The Visiting Team:
Girls' high school team from New Zealand pays a call to River City's home court
Copyright News-Ledger, Dec. 19, 2007
By Steve Marschke
News-Ledger Editor
The River City High School girls basketball team hosted some guests from another hemisphere last week.
A team from New Zealand dropped in on part of a California tour. The visiting “Kiwis” played the RCHS Raiders in a tournament on Friday – and made some new friends while serving as houseguests in West Sacramento homes during their stay.
Raider sophomore Savannah Gully and her family hosted a pair of the team members from Sacred Heart College Prep school (an all-girls’ prep school) in her home. They did about what girls do when other girls sleep over.
“One of my teammates, Kayla, brought over a couple of them who were staying with her, named Reya and Lucy. I had Ashley and Sam,” reports Savannah. “We watched movies and ate a whole bunch of junk food.”
Savannah said the Americans were fascinated by the visitors’ accents, and by the different names by which they called some things.
“They called candy ‘lolly,’ and things like that,” said Savannah.
Raiders (in white, from left to right) Jodean Hernandez, Crystal Vue and Victoria Turner in a struggle for a rebound in Friday night's game against their New Zealand guests (News-Ledger photo)
But the New Zealanders were already familiar with American movies:
“We were walking through Blockbuster, and they were like, yeah, I’ve seen that movie, and it’s great. At home, they have New Zealand movies they watch, and also American movies.”
As for food, “we tried to let them try things they didn’t have at home,” said Savannah. “They liked (Hostess) Ho-Hos. One of the girls liked hot Cheetos.”
What did the visitors think of American boys?
“They thought our varsity boys team had the most gorgeous guys – it was funny,” said Savannah.
Does she think any of the new friends will keep in touch across the ocean?
“They said that over there, they have ‘Bebo’ instead of ‘MySpace,” she answered, referring to the internet social networking sites used by a lot of young people. “We gave and exchanged information.”
Savannah said she hopes it is possible that the Raider squad can return the visit – perhaps accomplishing the fundraising needed for a basketball trip to New Zealand.
The local squad got the better of the visitors on the basketball floor Friday night, but Raider Coach Jamie King said the New Zealanders are very good, and might have been suffering from fatigue when they played in West Sacramento. The visitors were on part of a busy basketball tour, headed next to Southern California and Disneyland.
It also might not have helped that they basically had a slumber party the night before the game.
“They stayed up and talked to each other about their culture,” said King. “The New Zealand girls were intrigued by cookie dough ice cream, and we took them to Jamba Juice, and that was new to them. The girls were also treated to a barbecue lunch by a company planning to open a franchise Down Under.
“And all of our kids were fascinated by the way they talked,” added King. “One of the girls asked what kind of animals they had over there. The girl answered ‘shape.’ It took a while to figure out she meant ‘sheep’!”
River City High School "Raiders" Victoria Turner (left) and Crystal Vue (right) defend as a member of the visiting Sacred Heart College Prep School from New Zealand drives on offense. RCHS coach Jamie King looks on.