Produced by: Nick Davis and Frankie Fidler
Nick Davis & Frankie Fidler POV: The Costa Rica Experience
By: Jackson Piercy
When it comes to the offseason, there's an inevitable feeling of "What now?" that can make the rest of the year seem stale in comparison to playing the sport they've spent their whole lives playing.
If you're fortunate enough to be on the Omaha Men's Basketball Team, "What now?" means a summer in Costa Rica. As nice as that sounds, there's always an adjustment for a group of young men who have spent their entire lives in the States, especially when overcoming basic barriers of communication.
"The first clear thing, everyone speaks Spanish down there," Junior Forward Frankie Fidler said. "It was kind of hard to know what they were saying… It just seems like people are kind of doing what they want, and just being respectful about it."
However, as Senior Forward Nick Davis would find out, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
"I think it was a pretty good experience to see what life is like outside of the States," Davis said. "The people were actually really friendly out there to me… we didn't really know about life out there."
This makes sense, as Gallup polling and some number-crunching by the World Database of Happiness consistently puts Costa Rica within the top 10 happiest countries every year in the last 23 years.
In addition to playing 3 games in Costa Rica against local teams Pelicans FC, Coyotes De Santa Ana, and the Grecia All-Stars, Omaha basketball players took part in running basketball camps for children in Costa Rica.
"It was actually teaching kids about the sport of basketball," Davis said.
"It was about helping those kids get better, and giving them more knowledge about the game."
"It was actually teaching kids about the sport of basketball," Davis said. "It was about helping those kids get better, and giving them more knowledge about the game."
However, even with all the memories of being in the culture, meeting the people, and seeing the sights, there's always one takeaway that people have when traveling anywhere: the food.
In the food Davis and Fidler found that even though they were thousands of miles away in a country out on the sea, the distance from the farm to the table was not so different from back home in Nebraska.
However, as there was an adjustment in being in a new country, there was a major adjustment in acclimating the Costa Rica's cuisine.
"I don't think our stomachs were adjusted to the food out there," Davis said. "Some of us felt a little under the weather for a while there."
"A lot of different choices out there for sure," Fidler said. "It was hard for a lot of the team to eat, and it's not processed."
Despite all the new experiences and all the new places, as much as you can take the boys out of Nebraska, you can't take the Nebraska out of the boys.
"We had a dish, it was chicken, rice, beans, veggies, and then the corn," Fidler said. "I will say that Nebraska's corn is way better."
