Brighton Pier

The birds outside woke everyone VERY early but we were all glad to see blue skies instead of the previously forecasted rain. A blessing on a day with a packed outdoor schedule.
After breakfast, the entire group boarded team bus headed for the Brighton Pier.

We started out with some team photos taking advantage of the picturesque background.

Afterwards, they rushed out to the pier and took advantage of the sunshine for some snacks

Some posing

And the rides

It was a fun filled morning but with our first team games later, we headed back to Lancing College for lunch and some down time.

At 3 pm, the boys started off with some hard fought battles against the Brighton and Hove Albion in the Community boys teams.
The boys from Benfica came out victorious.

The young boys from Seacoast Maine brought with them an impressive cheering squad and rose to the challenge tying their opponents before squaring off in PKs.

At 5 pm the girl,s teams also faced off against the Brighton and Hove Albion in the Community ladies and swept the groups in victory.

A late dinner left everyone a bit sunburned but looking forward to a morning training session before the Amex Stadium tour in the afternoon.

First day of Training

Day 2:

After a sleep that didn't feel quite long enough, everyone was up for 7:30 am wake up call to be ready for breakfast.
The group trudged sleepily to the dining hall for a classic English Breakfast. (Yes that does look like ham on their plates but English people call this bacon! They obviously don't know what they are missing and the kids were not impressed!) 😀

After breakfast, the players looked forward to a day of morning and afternoon training. In typical English weather fashion, day 1 of training brought wet and rain all morning and beautiful clear skies for the afternoon.
With such a large group, they split their time. Half stayed at the Lancing College training grounds for the morning session.

As a group we huddled up to officially meet the. Coaching staff and broke into teams with their individual Brighton  coaches for the week.

 The goalkeepers also broke off separately and received goalie specific training in the morning session.

Meanwhile, a little rain  couldn't stop the groups from enjoying their first training session with their new coaches.

After the morning session, the kids dried off, ate lunch and relaxed before splitting up again for their second training session of the day.
The girls groups and young boys headed over to the Brighton and Hove Albion training ground for their second session. Clear blue skies and turf fields really marked a change from the wet morning session.

Two of the women's Professional first team Brighton players also came and spoke with the girls teams about playing professional soccer. The girls were able to ask questions about their development path, training life, nutrition and what it was like to play soccer full time.

After a great day of double session training, everyone looked forward to dinner and ending the night with an entire group activity of kickball to really tire them out before bed time.

Tomorrow we head down to Brighton Pier in the morning before playing our first games in the afternoon.

Brighton Trip August 2019

Sunday, August 4th:

Alright everyone. This very large convoy of over 100 kids has successfully made it to the finish line of the first day! As I deliriously type, everyone should be settling down to sleep.
It actually feels like Saturday night to me; as if groups just met in the airport this morning to take group photos and board our overnight Norwegian Air flight.

Tomorrow I will get photos out if the grounds and rooms and training fields.
 Today was a lot of travel and traffic BUT we all made it to the Community Shield Match at Wembley Stadium.

I know the kids were tired but the singing and rowdy crowd was definitely a new experience that woke them up and kept their attention throughout the match. All the way through penalty kicks.

Most importantly, everyone had a great time, met a bunch of new people and is looking forward to an amazing week of soccer and experience.

More to come tomorrow. Now I sleep

April Trip Day 7

The boys had their last training session with the Brighton staff.  They trained hard with small sided games that were designed for the boys to refine their skills on the ball, then played a really fun round robin tournament. 

The boys were lucky and got a surprise visit from two of the professional players for the Brighton ladies squad, Victoria Williams and Ini Umotong!  Victoria plays for the England U23 squad and Ini plays for the Nigerian Womens national team and were able to talk about playing for both their club and their country.  They finished the session with a Q & A where they gave the boys valuable advice on how theu can continue to develop their soccer skills to the maximum level. 

After a long day of training the boys enjoyed some well deserved free time in Brighton.