2010 Europe Trip Journal

On March 5th, 2010 the Adrian College Women’s Soccer Team began a European tour of The Netherlands and England.  Each day of the trip, players posted a live journal.

March 7th, 2010 – Amsterdam

Yesterday we arrived in Holland, we barely slept on the plane except for Sabrina who slept comfortably on the floor. Immediately after getting to the hotel we went to the sports park to practice which went surprisingly well, considering the chain smoke from every European. We were then cordially invited to the clubhouse for unknown deep-fried substances. We are still searching for our own European hotties, the group tossing their numbers at us were not cutting it. After, we ate an amazing dinner at the hotel, barely staying awake. We headed home for bed.

This morning, we all went to breakfast, well except for the Chitwoods and Muylle. Then we were off on the bus to Amsterdam! We went on a canal cruise through the center of the city and saw “the Nemo boat, the Nemo boat, and the Nemo boat.” After, we had seven hours to explore Amsterdam in a few groups. We all tried to hit the Anne Frank House, which was an amazing experience, and some saw the Van Gogh Museum. Each girl probably spent 50-100 Euro today. The trip is going awesome so far, we’re having a blast. Big game and shopping tomorrow!

- The Big Bambina and Wombat (Sabrina Fortney and Melissa Woolsey)

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March 8th, 2010 – Eindhoven

To begin with, there is only one thing I have to say… Dutch 0, USA 1.  That’s right, we won our first game in the Netherlands against v.v. Herpinia, a 2nd division team.  But to backtrack to the beginning of the day, we started with visiting the Philips Stadium, home of PSV Eindhoven.  We experienced a long and strenuous workout of 4 flights of stairs.  We began on the fourth floor where players and guests lounge and have drinks after the game.  We got the chance to tour the other 3 floors in which we learned the history of the stadium, viewed the locker rooms, and had the chance to view the field.

For lunch, we had McDonald’s (really foreign) and had the chance to see the large statue of the one and only Michael Jackson!  We then went to a small village outside of Eindhoven for shopping.  We experienced the largest chapel in Holland, St. John’s.  It was very unique, yet beautiful with stained glasses, tombs of saints in the ground, and a very impressive organ.  After a couple hours of shopping, we came back to the hotel for dinner and to prepare for our first game.  We had a very stressful ride to the game, where our bus got stuck on a side street.  After a hair-pulling 20 minutes of being stuck, we pulled ourselves together for our match… which by the way as we forgot to mention earlier, we won 2-1.  The ladies on the opposing team ranged in age from 20 to 39, wow!  Compared to our age range of 18 to 23.  But, boy we sure did kick some Dutch bootie!!  That makes us undefeated against the Dutch for the past two years

- The Great Wall of Chayna and The Price is Right Pomeroy (Chayna Wallace and Courtney Pomeroy)

March 11th, 2010 – Watford

Today we woke up for the first time in England and had breakfast at 8:30am, subpar compared to the Holland spread.  Then we packed up and headed out for a short practice session (aka Arsenal Stadium).  Practice went really well with the video camera attached to our hands.  Cozzi finished off the practice winning “crossbar” (surprise!).  Then we headed back to lunch and relaxation before touring the real Arsenal Stadium.

The Stadium was incredible, only about 4 years old.  The tour was a little less personal than PSV, but it was still incredible to see.  We got to go in the locker room and even saw an interview with pro-player Tessa Kellar.  After the stadium we headed back to the hotel and got ready for our game against Watford Reserves.  They were an English Premier League team and a very tough opponent.  The Great Wall of Chayna held up to her name and played a great game.  We ended with a 0-0 tie.  Not bad at all… we kept up our “cracking pace” the full 90 minutes.  After the game we went into the clubhouse and enjoyed some desserts, sandwiches, chips, and tea + crumpets.  Well most of those at least.  We got back to the hotel and enjoyed some delicious pizza, and now it’s midnight here so… HAPPY BIRTHDAY COACH RICKETTS!

- Simba (Sam Bono) and Tessa “Tellin’ It How It Is” Kellar

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March 12th, 2010 – London

Today we traveled to the city of London – you’ve heard of that, right?  Our bus driver Glenn dropped us off right by Westminster Abbey.  From there we could see the Eye of London, Parliament, and Big Ben!  We split into a few groups from there… some dared to navigate “The Tube” following Bailey, their fearless leader.  The other group faced a fierce battle of bus companies… who could give the better price?

The Big Bus Company won our business and we were off to see Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, one of the richest districts in London (home of Sean Connery), and statues of several Kings.  We ate at a pub to get some traditional English food (and also to get lost in there).  To top off the night, it’s off to the city of London to celebrate Coach Ricketts’ birthday!!!  Cheerio!

- Hutch and C-Mac (Kelley Hutchins and Christine McIntyre)

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March 13th, 2010 – Birmingham

Today we woke up to our last full day in England, where we started off with our usual morning breakfast at 8 before leaving at 9 to head to Stratford.  Stratford is the birthplace of Shakespeare.  While there we were given a couple hours to explore the Shakespeare museum or enter into his house for a tour.  There was a variety of different stores located along the main street where we were able to shop and have lunch.  One of the attractions along the main street was “Shakespeare’s ghost” that was painted head to toe in grey.  While Patti was posing for pictures the “ghost” which we all thought was a statue decided to sneak up on her and scare her, which resulted in her screaming and “Shakespeare’s ghost” chasing her around the main street.  At 12:30 when everyone met back at the bus we traveled to the city of Birmingham to attend an English Premier League match between Birmingham City and Everton.

With the match beginning at 3pm all visiting buses were arranged to meet on a street where we would be escorted in by the police for our safety.  Once inside we went to our amazing seats at row 11 and 12 which was in the Birmingham City fan section.  Secretly, the majority of our girls were cheering for Everton because it features two members of the US National Team, Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, along with two former Manchester United players, Phil Neville and Louis Saha, but since we were placed in the home team’s fan area we had to blend in with their crowd and cheering.

Throughout the match both teams had several chants coming from the crowd that we couldn’t understand.  The match resulted in a 2-2 tie.  A few select girls were able to see Landon Donovan up close.  Attending this game was an amazing experience for our team to truly see how European soccer is played and to witness the intense atmosphere of the European fans.  Along with experiencing this match we also witness what could be potentially Landon Donovan’s last match with Everton.

Once the match was completed we loaded the bus to head back to the hotel for dinner at 8.  Tonight is a relaxing night for us to just hang out at the hotel and get ready for our early flight tomorrow.  The past 8 days have been filled with hard work in practice and our matches, sight-seeing, surrounding ourselves with new people and a totally different environment.  Many laughs and memories were shared amongst our team over this trip that will always be remembered.

- Patti “The Point of No Return” Vaassen, Brittany “Moreau Your Boat”, and Emily “Low (like plow) not Low (like snow)”

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March 14th, 2010 – Heading Home

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March 15th, 2010 – Tour Recap

Looking back on these ten days of endless travel, we all have gained an experience of a lifetime.  European futbol is a way of life for these overseas players, from the day they step on a field as a child to playing in front of crowds of 50,000+, and I think each of us walked away with at least some sort of deeper appreciation and love for our futbol as well.

Starting in the Netherlands, it was a rather quiet setting as the historical architecture and old Dutch cities spoke their stories.  The practice session seemed surreal, as if we were running on holy ground, with the thought of representing not only Adrian College, but the United States of America.  It was also interesting to learn about the hand-crafted wooden shoes and cheese making that date back to early history.  On the other hand, Amsterdam was a very busy city.  Numerous people and old style pubs lined the streets as we explored.  PSV Stadium made us feel like “family”.  It was very generous of one of the richest futbol clubs in all of Europe to extend their hand and make us feel at home.  Our match that night was a good test to see if we could keep up with the European style, and we were successful.  The Hague was an interesting piece of history and luckily the weather held out nicely for us that day.  Our game that night was a more difficult test, not only with the cold weather, but a better Dutch team.  We came away with a positive learning experience even though we lost.

Next we were on to England after a “4” hour ferry ride, oh I mean “8” hour ferry ride.  Our practice field was humorously mistaken for Arsenal Stadium, but little did Tessa know that we were going there later in the day.  Arsenal Stadium matches up well with most of our American football stadiums.  Holding 60,000 people and every seat being padded would make for an exciting home field advantage.  That night, our game was a true test of physicality along with mental toughness due to the cold weather and pure exhaustion from travelling non-stop.  A tie, in our minds, was a good result.  The following day a tour of London constantly made our jaws drop.  It felt like being in an amusement park, with the extreme gigantic size of all the buildings and precise detail in design.  It was nice of the city to write on their crossings, “Look Left” and “Look Right”, because cars were speeding in different directions than we were used to at home.  To round out our day, a night out for Coach Ricketts’ birthday was a blast and provided some hilarious memories.  Day 9, our last day of the trip was a culmination of our soccer experience as we watched Birmingham and Everton duke it out to a 2-2 tie.  The police escort, 90 minute chanting of the fans, and our awesome seats made our first European futbol game like nothing else we have ever experienced.

This trip in its entirety opened each and every one of our girl’s eyes to a brand new perspective of the game of soccer.  Pictures will not be able to grasp what the AC Women’s Soccer team experienced through their tour of London and for the memories we will take away, each of us will be eternally grateful.  GO BULLDOGS!!

- Big and Lil “Yo” (Lindsay and Katlyn Chitwood)

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March 15th, 2010 – Coach’s Thoughts on the Trip

Well, there’s not too much for me to add about the day-to-day of the trip itself… I think our girls did a great job of telling the story of our 2010 European Trip and we enjoyed all the comments online just as much as the family and friends enjoyed following us around The Netherlands and UK.  I want to personally thank everyone who followed us on AdrianSoccer.com for the past 9 days… it was always a nice surprise to have well wishes from home.

Even though this trip officially began on March 5th, I feel like it really started two years ago when we started talking about taking a tour like this.  Our goal in designing the itinerary was to provide something more than just a spring break overseas… we wanted to immerse our players in soccer culture, and I think it was a tremendously successful trip in that regard.  My favorite comment came about 3 days into the trip when one of our players said she felt “inspired” to come back to Europe and continue building upon the small taste that we were able to get in such a short time.  As a college team, it was especially rewarding to see how each student took different things from the experience… Muylle working her camera trying to capture every angle of London’s architecture, Irwin and Cozzi taking in all of Holland’s attention to detail in their contemporary interior design, Chitwood’s focus on PSV Eindhoven’s existence as a successful business enterprise through the game of football, and the list goes on and on.

For me, I have as many great memories as everyone else… watching an English Premier League match is something that I’ve dreamed of for years, but to coach our team (and earn a tie!) against a women’s EPL reserve team was absolutely amazing.  For the soccer fans out there, Watford Reserves is in 3rd place in their league… behind Chelsea and Arsenal.  Their leading scorer had scored 21 goals in 8 games before our match.  Suffice to say that USA soccer was very well represented on March 11th, 2010!

Before signing off, I want to send some important thanks… first, to the parents, grandparents, family, and friends of our players that made this trip possible.  This truly was a once in a lifetime experience, and I am grateful to all of the support that our team received as this trip went from idea to reality.  I don’t think that anyone would argue that the expense of this trip was money very well spent, but that doesn’t make it any easier to come up with the funds… I think Jessica and I will be eating PB&J for the next 3 months, but if we close our eyes we can at least pretend we’re eating it in Piccadilly Circus or Trafalgar Square.

I also want to thank our fantastic tour guides Cees (pronounced “case”) and Bryan, and our bus drivers Sies (pronounces “cease”) and Glenn.  Americans can be a bit demanding at times, but these gentlemen took great care of us and will always be considered friends of Adrian College Soccer.  I would also like to thank Loek from Premier International Tours for arranging our trip and managing the many changes along the way, and Eddie from the Ajax Youth Academy for his hospitality during my week abroad before the team arrived.  To Jeroen from Emplina, it was a pleasant surprise to see you at our matches and we hope to see you next time we are in Holland.  Special thanks goes out to my wife Jessica who helped Coach Ricketts get the team safely to Europe and worked behind the scenes throughout the trip, taking care of laundry and equipment and taking pictures and video all week long.  This trip was a resounding success, and we couldn’t have done it without any of the aforementioned people.

My final note is to the players: please do not let your international experience end today.  You saw a tiny bit of Europe, but there is much more to see, even in Holland and England.  After college, there is always an excuse why not to do something… money, time, work, etc…  but always remember that you are in control of your life and your priorities.  My first trip abroad was an eye opening experience, just as it was for many of you.  It’s for that very reason that we put this 2010 trip in place, and it’s the same reason that we’ll return as often as the NCAA rules will allow.

Until 2013…

- Ali “Nickname” Alamdari

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