Throughout the course of the 2011-2012 season, MVNU sophomore forward Caleb Williams will write a weekly blog about what is happening with the team.

"A New Voice and Our Trip to Belize" (posted on October 25, 2011)

Hello! I would like to welcome you to the first installment of "Inside the Huddle" for the 2011-2012 basketball season. For those of you expecting the fantastic stories and writing of the one and only Scottie Hilbert, well I am sorry to tell you that Scott has moved on to bigger and better things. So you are left with me, and hopefully I can do half the job that he did with the blog.

Now that you know that Scottie is no longer writing, let me introduce myself and convince you to keep reading. My name is Caleb Williams and I am a sophomore member of the men's basketball team here at the NAZ. Along with my participation on the basketball team, I study Sports Management and Marketing. I am from New Bremen, Ohio, a small town of about 3,000 people located in Auglaize County, which is in the Northwestern part of Ohio. I am the son of Chad and Mary Williams. My dad is a high school math teacher at New Bremen High School and my mom is the lead cook at Elmwood Assisted Living, located in New Bremen. I have three younger brothers. Troy, 17, is a senior at New Bremen High School. Seth and Sawyer, 14, are twins who are freshman at New Bremen High School.

I am very excited about the opportunity to write this blog and give a little bit of insight into what goes on behind the scenes. Throughout the season, I will do my very best to write a blog every week that will provide an inside look at the men's basketball program. I hope to provide stories about the great individuals that make up our program, these stories will demonstrate how much fun it is to play basketball at this great institution.

This summer our program had a great opportunity to go visit the country of Belize. In all, we had six current players, one future player, and two coaches go on the trip. We spent seven days in Belize in the middle of August in a humidity that is unmatched anywhere in the United States. While in Belize, we spent our time in the small town of Succotz, which is very close to the Guatemalan border. In Succotz, we stayed at a Nazarene campground which was located right next to a school that most of the kids in Succotz attended. Pastor Eric was our leader in Succotz and he was an administrator at the school. We did a lot of the work for the school including painting, constructing steps to a second floor classroom, and we fixed up the outdoor basketball court they had on the grounds of the school. We also did some work in the town of Succotz including fixing the outdoor basketball court located in the town.

Our favorite activity was the basketball clinic we held for the kids in Succotz. Soccer is really the only sport played consistently in Belize, yet the kids were very eager to learn how to play the game of basketball. Their skills were very raw, but their willingness to learn and try something foreign to them was really incredible. This opportunity had such a profound effect on me and the other guys. The people of Belize were so great. Their commitment to family was the most influential thing for me. The trip made a mark on everyone who went, and if you ask the guys who went they would be glad to share their experiences with you. I would really recommend that you talk to these guys and see how this experience shaped their lives.

Last week, we had the Blue and Green Scrimmage on Thursday right after team photo day. This is an inter-squad scrimmage consisting of three 15 minute halves that are treated just like a game. It was the first chance for fans to see the 2011-2012 version of the Cougar basketball team. As a team, we are very excited for the start of the season and cannot wait to give our seniors a great ending to their illustrious careers.

Peace be the Journey,
Caleb Williams #5

Feedback is always welcomed, so feel free to email me at cwilli10@mail.mvnu.edu or follow me on Twitter: @5CWill.

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