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After a late Saturday night flight out of the Bay Area, Cal football touched down in Australia earlier yesterday.
Welcome to Sydney lads! #CollegeFootballSyd #CalBears #VisitSydney pic.twitter.com/Aao34SCfu3
— College Football (@CFSydneyCup) August 21, 2016
Sydney, Australia... We have arrived!#WeAreGolden pic.twitter.com/HLkf1dzN65
— Cal Football (@CalFootball) August 21, 2016
Time for a quick airport selfie #CollegeFootballSyd #GoBears pic.twitter.com/ZG7J9T2HyW
— College Football (@CFSydneyCup) August 21, 2016
Go Bears! #CollegeFootballSyd #CalBears pic.twitter.com/atfPYbyBKn
— College Football (@CFSydneyCup) August 21, 2016
They went straight to their first practice in Sydney.
Practice number 1 from Sydney is in the books!#CalBearsInSydney pic.twitter.com/2FcajRRHxz
— Cal Football (@CalFootball) August 22, 2016
For those wanting more details about the Cal flight to Hawaii, here’s how it went down, according to Daniel Uthman of the USA Today.
- The Bears chartered a Boeing 777 from San Francisco International Airport. Seating 330 people, Cal turned that expense into a profit by offering available seats unoccupied by players, coaches and staff to donors. 270 of 330 seats were occupied on the flight, allowing players an extra seat between them to stay relaxed during the flight.
- Cal conducted two closed practices on Saturday to ensure maximum sleep on the flight late Saturday night. The team is going through a marathon practice today to hopefully ensure a quick reset of the body clock by Tuesday morning (realistically it probably won’t happen until midweek). Cal practiced early Monday morning and will go on a bunch of team activities. That includes hitting the beach.
Practice 1 ☑️
— Cal Football (@CalFootball) August 22, 2016
Now let's go swimming pic.twitter.com/v35rMOw8Uh
Partly on the advice of basketball coach Cuonzo Martin, who took the Bears men’s basketball team on an Australian tour last year, Cal football coach Sonny Dykes said the Bears will be organized in “running groups” to take turns stretching on the flight. And they’ll be wearing compression tights that were recommended to the team’s strength and conditioning staff to help blood flow and are identical to those used by the Navy Seals when they travel by air for rapid deployment.
There won’t be many significant practice updates this week, but apparently Cal will have at least one famous alum in tow Down Under. Marshawn Lynch was in Sydney and checked out the first major practice for the Bears along with Mike Pawlawski.
A few familiar faces have made their way down under.#CalBearsInSydney pic.twitter.com/F4P6zY8JwG
— Cal Football (@CalFootball) August 22, 2016
Look who's in town...#BeastMode pic.twitter.com/jNPk5DJrEq
— College Football (@CFSydneyCup) August 22, 2016
And it’s not just for a cameo. Marshawn is going to be there all week, partly to launch Beast Mode Australia merchandise! This is going to be great.
Want to meet Marshawn Lynch? He'll be at Rebel Sport at Bondi Junction to Launch his Beast Mode Range in Australia. pic.twitter.com/LmLqSQKWWT
— Woot and Wye NFL (@WootandWye) August 22, 2016
Here are a few glimpses of Cal at practice in Australia from the social media team and local college football fan Andrew Price.
Group photo @CalFootball #CALvsHAW pic.twitter.com/qxQzpAU8KC
— Andrew Price (@pricey43) August 22, 2016
Allot of players #CALvsHAW @CalFootball pic.twitter.com/ePDAGipmXZ
— Andrew Price (@pricey43) August 22, 2016
Link to Photos of @CalFootball practice today https://t.co/GPAJHz1TSH
— Andrew Price (@pricey43) August 22, 2016
The Bears have some pretty nice accommodations in downtown Sydney.
It's lit yee! pic.twitter.com/eqklFecbue
— Derrick Clark (@eatmyfresh) August 22, 2016
Also, Traveon Beck and Malik Pslams are asking the hard questions.
Where the kangaroos at ?
— TRAVEON BECK✨ (@HeyImTray) August 21, 2016
spending all my money out here... how much a kangaroo cost?
— malik (@MalikPsalms) August 22, 2016