the new hats they bought), and a few red belts. Which we found at Dick's sporting goods and Lids at the mall. Following this we stopped at Tish's house to pick up 2 ice coolers that Tish and her husband are lending the team to make sure they have cold waters for the games. We then went to the school gym and she filled our coolers with ice form the training room.

The boys were just finishing their practice and Ariann told us about a good pizza place that she recently tried, it had large pizza's for only $4.60.  Since it was on our way home we called and ordered 10 large pizza's and 3 orders of 16 buffalo wings. "Super Bomb Pizza's", from Victor Serna. Tish then gave us a ride home to the hotel and we could not thank her enough for her generosity and kindness. She is going to try and make our first game that starts tomorrow at 1pm (wooohoooo!!). Tish and her family are going out of town for a family reunion on Wednesday, so the team has promised to take her to dinner once she gets back.
The boys ate dinner and stayed in the lobby watching the Cubs game until Mariam, Hector, Johnny, and Estevan arrived and were checked in. Following this is a team meeting with coach (taking place right now) to go over the tournament rules and such before tomorrow's game. We are also still waiting for Belen and Michael who will be arriving around 11:45pm.

Coach's comment for the day: "I was impressed with team focus in the heat today during the workout. That should lead to success tomorrow".