School Sports Trips: Memories, New and Old

I recently travelled to Hawaii with our high school boys’ varsity soccer team, where the players participated in an invitational tournament with eleven other schools (two from Japan, nine from Hawaii).  As the assistant coach (you can read our experienced head coach’s thoughts on the tournament here), I had the chance to sit back and observe the players over their six days in Hawaii, on and off the field.  (I also may have gone swimming a few times.)

What was unexpected about the trip was that it sent me on a walk down memory lane.

Many of my fondest memories of my teenage years are memories of sports trips in Canada and the US with soccer and ice hockey teams.  Unfortunately, we never quite made it to Hawaii, heading instead for such choice destinations as Missoula, Montana (famous for being in Montana and actually having a university); Creston, British Columbia (famous for a particularly grisly set of murders at that time); and Midway, British Columbia (famous, incorrectly, for having an Olympic-sized rink).  Probably our biggest claim to fame was playing in between periods of an NHL hockey game (LA vs. Vancouver…Gretzky played!) while the fans went to the bathroom and bought snacks.

Some of the guys from my high school teams are still lifelong friends and when we meet up we still talk about those trips.   And so during the Hawaii trip, I got thinking about the benefits of sports trips and came to these five conclusions about why they are important for teenage student athletes:

1) High school is a small, small world.  One thing that’s easy to forget as an adult is that high school students live in a very small world.  Some not only find it difficult to relate to kids from other schools, they find it difficult to relate to kids from other grades in their own school.  Traveling to Hawaii to compete in the tournament allowed the boys on our team the chance to measure their skills against students from both public and private schools in another country (a country some of them may move to for university).  Of course, the experience of finding out that you are a big fish in a small pond (i.e. realizing how many good players are out there) can be deflating, but it can also be an incredible motivator against complacency.  Experiencing competition with other schools through a medium like sport can also add perspective for students in relation to other areas such as academics, arts and languages.

2) Sport is culture.  We like to think of international schools as “connected” and “internationally-minded,” but when it comes to sport, we primarily compete against other international schools, which is a pretty distorted view of reality.  Having played, coached, refereed and watched soccer all over the world, I know that sport is a window into culture.  More than that, it’s an open window.  Unlike many other aspects of culture, sport (and particularly soccer, which is nearly ubiquitous, of course) is something that is more readily accessible for an outsider trying to integrate into a different culture.  And so while visiting another country for sport may on the surface seem less “cultural” than visiting another country for theatre, music or charity work, it should be remembered that sport is a valuable cultural entity too.  Traveling to Hawaii allowed our team to better understand the place of sport within American culture.

3) Independence.  It’s strange, I find, when you take a high school group on a trip (any trip, not just sport-related).  Sometimes, at first, I’m not sure if the students are having fun.  I remember thinking a few times on this trip: hey, we’re in Hawaii!  Why would students want to spend their downtime in a shopping mall?  Why do they want to eat at Burger King?  But I soon realized that they were simply overwhelmed by being on their own and tended to stick, at least initially, to what they found familiar and safe.  By the end of the trip, however, you could see them starting to look around a bit more and get interested in their surroundings, and maybe even realize that restaurants better than Burger King exist.

4) Focus.  Most of the students at our school lead incredibly hectic lives.  By the time they get to soccer practice after school, they are exhausted, with half a mind still focused on homework, tests and other commitments.  Sport tends to be an afterthought.  This, of course, is the reality for all of us except the miniscule number who go on to become professional athletes.  But sport is a wonderful release from the pressures of school and work, and through giving our students the chance to focus on soccer for six full days, we place value on sport as a part of a healthy, balanced life.  On our one day off during the Hawaii trip, we asked the boys what they wanted to do.  Snorkeling?  Swimming?  Shopping?  They all said they wanted another training session.  ‘Nough said.

5) Bonding.  This shouldn’t be underrated.  Many of my closest friends are guys I played on sports teams with.  I’ve been to Iran because I played soccer with Iranians in Vancouver.  I’ve played soccer near Marseille against French farmers who I met at university.  I’ve played soccer with the same friend on three different continents.  Without soccer, I wouldn’t have those experiences or those friends with whom I shared those experiences.  The players on our school’s soccer team will always remember Hawaii, but even more importantly, they will remember their teammates.

 

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