March 2023 -

This month we hear from Senior Men's player Brandon Matthews who is currently overseas playing for the Polar Bears Ede Club in the Netherlands.

The idea of playing and living in Europe is something that I have dreamed about for a long time and has always been something that I’ve known that I wanted to do. Now living and training over in the Netherlands, it is something that is awesome and has lived up to my expectations with it all so far. I am currently based in a small town called Ede in the Netherlands, with the nearest major city being Utrecht, which is half an hour away on the train. It is a small township and it’s very easy to get around, with most things being 5 to 10 minutes away by bike, which is super handy. Biking is the main way of getting around, something that I had to get use too quickly. Also having to ride a bike of the right-hand side of the road, was something that took a little bit of getting use to as well, thankfully I haven’t caused any accidents yet (fingers crossed).

My first day here was spent getting to know my coach and having to adjust to the cold (the pilot said it was 4 degrees when we landed). I was introduced to one of my teammates who I was staying with for the first two weeks before I moved into my apartment where I currently live. At my first training, I was introduced to a whole range of new faces and names, and it came with an 11pm finish, one of the first of many, so that was new for me. After my second training, I was delighted with a surprise sprinkling of snow, which was very fascinating for me to see. As you all know, snow is not something that we come by easily back home, and a few of my teammates were interested to know this.

A normal training week is that we train 4 days a week, Mondays and Thursdays we have a gym session followed by a pool training (7:30 – 11pm), Tuesdays we are just in the pool (9:30 – 11pm) and Fridays are our early training (8 – 9:30pm). On the weekends we normally have 1 game to play, either on Saturday or Sunday, however, we have had one weekend since I’ve been here that we have played on both Saturday and Sunday. Our games are a mixture of home games in Ede, and playing away in different pools. Most of the time, it is between 40 minutes to an hour to drive to these away games, which is slightly different to having to fly like Emily does for her games 😊

Training and games have been great and are challenging mainly with the time frame of when we train during the day, but I’m enjoying and loving it all. For the most part, trainings and games are communicated in Dutch, like how it is for Emily, but thankfully I’m not the only international player in my team. I have a teammate who comes from Hungary, so when there are specific things that we both need to know, our coach tells us both in English. When talking with my teammates it is in English and they all speak really well when talking to myself or my teammate from Hungary. Otherwise, it is in rapid fire Dutch, but I’m finding that I can understand more and more Dutch, just not so confident speaking it apart from the basics. Thankfully, my flatmates have also been helping me out and Duolingo is also a great way to learn too!

I’ve been lucky that with having Wednesdays off from training, I treat this as my exploring day. Currently, I’ve been to Amsterdam for a day, and also to Utrecht as well. It is such a strange feeling to be able to travel so easily on the train, and in an hour be in Amsterdam. If I wanted to, I could go by car to Germany, which is only half an hour away, or to Belgium as well. It is such a foreign concept to have that ease of travelling over here.

The experience so far has been awesome and inspiring to see, and to make a name for Kiwi’s while I’m over here, but also to show everyone back home that it is possible to do and make it not just a dream, but also a reality.