Second Day Heading North to Liverpool

Sorry about the tardiness- we’re still experience trouble with our internet connectivity. We couldn’t publish last night because the network wouldn’t accept the username they gave us. I'll send pictures as soon as we get back from the store- around noon your time on Tuesday.

Enough of the disclaimer…

We were greeted with another beautiful morning for our second full day in England. All the boys looked rested and eager for the days adventure, which started with a full behind the scenes tour of Chelsea Football Club’s new 3 million pound ($6 million US) Academy. If you aren’t familiar with Chelsea’s recent “successes” they were bought by a Russian guy who took the club to Yankee type success by infusing a lot of money into all parts of the club and buying back-to-back titles two years ago. We were given a tour of their soon to be replaced Academy building to understand the approach and system they have created. They powerpoint-ed us for about a half hour, but kept it interesting. It was amazing that we were able to get the access that we did- it was like getting a full tour of the new Halas Hall, all their training facilities and insights in how they draft and develop players. It was a perfect comparison to what we experienced about 5 hours later when we arrived at Liverpool’s Academy grounds.

The bus ride was full of exuberant card games. I think I heard, “you cheated!” about 56 times. While driving north we ran into rain, proving what everyone has been telling us, which it’s just part of the wettest summer they’ve experienced in years. It continued raining through our introduction to Frank Skelly, who is 100% legend- one of those people when you meet them for the first time you consider it an honor. He took us past their secondary trophy case and all the guys stopped and ahhed for a bit before he took us to more Academy won trophies. He didn’t have to talk about the tradition- it was pretty clear what we had just walked into. He showed us around in a very comfortable way, saying his goal for the week was for the guys to enjoy the experience as much as possible. We weren’t able to get a short practice session in, due to the traffic coming up, and our dinner was set at 6:30… until we checked in and we were told the cafeteria wasn’t open. The miscommunication resulted in ordering 8 pizzas for the guys- which didn’t do the job- so we had to order 4 more. In between pizza deliveries we set up an impromptu kickball match. The highlight of the day for some, if you would have asked them while they were legging out a 50 yard single- I set the game up to integrate some fitness- each base was about 50 to 100 yards apart which made for some interesting strategy. They had a blast though and are ready for their first training session with the Academy coaches tomorrow morning and then their first match at 1pm tomorrow afternoon. We’re playing a “grammar” school- which is a high school- but not just any grammar school, the one that produced the current star of Liverpool, Steven Gerrard. So we’ll see how that goes- a full game report will be coming your way once we get our internet connection squared away.

Coach Douglass and Coach Parry