UK International Soccer Camp 2011

For a week in July Brendan attended an all day Soccer Camp here in Kalispell. He did the half day last year and was ready for full day this year. The program brings a team of coaches over from the UK to teach soccer skill and does an excellent job.

I took these pictures on the last day of camp. Brendan really improved his skills, especially in just getting in the middle of it and fighting for the ball. He took a couple of tumbles for the team and scored a goal during one of the games. The bottom left picture is his group with their coach, Elliot.

We volunteered to host a coach again. Marlon was assigned to us. I didn't get to meet him until Monday morning as I had to work Sunday night. The next time I saw him was Monday afternoon as I was making dinner and getting ready to go to work again. He told me that two of the other coaches, Elliot and Fletch, had been put up in an empty house with no furniture and no food. Not exactly how you are supposed to host a coach. Basically they are part of your family for a week, so feeding them and including them in your life is what it's about. I told Marlon to call them and have them come for dinner and that, if they found the extra futon and sleeper couch acceptable, they were welcome to stay. I came home Tuesday morning and there were bodies everywhere! Our home was like a college dorm for the week but it was great fun. Weird to think that Karl and I are old enough to be their parents!

We coordinated with the other host family that had the fourth coach to do some activities with them. They were able to go rafting, do the zip line on Big Mountain, and drive the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier Park. The photos below are from July 15 at the visitor center at Logan Pass, two days after they had finally plowed the pass through, the latest opening ever.


This picture of the boys was a nightly event.

All lined up on the couch with their laptops e-mailing and facebooking home. They weren't really boring, as the picture might imply. It's kind of a hard job. They travel, mostly by car, on the weekends to get to the next camp. They teach camp all week and have to squeeze in their own fitness time. Then they are part of the host family for a week, new people with new personalities and as host families, we vie for their time to chat in the evening or show them around. Most nights, since Karl hails from that side of the world and they had much in common to talk about, no one got to bed before midnight. Poor Fletch got the living room sofa and received a good morning kiss from Chad (the dog) every morning around 7. Still, they thought it was better than the empty house and we were happy to have them. We have since been talking into hosting a AA league hockey player for six months for our new team, the Glacier Nationals.

On Saturday, it was time to say goodbye. This was our "family" for the week:
Carmen, Brendan, Marlon, Elliot, Anthony, Karl, Rita and Fletch.
Can't wait for next year!