Hoya Hoop Club Open Practice Recap

Special thanks to Georgetown fan Matthew Giacobbe for providing the below. Enjoy!

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Friday, October 12th was the longest day of school I can remember. Not because of a major exam, but because I was heading to Georgetown to meet my favorite team’s players after school. My dad and I were going to an event for members of the Hoya Hoop Club which included a team autograph session and an open practice. We headed out on our drive from New York City at around 3:30. We passed our time listening to CDs from artists like Billy Joel and John Denver. About halfway to our destination we made our only stop at Waffle House which is a must-do on the way. We arrived at our hotel, the Key Bridge Marriot at around 9:30. Our room had an amazing view of Georgetown across the Potomac River. We crossed the Key Bridge to Georgetown and walked around in the cool night until stopping at Clyde’s for some dessert. We finished the night with a walk across the Key Bridge, a must for anybody that has not experienced it yet.

The next day we woke up early, checked out of the hotel, and drove to Georgetown University. As we left the parking garage we ran into Jagan Mosely who asked me how my school was going. Then we ran into Jamorko Pickett who dapped me up. After walking around campus for a while we headed to the Thompson Athletic Center to get in line for the team autograph session. But first we took time to admire all the trophies and photos, and of course the larger than life (or is it?) statue of John Thompson.

We joined the line to wait to meet the team and get autographs. The line moved into a room where the members of the team were sitting behind tables from freshman-senior order. The first thing that happened was Jessie Govan, my favorite player, waved to me from the end of the table. From then I was able to meet members of the team. Since I did not want to hold up the people on line behind me I did not ask for any photos with the players except for Mac McClung, who was extremely nice and took a picture. For some players I had pictures with I printed them out and asked them to sign the pictures. George Muresan really liked the picture of us and thought it was awesome! All of the players were extremely nice, but the best moment came when I got to Jessie Govan. Jessie always is a class act both in person and on twitter where he usually retweets my tweets about him. When I got to him, I asked him to sign a jersey. I had another one made for me to wear and showed it to him which was captured by a photographer for Georgetown. Jessie really liked the jersey and suggested we take a picture and next thing I knew I was walking to the other side of the table standing next to Jessie with photographers for Georgetown taking pictures of us. The Georgetown Hoops Instagram account even posted it on its story!

After meeting the team my dad and I had a nice breakfast. Afterwards we went into McDonough Gym and took our seats, front row aligned with the basket. Coach gave a speech to the crowd thanking us for our continued support. He stated that last year was building a foundation and this year is building on top of that foundation. The practice itself had me in awe. The drills ran by Coach Ewing were no laughing matter and hard work. The practice itself was full of exciting times which included multiple layups by Mac doing crazy moves and Jessie swishing a three-pointer right in front of me. Jagan Moseley was on fire from the top of the key hitting multiple baskets. The most surprising player to me was Josh LeBlanc and how big his presence was during the drills as he was always making a play or dunking! Another freshman who surprised me and my dad was Grayson Carter; He was hitting shots and making plays.

After the practice we headed home on our long trip back to New York City during which Jessie sent out a tweet thanking the fans for coming out and even shouting me out and tagging me! Though the amount of notifications would break my twitter it definitely made an amazing day even better.. The event put on by the Hoya Hoop Club was an unforgettable experience and only got me more excited for this season. Coach Ewing’s solid foundation is in place and building on that means great things ahead for Georgetown Basketball!