2019 Spring Trip Location Confirmed: South Africa
I know this was one of the rumored destinations, but Harbaugh was on WTKA this morning and confirmed that the 2019 trip will be to South Africa. I don't believe that had been 100 percent confirmed before. Specifically mentioned Cape Town and Johannesburg, and said they'd be going on a safari.
Sounds like a great trip. Hopefully this will help even a little with 2019 recruits who will be enrolling early.
What I stated clearly went completely over your head because what you copy and pasted has absolutely nothing to do with what I was alluding to...
My prediction: the 2020 trip will involve Harbaugh and the team riding Elon Musk's rocket to Mars where they will play a spring game with the local Martian squad on top of Olympus Mons.
It may be near 300 below zero at the summit, but that will still be no excuse for anything other than perfect pad level.
No worries - Michigan is a cold weather team. No domes allowed!!!
It might deter some southern players, though...
Great, our whole fucking team will have malaria. Might as well cancel the 2019 season right now...
EDIT: Why am I getting downvoted here? Both times I went to SA, I had to take malaria meds before and they made me sick as hell! A-holes...
Because instead of writing a (bad) joke, you could have wrote:
"I'm sure they will take all necessary precautions, but for me it's tough to not worry about some things. For example, I've visited SA twice, had to take malaria meds before and they made me sick. Certainly a bit more of a logistical challenge than the comfort of Europe."
Yeah, I "could have wrote" lots of other stuff, but I GOTTA BE MEEEEE, WHAT ELSE CAN I BE???????
Yup. FauxMo gonna FauxMo.
The Edit isn't helping your cause.
Ah, OK. So they will probably go to Kruger and will probably need to take malaria meds. Thanks for confirming. :-)
I went to a "malaria-free" private reserve in 2012. Before leaving, I went to the UM International Health clinic, as I normally do for new countries. They still had me take malaria meds. Maybe it was a bad year for malaria there (I went in the dry season, FWIW), but they seemed to indicate they advised malaria meds for virtually anyone leaving Joburg, Pretoria or Cape Town. Perhaps it's an abundance of caution, but that was there take...
Definitely on my list of "must go to" places! Just curious, where were the other rumored destinations?
I recall Tokyo being mentioned before.
Another place on my list! That's next years trip though, maybe I should just get a job with the football program?
Tokyo is expensive as hell. Gonna be quite the check for the donor.
Yeah, dam levels rose slightly, I believe, so Day Zero was pushed back. However, they are still on a 50-liter (roughly 13 gallons) restriction until further notice, from what I understand. Somewhere, I also read that the rain forecast for winter (which they are experiencing now, of course) was pretty decent.
I just read up on it some more - but the Day Zero doesn't necessarily mean they would be at no water, just that city water supplies would be shut off and people would have to go to specified sites to collect their daily 25L rations. In any case - they've enforced some conservation practices/limits already as you noted - and have also made efforts to repair some infrastructure (i.e. fixing leaks) to reduce waste.
Hard to say - they were supposed to be out this year in Cape Town, but the date when they expect to hit "Day Zero" has been pushed out several times (think the latest update has it pushed all the way to 2019). Ultimately it depends how much rain they get - the city has been impacted by a several years long drought which has depleted resevoirs to less than 20% of total capacity.
Is it too late for me to sign up to be on the team? My mom will bring orange slices to practice.
Great choice, I went there for work once and it is one of the most memorable places I have ever been. Beautiful landscape, beaches, and wildlife, but also a terrible legacy of Apartheid. The townships outside Cape Town are pretty shocking to see.
When I was there Cape Town was pretty safe, but some other parts of the country were very dangerous. Cab driver in Durban told me to stay indoors at night and I remember thinking "so it's like Detroit."
I took a cable car ride in that little amusement park right on the ocean in downtown Durban. It honestly freaked the hell out of me.
the lack of blood donations assuming that trips to Africa are still counted against you along with all of the other crazy weird requirements
Had a recent conversation with a good friend who is a Columbus native and a passionate tosu fan. (Despite that stain on his character, I really like the guy.)
He got going on UM's overseas trips. His bottom line was, how is this helping your football team improve? My answer:
1. Just because the team is going to Paris or wherever does not mean that Harbaugh & staff aren't busting their asses in practice. Say what you want about JH, old friend, but even his worst detractors never accused him of mailing it in.
2. He and the team's benefactors are providing an experience that a lot of these kids would never have otherwise. And there's a big ol' world out there - one that has nothing to do with college football. So maybe it's a good idea if they saw some of it?
Like most things college-football related, we agreed to disagree.
I somewhat get the outside perspective of "how does this help your team improve at football?" but what I think those people are ignoring is that Harbaugh is looking to improve his team not just from a football perspective, but from a perspective of being world citizens. Life is so much bigger than football, whether you play at Ferris State, Michigan, or even OSU. Not every action Harbaugh takes has to be directly related to improving his football team. He's not cutting practice time short to have these trips, nor is he cancelling spring games or recruiting trips to make it happen. If he were, that'd be one thing. But he's not.
These are experiences that most every member of this team would otherwise never get to have. To see the things they get to see and have the experiences and see perspectives they'd otherwise never see, you never know what kind of impact that can make on a young man. What they may make them want to do with their life after they hang up the pads.
Yes, Harbaugh's primary job is to win football games. And if these trips are directly coming at the expense of additional spring practice time, then yeah the trips should be re-considered or cancelled. But they're not, and if Harbaugh doesn't get additional practice time anyway if he doesn't take these trips, then your friend really doesn't have much of a point. Just because Urban Meyer doesn't take the trips doesn't mean Harbaugh shouldn't either.
He's rationalizing his jealousy. He wishes his own program went overseas. (Though if OSU were to do it now, it'd be mocked for copying us.)
Friend was working at some event in Ohio where Harbaugh was a speaker. He said that he had nothing personally against Harbaugh, except his delivery. According to my friend, JH was overly enthusiastic, and "Man, is he loud!"
I replied that it's too bad Jim couldn't be more like that model of quiet dignity and restraint, Wayne Woodrow Hayes.
Aside from the basic human & academic factor (which Harbaugh has mentioned and I agree with) here are a couple ideas of how this helps the team:
1) Every school tries to do something to differentiate itself from others when it comes to recruiting. This is a very real and tangible difference. I would expect to see the fruits of this start to pay off now that it is clear it was not a one year thing.
2) Team unity & family atmosphere. People talk about chemistry and how important it is to winning. Recruits commonly mention a team feeling like family as a key factor in deciding. That isn't simply built playing on Satrudays and during practice time. That is a 365 day a year process. What better way to help players learn about their teammates than traveling together?
3) Attracting coaches. Coaches want to go places they can win and develop. Other than X's&O's (which Harbaugh is great at), and motivation (another thing Harbaugh is great at), this offers a very unique growth opportunity for assistant coaches. When needing to decide on an offer where everything else is equal, would you go with the program that does trips like this or not? I know which one my spouse would be telling me I should take.
Harbaugh is putting the college back in football. Wish I could go on these trips.
as long as they don't play Sun City!!!
The Artists United Against Apartheid song and video for "Sun City" was released in 1985 when none of the players on the Michigan football team were alive. Those were the days when MTV played music videos. Most of Michigan's football players either were toddlers or infants when Nelson Mandela was President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
Despite the length of travel involved and the health risks, the trip to South Africa should be most educational for the players and coaches.
How about a trip to the
Rose Bowl.
I hope we don't have to wait for the 2020-2021 season to play in the CFB Playoff.
Amazing! A few years back I had the pleasure of living in Johannesburg for a year and got to explore much of that beautiful country. Happy to sign on as the tour guide for the trip! :)
it is a university town not too far from Capetown and produces distinctive wine and is well-preserved from those historic days of yesteryear.....
Training with the Springboks would be a HUGE international PR bonanza!!!!
Stellenbosch is great! Beautiful area.
We were trying to find a hookah bar there. Wandered around for half an hour only to learn hookah in RSA is actually called "hubbly bubbly". Found one right then and got a chuckle.