Second chances are not something a team can rely on in sport, especially when a team falls just short in a championship title game. But for the Fanshawe Falcons, their second chance came in the form of a CCAA National Championship wild card bid that punched their ticket to Calgary in search of a Men’s Basketball National Championship title.

Brampton, Ontario native Rob Hamilton of the Fanshawe Falcons has been there once before, a part of the last Fanshawe team to shoot for national gold back in the 2006-07 season. Follow Rob as he blogs about his team’s second chance, life on the road, his inability to go a day without Kool-aid and what it is to play for a national championship title.

Day 1 - travel Day
 
Good morning London! Waking up at 4am is a first for me, especially if your not a morning person. Arriving at Fanshawe College at 4:45 am to hop on the bus which drives us to Pearson airport for 7:30 am. Arrived at the airport at 7:30am and for some reason it feels like everyone on my team is sleep walking, we checked our bags and got our boarding passes for Calgary, Alberta. While waiting for the plane to get ready in the boarding section I saw the Sherdian College girls basketball team and Humber mens basketball team waiting for their planes as well. It was kind of weird seeing the Humber men’s team without their superstar shooter, but I think they will pull it together down the stretch.
 
We jumped on the plane around 8:30 am and arrived in Calgary at 10:50am, the ride wasn’t that bad considering I was asleep most of it. When the plane was landing I noticed that Calgary was a beautiful province due to their Mountains and land scape. We arrived at Calgary`s airport and the people were looking at us in a good way, i think they thought we were part of team Canada because every teammate including coach were in our track suits, “red and white”. We got our bags and drove to the Delta hotel where we were staying at for the week.
 
Our team did not have practice, therefore some of us went to roam the streets of downtown Calgary which kind of looks like a bootleg downtown Toronto. We went to the nearest mall and i swear it was the biggest mall I’ve been to in my life because it was two malls in one, and both of them had six floors. We went on the main strip and for some reason everyone was in suits and ties, I didn’t really see any students or people in the ages of 19-25. I guess this city is all about work and sleep. When six o`clock hit it seemed like a ghost city because the malls closed and mostly all local food stores as well, it was kind of annoying walking around for hours just looking for something to eat.
 
We got back to the hotel around 9 pm but I forgot I was in a different time zone and it went back 2 hours, so really we got back to the hotel at 7 pm. Order some wonderful room service (burger and fries) and took a little swim looking at the over view of the city. We had a team meeting at 9 pm to explain what we had to do when we wake up in the morning and also to get our tournament passes for the week. Coach explained to us that Calgary was a good place but at the same time can be dangerous, so basically to watch our backs if we did want to go out.

Over all the day was great but tomorrow is when it really starts because we have practice at 10-11 am, press conference, banquet then game tape session for our game on Thursday.

Go Fanshawe Falcons......

Day 2

Waking up at 8am to eat breakfast was one of the hardest things I had to do today but at least I had a cup of kool aid to give me an extra step. We had practice at 10-11am and it was an intense practice because the climate change really took a toll on our bodies. Their gym is one of the best gyms I’ve played on because the floor looks brand new also it’s big in size due to the fact that their bleachers surrounds the court. SAIT campus is actually huge and it looks like a mini city with all their tall buildings and faculties surrounding its brand new soccer field. Two of my teammates which were the captains stayed behind to do a press conference while the rest of us went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap.

We left the hotel at 6pm to arrive at the banquet which started at 6.30pm. Upon our arrival we met "Cabbie" from the Score and he stated that he will be the guest speaker at the national CCAA banquet. The food was served around 7.30 and obviously Fanshawe was served last, maybe it’s because people do not think we deserve to be here or maybe it's because we're from Ontario. The food was amazing and delicious, the roast beef topped it off with the gravy but sadly there was no Kool aid served. Cabbie did his speech while we were eating our dinner, he started to explain his interview stories which wasn't really good as we thought it would've been but at the same time it was somewhat funny and entertaining. The exciting part of the whole banquet was the local speaker from Calgary who told us about the traditions at SAIT college. It seemed like she had a little too much Kool aid to drink due to her random stories about bulls, trains and cowboy hats but she was very passionate about the city and the home college.

We arrived back to the hotel at 9.30pm to watch game tape for the upcoming game on Thursday against UNBC. We really got something to prove tomorrow because we are the wildcard team. Our boys seemed pumped and ready to go, tomorrow will not be a walk in a park but we are focused and we will give it 100% effort.

Let’s Get It............

Day 3
 
They don't call us the wild card for nothing, waking up in the morning at 7:45 am is becoming at routine for me. Today the boys were ready to go to work with our shoot around practice at 8:30am. I seen the fire in the eyes of these hard working men and I really believe that we can win this whole National Championship. It's kind of funny because I felt like Martin Luther King...I had a dream and in this dream we were the last team standing on top of the mountains, then I woke up and I told myself I’m going to make this into reality. In practice everyone was focused on the goal we had to achieve at 1 pm vs. UNBC.
 
This practice was so motivating that coach treated us to breakfast at any restaurant we wanted to go to (we chose McDonald's). Soon after our wonderful meal we drove back to our hotel at 10:30 am, where half our team watched the March Madness for inspiration and the other half took a game nap, but I was already focused so I chosen the nap. I got up at 11:30 am and saddled up the horse where the boys were waiting for me already in the lobby. But, before I left I had to have my cup of kool-aid to get focused.
 
We arrived at the school at 12 pm and it really sinked in that we were here for a reason and that reason was to win because we weren’t only representing London, we were representing Ontario. In the change room everyone was energized and active while playing our national anthem "wasted" by lil Wayne. I looked at the captain "Pat Wright" and I saw that he really wanted to win the nationals because this was his graduation year, and honestly thought that we could give it to him. Our biggest mascot was manager "Dustin McKeachnie" because he was wild and making us laugh in the change room giving us the spice and herbs to boil the water.
 
Game time, it was 0-0 and we were ready to go and we saw fear in our enemies’ eyes and we used that against them. First half the score was 40-24, we had them in our hands and finger nails to become the biggest upset of the tournament. We knew second half they were going to come out with attitude, intensity and charisma but all we had to do is play hard defence and control the ball. Going into the fourth 52-42 we had our heads up high to the sky and seen the finish line dead ahead. But, I really had to give it up too UNBC because they came hard swinging lefts and rights and we had no answer by the last two minutes of the game. I slowly saw my dream of a National gold medal around my neck slip away from my hands, it came down to the wire and I’m not talking about barbed wire. The final score was 76-71 UNBC over Fanshawe, this was one of the hardest lost I ever took in my basketball career.
 
On the way back to the hotel we had our heads up and we determined that this loss was not going to stop us from wearing the bronze medal around our necks. I kind of felt like that guy from 300 because we lost but we gave our all, sweat and effort. We had a team meeting where coach told us we did a great job representing our province considering we were the 8th seed wild card facing the number 1 seed in Canada. Tomorrow will be a new day and this time no army of 100,000 soldiers will take us down.
 
Bronze here we come..............

Day 4
 
Today was the biggest game of our lives it was a win or go home situation. We woke up at 10 am to go to the gym for the game at 1 pm against St. Fois Dynamics. We really had something to prove today due to the loss we suffered from UNBC, so we knew we had to come out with a bang. In the change room before the game there was really no talking, we were more focused than ever. Our warm up was superb, it was kind of like we were angry at the other team and we wanted to take our frustrations out on them.
 
Game time it was 32-24 at the half for the Fanshawe Falcons over St. Foy Dynamics. In the change room we made a deal with ourselves to win by 30 or more and make a statement for the other team in the next round. We came out shooting with a bang and it was like we were unstoppable. We were not having a bad half like we usually do. Even our bench stepped up; Brandon Cato was showing his slam dunk moves like he was in the NBA slam-dunk contest. The final score was 88-64 Fanshawe Falcons.
 
After the game, the captains gave us motivation towards our following game against... we don’t know but we will be ready. This victory was phenomenal because everyone played their heart out and people in the stands counted us out including the fourth seed St. Foy. This was a big upset.

We arrived at the hotel at 4 pm where most of our teammates took naps while other players were either watching NCAA (Go Kentucky) or the CCAA. Overall, the day’s goals was achieved and our team is ready for tomorrow at 12 pm.
 
Bring it on...........
 
Day 5
 
The game against Champlain College Cavaliers of St-Lambert, Que started at 12 so the troops and I woke up around 10:15 and got my daily dose of that purple drink "grape kool aid” to get focused and ready for battle. We knew we had to play two games today so it was only right to get some good Alberta food in our systems, the nearby deli shop was the best source at the time. All the signs were positive today because the sun was out shining and the players looked active and ready to go hard to bring back the bronze to Ontario. We arrive at the gym around 11 and got our game faces on. I had noticed that Champlain brought a mini crowd with them for support and Fanshawe only had some of the staff faculties, but it didn’t really matter for us because we had heart and a goal.
 
The game started off with a bang, it was kind of like the Ali vs. Fraser fight but only this time Ali was fighting back for the whole fight. It was a back and forth battle and we had them against the ropes, but the Champlain point guard was playing like Steve Nash and didn’t want to get defeated easily because he was shooting from every and anywhere and it would go in. The game was upbeat and moving at a fast pace and it was looking like it was going to come down to the wire. After 40 minutes the score was 74-74 making the game go into overtime. This was kind of a disappointment for us because we knew we had an other game to play at 6 pm if we won. Our men had to come out stronger and had to show no weakness and that is exactly what we did. It was a see-saw, they would go up by 2 then we would strike back and go up by 4, but only the best survives in the game of basketball. At the end of the over time the score was 80-80 and both teams didn’t want to budge making the game more exciting. At the end of the day we came out victorious with the final score 91-88 Fanshawe Falcons but I really have to give it up to Champlain because they were hungry and were also close to the bronze medal. I guess the difference was that we were starving and had our backs against the walls.
 
Right after the game the troops were hurt and tired so we decided to grab something to eat and rest up at the hotel. At the hotel we got word that we were going to face our rivals from Ontario, the Humber Hawks. This was a dream come true because the Hawks defeated us at Provincials, we really wanted another shot to play them, but this time winning because that would have been the sweetest revenge. We all took naps to rest up for the game. We arrived at the gym at 5 pm for the 6 pm semi-final game, this time we could see the finish line and all we had to do was play hard defence and use our bench because some of the starters were hurt and tired from the battle against Champlain.

Our Falcons gained an early lead 16-8 and led 21-15 after the first quarter and 37-34 at the break. At half time we knew the Hawks were going to come out heavy, their team is built on 3rd quarter runs and they always catch us slipping. The Hawks came out hard in the third, outscoring us 20-9 in that frame, and pushed their advantage to as much as 12 points at the end of the 4th. The final score was 72-66 Hawks. We played a good game, but it seemed like Humber knew how to play us regardless of missing key pieces to their starting squad.
 
It was difficult to take in the fact that Humber defeated us but at the same time it was kind of an enjoyment because at least the bronze medal came back to Ontario. Overall everything happens for a reason and we gave it our blood, sweat and tears so that’s all we could ask for. I felt bad for the seniors that were leaving this year because we didn’t reach our goal, but I promised them next year we will win Provincials or Nationals and bring something back to our London soil. â€¨

Final Thoughts
 
At the end of the day Calgary, Alberta was a great experience for me and my team because I’ve never been out west; same with most of all the players on the team. The basketball National tournament was great as well because SAIT College really took care of us and their campus was amazing compared to others. I realized Alberta is one of the more beautiful Provinces and I would consider moving or visiting there again. I can’t wait for next year’s basketball season because I really believe we will have a chance of the main goal, a gold medal. At the end of the day, traveling around Canada to play basketball is great and hopefully OCAA teams could make it further in the future.
 
I’d like to thank the Delta hotel for their hospitality, SAIT College for taking care of us, West Jet for flying the team safely and Calgary natives for showing us an excellent time...
 
Next Year We Will Get It... It’s the One and Only Rob Hamilton signing out

HOLLA!!