‘Fesenko’s Shoes/Your Ski’s’

As promised, I would like to share a few things regarding my tour of the Zions Bank Practice facility a little while ago. Perhaps like myself; most people probably envision the ESA when they think of the Jazz practicing. If you really stop to think about it, aside from games and pre-game warm-ups, most of the down and dirty time is spent at the practice facility. As one might guess, it is a very nice place to play at; let alone just for practicing.

The group that I went with included some season ticket holders, fellow Jazzbots, Karen Chatterton and Jackie Corbridge, and some absolutely wonderful, well-mannered elementary students. Our tour guide for the day was Debbie Floerchinger, who usually works in the season ticket office. Debbie’s personality and sense of humor was absolutely fabulous, she really made the tour interesting and fun. We visited the meeting room with a view to the practice courts, the recreation room, the coaches offices, the giant film room (theatre really-I think they might have an inside connection regarding theatres), the locker rooms, the training room and the practice courts.

While we were all walking around the practice courts, we were able to see the weight/workout room which is like a big fish bowl for everyone to see into. Kevin O’Connor happened to be working out while we were there. It must have been a huge temptation for all those kids to do blow-fishes on the window for Kevin, but instead, they all paid attention to Denise. Mr. O’Connor slipped out of the exercise room behind the group at one point, and returned a short time later with some basketballs, and announced to the kids that they would be able to play on the actual court! What a nice gesture! Denise assured me that this was unplanned, and merely a spontaneous act which made some kids really happy!

Here are a few of the things that stood out to me most about the tour. First, the locker room. Those lockers are very nice and roomie, and they come equipped with a good chair. The reason I noticed the chair, is that many of the chairs had basketball shoes on them. It seems that the only place big enough to keep Kyrylo Fesenko’s shoes is on the chair, where they occupy most of the seat! It’s funny to see the amount of stuff in different players’ areas. I bet many of us could guess which players have a lot of things versus hardly any at all, and which players have kind of messy areas versus very tidy lockers. Just as personality is reflected in the way a person plays, it is also expressed in their personal space. (By the way it was very kind of the Jazz players and organization to allow the invasion of their private space).

The practice courts are excellent, spacious and well lit. The training room is amazing with therapy pools, endless swimming pool, hydrotherapy baths, and more. The film room was also an interesting place to see and learn about. They have to save and archive a lot of film!

After our tour I asked Denise about her job in the season ticket office, and had her share some stories about her 11 seasons with the Utah Jazz. She is the first to say that working for the Jazz is not as glamorous as it may seem, but that it’s a fun place to work and interact with fans, and sometimes even the occasional player. She wanted to point out that the coaches work so very hard, and many fans just don’t realize what they do for the team day-in and day-out.

I asked her if she had any fun behind the scene stories, and while I won’t recount all of them, I will tell this story which is a first person account. It seems that during the last trade with the Utah Jazz, several offices of the Jazz including the season ticket office were inundated with calls from matchmakers from all over the place, assuring that their niece, granddaughter, daughter-in-law’s sister etc. would be a perfect match for the new guy! She also said that it’s been very interesting to see the differences in the way the American born players work-out and lift weights versus the European players. Denise also wanted me to be sure and say that Matt Harpring is really cool!

We all had a great time, and appreciate the opportunity provided by the Jazz to see some of what goes on behind the scenes. Success on the court is made a lot easier with a nice place to practice.