Another beautiful day in Skåne. I do love the bright sky here.
Today I was looking forward to a trip to Kristianstad to look around a little and see a Kristianstad Predators practice. I had planned to hop on a train to go the short journey to Kristianstad so that I would be there with plenty of time to kind of wander toward the Predators' practice field and see the town a little bit on the way.
When I got to the train station, however, I found that the train I had planned to take was cancelled due to some reason that was explained, I'm sure, in Swedish. I was able to figure out that there was a Regionbuss that had taken the place of that train. I rushed off of the tracks to the bus terminal just in time to squeeze onto a packed bus. I secured a spot standing next to the driver while a young woman and two gentlemen squeezed on behind me to take up the last free bit of space before the drive shut the door as somebody was trying to step on and away we went toward Kristianstad!
The bus ride turned out to be somewhat eventful, as well as full. We blew past the first handful of stops, much to the obvious irritation of those at the bus stops, simply because we couldn't take on any more passangers. On our way out of Hässleholm we witnessed the bus ahead of us sideswipe a car on a left turn through an intersection. You know when you see semi-trucks taking turns and they always seem to just barely miss the car or street sign? This bus didn't barely miss.
Finaly, after over an hour on the bus, I made it to Kristianstad Central station and began walking to the field. I didn't have a lot of time to explore, but I was able to see a little more of the town.
The Predators' practice was fun to see. Currently, their organization has a full junior program, including U13, U15, U17, and U19 teams. They have a number of coaches and staff that come to help and split these teams, who are all practicing at roughly the same time, and make sure that all of the players are getting better while they're there. I was impressed with the efficiency of the practice and the results thereof that were obvious in the demonstrated ability of the players I saw.
Tyson Guillen, seen here coaching up some half line 7 on 7, was my host and explained the workings of the program he helped build. I also met with the club president, Anders Klang, as well as other board members and coaches, and Anders showed me the clubhouse. Just a short distance from the field, the clubhouse includes both a small weight room for the younger players and a film room. They also use the clubhouse for team building activities like gameday breakfasts.
It was nice to see another version of American football in Europe. It looks to me like the Predators have a great organization going.
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