What do you get when you combine 23 college athletes, four countries, and 15 international soccer games? For the Colorado College men’s soccer team the answer was clear: trust, appreciation, and the ultimate team bond. On May 28, the men’s soccer team gathered in Chicago, where they then flew to London to embark on an experiential two and half weeks.
Though no graduating seniors or incoming freshmen were present, this trip formed an incredible bond between the team’s rising sophomores, juniors and seniors.
“Fortunately, the NCAA allows us to take an international trip every three years, so we were in Europe for 19 days,” said first-year Head Coach Scott Palguta. “It was a blend of soccer and culture and, of course, the great benefits of a trip like that are the team building aspects.”
The team stayed at a youth hostel in London, then flew to Sweden, ferried to Denmark, took a train down to Copenhagen, and finally ended up in northern Germany, where they spent eight days exploring in Volkswagen minivans. In each country, they played at least one soccer game, getting in a whopping 15 games in the first 10 days.
“We got to play in a lot of games together and from a team perspective we really grew,” senior captain Max Grossenbacher said. “[We were] sleeping together on gym floors and being with each other 24 hours a day. That was super sweet.”
Sophomore goalkeeper Theo Hooker echoes that spending every moment with the team was incredibly fun and said that it brought the team closer together. “The longer you spend time with people and practice with them, the better feel you’ll have of how they are going to play,” Hooker said.
Not only did the team get to bond more in Europe, they were also able to get a jumpstart on their season.
“It gave the guys a real opportunity to get competitive games and grow as players,” Coach Palguta said. “We felt like when we came into preseason last Tuesday we weren’t at ground zero.”
Palguta knows that his team has a good and solid foundation already in place. He hopes to have a quick start in the fall compared to other teams who didn’t have the luxury of a trip like the Tigers.
And this past Saturday, the team put their bonding to the test when they played Concordia University at home, and started their season off terrifically, according to Palguta. “It was a great opportunity for us to get to see everybody on the roster play at least 30 minutes,” said Coach Palguta. “Nobody got hurt, which was a plus. If everybody can play and we win, then our team grows.” Palguta said. The Tigers prevailed over the visiting Tornados by a tally of 3-1.
Grossenbacher attributes the team’s success to the trust they developed this summer. “On the field you have to trust that you can give them the ball or that they’ll be able to make the right decision when it comes time,” he said. “Then off the field you have to be able to respect and trust your teammates that they will get their academics done, be on time to practice, and be willing to work hard. I think we were able to achieve [all this] from the Europe trip.”
Though the team is missing some extremely talented, graduated seniors, he believes there is enough experience to fill the holes. “We are returning seven starters from last years team, so we think we have a really strong core group of guys,” Coach Palguta said. “So we are certainly hoping for the best, but that is to be determined.”