Team Seattle takes in ‘The Med’

Five teams, three countries and lots of sun and soccer kept 68 Northwest soccer players busy for 16 glorious days this summer.

Team Seattle’s Mediterranean getaway began along the Costa Brava (rugged coast) in Spain. After landing in Barcelona, the group of 121 players, parents and coaches stayed up the coast in the resort of Lloret de Mar.

The five boys and girls teams hit the ground running with amazing sightseeing, including the mountaintop monastery of Monserrat, FC Barcelona Stadium and Barcelona’s famed pedestrian boulevard, the Ramblas. Between the friendly matches scheduled with local clubs, the players also had time to enjoy the marvelous beaches and the Spanish cuisine and meet other teens from all over Europe. It seems that everyone in Europe comes to “The Med” for summer vacation.

After four jampacked days, our three busses took us along the coastline to the French Riviera and Cannes, our next host city. The road trip was made especially interesting as the three drivers only spoke Catalon, a dialect of Spanish common around Barcelona. But that just added to the adventure of traveling in another part of our big world.

France was “tres bon” for the players and adults alike. A tour of the hilltop villages of St. Paul de Vence and Eze (home to a world famous perfumery), a quick look at Monaco, and a day in Nice gave us the flavor of that area. Again, friendly games were scheduled with the opportunity to meet and greet the French teams afterwards. The food in France was exceptional and the beach was a popular place to beat the heat as temperatures stayed in the 90s throughout the trip.

Jumping back on our trusty busses, the drivers took us through the heart of Italy to Cesenatico, a resort town about three hours south of Venice on the east coast that was the site of Italy Cup 2004. This is where our coaches and players really got serious as the competition would be keen. Teams from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany, France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, England and Greece also came to win big.

Coaching our teams were Doug Terrel (girls and BU14), Sung Kang (BU14), John Wedge and Madison Batt (BU16), Tim Self (BU18) and John Addison and Samir Bjelanovic (BU19). Living up to Team Seattle’s credo of “No whiners, no prima donnas,” all the teams played hard, played fair and showed Europe just how good American soccer has become.

Our BU18 and BU19 teams finished third in their brackets in very close point totals and our girls team received the “Fair Play” award. The closing ceremony was minor compared to the huge uniform swap that occurred on the field afterwards. Many of our players traded jerseys with our opponents. The Scottish team was especially eager to swap with our girls team. The group then bussed to Milan and said goodbye to Europe — until next time.

Team Seattle has taken youth soccer players on such European trips since 1997. Trips for 2005 (Italy and Holland), 2006 (Italy and the Czech Republic, just in time for World Cup), 2008 and 2010 are in the works.

For more information about Team Seattle, visit www.teamseattle.info, or contact co-founders Mary Kay and Larry French at 206-365-5794 or via e-mail at teamseattle@comcast.net.