Army West Point Athletics
Wednesday, March 10 - Heading West
March 10, 2010 | General
Hey Black Knight Blog followers. Tim Volkmann bringing you the afternoon version of today's installment on a busy Wednesday at West Point.
Tomorrow, I'll be boarding a C-130 cargo plane with the lacrosse team and take a cross-country flight out to Colorado Springs, Colo. for Saturday's showdown at Air Force. It will mark the first time in 16 all-time meetings between the two service academies that the game will be played away from West Point. The Black Knights will also be looking to remain unbeaten against the Falcons having won all 16 prior games.
It is pretty cool to be able to show up at the air port, drive the bus out on the tarmac, load onto a big military plane and take off. No security, no lines, nothing. Just show up and go. I would say it is the only way I would ever want to fly, but unfortunately there are no real seats in the back of this type of plane. Just some temporary netting that comes down to sit in for the duration of the flight. My first flight in one of these came last year when the team zipped down to North Carolina to take on Duke. I was lucky enough to be able to ride up front in the cockpit on the way down so that was pretty awesome. We'll see if I can make that happen again tomorrow.
The lacrosse team isn't the only Army squad competing at Air Force this weekend as the hockey team will be playing the Falcons in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Hockey Association Tournament. The sixth-seeded Black Knights will be playing third-seeded Air Force in a best-of-three series on Friday and Saturday (and Sunday if necessary) with all three games scheduled for 9:05 p.m EST. The lacrosse team is planning on going to the game on Friday night, so hopefully we'll be able to cheer our icy counterparts on to a 1-0 lead for the weekend.
For those who don't have their own C-130 flight booked for the weekend, audio from the lacrosse game and all hockey games will be broadcast live on goARMYsports.com via ITT Knight Vision. We are still waiting on final verification, but it looks like the lacrosse game will also potentially be broadcast live in the Hudson Valley region on WEOK (1340 AM) and WALL (1390 AM), along with the already scheduled hockey games. Stay tuned to goARMYsports.com for the latest update.
Sorry to cut things off but I have to go home and pack for my trip. I actually stopped by the Army Athletic Association Gift Shop earlier and picked up a sweet new Army backpack to use during my travels that I saw on the store's website. Pretty sweet deal for only $40 - it is light-weight and chock full of pockets. There is also a padded section on the inside for a laptop, which I didn't know about until I saw it in the store. That was the clincher for this sports information professional as my laptop is never very far away when I'm on the road.
That's all folks - talk to you soon.
