In the world of athletics, there are endless amounts of opportunities. The Carolina Forest boys soccer teams travelled to England over spring break. Those who attended the trip included the following athletes: Carson Baird, David Brown, Johnny Carranza, Enrique Diaz, Mauricio Dos Santos, Enrique Diaz, Lucas Kenny, Ethan McCormick, Johnny Ortiz, Gianni Prudente, Carson Runyon, Gavin Santangelo, Pedro Schenatto, Johnny Sessions.
Soccer also known as football has been played in England since the 1800s, making it a fun, historial place for soccer fans to visit. There are 211 mens FIFA (Fédération internationale de football association) teams around the world. Along with the professional teams, there are many universities that train athletes to possibly go pro. The boys visited The University of Wolverhampton. The university offers degrees in coaching soccer, sports analysis, and sports science.
“The boys had the chance to tour the campus, explore their sports sciences facilities and have a class in game film analysis. The team also had an opportunity to train with both professional and national team academy coaches. They also were able to interact with professional players in their age group,” shared Coach Dougherty.
During the trip, the team traveled to London, Manchester, Wolverhampton, and Birmingham. While traveling the team attended two professional matches, Manchester City vs Aston Villa and Watford vs Preston.
Sophomore Anthony Helms added, “I loved having the opportunity to go on this trip with my team. The coaches made training fun and competitive while still coaching us on the basics and technical aspects of the sport. Along with getting to train I really enjoyed getting to the Wolverhampton Stadium and watching the Manchester City game.”
“The ability to travel to a different country with my friends and explore a new city was very fun, but I also enjoyed the aspect of being exposed to what it is like to play soccer in a different country. It was cool to be able to see the difference between soccer in the United States and the United Kingdom,” stated Jonathan Ortiz.
This trip was a great experience for the team allowing them to learn and accelerate in their sport but also allowed the team to grow closer and build their friendships with their teammates.
