Settling into Kristianstad

So continues my terrible blogging track record.  Today marks my 11th day in Kristianstad, and this is my  first full blown blog post.

As I wrote previously, I jumped right into things with the Predators by going to an evening workout the day of my arrival.  It was well attended and I worked pretty closely with the QBs, Receivers, and DBs.  I was encouraged by the skill and athleticism at these positions.  My early impression is that this will be a strong point for our team this season.

Before the workout, Karsten Strömberg, one of the Predator's board members, had picked me up from the train station and introduced me to my new home in Kristianstad.

Located just south of the center of town, my apartment is on the first floor of this building.  The Kristianstad IP, our home field for outdoor practices and games, is about 100 yards south of my building.  As I entered the apartment, I was immediately greeted by my first piece of Predators swag:

I had seen on their website that the club had made these letterman style jackets available to players.  My gift was complete with embroidered "HC" on the sleeve and "R. Bolland" on the chest.  The tour of my new digs included the living room/bedroom:

Kitchen:

And bathroom:

The apartment was generously stocked by the club with food for the next couple of days, dishes, cooking utensils, towels, sheets, appliances, and a floor squeegee!

Friday was a day of settling and adjusting, mostly, although that process would continue over the next several days.  I had lunch with Tyson Guillen (board member and coach in charge of the Predators junior teams; he'll be the HC of the U17 team this season), Emil Blomgren (senior team WR), and Hampus Linde (senior team QB).  Hampus joined us after classes, and Emil works at Tyson's store.   Tyson runs a sporting goods store in Kristainstad called Contact Sports.  As the name suggests, he specializes in equipment used in American football, Lacrosse, and Hockey.

Saturday morning I took my first unaccompanied stroll through Kristianstad on my way to team meetings by the U13 and U15 teams at the Predators clubhouse.  The clubhouse is a basement unit in the same building as Tyson's shop.  The building is about a 20 minute walk from my apartment, roughly equidistant from the Centrum as my apartment, but on the north side of town.  It's also basically a straight shot, so a fairly easy walk.  Along the way I was able to spot some very important landmarks, including the American Embassy (conveniently located at the bus station):

And a Catholic chapel:

George Contreras (whom I coached with last summer in Sweden) had told me that Catholicism was a minority religion in Scandinavia when he pointed out the humble meeting place of the Catholic church in Hässleholm.  This chapel appeared to be a pretty decent size, but clearly lacked the styling that we are used to in American Catholic churches.

I arrived at the tail end of the U13 meeting and met the men who will be leading that group, Bengt Dahlberg (U13 OC) and Magnus Krutas (who will also play for me as a DB on the senior team).  A short time after the U13s left the clubhouse for the practice portion of their meeting, the U15 group filtered in, including Bertil Andersson (U15 HC and senior DL), Martin Sjöstedt (U15 OC and senior DB), and the aforementioned Emil Blomgren.

The U15 group was somewhat sparse, due to a referee training occurring concurrently with this meeting.   Nonetheless, Bertil and his team had a good discussion before heading out for practice.

Saturday evening I was picked up by Karsten and his wife to see some playoff hockey!  The local hockey club, Kristianstad IK, which plays in the second highest division in Sweden, would be facing Karlskrona HK in the second game of a best of three series.  Karlskrona won the first match at Karlskrona, so Kristianstad Wild Kings would need to win tonight to keep their hopes of advancing past the second round alive.

Kristianstad in green, Karlskrona in red.  The first game of the playoff series at Karlskrona was a marathon event, taking 7 periods for Karlskrona to break the 0-0 tie and win in sudden death overtime only 2 nights before.  The team's familiarity with and increasing contempt for each other was apparent as the game became quite chippy in a hurry.  Multiple roughing penalties were assessed, but neither team was able to capitalize on the 4 on 4 or power play opportunities and the third period began with both teams still scoreless.

Karlskrona finally broke through to gain the lead on a rebound after a quick counter attack midway through the 3rd period.  Unfortunately, despite a number of quality chances, Kristianstad was unable to answer and fell 1-0, ending their season.

Despite the hard fought match and, at times, borderline dirty play, both sides showed good sportsmanship at the end shaking hands as a team and then, in some cases, individual players congratulating each other on the ice.  Both teams also thanked their fans with team specific rituals, which are always cool to see.

The following Tuesday marked my first official team meeting.  The seniors met me at the clubhouse where I presented some team expectations, philosophy, and the offensive playbook.  I through a lot of information at them at once, but I hope that following this initial introduction, they'll feel comfortable to ask questions as well as see the big picture as they learn their specific assignments on the field in practice.

After the meeting we had our Tuesday night workout, which went pretty well.  I spent more time with the offensive and defensive lines, and am encouraged by the number of guys who are willing to put their individual aspirations aside for the good of the team.  I can't thank those guys enough.  It is truly a pleasure to work with players that put team success first.

Wednesday started bright and early with another 3:30am wake up.  Jet lag is really fighting me this time around.  I don't remember having so many problems with it last summer, but my sleep schedule continues to be out of whack.  The good news is that allowed me to start my laundry a little bit sooner.  My apartment has the same system as was in effect at Icelandia (George's apartment in Hässleholm), where residents reserve time slots.  My building has two separate facilities, but shorter time slots.  I had plenty of time to do two loads.

That evening, Hampus came over to the apartment to put in some extra time going over some film and discussing reads and assignments.  He is enthusiastic about the start of the season and shows a passion for the sport to go along with his competitiveness.  Hampus had a rare opportunity to play high school football in Georgia while an exchange student there last year.  While the rest of the guys seem to have a good passion for the game, I think this experience has helped Hampus to see how seriously we Americans take the sport and how much time we put into it.  He'll be playing quarterback, so I am thankful that he is willing to put in the extra time to master the offense and really get his techniques and reads down.

Thursday we had another good workout.  I was finally able to be a little more free and kind of float at practice.  One thing I have been struggling with is getting a feel for the team as a whole.  Without a lot of practice time and without having had team periods in practice yet it is difficult for me to visualize the offense as a unit, or the defense for that matter.  Also, due to the size of the club (3 junior teams and a senior team) I have struggled somewhat with keeping everybody straight.  The U17s have been doing position work with the senior guys, so I have to mentally separate who is mine and who isn't.  Thursday night helped with that process, though, and I continue to become more and more familiar with my personnel.

This first full week really served as me getting reacquainted with living in Sweden, as well.  I took a few trips to the Maxi grocery store, which is a short walk from my apartment, and waded through the Swedish labels to get what I needed.  I also was re-introduced to "The Bob" by Sorin Pandrea (senior DB and Contact Sports employee), Ben Hörnqvist (senior WR, U17 coach, Contact Sports employee), and Tyson.  The Bob, as they call it, is Kebab.  Described by a friend of mine as the equivalent of Mexican food in the US, Kebab is the fast food of choice here in Sweden.  I also made my own Swedish fare:

Meatballs, mashed potatoes, gravy, and lingonberry sauce.  Pretty easy to make, and delicious.  I also had some kladdkaka, or "mess cake", which is a chocolate cake that has the consistency of a slightly undercooked brownie.

I was also re-introduced to Swedish friends, including Shawn Cordeiro (who is actually an American friend living in Sweden).  Shawn and his family was kind enough to host me for two weeks while I was here last summer.  He works in Kristianstad and we met for lunch this week to catch up and talk about the state of football in Skåne.  Over the winter he was also named the President of the Hässleholm Hurricanes AFC!  It was nice to get re-acquainted.

Finally, yesterday, Lucas Grip and Sarah Johnsson came to Kristianstad to visit!   Lucas and Sarah, like so many of the Hurricanes, were very kind and friendly during my time in Hässleholm last summer.  Lucas is the youngest of the Grip brothers and plays guard and linebacker for the Hurricanes and Sarah has taken the roll as treasurer.  Besides their rolls in the club they both have been great friends and had me over a number of times.  We sat at my apartment for a while to catch up before heading out to a konditori called Dufvanders for fika!  We all had a Semla, a traditional Swedish pastry reserved for Fat Tuesday.

Its a sweet bread (not unlike King Cake) that has a small layer of almond paste inside and is filled with cream and topped with powdered sugar.  We also spent some time walking around the city center looking at a few of the shops.  I knew that Kristianstad was larger than Hässleholm, but I didn't realize the commercial area was so much larger.

All in all, a pretty good week and a half.  This evening we'll have our first outdoor practice at Kristianstad IP.  I'm looking forward to get everything together in a team period to get a better feel for things.  I'll have to brave the freezing cold (it's been in the 30s all week and will be again tonight), but I anticipate some nostalgia being back on the field under the lights.  I'm getting pumped already!