Soccer team embarks on European tour
Williamsville player on Clarence squad headed to Prague Cup
by JASON NADOLINSKI Reporter

It's not uncommon to see athletes join travel teams during the summer to keep their skills up-to-date in their chosen sport, but one Clarence soccer team is giving a new meaning to the term "travel team."

The Clarence Stallions U16 boys team left Monday on a 13-day journey that will see them participate in the elite Prague Cup Tournament July 2-5 before playing a couple of friendly games in Austria. The Stallions, who've lost just twice to local and regional competitors in 50 games over the past two years, are looking to test their mettle against some upper-echelon squads.

"It's going to be a great time and definitely a good soccer experience," Stallions coach Lou Vitello said. "We did a trip about five years ago like this, and some of the kids on the team now had older brothers on that team. The parents started talking, we put together a couple of options, and the kids are all psyched that the parents wanted to do this trip."

When the idea of playing in an overseas tournament became more of a reality, Vitello contacted Harvard Sports Management, a company that takes into consideration multiple facets about a team - its record and age level, among others - and finds a tournament or other playing situation that bests suits that squad. That's how the Stallions wound up with a berth in the Prague Cup.

The Stallions will play in the six-team U16 International Bracket Premier Level bracket at the Prague Cup, with three games guaranteed in the form of pool play. Clarence has the potential to play two more games depending on how things shake out in pool play.

After that, the Stallions will play exhibition contests in Salzburg, Austria, and Regensburg, Germany.

"These kids have been extremely successful these last two years, and by going overseas, they're going to face better competition that is going to really test their abilities," Vitello said. "They're going to see where they stand. These guys are all doing so well, and it's an anomaly that, at this age, they are all doing so well. They're not recruited for this team, but we're going out and beating teams that are made from recruited kids."

The trip is costing $3,000 for each of the team's 17 players - 14 from Clarence High School, three from Canisius High School and Evan Anderson from Williamsville East. There are 18 adults going on the trip as well.

Every one of the players did multiple fundraisers for the trip, giving them a greater appreciation for the trip they have just started.

"These kids did team pancake breakfasts, we put ads in our team program, we raffled off a trip to London … the kids worked hard to raise money for their trip," Vitello said. "Some of them raised so much that they paid for their trip in full."

Vitello, who was Clarence's varsity head coach for three years earlier this decade and is now the associate head coach at Medaille College, was quick to point out that the trip is about more than soccer. The Stallions will be visiting numerous cultural and other tourist-type destinations while traveling through the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria.

"We 're going to see four major cities that had been behind the Iron Curtain not too long ago, when you really think about it," Vitello said. "I didn't want the whole trip to just be about soccer. We 're going to go to the Dachau Concentration Camp, we're going to white water raft in the Alps. We have a lot planned along the way for them to get the cultural aspects of Eastern Europe."

Vitello worked extremely hard to make sure the Stallion players and their parents get the most out of the trip, since a trip to Europe isn't exactly going to be a yearly excursion - especially with the rising cost of air travel and fuel, and the declining value of the dollar against the euro.

"I can't see this trip costing less than $3,000 in the future," Vitello said. "When I first booked the trip, I made sure the travel agent bought euros at that point when the deposit was locked in. Even then, I was told we could get an increase in the price because of fuel prices. But, that was part of the reason we wanted all the kids to partake in every fundraiser, so that they have a greater appreciation of the value of the trip."