Grecia 67 Escazu 91

The season starts off with a brief warm-up tournament known as the Torneo de Copa. This year only four teams decided to participate in the TdC: Barva, Grecia, San Ramon and Escazu. 

Our first game was against Grecia, which knocked us out of the tournament last year with a vicious blowout. A different season means a different team for both sides. The current Grecia squad features Amir Alvarado, one of the league's most versatile players, and Mario Bogantes, as well as a slew of young players. 

This was the first look at our revamped squad. We took part of last year's core and added in a few players. Coming back to the fold was Jeff Dixon and David Gourzong, two players that have been on various of my recent teams. We also brought in Jaffry Spencer, who's been a mainstay with the champion Barva teams. Spencer was one of those guys on the other team that was always a handful as a threat all over the court. I got to know him during my Barva stint, and am glad to have him on my side for a change. 

For one of our foreigner spots, we brought in Antonio Jones, a lefty point guard who's played with Perez Zeledon and Barva. In one of those crazy coincidences that happens in life, Antonio  is not only from Miami, but Coconut Grove, a place where my family lived for a couple of years in the 80s. Not only that, he played high school hoops for Gulliver, where I attended third grade (Go Raiders) and has always been a special place. So for the first time I have a Miami guy on the roster. How cool is that? Antonio is an explosive scorer who can hit the outside shot as well as get into the lane. 

Antonio replaces Brandon Rozzell who is tearing it up in Denmark. Our other big loss was budding star Victor Arias heading up to Dawson Community College in Montana; it's a great opportunity for Victor. Both guys are going to freeze this winter. 

The game against Grecia went pretty much as expected. This is a skeleton Grecia team taking a look at youngsters. Meanwhile, we were looking at our team under live fire for the first time. We played about five minutes of good basketball, 30 minutes of so-so basketball and five minutes of crap. Guys are still figuring out our systems, which leads to guys in the wrong position and thinking instead of just reacting. Antonio Jones was the leading scorer with 30 points with several other guys getting in double digits. Juan Carlos Rosich led the defensive effort with timely blocks and rebounds. Overall, it was the outcome to expect for a first game.