Wednesday, March 19th, 2008.
"There’s always one"
Tonight was the night that we left to go to England. We met at the airport at 8:00pm and our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:00pm. With the amount of people we had, we weren’t expecting everything to go smoothly. Our first problem arrived at security when the man checking our passports told Tommy Nowlan that he wasn’t the same kid as the picture on the passport. Tommy looked at it and realized it was his older brother, Rob. Luckily the flight was delayed so that Tommy was able to get his passport in time.
While this was happening, the rest of us kept ourselves entertained by riding airport taxis and having the miniature racquet ball world championship in the hall. Matt Bryan was the self proclaimed champ. Eventually everyone boarded the plane, even with our passport mishap. It was a long flight, but we finally got there.
Thursday, March 20th, 2008.
"Learning the ropes."
We left Heathrow Airport, and continued our journey to Bradfield College. On the 
bus we got a front row seat to the amazing countryside, with our wonderful tour guide Neil. We arrived at Bradfield and went straight to the dinning hall for lunch.
The food over here is not that great, but we will manage some how. Snacks from home are becoming even more coveted. Soon we arrived at the dorms, and received our room keys. After having a fire drill the team set out for our first practice session in England.
After a mile walk to the field we arrived at the "pitch". The fields were probably the best any of us have ever set foot on. The weather was windy and cold the whole day, but overall we still had a ton of fun.
Friday, March 21st, 2008.
"Learning the English Style"
Today, two games were played, one by the Red team and one by the Black team. The "Yanks" lost both games, but it got us adjusted to the fast paced English football so we will be prepared for the rest of our matches.
The Black team played first against the Thatcham Tornadoes. We went ahead first with Brandon Trojak kneeing a set piece into the back of the net from beautiful free kick from Drew Garrett. Thathcam quickly retaliated with another goal and never looked back. The other team went on to a victory with 5 more goals.
The Red team played Mid Solent right after the Black teams game. We started out slow and they jumped to a two nothing lead. This woke us up and we were able to finish the game strong, but were unable
to put one away. We ended up losing 2-0, but we never gave up.
The players of the day were Vince Wilson and Alex Baroudi. Both Goalies had outstanding games against the English lads who are experts at striking a ball.
Quotes of the Day
"Rex-Kwon Do" - Napoleon Dynamite
"I know you play soccer, but its the same rules as football"
"Grab my arm, the other arm......my other arm"
Story of the day
Vince Wilson and Jason Schwab are rooming together. So at 1:00am their alarm went off (no sun shine) and they got showered, dressed and headed for the field. Not realizing it was 1:00am they walked outside for breakfast. After figuring it out they went to go back in and the door was locked. Neil heard a knock at the window and thinking it was the Easter Bunny jumped out of bed and opened the window only to find Vince and Jason wanting back in. We are looking forward to some strong bowling tonight.
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008.
"Another Footballing Lesson"
We woke to find that it was snowing outside, in three days we have seen everything from sunshine to sleet. In the snow we walked downstairs to breakfast. After eating we set out for the Reading Football Clubs Training ground, where we where to play against kids fighting for contracts with the EPL club. Before the game US National Team Player Bobby Convey popped into our locker room to give us a little talk. We suited up to play against some really spectacular players. The center midfielder and captain for Reading played on the U-16 England National Team. Also, the left midfidfielder was a brilliant player who was only 12 
years old. As far as the game lets just say were in it at one point in time. After the match we got on the bus to root for Reading FC in their Premier League against Birmingham at the Madjeski Stadium in Reading.
When we got to the stadium we all ran into the football shop to buy Reading home jerseys. We enjoyed our front row seats in Madejski Stadium. Reading jumped to a 1-0 lead off a header by Andre Bikey. At half time Neil Holl
oway, Byron Carmichael, Cody Chladek, and Tommy Nowlan represented the Barons by swapping jerseys with the Reading FC on the field. The second half was extremely exciting. Birmingham got the equalizer to silence the loud home crowd. With about a little less than 15 minutes left Andre Bikey put in the go ahead goal. Reading went on to defend the lead and win the match. The team especially enjoyed doing the Reading goal dance.
After an exciting day we all passed out on the bus ride home. After eating dinner we returned back to our dorms to get some well needed rest.
Quotes of the Day
Vince - "Man, they hit the ball hard over here, and always on net."
Everyone - "What the heck is a lamb and mint burger."
Tommy Nowlan - "I’ll never complain about running again."
Derek - "Do they change American movies to an English accent."
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008.
"Taking in some culture"
We began the day with yet another game. We played the
U-16 Reading Select team, with kids from all over the Reading league. For 20 minutes we played some real quality football. Both teams had some opportunities but we were unable to capitalize on ours. After the game we ran back to the dorms to get ready to tour Windsor Castle. Somehow we managed to get ready in time to catch the bus around 1:00pm.
Once we arrived to Windsor castle we went straight into the castle. Because it was Easter, the Windsor grounds were packed with tourists. Once inside the castle we walked around the grounds to see the all the history. While walking around we managed to find some guards who we took pictures with. Accidentally some one touch the guard while in the group was taking the picture. The guard stomped his feet twice and swung his giant gun with a knife on the end. While he was doing this we were all busy running for our lives.
Next we went shopping around the town. Everyone one was pleased to find that there was a McDonalds and Pizza Hut. One group lead by Eric Cutry managed to walk all over and not find one open shop. Also Eric managed to give us all a scare by leaving his bag in the McDonalds. Luckily some nice Brits handed it in, so everything turned out alright.
On the way home from Windsor, we all tuned in for the Arsenal vs.Chelsea game. Arsenal scored first in the second half and with 30 minutes left they thought they were on their way to 3 points. Little did they know Chelsea would put two past them for their victory and 3 points.
Quotes of the day:
Neil "Byron what color is your team." Byron " White, Black and Red." (Neil meant your the Red team)
Brandon Trojak "Vince Wilson you need to communicate more when your in goal." Vince back to Brandon "Trojak you need to keep your hands away from the ball when your in the box."
Derek Welsh looks at a statue of Queen Elizabeth the 1st and says " I didn’t know Shakespeare was English."
Monday, March 24th, 2008 - By Eddie McCartney.
"They get a lesson in USA soccer"
Today we woke up and went to breakfast. After breakfast we headed down to the "pitch" to warm up for our games. The black team played first Newbury and finally we came away with our first win of the trip. We were able to win 2-1 with Phil Barbaro and Jason Schwab scoring. The Red team played next against
Hastings and also came away with another win. We won 1-0 with a goal scored by Nick Tierce, but during the game we saw everything from sunshine to rain to sleet to snow to hail. After everyone was cleaned up we headed out to a store for some shopping. Unbelievable store, everything soccer you could imagine. Alot of money was spent today. (all for our families of course) While there we got some jerseys and some "Man-Pris" or three quarter pants. We came home from shopping to relax a little bit and then went swimming. For our educational session we all watched "The Football Factory". I
t was an overall very good day.
Story of the Day:
After swimming, JT and Chuck were told that if they walked up the hill in thier boxers, in the freezing cold, Nick would pay them 20 pounds. They both did it, but Nick gave them 20 punches instead.
Quote of the Day:
"Anybody want Mock Donalds" - by Neil.
"He’s talking about your father" - by everyone
"Show no Mercy, It’s all about winning championships" - Reading Scout (aka Big Blue)
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
Today was our first day with no football and we were glad for the rest. This morning we headed to Wembley Stadium for our first tour. Wembley is the stadium where the English National team plays and holds some concerts. It holds 90,000 people which makes it one of the largest in the world. It also has 2,618 toilets and we couldn’t get to one of them during the tour. We also learned about the greatest English soccer player, Bobby Moore and how many steps he had to take to get the FA trophy to the Queen. (39 in case you didn’t know).
After that we headed to London for a trip around the London Eye. We saw Big Ben, Westminster Abby and the Parliament House. Then we walked around London and made it to Buckingham Palace for tea with the queen. We drove back to the school and had a little pick up game on the pitch behind our building.
Quote of the Day
Vince Wilson - "What should I wear to training tomorrow."
Neil - "How about a flowered shirt, Burmuda shorts and sunglasses."
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008.
Today we woke up late because we didn’t have anything do in the morning. Nobody went to breakfast except for a few kids. At around 10:00am we went out onto the field to play a game of Cricket. It was difficult to play, but we still enjoyed ourselves. After Cricket we got onto a bus and headed for a tour of Madejski Stadium. Even though we already seen the stadium, it was interesting to see the stadiums locker rooms and get close to the pitch. We left the tour and headed over to Emirates Stadium for Brazil vs. Sweden. Once again we had front row seats, so we were right next to the players. We arrived to find some crazy Brazilian fans all over the stadium. Some of the game highlights included a goal by Pato, and the whole stadium doing the wave. After a long day we arrived home just before midnight.
Thursday, March 27th, 2008.
Today was our final day in England and was also Neil’s favorite day. We got on a bus and headed to london to tour Stamford Bridge, which is the stadium where Chelsea plays. We were able to go into the locker room and see the jerseys and we also learned about their very rich Russian owner. The lockers were air-conditioned and gave off a rose scent. After the stadium tour we went to the Chelsea Megastore which was a two-story building. (no comparison to Arsenal’s) We left Chelsea to go back to Bradfield to prepare for our final game.
At night we headed over to A.F.C Newbury to play a game under the lights and their stadium. We felt like real professionals, we had our own dressings rooms to get ready in and we walked through a tunnel to get to the field. We played a really great game and we never gave up, but we lost 1-0. After the game the Barons and Newbury all ate together in the clubhouse and had a good time. They were very nice and we are going to beat the English kids in X Box when we get home.
We went to send a special thank you to Neil, Joanne and Byron for taking us on this trip.
