DAY 1
The Western Michigan football team made its way to Houston, Texas, on
Friday as the Broncos prepare for the upcoming 2008 Texas Bowl against
Rice on Dec. 30. WMU was welcomed by the Hyatt Regency staff by a
rousing display by a local high school drum line. Western Michigan held
its first practice at the Houston Texans' Methodist Training Center.
The Western Michigan football team, along with administrators and support staff, began its journey to Houston, Texas today for the third annual Texas Bowl which will be played Tuesday, Dec. 30 at 8 p.m. ET vs. Rice at Reliant Stadium. The players, coaches, administrators, support staff, and family members boarded five buses this morning at 6:30 a.m. on our way to Lansing's Capital Region International Airport for a direct flight to Houston. We left the Seelye Center just as freezing rain started to hit Kalamazoo and our commute to the state capital that was scheduled to take just over an hour ended up about a three hour trek due to the ice storm.
Once we arrived at the airport, it was smooth sailing from then on out. The members of the five buses consolidated on to one charter plane that left Lansing at about 10:30 a.m. We were treated to a complimentary movie, the 2008 action-comedy “Hancock”, as well as a sack lunch and drinks. The players filled up the first 20 rows of the airplane, and the majority of them didn't keep their seats in an upright position for long due to an early start to the day and a long holiday the day before.
After a very smooth three hour flight, we had finally arrived in the great state of Texas around 1:30 p.m. CST with the beautiful skyline of Houston in sight along with the Toyota Center, the home of the Houston Rockets, and a number of Texas-sized high school football fields. We all piled off the airplane and the humid 75 degree air was definitely a change from the 35 degree weather we left back in Kalamazoo. There wasn't a snow flake in sight, only green grass and trees full of leafs. The wind blew hard and the sky was overcast, but it was much warmer than our Midwest campus.
We again split up onto five buses at the airport and departed for the hotel, the beautiful Hyatt Regency, located in the heart of downtown Houston. A fifteen minute bus ride took us through downtown and right to the front of the hotel. We all grabbed our luggage and entered the hotel lobby and were welcomed with open arms by Texas Bowl staff members and a student drum line. All the guests from Kalamazoo, even family and support staff, were greeted with applause and cheers. They really do it big in Texas.
The lobby was beautiful on its own, but what made it better was all of the Western Michigan football gear, especially the official Bronco football helmet located on the mantle behind the front counter. The team and staff are scattered throughout the hotel's 30 floors, which features rooms designated for team meetings and a special player's hospitality room that is stocked with foosball and ping pong tables, and has flat screen televisions from wall to wall. The room is designed to give players a place to relax get away from the hectic bowl game schedule.
The Broncos held their first official bowl practice at the Methodist Training Center on the Houston Texans' complex. With Reliant Stadium looming in the background, WMU took the field, albeit one half hour late, with high enthusiasm. After about one and a half hours of a practice session that included 7-on-7 drills, individual unit drills and team drills, the Broncos corralled together to set the stage for the rest of the week as the Brown & Gold prepare for their second postseason bowl game in three seasons.
Western Michigan football will hold a joint press conference with Rice on Saturday morning followed by practice and the Rodeo Bowl where competitors from each team will compete against one another in various rodeo-related competitions. Jamarko Simmons will also take on a member of the Rice football team in a game of PlayStation 3 College Football. Pictures of all of Friday's and Saturday's events will be available on Saturday evening.
