*Editor’s Note: The Valparaiso men’s basketball team is taking a foreign tour trip to The Bahamas this summer. Sophomore guard Rakim Chaney is journaling his and the team’s experiences for Mid-Major Madness.
On our final day in the Bahamas, a few of the guys and I as well as Wayne McNair, Justus’ father, woke up at 6 a.m. to head out to go deep sea fishing. We planned to go for about four hours. For the first two hours we got nothing, then we caught two fish that we ended up losing off the line. Carter Hopoi eventually reeled in our first and only fish of the morning, which was a 25-pound blue and gray Wahoo fish. We were able to clean and cut it and take part of the fish back to cook.
On the way back, we stopped at The Fish Fry to try some inland food, which was amazing. I ordered some red snapper and chicken on top of rice and peas with mac and cheese on the side.
When we made it back to the resort, I went to go check out the water slides at the water park with my brother, George (Richardson), Huddy (Hudson Scroggins) and Carter. After leaving the water park we showered and spent the whole night hanging out with each other in the resort.
On Thursday before we left for the airport, we ate some breakfast and met with all of the families to take a big photo. After that, we packed everything and made our way to the airport to board at 3:20 p.m. and landed back in Valpo around 7 p.m.
To conclude our trip, it was overall very fun for the players and coaches, as well as their families, to come together and support one another while having fun at the same time. It was also good to be around a different culture for a while – both of the Canadian teams that we played against have different regulation rules back at their home so it was also different for those guys as well.
I’m glad I had the pleasure to keep you guys updated on this trip, and I hope you all enjoyed hearing about how we spent our time in the Bahamas. We are all very appreciative and thankful for the people that made this possible for us and can’t wait to get some more Ws this season.
Until then, stay blessed, stay safe, and always stay prayed up! Go Beacs!
