So I forgot to mention one of the funniest moments of the trip in the last posting. When we were at the Edinburgh Dungeon, several of the girls were quite frightened by the whole ordeal. With the exception of Haley, who would track me down after every room to proclaim, "I haven't screamed yet."
In one of the rooms, there was a story of cannibals, being told be two really creepy dudes. While in character, one of them asked who the smallest one in our group was, to which everyone yelled, "Mini!!". "Minayh? That's dead cruel!", the cannibal responded. When he looked towards Mini, she crouched down on the floor, and he hollered, "Minayh!! Why' ya makin yourself smallah??"
Classic.
Wednesday October 15th
We were back at Toryglen this morning for a 2hr session with coach John.
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| KateO showing the girls how its done. |
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| Haley looking very uncomfortable with the arrival of the ball. |
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| Coach John giving instructions to Emma and Sai. |
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| "Good Gurrl. Good Plaayar." |
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| Izzy showing great form. |
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| The end of another great session. |
After today's session, the girls had the balance of the day off. It was nice to head into the city centre to do a little site seeing and shopping.
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| Happy tourists in the heart of the city. |
Thursday October 16th
We had a full schedule today. First up was a 2hr session with coach John at Toryglen, followed by a surprise visit to Ibrox to meet a young Canadian that has cracked the first team lineup with Rangers.
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| The impressive facade of Ibrox. |
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| A rare moment. Mark sitting, and Daren without his note pad. |
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| The Gurrls with Super Bus Driver Brian, and our Rangers Chaperone, the one and only, Mr. October - Mark Miller. |
A big shout out to Super Bus Driver Brian, and our man that kept us on time and all together, Mark. These two fellows made a massive contribution to the success of our week. Thank you boys!
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| The girls and I posing for a photo with young Canadian footballer, Fraser Aird. Fraser and his family are life long Rangers supporters, he moved to Glasgow from Toronto when he was 15 to play at the Rangers Academy. At 19, he is now a regular in the first team lineup, with over 50 appearances. He recently proclaimed that he has elected to play his international career for Canada (with his Scotish background, he could have elected to play for Scotland). |
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| A little Q & A with Fraser, with questions from, "What is your diet like?", to "What in your life do you regret?" Remember his answer girls...... "Not finishing school, and going to Uni.".... |
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| Fraser and life long Rangers supporter, Super Bus Driver, Brian. Oh ya, and photo bomb specialist, Alex. |
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| Who needs a young professional footballer for a photo shoot when you have these two fellas on the pitch? Greg Statt is the Overseas Development Officer at Rangers. |
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Greg and the girls.
We have a major debate on your hands. Which is the original? You make the call.
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On thursday night, we had our last game of the trip, against Hamilton U15 girls. This match was by far our best outing. We ended up losing the match, but we were able to implement some new tactical formations, and see how they can change the course of the game.
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| Pre match handshake, and Canadian pin presentation. |
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| Some words between the girls before kickoff. |
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| Hamilton girls having their pre match talk. |
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| Kickoff. |
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| Another display of great sportsmanship. |
Over the course of the week in Glasgow, our girls represented their club and country with dignity, respect and class. Rangers coaches Greg and John both went out of their way to tell me how impressed they were with the girls. Our groups desire to learn, and respect for the coaches did not go unnoticed by them.
All in all, it was a tremendous 10 days in the development of this great group of young ladies. Obviously, they continued their development as footballers, but more importantly, they learned some valuable life lessons as young women. For many of them, this was their first experience traveling abroad, and they all appeared to seize the opportunity, and enjoy every moment. On more that one occasion, I heard girls proclaim "Best trip, ever!"
As time was ticking down on our Glasgow stay, you could hear a strong chorus of "Unlucky" filling the hallway, and stairwell of the Pond Hotel.
