We are a Family: Steph Berg

        

           It’s a great feeling to have knowing that even when you’re not at home, you have a place you can call home.  And even when you’re not with your family, you have friends you can call family.  That’s what I have here at USI with the volleyball team, and all USI athletes.  Many people look at our team and find it amazing that we are ALWAYS together…
We all have at least one roommate that is on the volleyball team with us
We can be leaving straight from practice and already be making plans to hang out for the night or the weekend
Most of us have our best friend on the team or who is another USI athlete

I remember one particular story from last year…I was living in the on campus apartments with Krista and Danielle.  It wasn’t too surprising for the 3 of us to make “family dinners” together.  We’d all pitch in some food and cook together for what was always an amazing meal!  For this special occasion, we were making spaghetti and meat sauce and breadsticks mmm mmm good!  We were all pretty hyper from it being spring season having to wake up for early morning workouts.  Trying to figure out if the noodles were done yet, Danielle thought of a brilliant idea…”Throw a noodle on the wall and if it sticks it’s done!”  So, us in our hype started throwing noodles on the wall and sure enough they were done! Dinner was amazing, but don’t worry we didn’t eat the noodles we threw on the wall.  That’s one Family memory I will never forget!

Krista Coccaro: Tales from our TRIPS

The bus rides are always fun. It's quality time spent with your teammates, the coaches, and Art (our bus driver, he's the best!). We always watch movies or t.v. series, do homework (well some of us that do not get motion sickness), eat, eat, eat. We really like to eat. Before every trip we get to decide what snacks we are going to take in the food bin. It is always healthy with an occasional treat. We always get the normal; fruit snacks, triscuts, fruit, cheese, bagels, etc. This one trip I thought it would be funny if I put my favorite food, Flamin' Hot Cheetos on the list. I thought there was no way that the coaches would buy them because they aren't "healthy". To my surprise they got them! However, I had to wait till the way home to get them. It was torture. I had to stare at them from Thursdays departure till after the game Saturday. So we get on the bus after the game for a long ride home. We stop and eat so I am not ready for Flamin Hots right away because I am kinda full. There is one thing you should know about Flamin Hots, they are the hottest right when you open the bag. Trust me I am a professional. Any way, I go to the bin to get my snack and there is only an open bag with barely any left. It was the same bag that had been open since Thursday! I was not about to eat "UnFlamin" Flamin Hots. So I began to search everywhere on the bus because someone decided to play a little trick on me. I flung off peoples blankets, I woke people up and I even told the coaches I was fasting till I got the fresh hot bag.

NO ONE and I mean NO ONE told me where they were. Not till we arrived back at USI did RASHINDA tell me she had them the WHOLE TIME!! It was funny yet cruel, but I was happy when she told me I could take the fresh hot bag of FLAMIN HOTS home with me! :)