This summer the U17 Force Man U boys team coached by Brad Pellman traveled to Costa Rica for a series of games and adventure. Below is some video footage of the trip and an story by coach Pellman. First day, our flight out at 1:00 a.m. was great… just make sure you are in a seat that reclines (I was not so fortunate), but the team traveled well and most slept on the plane.   We arrived early and went through security-- all the usual stuff--and were promptly greeted and picked up by Jorge and Tatiana (a brother and sister team and owners of The Costa Rican Connection). Our first stop was Denny’s for breakfast and then straight to the first game, basically us vs. a local men’s team (typical of an adult division 2 game in Boulder), it was very fun and friendly. Then after the game we had lunch with the team we had played and relaxed.   Swimming was also involved for a price. (This was one of the very few miscommunications we had with the travel company.  We were under the impression that this was included in the price and it turns out it wasn’t, but we used team funds to cover the costs for everyone). After swimming and lunch we dropped off the team at their respective host families for the night and the chaperones were taken to their hotel.
 
San Jose Accommodations:
          All players stayed with their host families while we were in San Jose. Every player was made to feel at home and the reports were that the food was outstanding and that they all had more than they could eat at every meal. The chaperones were very surprised that at the end of everyday, the boys all wanted to return to their host family homes as soon as possible instead of staying with us.
          The chaperones stayed in the Bougainvillea Hotel, which was extremely beautiful and surrounded by a huge botanical garden. The restaurant in the hotel was extremely good--at least a 4 star venue.
 
Games in San Jose :
          Because our trip did not include our entire team (only 9 and the rest were guest players), it was a team decision that we wanted to play friendly games and not be so serious on this soccer trip. The Costa Rican Connection did an excellent job of setting up the appropriate games. Our first game was against a men’s local team where we dominated in the first half, up 3-0. As the coach, I was concerned that the team was going to blow all their energy early so I asked them to take it easy in the second half (after all, we had 4 more games scheduled in the next 3 days).  Apparently the team thought I said take a vacation because we ended up losing 4-3 but we all had great time !!
          Game 2 : The Following day we picked up players and went to a local school called Saint Francis Academy.  First we watched two local school teams--one team dominated the other with a final score of 4-0 , then our turn came, we were scheduled to play Saint Francis and it was a great game but we ended up losing 2-1.  We later found out that Saint Francis was the #1 ranked school in the city. It was fantastic watching our team compete with such a skilled group of players.  The level of play was strong and aggressive and we were not out matched. Both teams left the field shaking hands and talking and they treated us to lunch and drinks.
          Game 3: Same location, played the loser of the first game the day before.  We dominated throughout the game and I believe the final score was 4-0.  Here are some excerpts from the news our team manager sent home to the parents:
          “Played our 3rd game yesterday...technically loser’s bracket, but we were having a great time. Won that game, then the winner’s game, which should have been against St. Francis, our hosts, was canceled, as the boys from Coronado were being punished for saying bad things to the St. Francis girls the previous day. The upshot is, we played a friendly against St. Francis...mixed teams. I guess you can say we won, but then, we also lost. However, the REAL win was making friends and hanging out with the boys from St. Francis. We had some refreshments, then the St. F. boys took our boys on the tour of their school and talked 16-17 year old boy stuff!!!! It was SOOOOO Awesome, and something several of the boys said they’d never forget.
          Oh, yeah!!!!! did I mention that ALL the boys traded their black jerseys for a St. Francis jersey?????? Ya know, originally I said I didn’t think we wanted to do something like that, but it seemed like the cool thing to do yesterday, so I didn’t stop anyone!!!!
          We had scheduled some retail therapy time in the afternoon, but only 2 boys took us up on it! All the others opted to go to their host families for the last night activities (we STILL have to hear about all of that!!!....we DO know that Sithone, Luke, Avery, and Alex were up late, being taught to Salsa by their host moms!!!!! Harry, Michael and Jakob wanted to get home so they could eat Señora’s good cooking!!!!!) Anyway, we counted yesterday as a real success!!!!! (Oh, yeah!!!! the adults’ hotel was AWESOME!!!! Dawn and I are trying to talk Brad into buying it and reserving a room for the TEAM!!!! The gardens were spectacular...as were the margaritas!!!"
          I’d like to say at this point that having a great team manager, Nancy Harpin, and chaperone extraordinaire, Dawn Brandt, along for the trip was great!  "Divide and conquer" was the reoccurring theme throughout the trip. Their efforts in keeping players and events, as well as team funds, in order were outstanding.
          Well, at this point we have played 4 games and it was now time to leave San Jose and move across country to La Fortuna. The trip was great. The bus extremely comfortable and clean with our Force banner displayed in the rear window, we crossed through amazingly beautiful landscapes to the mountainous area around the Arenal volcano. We pulled into the San Bosco Hotel around 12.00 The San Bosco had a gorgeous pool area and garden with hot tubs, and towering over us was the Arenal Volcano just a stones’ throw away.
          Nancy sent home more news to the parents:  “By 2:00, we were back on the bus for the zip line tour......FYI, I signed away all liability for the kids doing the zip line....seemed like the thing to do. The tour had 8 lines....you could do the first one, then quit, but after that, you were committed to go ALL THE WAY!!!! and we did!!!!! We have some spectacular photos and several of the boys have video, taken by the tour guides. I think initially we thought it’d be pretty easy to take care of it individually, but actually, we hung on for dear life. look at www.SkyTrek.com and see what we did! " This was an incredible must do event, words really don’t do it justice--you just have to strap it on and hang on for the ride of your life !!!!!!
          The boys went to their rooms by 11, and given the fact that they didn’t have to be up for any particular reason, many didn’t get up until 9:15, just in time to eat breakfast at the hotel swimming pool....eggs, pancakes, toast, ham, cereal, juices....plenty to keep us until lunch. After a little retail therapy for several of them,. we got on the bus to Baldi Hot Springs and Hotel.....way, WAY better than a regular hot springs. Actually more like Water World with water that doesn’t make you turn blue!!!! Played until 1:15, when we had lunch. After the boys went back to play on the water slides (we have Eric’s video of boys coming down the water slide that will turn your hair GRAY!!!! ) (Things are a little more extreme in some foreign countries!)
          We were just getting ready to leave when approx. 15-20 teenaged girls arrived in bikinis....we had to tear some of the boys away!!!!!”
Crisis averted...
          We were planning on driving around the volcano this evening but it was socked in and the chances of seeing the red glow of the earth’s creation in process was slim and the drive long. Instead we had the opportunity to play a late night outdoor foot-sal game against another local team. At 11:30 at night you would not think there would much activity in town, but that’s only away from the pitch in a soccer hungry country. The team played the first half with frustration trying to adjust to the pace of a small sided game. Half time, 5-2, Losing. I gave them quick pep talk and explained to the team their need to sub quicker and bicker less, I let the captain take over and told the team to resolve the issues on their own.
          At this point the other games were finishing and a crowd of 20 or so locals were gathering around our pitch for the second half . The team adjusted and began to claw their way back in to the game. Goal after goal the cheers from the crowd were for both teams. The battle was great.. But in the end there was to be only one winner, to the cheers of the fans the Americans walked off the field victorious 8-7, the winning goal coming in the last seconds of the match.
          Our time in La Fortuna came to an end and we now loaded into the bus for the drive to the beach and Jaco. Again we arrived at another very nice hotel, clean, pool, gardens, you get the picture.... B.E.A.utiful. The town is very much like many small South American towns, some what under developed but on a magnificent black sand beach with awesome surf crashing and glorious views. The plan was to spend 2 days on the beach but instead the team hung out in the pool the first day and took a brief tour of the town and beach that night. followed by gourmet pizza at yet another great restaurant. The following morning we went on a jungle boat tour giving us more insight into the life and country of Costa Rica. It seems everywhere we went if the locals found out we were a soccer team they wanted to play and such was the case at the jungle river cruise facility. And we were game if only we did not have other plans.
          This was our last evening in Jaco. We hung out on the beach, played Frisbee, followed by another fine dinner, this time in front of a large TV to watch the Costa Rican national team play their qualifying game for the next world cup, followed by a birthday celebration for one of the team members, including a team dunking as part of the festivities.
          The following morning we loaded ourselves back on the bus and began our return journey to San Jose where we were to play our last game against one of the top local club teams. Their level of play was described to me as being the equivalent of an Elite one team in the U.S. This game did not come together for us due to weather and location, so we took the opportunity to put together another local game and invite all of the host families out for a picnic BBQ with our team, on us (this was an excellent chance for the chaperones and coach to thank them personally and get to know them). Everyone came with their entire families and we shared stories about our week and memories in Costa Rica.
          There was a down side to this last day. The one place we had not been on our trip was the one place no coach wants to go with a player, the hospital, but we were very pleased with our findings. During our last game, one of our players took a hard ball right in the face. This happens a lot in soccer but this time the contact was mainly directly to the player’s eye.  He played for about 1 and a half minutes longer but then became aware he was losing vision and the game was stopped. It was apparent that a visit to the hospital was paramount. We are pleased to report that The Costa Rican Connection was ready and responded immediately. They took over and had our player and chaperone at the hospital and checked out within 30 minutes (no fuss-no muss). A representative from The Costa Rican Connection stayed with our player throughout the process. I was informed by the chaperone that the facilities were incredible and would rival any of the best hospitals in the states, with all the latest technologies. Our player was diagnosed, treated and back with the team in 2 hours time. He was to be fine as soon as the swelling and fluid in his eye cleared. His host family doted over him and his coach took the opportunity to explain that was not quite what he meant when he said "keep your eye on the ball".
          The next morning we departed and returned to our homes, excited, exhausted, and wanting more...