Capital One Bowl Diary: Day 5
December 30, 2006 | Football
Follow the University of Wisconsin football team each day as it prepares for the Capital One Bowl. From practices to leisure time, uwbadgers.com will cover it all. Make sure to check out the typeid=5&deptID=111&eventid=29"> --> photo gallery for each day as well.
Practice was shortened by about 40 minutes today, which allowed the players some more free time. The fun activities on this warm, 78-degree day were either Walt Disney World - MGM Studios or SeaWorld; about 35 players went to each.
At SeaWorld, the media came to watch Joe Thomas, Paul Standring, Taylor Mehlhaff, Mark Zalewski and Joe Stellmacher feed and play with the very friendly dolphins. The players were quick to learn the hand signals to make the dolphins 'stand,' lie on the side of the wall and even hug.
'It was a great experience,' Stellmacher said. 'I had never seen a dolphin up close before.'
Many of the Badgers then went to check out the Shamu show (none of the players sat in the Splash Zone, though), which unfortunately was not as good as last year. For one thing, most of the 25-minute show consisted of video clips (not even of Shamu) and for another, the big behemoth killer whale that performed last year was a no-show this year.
The players who did not leave the park with the team's bus at 6 p.m. took the I-Ride trolley back to the hotel, about five minutes away. This was a welcome change from everywhere else the team goes, usually via 20-30+ minutes of driving.
Meanwhile, at MGM, Disney staff members escorted Andrew Weininger, Jaevery McFadden, Dywon Rowan, Jonathan Casillas, DeAndre Levy, Derek Konkol and Jerry Butler to Aerosmith 's Rock `n' Roller Coaster, and they were immediately taken in the back door and put on the ride. The players went through twice so that all media outlets could obtain PanelID=15"> --> video footage [watch it on uwbagers.com's Bowl Central page]. After the photo op, the players were free to enjoy the park for the remainder of the afternoon.
