Day 9: Thursday, August 18th

Woke up to a slightly cooler cloudy day today but no sign of rain.
After breakfast this morning, we headed off to visit Brighton & Hove Albion home stadium the American Express Community Stadium in Falmer located in East Sussex downs. The stadium was finished in 2011 and will host their first Premier League games this season.

The grounds were built down into the ground so that the rolling hills and roof of the stadium blended together. Every aspect of the stadium was built to blend in with its surroundings of rolling hills and sea.

The kid were broken up into groups and brought through the stadium looking at the directors boxes, club viewing boxes, stadium seats, visitors and home dressing rooms as well as interview rooms and going out the tunnel pitch side.

After winding through the stadium, everyone headed into the Pro Club Shop to use those credit cards that you gave them. Personalized jerseys, jackets, mugs, blankets, key chains flew off the shelves.

We headed back to Ardingly Collge for lunch and to relax before an afternoon of games for the boys and a last training session for the girls.
The girls headed down to their final training session with coach Naomi, Leah and Sara to prepare them for the final games tomorrow.

Afterwards, the coaches had their closing ceremony with the girls. Each player had a one on one meeting with their coach and were given a critique form with strengths and things to work on. They also received some Brighton & Hove Albion momentos and some awards. Best player went to Ashley, best attitude went to Kate and most improved went to Julie.

The boys played a hard fought battle against Brighton & Hove Albion teams. The teams have definitely  improved, gotten organized and battle harder against the English competition.

The boys also had their closing ceremony with the coaches and had their critiques one v one as well as best player, most improved and best attitude awards for each group.

Joey's group had Eli, Zane and Milo with awards.

And for Martyn's group it was Iain, Willem and Daniel

Back up to the dorms everyone showered and headed to dinner. Rain quickly passed through the area but left behind a beautiful rainbow over the town.

Tomorrow is the kids last full day here in England! The girls have an early wake up call and after breakfast, head over to the Brighton & Hove Albion official training ground to play their last match while the boys play their last matches at the Ardingly College fields. In the afternoon they head to the Fullham vs Sheffield Wednesday match.