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SAPC basketball coach Richie Shueler (center) talks strategy with his USAAI team during the team’s recent trip to Italy. This is the second year that Shueler has taken this trip.
Shueler, who is entering his third season as the leader of the Knights, coached the USAAI squad to a 5-0 record during the Italy Continental Cup that took place on Jun. 6-15.
For Shueler, the 2009 trip was fun, but he enjoyed this year's a lot more.
"I would have to say that this trip was even better than last year. I think the reason was because the team was better," said Shueler. "We had some higher caliber players, the competition was tougher and those reasons right there made the trip more fun."
Like last summer, Shueler was joined by members from Conference Carolinas.
Limestone's Michael Barrett, along with Taylor Shugart and Nick Trull, both of Anderson University (since the trip, the Trojans have joined the South Atlantic Conference, which was made official on Thursday), made up three players on the eight-member squad.
After having former SAPC player Thurl Bailey Jr. join him last year, Shueler enjoyed having the opportunity to coach a trio of players that normally he'd be preparing to coach against.
"It was neat because I got to see them in a different light. Instead of preparing for them, I was able to prepare with them against other teams," Shueler said of his Conference Carolina counterparts. "For me, that was a very fun experience because I got to know them on a whole different level, got to know them on a personal level instead of just from a competition standpoint."
During the ten-day trip with USAAI, Shueler did more than just coach basketball. The team got a chance to see such sites in Italy as the Patheon in Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and even a traditional gondola ride in Venice.
Besides leading USAAI, Shueler spent a week helping out with the United World Games in Austria and watched both of the USA high school teams in the tournament, win gold medals.
Out of everything he got to experience, the camaraderie, is what the Knights coach took back as his fondest memory.
"The camaraderie was my favorite part of the whole trip," said Shueler. "We had just eight players on the trip so the camaraderie of players from different schools together and sharing this ten-day experience together and getting to travel to Italy together was so much fun.
"It was tough at first because you have eight guys that had never met each other before with the exception of two because they go to the same school."
With another trip in the books, Shueler returns back to his duties as coach of the Knights and used this trip as an opportunity to play with a few things that might be of use to his basketball players when they return to campus in the fall.
"It was a great experience for me because anytime that you get to see a different type of basketball, a different brand, and you get to coach against it, you're going to learn something new," said Shueler. "On this trip, I probably learned four or five new things. One of the things that I used this trip for was to experiment with things that I'm tinkering with and using for my team next year.
"I was able to experiment with a couple of plays, some secondary break, ,a few different defenses, things that I think might work for our team. I was able to figure out what I liked and didn't liked based on how it worked with our team this year."
Note: For more on Coach Shueler's European trip and updates on the St. Andrew's basketball program, follow the coach on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/CoachSchueler
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