Day 1: Thursday, August 10th

Welcome to the blog. Each day I will do my best to paint a picture through words and a lot of photos so that you can all read and see what the kids are up to.
After a long overnight flight, which included more movie watching than sleep, we hit the ground running and took a bus over to Ardingly College, a boarding school located in West Sussex England.

The kids unloaded their bags, found their assigned rooms and began unpacking and unwinding from the long flight.

After a little relaxing and refresh time, we quickly got the kids outside in the good English weather to stretch their legs and get to know each other better. All of the kids were divided up for games of soccer tennis

And cricket

The best way to get all of the kids on UK time is to keep them up all day and on to a regular bedtime and wake up schedule. It makes the first day or so difficult but in the long run works best for the week. At this point the kids are all on a major high of excitement for the trip. Back in the dorm, we gather them all together on the players lounge for a Sports Tours Europe meeting with the staff that will be watching over the kids all week.

Andy goes over the week's schedule and expectations with all of the kids including meal times, training times, excursions and games. As well as relaying points of contact for the kids in case of any problem. From there, we were all starving and it was straight to dinner at the dining hall.

After dinner, we gathered back in the Players Lounge which includes X Boxes with FIFA soccer and a fusball table.

To sufficiently tire the kids out, staff member Sarah Smith took all the kids and coaches out for a walk around the grounds to see the fields and surrounding area. Ardingly College is truly beautiful and the kids got their first taste of the English countryside.

We continued on through some corn fields and sheep fields before returning to campus tired and ready for showers and bed.

Tomorrow will start the regular routine of up for breakfast at 8:15am and then down to the soccer fields to meet their Brighton & Hove Albion staff soccer coaches for the week. They will have a morning and afternoon training session to really get the group settled and working together as we get ready for the games ahead this week.