Hey all, It's Mardracus Wade, class of 2010. I play for the Memphis Magic and my team recently played in the GBOA South tournament in Atlanta. It was definitely a different tournament from anything I've ever played in. A DJ was playing music throughout the whole tournament even during the games. After the games our team would get interviewed. We all liked getting in front of the camera and getting our chance in the spotlight. There were photographers snapping pictures the whole weekend so we kind of felt like we made it to the big time. The gym we played in was awesome too. It was at Norcross High School just outside Atlanta and it was really nice, that makes a difference too. We played against some really good talent and I think for the whole tournament there really weren't any blow-outs most of the games were close. Overall I really liked the tournament and thought it was cool how different it was from any others.

For the GBOA South tournament we drove about 5 hours from Memphis. Traveling for tournaments is one of the best parts of the summer. I really like to get to see new places when we travel and when we're driving you get to see a lot of areas you might not normally see. Most of the time we drive for trips but for the really long ones we are able to fly. So far the furthest we've driven was to Dallas, Texas. It took about 7 hours to get there but for us players it wasn't too bad. We left late in the evening and slept for most of the ride down there. That's the good thing about driving at night, we can all get some sleep rather than driving in the day and being all worn out from being in the car all day. We usually leave Thursday night and get there Friday morning ready to play.

Once we get to the tournament city, we check into our hotel and get settled. Our coaches pick our roommates and it's usually by position. So the point guards will be in a room together and the big men in their rooms, and the wings and shooting guards in their own rooms. We don't spend a lot of time in the hotel since usually we're playing all day but when we are there is a lot of joking around between the whole team. We're a pretty tight group and we all get along. We try to hang out as much as possible during our summer season because once school starts everyone kind of gets separated. Although most of us live in the Memphis area, we all go to different schools so that makes it tough to hang out.

A typical day at a tournament starts pretty early. We get up and have a light breakfast before our games then after the first games we'll all get some fluids and if anyone needs to be iced they do that. In the afternoon sometimes we'll grab a quick lunch like McDonald's or something then we come back to the gym, chill and watch the other teams play. We usually try to watch teams we may have to play and try to watch the best teams or players at the tournament. Once our games are over for the day we usually go to a nice resturant for dinner then go back to the hotel and relax before going to bed. We all have a lot of fun at the tournaments. The only people who might not have as much fun are the rookies. All the new guys to the team have responsibilities. They have to carry the bags and get water for guys when they come to the bench. They are also the first ones who get woken up in the morning then they have to wake everyone else and get people moving and on time. There are a lot of responsibilities for them, but we all went through it...I even remember carrying bags and getting water when I was first starting out. That's the good thing about being on the team for a while!

The summer season is about 4 months long. In May we're just starting to travel so we play in like 2 or 3 tournaments a month. By the middle months we're traveling 3 or 4 weekends out of the month. A lot of times players will get invited to camps and other things so we might not all play in every tournament together. The summer months are crazy and that's what keeps us all busy but we do find time to have some fun off the court. We usually go to the mall or to the movies or just hang out.

We only have a few more weeks of tournaments left so we're all trying to enjoy the last few. This Sunday we are leaving for the Las Vegas tournament, then we have a couple weeks off before going to Chicago for the GBOA Challenge of Champions for our last tournament of the season. I'll check in again soon!

Later,
Mardracus