Maine Endwell High School - 24, 25 & 26/08/14

After arriving safely & being welcomed by our friends at Maine Endwell High School on Saturday afternoon, we were treated to a picnic & tour of the school. The original plan was for us to have our food out from the concessions stand around their new turf field baseball stadium (a facility that is so good that the New York Yankees have requested that they use it during the Fall & Winter seasons for their minor league franchises), however the weather took over & we were forced inside. This did give our boys the opportunity to see all the other facilities that are on offer to the students of the school.

A famous alumni of the High School is Tom Tull who is now the owner of Legendary Films who were behind such movies as 300, the Hangover franchises & the recent Batman sagas & with the way funding is available over in America, the school has been lucky in the resources he has purchased/donated to them. All around school were pieces of memorabilia including this helmet worn by Gerard Butler in 300.

The Aquatics centre is something that a professional swimming club would be proud off, the weights room has modern, up to date equipment whilst the media department is full of Apple Macs, a full editing suite as well as their own green screen area.

Once the tour was completed (& after all our boys asked why we didn't have any of the things that they had seen), it was time for them to separate up again & head off with their families for this week. Although the boys were staying with the same partners as last week, a couple of pairs were joined together to make a few groups of 4. Again we are massively grateful to all those families that have taken in our boys, pretty much strangers to them minus a few conversations. This week has the prospect of being a great social week with many of the families organising various trips & activities that the majority of the boys can come together for. We have been spoilt with the accommodation as well.

Sunday started with as many of the squad who were around (some were heading to New York City with their families #Lucky) with a pick up scrimmage with some of the high school boys who our squad are staying with on the high school football field. Captains Price & Hobbs selected their sides with the losing team having the threat of a full field set of shuttles hanging over them. This was the hottest temperature that our boys had experienced since we arrived, so the pace & quality was not up to that that we had played in the previous week. None-the-less it was a good session & was nice for our boys to socialise with their family's kids outside of their homes.

Coaches Walton, Stevenson & Chamberlain were again staying with the co-ordinator of the week who this week happened to be the Principle of the high school. Again, this gave us a few privileges as a group. Having keys to the whole school, to help our boys cool down after the game, he opened up the aquatics centre for us. As well as the usual pool toys available, the boys found great amusement in donning full scuba flippers & snorkels as well as the braver members attempting the diving board with flips, bombs & belly flops.

The rest of their Sunday & all of Monday were their own. Again some families had organised some things to do with their touring guests. More hit the city, whilst others went & ploughed some more money in to the American economy by visiting the Syracuse mall. All involved were pleased to have a totally free day & be able to chill out & spend some time getting to know their families more.

The coaches used this time to head back to the high school to check out some of the football training session. Now before we are accused of spying on our opposition before our game with them on Wednesday, let us make it clear we were watching the American Football team. When we arrived, we did not expect that we would soon be padding up in full kit, kicking field goals & throwing passes to their wide receivers. Not one to blow our own trumpets but a 20yd reception was completed for a first down, whilst the kicks were successful all the way up to 40yds.

Tuesday evening was the next time that the whole squad came together at a local amusement area called Chucksters. Here you can face baseball pitches in the cages, try to putt some golf balls on the mini golf course, climb a rock wall & play some volleyball whilst bouncing on some trampolines (#Standard). This gave the touring party the first opportunity to battle against each other in the HGS USA Mini Golf Open Championships. Captain Hobbs, being a keen golfer & having a low handicap, was rumoured to have scoped out the joint the day before to practice some of the tougher holes & just to read the greens. It is home to the longest mini golf hole in the world.

 

Once all the score cards had been collected & the scores were collated, Mr Walton was crowned as the HGS USA Mini Golf Open Championships winner for 2014.