Huskies in Cuba:  Part I  |  Part II  |  Part III  |  Part IV
Photo Galleries:  Baseball (Part I)  |  Volleyball (Part I)  |  Baseball (Part II)  |  Baseball (Part III)  |  Volleyball (Part III)
Sights & Sounds:  Part I  |  Part II  |  Part III  |  Part IV

HAVANA, Cuba – In the wake of U.S. President Barack Obama charting a new course in foreign policy with Cuba, the Northeastern baseball and volleyball teams became two of the first American collegiate squads to set foot in the country formerly governed by Fidel Castro when the Huskies arrived in Havana on the evening of Sunday, Dec. 18.
 
Deplaning in the 85-degree Fahrenheit (29-degree Centigrade) weather at Jose Marti International Airport, both teams were greeted beyond the baggage carousels by a sea of locals, awaiting the arrival of family members that had previously been denied the opportunity to return to Cuba. One gentleman in particular was making his first trip to Cuba in more than 30 years and was more than excited to be back in his home nation.
 
Immediately, the Huskies were introduced to the gripping time warp of Cuba and the country's rather casual pace of life, referred to by the groups' translators as "Cuban time." Instead of a long string of yellow taxi cabs that typically parade airports throughout the U.S., the Jose Marti perimeter was decked out with a variety of old-fashioned cars from the 1950s and 1960s, much like the one shown below.
 
 
Instead of the parking lots and rental car facilities at major U.S. airports that stretch for as long as the eye can see, there were small housing communities that were adjacent to livestock fields, where a herd of cows could be found grazing, completely oblivious to the Boeing 737 that just took off a few meters away.
 
With the sun setting close to 6 p.m. (18 p.m.) and no streetlights on the majority of Cuban roads, the Huskies' bus ride from Jose Marti to their hotel in Havana, Hotel Bello Caribe, was curtained in nearly absolute darkness. After checking in, the two teams were treated to dinner at the nearby La Finca, where the ProActive Sports Tour staff and local Cuban translators welcomed the Huskies for the first time (below).
 
 
Surrounding the restaurant were several well-constructed houses, typically housed by members of the Cuban government as well as foreign Cuban ambassadors and political elites – one end of two societal extremes the Huskies would witness during the week.
 
Although the official nine days of mourning that followed Castro's death on Nov. 25 had ended well before the Huskies had arrived in Cuba, the bureaucracy within Havana extended this period to include a ban on competitive sports, jeopardizing Northeastern's scheduled baseball and volleyball games against Universidad de Habana. Despite this, and with the help of trip organizers and a local seminary, both NU teams managed to substitute these games with scrimmages against amateur teams.
 
During the morning of Dec. 19, the baseball team set out for its first of two days in the town of Santiago de Las Vegas. There, the Huskies practiced at a backyard-baseball-style dirt field, surrounded by a concrete, cinderblock wall. The dugouts along the first- and third-base lines were dug five feet into the ground and canopied by stone, almost as if they had once served as military bunkers (below).
 
 
As the Huskies' practice continued, members of the nearby houses visited the field to catch a glimpse of Northeastern in action. Impressed by the Huskies' prowess around the diamond, their reactions were often of amazement, especially as players like Pat Madigan and Michael Geaslen sent home runs well beyond the concrete wall in left-center field. One basket catch by David Hopkins during an infield pop-up drill had the locals particularly rowdy from the stands.
 
Elsewhere on the island, the NU volleyball team left its tour of downtown Havana to partake in a scrimmage with a Cuban youth team. Together with his coach, a member of the Cuban men's volleyball national team greeted the Huskies and led them through an intense warm-up routine that had everyone smiling and working hard. Around the gym, both teams were sprinkled amongst the other, with no two members of the same team standing beside another.
 
 
After stretching, the two teams alternated between American and Cuban, hitting and setting drills before squaring up against each other in more match-speed drills. By the end of the session, the two teams had overcome their language barrier and were well on their way to exchanging names, dance moves, and more.