Danielle Scott Weblog

Brazil beat Peru tonight so we will play them tomorrow for the semi final match! What fun. I hope a lot of fans come out to support USA!

GO USA!

God Bless,
Danielle

After five days of competition we finished first in our pool and was granted a bye to the semi-finals to be played on Friday. It have been really fun and exciting to compete in the first tournament of the quad. It has been a great start so far with a new coach, new players, new systems and on and on. Today we had a break away from competition however we trained today but had the aftenoon to visit with the family. It rained the whole afternoon. Tomorrow, we will train and scout the other teams. Can’t wait to get started though some times morning comes too quickly.

Stay tuned!
GO USA

Danielle

Hello to anyone to have been occasionally checking in to read about my updates. I apologize for not having posted anything in some time now. Personal events, obligations and travel didn’t allow for me to make the time to blog with you. I hope to do much better. Not waiting six months for my next entry would be a start right?

Well, I am in Miami, Florida with the USA team. We are here to compete in the Pan Am Cup Games which is a Grand Prix Qualifier. Top three teams will qualify from the Norceca zone. Although Cuba will not be competing in this tournament it still makes for a great play as Gold Medalist Brazil will be here as well as a number of other very competitive countries.

I am so excited to be playing in the United States. About twenty family member will be able to see me play, some for the first time live with the USA National Team, along with all the fan of volleyball. Also the Junior Olympics will be competing so I wish them good luck.

I am about to shut it down for tonight. But hope to bring you updates soon. Leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

GO USA!
Danielle

Happy New Year!

I am doing well thanks be to God. I was in Italy for Christmas and the New Year. Booo in that I was not able to go home to see my family in USA or Brazil. But I had a great time anyway with new friends and my husband was here with me too.

We have started the new year off right with a win over a Chieri and team that I played with three years ago for three seasons. That was the last match of the first round. We are currently in seventh place.

Many well wishes, peace and the love of Christ to all,

GO Florens!
Danielle Scott-Arruda

Hello All,

If there is still and all…. I have been really bad about writing last month. November was a difficult month. We played three of our four matches away (all against teams ranked higher) and the one match that was at home was against the number one team! We went 1-3. But I tell you we really had opportunities to do much better. However we have been struggling in a few areas of our games. Unfortunately those areas were exploited. We are still working hard in the gym to improve.

So far in December we are 1-1. We be Censana but lost to Pavia. Gosh, against Pavia 8 of our 12 player were sick with a cold! Can you believe it? I am still coughing BOOOOO! Sunday we will play Kim Willoughby’s team, Perugia at home.

My mom will head home for Christmas but my husband will arrive soon.

That’s it for now… take care, and shoot me any questions you might have

Danielle

Well I am sure you have the results of last weekend by now. But I will review it again just in case. We played and beat Vicenza 3-0 at home. Woohoo and moved to fourth place. I am really happy about the win. On paper, we are “better”. Sometimes on paper doesn’t prove to be the best team. Everyone played well this match. Finally, we the middles, had above average hitting percentage. Praise God. Typical to Vicenza blocking strategy, in the first set I had only blocker, so our setter forced the ball to me a bit more. Along with 3 blocks and two aces stumbled upon best scorer for the match.

Next up Conegliano on Sunday.

Blessing to ya

Danielle

Howdy do?!

I am sitting at the airport getting return back to Castellana after a five day trip. We won our league match against Sassuolo 3-1. And I had a nice surprise in seeing an old friend of mine and her family. Antoinette White Geminiani. She is now married with two beautiful kids Jessica and Lucas. Lovely family. Hopefully next year my husband and I will be blessed with a little one. But for now, long live VOLLEYBALL.

Our match on Wednesday for the Cup of Italia, didn’t go so well. We lost 1-3 which forced a fifth set to fifteen to settle who would advance. We lost. Boooo. We had a really good chance to win but in the end errors at crucial moments hurt us as well as lack of defense.

I am happy about my blocking. Seems I am getting a better rhythm. I tied the match high of seven with Novara’s middle. I bombed that I missed two serves and had THREE hitting errors! That is a record hit for me. That is three errors in one match. Still lots of training ahead to better my timing with the setter. However, although I took a risk when I committed the error, I have to use technique to try to better the play: tip, rebound, roll shot…

We play next at home YEAH, and look to bring our record to 3-1 for the league.

Blessings to Ya,

Danielle

Great news all….we won tonight verses Novara for the Italian Cup. I can’t believe they didn’t bring their full squad. The way the Italian Cup works is that there will be two matches played. If there is a split in matches won, it will go to sets won and that team will advance to the next round. We won in four. In a week or so we will go to their home for the second match.

Just about everyone on my team, Florens, entered the match. Oh my gosh I was called for the worse set of my career, well at least that I can remember in a long time. I was a bit off balanced after blocking and oh my goodness, the ball left my hands so ugly. It was the kind of set that was so bad you look at your hands as if they were not yours. LOL. But I made up for it with a few pretty dishes if I do say so myself hehehehehe.

Next match Sassuola or something like that on Sunday.

Stay tuned,
Be blessed,

Danielle

Hello All,

I am sick again with a cold. Booo! So Lora if you read this yes you can say “again”. I tried all I could to not get the virus that is going around, taking vitamin c, echinacia for the immune system, and a mulivitamin. But with two of my teammates sick and our vice president it seemed to have been inevitable.

Well, backing up a couple of days…. we lost to Bergamo on Saturday 1-3. After the first set loss, we started to really play volleyball, winning the second set 25-16. The third set we had our chances but as in the first set we lost points on miss communication between players, not putting away transition balls. Four set was ours for the taking but a couple of bad calls by the officials really hurt us. The final point was scored with a hit off my block! BOOO! So we have a lot of room for improvement. I think our team fought hard but we seemed to have run out of gas. Today we had weights, followed by practice for those who didn’t play and cardio for the rest of us.

Yesterday, I went with a teammate, our vice president, his wife and a few of their friends to Altamura.. It is a city about an hours drive out, know for bread… The restaurant that we went to is know for meat and mushrooms. Wow, we ate for almost two and a half hours! There were appetizers, two first plates, second plate with salad, cheese served with a liquor (didn’t like that too much), fruit, desert, coffee….The food was good, except for my having to pick out the mushrooms.

Ok, that is it for now,
Be blessed,

Danielle

Oh we have Novara again on Wednesday for the Italian Cup…

Today was a long but pleasant day besides the super early morning travel. I woke up at 5 am!

Yesterday, we BEAT Novara 3-1, one of the stronger teams in the league. Woohoo, and AMEN! They were missing their star setter Feng, the Chinese national team setter. But, I didn’t have a good match hitting, so I think that makes us even. Somehow, even thought I’ve only been with the team for a week, I just could not connect with the setter very well. I think I had three blocks for the match. I served tough and played decent defense. Cheering for my teammates and bettering my other skills during the game really help me to stay focus and positive. However, it was a really rough day at the office in terms of attacking. That was a big win for our team and society. Next up on Saturday we will play Bergamo, which is practically the Italian National team, at home.

Back to my day….once we arrived I took a walk around the piazza. I went to the store that sold the best mozzarella in town. Went across the way and pick up some bread. Stopped by the bank. Then finally made my way back to my apartment for a 45 minute nap before going to do what turned out to be a marketing photo shoot, five hours in total. I got the full model treatment… hair, make-up, clothes pick out for me and finally, lots of smiles for the camera. Victor “Magic Eye” was the photographer.

Well, back to weights and training tomorrow.

Be blessed,

Danielle

Today, I will play in my first official match wtih Florens Castellana verses Novara. I am excited. I have a few stories to tell since the Olympics but it seems I haven’t made the time to write them in my blog. As I am one year older (my birthday was October 1)the details seems to fade quicker hehehehehe. Nope I am not claiming that one.

After the match, I will get to hang out a bit with some friends of mine from Chieri. It will be great to catch up.

Well, just a quick note,

Take care and be blessed,

Danielle

After getting in at almost midnight on Monday, shutting off my cell phone and turning off the ringer to sleep off and on all day on Tuesday…the days have flown by leaving still so much to do and little time to do it. On top of that the Gulf Coast region has to once again prepare for a hurricane “Gustav”. Many have evacuated New Orleans… We, in Baton Rouge, have been put on a tornado watch until the morning of September 2. Which brings me to my travel date of going to Chicago. You probably are wondering why I might travel to Chicago? Well, TO APPEAR ON THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW! My mom and sister are going to go with me (weather permitting). We will do the taping on September 3 for the first show this season premiering on September 8. All of 2008 Olympic medalist have been invited to be on the show. I am sooooo excited. What a once in a life opportunity. Thanks team.

That is it for now… Oh, Please everyone send your prayers up for the Gulf Coast region and all the countries affected by the hurricane.

Blessings to you,

Danielle

Wow, what a thrill! Praise God! What an accomplishment for our team and I am so grateful to have been a part of it. Gotta tell you I still had the sad emotions that comes with losing any match especially an Olympic match. The reward was so great in having made it to the Olympic Gold match. We really fought and played as a team to put ourselves in the position to win the silver medal.

We celebrated with the Men’s Volleyball team, who won the Gold, at the USA house. I was the only women’s volleyball player to go to the Closing Ceremony. And let me tell you what an ordeal I went through to get there. But as determined as I am in my volleyball career I was determined to go. So I get in a taxi to make it back to the village for 6:45 pm. What is usually a 20 minute ride turned in hour nightmare. At 35 minutes into the ride stuck in traffic, not moving at all…I decided to get out of that taxi and hop into another taxi that was able back out. Somehow I left my phone and Flip video in the first taxi. Can you believe it? It seemed impossible to me as they were both in my hand but somehow I drop it in the taxi. Beside that, once the other taxi arrived nearer to the village all the entrances were block. I couldn’t contain my emotions. I began to boohoo. The kind where you hear yourself crying, yes. Finally made it to the village, changed into my ceremony clothes, and got on the bus to go to Closing Ceremony. As a last effort, I called Jenny to see if there was something I could do to recovery my items. In an attempt to make a long story shorter, I got off of the bus to get my receipt to the first taxi to give that info to Jenny. Then I took yet another taxi to the Bird’s Nest, and miraculously made it there just before USA walked through the tunnel. I couldn’t find my parents but they saw me. The Closing Ceremony was spectacular. But it is not over… so I took a taxi to the village following the Closing Ceremony that didn’t know where he was going! Finally I got out of the taxi and walked about a mile to the village. A frustrating evening but at least I have a story to tell:-)

Now I am in Baton Rouge for a few days, then I will be heading to Brazil to be with my hubby. From there I will be heading to Italy where I will play for team Castellano.

Thanks everyone who supported me and team USA. Thanks for your well wishes and prayers.

For all of you who are wondering. I am not retiring just yet. Stay tuned.

Blessing to all,

Danielle
2008 Olympic Silver Medal

All Praise and Glory be unto GOD! WOW! And what awesome inspiration we have been having leading up to this Gold medal FINALs match! Before the Italy match two femal athletescame over to our table during lunch just to wish us luck. I thanked them then asked their name and sport and how they finished. They were rowers whom had won the Gold the day before. So I went on to ask if by chance they had it with them and if I could see it. They did and of course seeing it wasn’t enough so I asked if I could hold it. Boy did holding it and wearing it for those breif seconds send chills throughout my body and each of my teammates who held it too. We went on to beat Italy….

Before the Cuba match we had practice scheduled as usual but it just so happened that the Women’s Basketball Team (three time Olympic Gold Medalist) and the Women’s Soccer Team Gold medalist were in the gym. Goof around playing volleyball then took a group photo. What inspiration! We went on the beat Cuba.

Now going into the finals we have our eyes set on winning our own. We will play Brazil who is ranked number one and who has not lost a set. They are the team standing in our way of bring home the Gold! We are very familiar with this team as they are with us which should make for an awesome finals match.

Stay tuned “amazing awaits”
GO USA!

Blessing to ya!

Danielle

Praise and Glory to GOD! We advanced to the semi-finals WOOHOOO! I am just so proud of my teammates. We are really playing as a team, fighting to win, and enjoying the process. That has been a main goal of ours, to take one point, one set, one match at a time and be in the moment. How awesome to come back from behind then command the fifth set. I hope it is as exciting for you fans of volleyball as it is for us. Don’t get me wrong there were some really tense moments but we were able to stay focus, keep the faith, stay patient and calm and not fall into a desparate state. The support it outstanding. Thanks.

Next up Cuba Rrrrrrrr!

GO USA!

Danielle

What sitting on the edge of the chair matches we have had for the fans. Two five game thrillers one against China and the other verses Poland. I hope you were able to see it. Wow beating China in China was spectacular. We were accused of over celebrating but I say well it is the Olympic Games! We silenced the crowd. Praise God! Well we will cross with Italy tomorrow who finished second in their pool. This year there was a coin toss or draw to decide who the second and third place team of each pool will play.

Will be a tough challenge but nothing less expected.

GO USA!

Danielle

Let the Games begin! Oh wait they have!

Lots of exciting things going on! We made it to the village on August 2 and it is awesome. It is so huge! Our housing is nice. Our team is sharing two apartments each with three bedrooms and kitchen and a common area. The International Zone is complete with a bank, salon, post office, tearoom with Chinese dance entertainment, a small mart (convenience store), gift shop and more…

Opening Ceremony was awesome as usual! The lighting of the torch was so unique and cool. As the torch bearer slow immolation of running around the track added build up to the anticipated lighting of the torch and beginning of the Games.

Pool play is on the way. We are 2-1 after beating Japan opening match on August 9 in four, falling to Cuba in an ugly 0-3 loss and beating Venezuela yesterday in four. Two more match left in preliminary round, China on Friday and Poland on Sunday.

As I wrote earlier in this email the Village is huge. We all bought bikes when we learn that they were available for purchase. So Ty and I went for our first ride last night. I was excited and scared at the same time. I prayed “Lord please don’t let me fall and get injured or hit anyone (as obviously there are a lot of athletes walking around”. Well on the ride there Ty’s seat took on a various ranges of motion from all the way forward to all the way back so she had to try to balance where she sat on the seat. On the return, my PEDAL FELL COMPLETELY OFF! Can you believe it. So there we were in the dark searching for the bolt. We found it, but now we are warning everyone to do a once over on their bikes before taking it for a spin.

More to come on our match verses China,
GO USA!

Danielle

Hey Yall, it has been one week today since our finish of the World Grand Prix. We placed in the final week.
And the announcement of the 2008 Beijing Olympic team. What a stressful waiting period the hours that followed the match. Finally at just after 10 pm the meeting was called to order and the announcement was made. A very difficult decision for our staff as they trained so many athletes. I am so happy to have been selected as one of the twelve. Although only we twelve selected will travel to Beijing all who trained with us in Colorado will be represented there, as well as our entire Nation! Wow, our entire Nation!

After 31 hours of travel I arrived in Baton Rouge to spend my days off with my family. My husband arrived there before me. We had a great time with the kids (my nieces, and nephews), who are getting bigger and bigger. My mom was and is beautiful as usual. Baton Rouge seems to change with every visit. More shops and restaurants. Eduardo and I celebrated our second year anniversary on July 15 at a restaurant call Flemmings. Flemmings restaurant gets two thumbs up! We arrived a bit late but the service was remarkable evening though it was near closing. We were given strawberries dipped in chocolate as a gift. Mmmmmm, Mmmmmmm.

As you know I love going to the cinema. Although I am so behind in my film watching, we made time to catch a movie. We saw “WANTED”. It was entertaining, definitely action packed! Time flew by quickly however we squeezed in a couple of hours of billards with my dad and cousin. Yes all of this in my short three day stay, not to mention lifting weights and getting in cardio.

Today was day two of a seven day training session until we depart for California for sea level training in Berkley and processing in San Jose. Woohoo!

The countdown continues! GO USA!

Danielle

I am on the airplane heading to Baton Rouge as I write this entry. I have to rewind a bit to bring you up to date. Probably you are already aware of our results. Seems we love the five game “thrillers” as the journalist like to write. We beat both Japan and China in five. Woohoo! We lost however to Cuba in five, and Italy in four (I think, it seems so long ago, hehehehehe). Yikes I am getting old, but physically I certainly don’t feel it. All praise be to God.

Though the Grand Prix is a long tournament, I really enjoyed going to the different countries and to be greeted by some of our familiar followers of USA volleyball, Keikei, Naa, Kin and gain new fans. It was awesome playing in front of a nearly sold out arena of about seventy-five hundred fans against Japan in Japan, and more than four thousand fans in Poland… Not to mention, the interpreters from each city are the best, so sweet and helpful. They worked so hard to make us comfortable and to have everything we needed. Thanks, Grand Prix organizer, and everyone who made our stay smooth.

You know, our results weren’t really indicative of what our team can do. I think the best is yet to come as we are still getting to know each others tendencies, bettering our skills and working at minimizing our error (which not doing so really made a difference in wins and loses). Everyone was giving an opportunity to play so we are also are building our team chemistry with whomever is on the floor. Finally getting everyone healthy and staying healthy over the next several weeks will be key to what I expect to be USA’s best finish yet.

However before we get back to pooling our gifts, love and passion for the game, we get a short break to visits our family and friends. Though we won’t play volleyball we will have to do cardio and weight lifting twice.

That’s it for now.
Blessing to ya and thanks for your prayers and support,

GO USA!

Danielle

Well, it was a rough day at the office. We lost to Brazil today in three. There were moments throughout the match when I though we had a chance, however we couldn’t play consistently. Our block and defense was off.

The positive about the finals being a round robin tournament is that we don’t have to wait until next week. We will play Japan tomorrow. We played them the first leg and won in five. I am expecting another difficult match.

GO USA!

Danielle