North Carolina State University Athletics
Bowl Diary, Day Three
12/16/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 16, 2001
Orlando, Fla. - I think the players would tell you that the best thing about Sunday was the cool breezes blowing through practice this morning. It was very pleasant out there, which put the guys in a pretty good frame of mind for a normal, intense workout.
Today we moved to the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex. It was absolutely beautiful. The fields were like a smooth, green carpet when we got there, but board drills spoiled a little bit of their pristine appearance. Coach Amato keeps telling the guys to move their feet when they're on the boards, but every time those feet move, the cleats dig up a little turf.
Following practice, we came back to the hotel (only five minutes from the practice fields) and after position meetings, the chaplain from the University of Central Florida held a church service. Then it was a quick shower and on to meet Shamu.
About 10 of the guys got to get up close and personal with the killer whales. The SeaWorld folks took them backstage at Shamu Stadium for some photos. We lined all the guys up on either side of this platform-looking thing sticking out of the water. I guess I didn't quite explain what was going to happen well enough, because when that humongous whale jumped up on that platform, Chris Colmer almost jumped out of his shoes. We repositioned everyone and the whale did an encore. This time, everybody managed to maintain position, but there were some wide eyes in the group.
Then, they walked us around to the underwater viewing area for another photo. Somehow, they called the whale over to the glass, where it talked to Terrence Holt, Willie Wright, Dantonio Burnette, Corey Smith and Levar Fisher. Levar asked the whale if NC State was going to win and that huge animal nodded its head up and down. I hope Shamu is right.
After that, your's truly made two SERIOUS errors in judgement. The first was to agree to take all of the game jerseys of the 10 players who had just smoozed with Shamu. Some poor t-shirt salesman took pity on me and gave me a couple of bags, but I ended up lugging two big bags filled with jerseys around SeaWorld for a couple of hours.
The second error was a little more serious. I decided to get on a roller coaster with Keegan Weir, Chris Colmer (although he couldn't get on with us - his chest was too big for the bar to fasten across!), Brian Jamison and Terrance Martin. It was Brian and Terrance's THIRD trip on the ride for the day. It was horrible! Straight down, upside down, underground. I think I was a lovely shade of green when we finally disembarked!
I think many of the guys were heading for a snooze when we left the park. They have been spending a lot of time on their feet. But the tired factor has helped curfew checks go very easily. Except there was a snag last night. A couple of guys, kickers Adam Kiker and Josh Oakes, decided that they would play a joke on the graduate assistant coach who was doing their curfew check. When he came to the door, they tackled him around his ankles to knock him down. Trouble was, when they came out in the hall, their door shut and locked behind him. Oh, and did I mention that they were both wearing their boxer shorts! The rest of the guys were giving them a pretty hard time this morning - it evidently took security a while to get up there to help them out!
Actually that snooze sounds pretty good. Most of our local media shows up tomorrow, so the real work begins. And as Coach Amato commented on the way to SeaWorld, tomorrow's practice is really like a Wednesday practice - the game is just four days away!
