Where did you travel with Travel and Play, and what made this the perfect destination for your team?

We traveled over to the UK in March 2022, perfect location for us originally being from the UK. It was a cool opportunity to take my team and the families over. We played some awesome games and had the opportunity to do a lot of sightseeing as well, and the UK is a small enough country to get around, and we did a lot of cool things in a short period of time.

From a sports and team-building perspective, what were the absolute highlights of the tour for your organization?

To play more games than what we're allocated at the NCAA level was a real bonus. We played four quality games against Premier League academies, played at some brilliant facilities, and that was really important for what we were working on as a team. We were able to translate that into additional games, which was great, but on the other side of it, our players who have now graduated talk about their experiences in the UK with Travel and Play, and unbelievable times and memories that we created together, just the opportunity for your team to go over to another country and bond together, take care of each other. And there were so many highlights along the way, but I think for us, just the opportunity to play games, families came along and enjoyed everything that the tour had to offer. We've definitely got lots of highlights and just recently had an alumni event, and some of the highlights of their time were going over to the UK with Travel and Play, so it's definitely a trip that sticks out in people's memories still today.

Beyond the competition, what unique cultural moments or once-in-a-lifetime experiences will you and the team never forget?

For a lot of our players, it was the first time out of the country, so they hadn't even traveled outside of the US, let alone going to Europe. Two days in, we went to Selhurst Park to watch Man City play at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace. So just a great opportunity for our players to see a Premier League game, see the atmosphere. It was a Monday night game as well under the lights, so it was a really, really good experience, but along the way, we spent quite a few days in London, and London's a walking city, so you're able to get around a lot of the historic buildings and locations. I know the players really enjoyed that, from Buckingham Palace to getting into the museums and downtime to walk around as well, so fantastic cultural experience for them to just really be exposed to a different way of life and how things work, and was really well set up with where we were located and how we were able to get around the city.

Planning an international sports tour is a massive undertaking. How did Travel and Play make the process easier for you?

There were two main important things for me in terms of the process. One, as the coach of the team and we took 60 to 70 people on the trip, so I wanted to make sure that I was fully aware of what was going into the planning side in terms of the games we're playing and when we had them, the cadence of the trip, but at the same time, I wanted to make sure that when I did step foot into the UK I was there as a tourist and I was there to relax and sit back and let everyone enjoy it, including myself and that was really important, for me to be heavily involved in the buildup and the process of that. But also, when I got there, I wanted to take a step back and not have any worries, and Travel and Play were awesome. I think that one of the higher benefits of going with them is that you're dealing straight with the people that are running the business and running the tours, which is Barry and Ian, and I think that's something that will stick with me in terms of going to the next trip and the next tour is that, the process of day one to day 50, they were there the whole time and executed the way that we had planned it.

Why would you choose to travel with Travel and Play again, and what would you say to another team or organizer who is considering a booking?

Customer service and experience is something that I felt the whole time going through planning this and getting Travel and Play on board. I think the experience of those guys being able to get to different locations, throughout the world, but in this instance, Europe was our target in terms of there were lots of different choices. And the customer service, what they said that they were going to do, they do. And that's something that really stood out for me. Everything that we planned in terms of the meals and the locations and the games, everything that was planned out was very well executed, and money well spent.