Soccer Academy England Trip - Day 10 & 11

Saturday, March 17 – Return to London, Fulham Game & Airport Hotel

We set out early on our three-hour drive back to London, arriving at 1 p.m. at Fulham's Stadium for the 3 p.m. kickoff. One can quickly get a feel for the history of the Fulham Football Club; their stadium is the oldest in England and still has the old wooden chairs and original grand stand that are over 100 years old.

Once again, our seats were incredible – right behind the goal that saw all but one of the goals in the 3-0 away victory for Swansea City. Our seats were right beside the visiting fans from Swansea, who were incredibly loud with some of the best chants I’ve ever heard. 

After the game we allowed the kids to grab a few Fulham items at the stadium store then loaded the bus for our airport hotel.

Sunday, March 18 – London to Boston to Atlanta

Enough said… long flights home.

I will say this, I do not like London's Heathrow Airport. It took over an hour for me and my bag to get through security. I don’t know how they will handle the amount of people coming through this summer for the Olympics!

This trip has been one of the Soccer Academy's best international adventures yet (second only to the 2006 World Cup trip!) The students were tremendous and they played incredibly well against professional youth academy teams. 

I enjoyed seeing our seniors continue to lead, but it was really neat to see some of our sophomores and juniors start taking the torch. This trip truly was a “changing of the guard” moment for our Soccer Academy. Trips like these develop leaders. Every parent who came with us remarked at how impressed they were with our senior leadership and the fact that younger players were stepping up in a number of leadership roles.

I have always known that Darlington School Soccer Academy develops players on the field, but experiences like this allow me the honor of seeing young kids become leaders and mature, worldly citizens. That is a huge reward!

Click here to see photos from the trip.