daily content <\/a>from the trip. The blog features photos and stories from their flights, training sessions, sightseeing and professional soccer and basketball games.\u00a0<\/p>\nWomen\u2019s soccer junior defender Elliot Forney said the decision to document the trip for friends and family at home was made by the coaching staff. She said the blog aimed to show how the team\u2019s culture grew overseas.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying soccer at home is fun, and doing small things with the team in Bethlehem is good, but having a big trip like that is really influential to becoming more of a team off the field,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Forney said the trip was made possible by alumna and former women\u2019s soccer coach Gina Lewandowski, whose experience playing for FC Bayern Frauen helped make the opportunity a reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s soccer coach Lauren Calabrese said the trip was one of many ways both programs have built a strong community culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur bigger goal is to think about soccer, just not as men\u2019s and women\u2019s soccer, but Lehigh soccer,\u201d Calabrese said. \u201cWhen we can collaborate, we\u2019re going to collaborate as much as we can, and I think it creates a bigger community and really an awesome opportunity to celebrate being a part of Lehigh and Lehigh soccer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Between sightseeing \u2014 including visits to Neuschwanstein Castle and BMW Welt, as well as a professional European basketball game \u2014 both teams also competed internationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s soccer associate coach Ryan Hess said each team played two friendlies against German clubs. The men\u2019s team faced FC Kirchheimer and FC Ismaning, while the women\u2019s team played FC Wacker M\u00fcnchen and FC Stern.<\/p>\n
He said the opportunity to face international competition was invaluable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t played somebody else since November, so to get opportunities to play against teams from the other side of the world, clubs and players that maybe are stylistically a little bit different \u2014 trained a little bit different \u2014 is always valuable from a sport perspective,\u201d Hess said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Forney said he enjoyed the challenges of competing against FC Wacker M\u00fcnchen and FC Stern, especially navigating the language barrier. Although referees and players didn\u2019t always understand one another, she said they still formed connections.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to chat with (the referees) a little bit was cool, because some of them spoke English, so it was nice being able to bridge a connection there,\u201d Forney said. \u201cWe don\u2019t really speak the same language, but we play the same sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trip also offered an experience many student-athletes don\u2019t typically have, as training schedules often limit opportunities to study abroad. It marked the program\u2019s first joint international trip since traveling to France in 2017.<\/p>\n
Hess said the experience was special for Lehigh soccer. When planning the trip several years ago, he said coaches Dean Koski and Calabrese intended for both programs to travel together.<\/p>\n
Men\u2019s soccer junior defender Landon Bealer said the experience broadened his perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI encourage people to get out and explore different countries and different cultures,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing able to travel with great friends and great family is a wonderful thing and an opportunity I am extremely grateful for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trip also helped build stronger relationships across both teams.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
With seniors graduating in May, Hess said it\u2019s especially important for the teams to rebuild and develop trust ahead of the fall season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTrips like this can be really valuable,\u201d he said. \u201cWe as a group are trying to discover what kind of team, what kind of leadership we want without our graduating seniors, and then trying to develop and compete for results in the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the teams have just returned, Bealer said that trust is already forming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve already seen how much closer we are together on the field as well as off the field, and how the chemistry formed on that trip,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lehigh men\u2019s and women\u2019s soccer teams trained, bonded and documented their experiences during a spring break trip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[222115,49,48,222116,2815,561,82,1418],"class_list":{"0":"post-580143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-4-minute-read","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-lehigh-mens-soccer","12":"tag-recap","13":"tag-soccer","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-womens-soccer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}