English Soccer Exchange 2009

This Page is Dedicated to our Exchange Program with the Soccer Club from Bishop Heber High School, located in Malpas, United Kingdom. Malpas is in England, which is 54 miles southwest of Manchester. BHHS is the school that Ben Tomlisson, Mount Si's assistant coach, taught at previously prior to coming here to Mount Si.

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Well the end of the week saw a great banquet last night thanks to the Soccer girls and Mums. We have had a great week, the tournament didn't finish in the way that Heber had hoped but the long week and an older and skillful Snohomish team ran out as winners.

It really was a fantastic week , I will be sending Dave photos of the visit for him to post and i hope you do the same, there was a real buzz about the school this week with talk not of WASL or DOS but mainly about the soccer exchange and that is a great achievement for us all.. Thursdays game saw a win for Heber but more importantly it felt like a real community event as we managed to generate a great level of interest in the exchange.

I was sorry to see Mark, Ian and the boys leave and it was great to see how well the English and mount si students got on by the end of the week. I like most of you are now exhausted by the week but it was well worth it and full of great memories.

Roll on Summer 2010: fundraising ideas welcome, we will meet about the return visit shortly .....

Tonight's game was a 2-1 win to Bishop Heber in a tight game that hinged on some big refereeing decisions including two penalties. Heber were deserved winners and i thought Louis Moss bossed the game particularly in the second half. We weren't able to respond to their work rate and movement off the ball until we were two goals down. This sets up the tournament nicely on Saturday when Heber will take on three local select teams . It was great to see a big crowd again to a soccer game and the interest generated in this week has been excellent.

Other highlights of the day included the Ropes course thanks to Dawn for organizing a great morning, the leap of faith claimed a few victims and the teambuilding exercises were excellent, congratulations to Alex, Dyson, Eric and Louis in winning the rope challenge on the rope course.

Tomorrow is going to be a hike for the boys and so we want you to take your English boys to the Trailhead at twin falls for 10.00 am, this way they get a lie in, If your English boy has to come into school with your Mount Si student at the normal time then no problem, Darren and Mark will supervise them in PE and we will then get them a ride to the Trailhead for a hike, Chrissy and Shelley are leading this, i have to do some teaching !

Tomorrow night is free so i know some are planning to go on dates with their newly acquired American girlfriends, behave yourselves gentleman.

Tough result last night, please make sure all boys who are going to the ropes course tomorrow have the field trip form signed by teachers and given to me.

Fashion Show today for the English boys, then training, then off to the Seattle Mariners MLB Game, bus leaves at 5.

Today's Hike was cancelled due to snowing conditions. Boys will meet at 8.00 still we'll do some indoor football with them until we go to the North Bend Outlet Mall.

Monday: Another good day for everyone, we left for Seattle via Snoqualmie falls and did the usual tourist stops; the space needle, pike place and the waterfront. Most of the boys tried to eat at every opportunity along the tour, some had even run out of spending money after one hour of egg McMuffins, donuts etc... ! Then it was back to Mount Si for a training session in the driving rain led by Ian and Mark. It was good to see both squads out there together. Myself, Mark and Ian were then treated to a rafting expedition in the snow by Lance Jensen that none of us will ever forget!

Tomorrow: please pack a lunch for the English boys and get them to school for 8 am. We will make a decision on the hike tomorrow, we were thinking twin falls, so the English boys need raingear. Boys should pack their kit just in case they train tomorrow .Carpoolers the boys need to be back for 2 30 for a small welcome by the International club in the Commons. Then its back for some rest before the Varsity game tomorrow night.

Hope you re all enjoying the exchange so far, we had a great night at the Sounders last night (apart from the result) and today's game gave the English Boys a good test of what they re in for as they played a recently assembled Issaquah/ Newport team plus one or two familiar faces volunteering to play, thanks Morgan, Dillon and everybody else who came out to support this event. The weather certainly worked in the English favor and with the familiar wind and rain they were able to win the game 7-1.

So today is Seattle, and its going to be another wet one, we plan to do the space needle, (the group rate to go up this is 7 dollars a boy but i will wait at the bottom with any Mount si boys who have been up 20 times before and would rather not go up again), Pike Place, and the Waterfront and we have the option of doing a one hour boat cruise depending on the weather this may be a good option, this would be 15 dollars per boy, mark has told his boys to bring money.

Boys Team from Bishop Heber High School, Malpas, United Kingdom Arrived Friday Night

So we picked them up from SeaTac and 11 of our soccer girls helped decorate the bus to welcome the boys see photo blow, we then went to the Interlake game where our exhausted English boys met their hosts, grabbed some food and watched the game. Banquet today and I'll get you some photos from that and the Sounders game. I will get you a group photo we took at the airport too as soon as i get it from Mark.

We still need two or three volunteers to give the boys a lift to the hike on Tuesday and the ropes course on Thursday, they can email me if they can do this.

Also we need a referee for tomorrows (4/12) first game as one has just cancelled on us.

I also need three more volunteers for getting our boys to the hike on Tuesday and the ropes course Thursday. Email Me if you can help and thanks to all those who have volunteered so far.

Also we need lots of photos from this week so again if you want to volunteer for this I know Dave Snead would appreciate any photos.

My number is 206 326 9236 , feel free to call with any questions, concerns or in the case of an emergency.

The guests are a number of boys soccer players and their coaches from the Bishop Heber High School, located in Malpas, United Kingdom. Malpas is in England, which is 54 miles southwest of Manchester. BHHS is the school that Ben Tomlisson, Mount Si's assistant coach, taught at previously prior to coming here to Mount Si.

Here's a link to their website - surprisingly, there's nothing that I can find about it there, aside from a brief mention of it in their school newsletter in a highlight package.

This visit by the players and coaches from BHHS is the second one to MSHS - the first happened in 2007. I will send you an archive of the story I filed about that particular visit, because I gave that visit extensive coverage. That visit was well-received by the Valley community BTW.

The events the English kids will be part of while here are similar to the events they participated in when they were here last. They will take part in Mount Si classes with their American hosts, who are Mount Si players, coaches and their families. They also will see a Mariners game, and a Sounders game, and they will participate in a pair of games against local high school teams - one of which is against Mount Si, and there is also a club exhibition tournament scheduled involving the guests from BHHS. All in all, a lot of things are planned as noted in the info sheet Ben sent. (below)

So this began when I arrived at Mount Si in November 05 as a part time teacher of US history, within the year I was taken on full time and began to work with Darren on the soccer program from the boys season of 06. I moved to the US in August 05 and prior to this was a teacher in England at Bishop Heber High school where I spent five great years teaching history and coaching. its a state school , not religious as the name suggests and draws students from a largely rural catchment area. it lies in a beautiful part of England in the dairy farming area of south Cheshire, full of winding country lanes, postcard villages and rolling hills.

So as soon as I got into the soccer at Mount Si I suggested to Mark Lindley head of boys PE at Bishop Heber and a good friend of mine that we do an exchange involving the two schools. We had organized soccer trips to Madrid, Barcelona and Holland during my time at Bishop Heber. So in March 07 the week before spring break 18 boys and three teachers arrived headed by Mark. The boys were all hosted by Mount Si students and spent a great 11 days with us playing in a local tournament, experiencing high school life at Mount Si and seeing the sights of the area. We went to the Mariners, Sonics, Snoqualmie Summit, Space Needle, it was a crazy week that ended in a farewell banquet and awards ceremony which was great fun. Myself and Mark pretty much organized the whole thing with parental support. This time its the same but Dawn Baumgardner, Shirlee Hargett and Chrissy Jensen have taken on roles, Dawn: finance and tickets and lots more , Shirlee: the farewell banquet, Chrissy: opening banquet, Darren and glen are organizing the games during the week....

The plan was to return to the UK in 08 and take the Mount Si kids to stay with the boys from Bishop Heber. This didn't materialize because of funding and personal commitments (Bruce Tomlisson's arrival being one. ) So we decided to give it another go this year and so Mark is bringing a new bunch of kids ( there are two veterans of the 07 tour). They are staying with Mount Si soccer boys from C. JV and Varsity and the two groups have been busy emailing, facebooking in preparation for their arrival. The last group in 07 contained two players Rob Pearson and Ed Moss who went on to sign professional forms for a club in the UK, Wrexham. Ed's brother returns for a second visit (Louis) to Mount Si.

We do plan to take a group of boys and girl soccer players to England in 2010 , start of July. we have had 31 signed up for this and plan to take two squads, one boys one girls to play tournaments, go sightseeing do all the things we will put on here. From our connections in the UK we will be coached by Liverpool academy coaches and tour some of the professional soccer clubs of the Northwest whilst we are there, (City, United, Liverpool...) Fundraising and planning for this will begin in earnest as soon English boys visit is over.

We have tried to keep the first game on Easter Sunday to later in the day so you can spend more time as a family. We do need help on two days, the first is the Tuesday 14th which is scheduled as a Hike on rattlesnake ridge, we need transportation for this so need volunteers to do this, we also need a couple of outdoorsmen/women to take them up the mountain as due to cutbacks at the school we may need chaperones for this event.

The second is on the Thursday 16th and here again we need transportation for the boys to and from the Ropes Course which is also a short trip. There Ropes course is from 9 -12 and then we will have a packed lunch there so they could be back to school for period 5/6.

Please volunteer for these by email and then we can organize it and work out a system in time for the banquet on the Saturday. We will give more information about the week at the opening banquet.

So they can let their English boy call home and not bankrupt you at the same time! For those of you with Skype many also used this to let the two families speak to and see one another www.skype.com

Boys : Remember if you plan to come to Seattle and or the ropes course you must have a field trip request form signed so far I have four ! out of 18

ENGLISH SOCCER EXCHANGE