Day 3: August 1st

Amazingly, we all awoke to our 3rd day in a row of clear blue skies. Everyone is up and eager to eat and get on the field. Today there is a light morning session to get the legs warmed up before our first round of games.
The cafeteria has done an amazing job keeping the players fed. The kitchen is always giving us a local flavor, today we sampled banoffee cake consisting of chocolate cake layered with bananas and toffee. As much as I have joked about the food (as I stand by my ham not bacon rant!), this was delicious! But there is also always salads, soup, bread, pasta... plenty of our home staples to keep everyone happy. At dinner time we even had macaroni and cheese which made even pickiest eater smile.
After a filling breakfast, everyone headed down to the fields for a light morning session.

The U 15 and 16 girls experienced the first excursion of the trip and headed off to Arundel Castle which is a restored medieval castle in West Sussex. The girls took a tour and explored the grounds. It sits up on a hill and commands amazing views across the rivers. They also traveled into the village for lunch and some fencing lessons.

Meanwhile back at Lancing and Ardingly College the players enjoyed some down time in their rooms and the Players Lounge before the first round of games.
I snuck into a few rooms to see if kids will really make the bed if no one is there to check.

I'm not giving any names... but no they do not 😀. Laundry has already been done once and every boy has been reminded to shower.
The Players Lounge remains gathering place at down time whether in the afternoon or evening. It is a big space with couches, foosball table,  table tennis and Xbox to play Fifa Soccer.

The afternoon sessions gave most teams the opportunity to get their feet wet and play some local competition.
The U12 and 13 boys stayed at the Lancing College grounds and had a small sided game tournament vs teams from Chelsea and Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club. The boys had some pre game jitters but after the first few minutes everyone dug deep and competed well. With both wins and losses, they gained a lot of confidence and experience in their first matches. The U16 boys also traveled over from Ardingly College to play a match vs Barnham. The boys fell to a hard fought 4-2 loss but learned a great lesson about the English style of play along the way.

The U15 group from Maine Mariners played a match vs Eastborne winning handily over at Ardingly College.

The U14 girls were also nervous for their first games vs English competition but after a light stretching and warm up session they were ready for action.

Each group played two games consisting of an 11v11 match vs Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club  and  9v9 match against Horsham. The jitters seemed to disappear as both groups were victorious in all their games.

Dinner was followed by our first dorm fire drill to ensure safety and then it was down to the tennis courts for an evening round of soccer tennis to unwind after an exciting day.

The evening activities do a great job getting the group together as a whole since the boys and girls are all combined into teams. While there is a competitive aspect all week to these evening games it's also a time to laugh and partner with different kids throughout the week.
Tomorrow all the groups will be heading to the Brighton Pier to enjoy the quaint coastal town as well as the beach and the pier which is full of rides and games. A day free of soccer to re charge their batteries for more matches to be played on Thursday.