Sunday, June 7th: Shanahan rugby players arrived safely today in Liverpool, England. All players are settled in rooms in the dorms at Liverpool Hope University. The team attended Mass this morning at 11:30 am local time followed by lunch and 1 1/2 hour practice on the university rugby field.
Thanks to all the parents that drove to the airport.
The primary objective of Sunday was to get everyone settled into their rooms, get to mass and practice. The rugby young men performed quite well on the practice pitch and the boys were complemented on for their excellent behavior in mass..."quite the gentlemen", by several parishoners. Of course it helped that they were very tired but some even sang the songs led by Sean Morrissey. The recessional hymn was an interesting experience- it sounded like something from the old TV series The Adams Family.
Coach Ireland was intriguing to observe moving about the sight of his youth and seemingly more English than before. We finished the evening with a dinner at the local pub/restaurant - the HalfWay House, utilizing their "Carvery" option which provided the boys with a full buffet dinner of roast turkey, beef and ham plus wonderful vegetables. Luke Cavera was quoted as " I think I could stay here..." We will bring him and all the others home, after that it is up to the parents to decide what to do with your sons.
After an evening of some further sightseeing they were sent to sleep for the evening.
Monday, June 8th - The day dawned bright and early with team breakfast in the University cafeteria at 8:00AM and all members were on time for the event. 1st practice of the day at 9:30AM for training was met with glee by the players and they truly worked hard to prepare for their first match against St. Edwards College - Mr. Irelands high school - on Tuesday, June 9th. After the morning practice, everyone boarded the bus for the Beatles Tour, the Merci River ferry (of the 60's song fame) and some additional sightseeing of the downtown Liverpool area. No was lost on the Beatles tour on Penny Lane or captured by Eleanor Rigby and also no one was lost overboard off the ferry. The team members saw the real-life Strawberry Fields Park where Paul McCartney spent many happy days with his father growing up. The team also walked into the "Caverns Club" where the Beatles started their musical career. Paul McCartney and Ringo were not sighted on the tour.
The Anglican Gothic Cathedral was also seen and is the largest in England. Also seen in Liverpool was the Roman Catholic Cathedral which is the 2nd largest in the world. After the return home the team had another practice on the University pitch which is a five minute walk from the school dorms.
With the upcoming Tuesday match everyone returned again to the HalfWay House for another fine dinner and then retired to their rooms for an evening and rest and thoughtful contemplation. Several of the players started off this day with 7:00AM mass.
Tuesday, June 9th - Well this was the big day of the first tour match. It started with another 8:00AM breakfast which is exactly when the cafeteria opens. The strategy is to get in first before the other students arrive so the boys can eat first and have no line for waiting, plus then they get to see the girls as they come fro breakfast. Did I tell you that we have 25 college girls living in our dorm area?? We are on different floors of course and all the rooms have seperate locks, but that is another story...
Practice was from 11:00AM - 12:00PM to prepare to meet one of the best Catholic high school teams in all of England. All boarded the bus at 1:30PM for the 15 minute drive to the school grounds. The team was met by the school rugby coach and mathamatics teacher and led to the "changing rooms". We were passed on the immaculate grounds by many school girls in their very fashionable knee length skirts and blazers as well as some girls off to PE class in their gym skirts. All quite proper. There were boys of course as well but they merited less notice by the Shanahan team. If you have girls I would suggest an English Catholic school upbringing if you can move to England for 1-12 years.
The match which started at 3:00PM was well fought and ended the first half at a 5-17 score in favor of St. Edwards college. The team played a very strong 40 minutes and were led on their score by Brendan Reif starting off a great pass to John Shine who off-loaded the ball to Patrick Lilly who ran in for the score with excellent support from Tom Magee and Percy Wealsey(Chris Kelly). Excellent play was exhibited by all the young men on the field including Patrick Wert ( who had to go to the hospital for 6 English stitches to his lip), Patrick's mom did not allow for him to receive any medication to dull the pain. Travis Kerr who may have played the best match of his life; Jay McElvenny who played outstanding at scrum half; Matt Scheuermann at prop and Nick Horoski at fullback. George Stairiker had several very good steals on St. Edwards put-ins at scrum so that the English hooker started to imitiate George's style. Greg Ireland had some excellent tackles against his fellow Englishmen as well as Zach Barbera who covered every inch of the large pitch. Matt Miller, Joe Keehn and Siefert were also quite aggressive on the pitch pressing defensively toward St. Edwards. Siefert is scheduled for 2010 to become the next team "Gazzelle" to follow in Coach Eamon's footsteps.
The second half ended with St. Edwards winning the match but the real fun then came in the gathering afterwards in the cafeteria where the St. Edwards coach complemented Shanahan on their play and suggested they could come to America for a re-match.
Being quite tired the team members then retired back to the university dorms to rest and ordered out for pizza to prepare for the next day of sightseeing in Wales.
One small problem occurred however as they were preparing for dinner - an electrical outage sent 6 players out of the schowers and into other showers. The problem is that they all ran off without their keys and could not return to their rooms. So we had 6 players in towels until security made it back to open their doors. We will leave them nameless.
All of the parents are behaving as well, at least so far. A further report will be offered tomorrow.
Wednesday June 10th - The players, coaches, chaperones and parents were up for another early breakfast - 7:30AM - and then off on the bus to travel to Wales for some sightseeing. The first stop was Castle Conwy still guarding the high ground of entry into Wales behind ancient stone walls that were erected by the English to try and tame the Welsh. Castle history is that it was never taken by force and King Richard the 2nd was killed in the castle. The team members, after receiving a private tour of the castle, walked about into the town and found a Welsh rugby shop. Soon all the players were decked out in Wales rugby hats, tee-shirts, scarf's and who knows what else. It was like St. Patrick's day - everyone but the Irelands - were Welsh. After the visit to the castle and town the team was bussed out to the surrounding beach for some 7's rugby. A team of parents even participated, but you could imagine the results of that experience; however, no parent was sent off to the hospital. At one point the Irish sea beckoned to the rugby players and at once Jay McElevenny, Frank H.,Fitz and Nick H stripped and dove into the sea. However before long they decided a swim to Ireland was not feasible and returned to the shore. Meanwhile the hungry players fished for crabs and were last seen starting a fire on the beach cooking their catch.
The trip back to Liverpool University arrived at 6:30PM and then the boys were off for an evening with curfews of 10:00 for juniors and 10:30 for seniors. The team is still suffering bumps, bruises and muscle soreness from the tough match against St. Edwards College. I must report on that subject that coach Karabin was quite pleased seeing so many Harry Potter real life English characters walking about St. Edwards. Many of the girls simply wanted to talk to an American player; your sons were quite special to the
English and the other way around as well. The English St. Edwards coach was quite susprised to learn that several Bishop Shanahan players were in reality personages from Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings books. Not quite sure he really understood the team connection with magical creatures and hobbits, ents, dwarfs, etc.
It is also important ot note that for the first time since 1918 the Conservative party won seats in Wales against the Labor party in the recent election for the European parliment. Just at the time that the American public is getting it's dose of "Czar" President Barack Obama, the English and French are electing center to right governments; continuing to move away from a government ownership of economic entities and introducing more private options in many public policies. The world does move in circles. Great Britian is the original model of the current democratic experiment, while America still leads the way in perserving individual freedoms and liberities. It is interesting to note that Thomas Jefferson in particular wrote that he feared for American freedon & liberties "once we are piled upon once another in cities as the population is in Europe|" - (a loose translation). The American constitution, Bill of Rights and Federalist structure were all mean to control against the total central control of a monarchist central government. The currrent movement by many states in the USA to regain certain basic freedoms guaranteed to the states by the 10th amendment to the constitution will be interesting to follow over the next decade.
Tommorrow may hold another match for Shanahan or a tour of Chester with it's Roman ruins for inspecting.
The final verdict is out on that subject at the time of this posting, but with the bruises suffered yesterday we may chose Roman ruins and another day of rest over a mid-week match and close out with the final match Saturday against a team equally as difficult as St. Edwards.
The team is continuing to have some discussion on the team motto "Faith, Courage, Unity" and how these qualities and characteristics apply to the tour and everyday life. Shanahan rugby team tour members are honor bound to watch out for their fellow players on and off the field on a tour and during the season.
Thursday June 11th -The day has started off quietly with breakfast and a gathering at 10:15 for a 10:30 practice. The practice lasted for 1 hour with warms ups; line drills and unopposed runs up and down the pitch. In particular we worked on lineouts and 1st/2nd phase foward picks off the rucks and then the ball out to the backs. With blood returning to their limbs the work out provided a real opportunity to recover from the Tuesday match. Coach Ireland has heard from the St. Edwards coach that his team is suffering physically as well, but will be out to the St. Anslem's match Saturday cheering for Shanahan ( I hope they bring their pretty 16-18 year old school girls as well dressed in their skirts and blazers as that will proved further incentive for the Shanahan teams to excel in their performance on the pitch). The practice ended with a brief comtempletation on the team motto "Faith, Courage, Unity".
Next step is a 1:30PM bus to the city of Chester to see an old Roman walled town and several museums and an old Roman Catholic Cathedral ( now Anglican) built in 1009-1029. The boys will be reminded that they all are to bring a present home for their "mum's" and husbands for their spouses. The weather today is bright and sunny and about 70 degrees F; much better than the rains of yesterday that impacted the tour of the castle.
The tour to Chester was an excellent outing for the day, only a 1 hour drive from Liverpool Hope University. Once in the city center the boys trundled off to view and experience several parts of the city of which the highlights were the Cathedral and a walk on top of the old Roman wall that still rings the city. Hard to imagine what excellent engineers the Romans were to still have their wall standing after almost 1500 years. The original cathedral also still stands from its start in 1009 and was and still is a piligrimage site to honor a 7th Century nun - St. Werburg, a daughter of a Mercian King who left wealth and power to honor God with her life. Her miracles of healing were what led to her sainthood. The Benedictines Order ran the cathedral and had an ajoining monestary till Henry VIII desolved them. Besides a mission of reclaiming the Byzantine Cathedral of St .Sofia ( in Constantinople- modern day Istanbul) I believe prehaps we should add
a reunification of the English Catholic church with the Roman Catholic Church.
The ice cream in Chester from the rural countryside farms was also wonderful to consume. The ride home was quiet and comfortable with many members of the team sleeping. The evening was one of the boys off to various parts from the university for dinner with some meeting up with St. Edward's rugby players for a discussion of the next team for Shanahan to play. On a historical note it is perhaps important to chronicle that MR & Mrs Wert and Mr. & Mrs. Reif brought their beautiful daughters and a female cousin (Wert's) to the tour and that last evening Sean Walker( and others) watched over the young women as they were being greeted by a multitude of young English gentlemen in a local pub.
All players met their 10:15 and 10:45PM curfews as required ( except for 3 players with Mr. Ireland who arrived 15 minutes late from a dinner with Gregory's one grandmother and cousins). They were granted an extension so that they could finish their dessert and conclude the family gathering successfully which has precidence over the otherwise strictly enforced curfew.
Friday June 12th - Hard to believe but today is another bright sunny day with perfect blue skies. Quite different from the rainy day when King Alfred the Great defeated the Danes at the battle of Ethandun in 878 AD..... to preserve what was to become the English nation. The sight of the battle is thought to be located at Bratton Camp, an Iron Age Fortress, located on the edge of modern day Wiltshire Downs near the image of the White Horse on the Westbury Chalk cliff. The Briton's - of King Authur's age - had already been overrun by the invading Saxons and retreated into what is modern day Wales. It is interesting to note that the 14th Century (1300's) global mean temperature was actually 2 degrees warmer than today without any increase in carbon emissions, but again these are both stories off the central path of the Shanahan rugby tour in 2009...
Today was a sleep in day for the boys and the only free day on the tour, so many took the opportunity to miss breakfast in the cafeteria and linger in their beds till practice at 10:30AM. The early crowd led by Jay McElvenny, did not want to miss their free breakfasts of eggs and sausage/bacon/toast/juices, certainly will help preserve the value of the American monetary system in the future. Practice is occuring as this is being written lead by Coaches Ireland and Cantwell and the captains. Several of the boys will take taxi's into downtown Liverpool this afteernoon and there is a group that will play cricket since they bought cricket bats and balls yesterday for the event. Gregory Ireland seems focused on teaching the sport to his American teammates. Cricket will be followed by a tea, of course. Gregory is perhaps able to conduct this lesson in cricket partly because he was blessed by his parents with an outstanding Christian name.
Tonight the team will be honored guests at a professional Rugby League match and then the trouble will start as the English female admirers will flock to visit with the team at the stadium...we have arranged extra private security for the evening so parents may need to pay extra for the team tour fee once we return home(joking, about the increased fee). (more to follow)
Saturday June 13th -
