Michigan Wolverines in Paris: Day 4
4/30/2018 4:52:00 PM | Football, Features
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• Michigan Wolverines in Paris: Day 3
The Wolverines woke up on Monday and headed for a little team bonding opportunity, traveling to Go Park for some fun competitions. The team was planning to play outdoors, but the heavy rain did not cooperate and they headed to the indoor complex for paintball, indoor soccer and bull riding.
They broke up into six teams and played paintball in a round-robin format. Last year's winning team, led by Pep Hamilton, started the day, pitting teams 1 and 2 against one another. Due to the size of the complex and the time allotted, an audible was called as it became clear after the first round of matches that a full-blown competition was not possible. The Wolverines continued to compete, 3 vs. 4 and 5 vs. 6, but then it turned into whichever players wanted to continue playing and the group formed teams on the fly. Kicker Quinn Nordin sustained the most welts to the body, sporting about a dozen, after wearing just black tuxedo tank top and shorts to play.
The team took to the two indoor soccer fields adjacent to the paintball field and played quite a few spirited 3v3, 4v4, 5v5 and 6v6 games. Really, the Wolverines fit as many players on the field as possible at any given time. The most competitive and longest-running game took place with a coaches vs. players matchup, with Sherrone Moore, Chris Partridge, Jay Harbaugh, Matt Dudek, JT Rogan and Aidan Zordich, daughter of Michael Zordich, out-lasting the players, 2-1, on a winner by Dudek. The opposing team complained that Partridge kept gathering the ball outside the goalie box and checking the players into the boards but there was no video evidence of a foul.
In the bull riding, senior Chase Winovich won the unofficial competition surviving on the bull for 54 seconds. He bested the previous best mark of 42 seconds attained by Drew Singleton and Tyler Cochran.
After lunch at Go Park, the Wolverines boarded buses for the Palace of Versailles, the most opulent palace in France and one of the top palaces in the world.
The Wolverines walked through the Gardens of Versailles for about 30-45 minutes in intermittent rain before entering the Palace in groups of about 30 for tours around the facility. The group toured the Kings quarters that were part of the addition built after the original hunting lodge was constructed in 1624 by King Louis XIII; the Queens quarters are under refurbishment and are unavailable to visitors. Versailles became the seat of political power in France in 1682, when King Louis XIV moved the royal court from Paris -- until the royal family was forced to return to Paris in October 1789. Conservative costs in the early 2000s placed the amount spent to build Versailles during the Ancien Regime at $2 billion -- potentially in the trillions of dollars if constructed today.
Halfway through the tour, defensive graduate assistant coach James Ross proposed to his girlfriend, Omnielle Jordan, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace. The proposal came at 5:25 p.m. in the south end of the room while the rest of the tour group, including members of the media, looked on from afar. James' brother Josh, a linebacker on the team, handed the engagement ring like a baton in a track meet to his older brother just before the moment so that Omnielle would not suspect the upcoming proposal. Michigan photographer David Turnley and videographer Ty Rogers captured the moment for the newly engaged couple.
After concluding the tour, the team walked about 100 yards from the palace to dinner at the Pavillon Colbert. The meal consisted of salads, meats, chicken, duck, pork, rice, pasta, ravioli and crepes, and included a talk about the community service event the Wolverines are planning to do on Tuesday.
Tweet of the Day
An incredible moment for our @UMichFootball family: UM Graduate Assistant coach James Ross (@jross_iii), proposed to his girlfriend Omnielle Jordan (@Omni_____), in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles...and by the way, she said yes! pic.twitter.com/018pZGcIgT
— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) April 30, 2018
