Soccer players in Argentina? It sounds like a match made in heaven. Over spring break, many players were able to live that out, as Varsity soccer head coach Bob O’Connell and nine freshman and sophomore soccer players flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina and then rode a ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay three days later. 

The first place they visited was the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires, where they attended a soccer game, an integral aspect of Argentine culture. Argentine soccer fans don’t just come to watch the game, they come to cheer for their team, so the stadium is constantly loud, whether or not their team even scores. 

“Everyone was chanting the whole game,” said sophomore Henry Willers. “So that was really cool to just see how passionate the fans were.”

While they were in Argentina, the group took a tour of a Jesuit high school called Coahuila Del Salvador where they got to see their expansive, university-esque campus.

“I thought it was very big,” said sophomore Samuel Poulos. “There were multiple outside areas or courtyards within the school that the students could use.” 

Coahuilla was more reminiscent of a college than of a high school. Not only because of its size, but also because students were allowed to choose majors like engineering, medicine, or economics before they even left high school.

After three days of sightseeing, touring, and watching soccer, the group took a ferry to Uruguay, where they would spend the rest of their trip. While there, they went to another Jesuit high school named Colegio Semanario, where they shadowed classes, like biology, taught entirely in English.

“It’s funny; we actually did one of the labs I did last year for Biology,” said Willis.

As it turns out, Uruguayans at Coahuila were taught English starting at the kindergarten level and it had been integrated into every part of their school curriculum; even the third graders were completely fluent. 

“I thought that was really cool and I was thinking why in America we don’t have all these people that are fluent in other languages,” said freshman Eli Adams. “How are Uruguayans so good at English?”

After class they had lunch with the students where they were asked about all sorts of American trends like social media brainrot.

On Friday, the group ferried from Montevideo back to Argentina and ate at a Tango the night before they would leave. They also got to watch a performance put on by traditional Argentinian dancers and musicians and enjoyed Argentinian cuisine.

“What really caught me by surprise was the accordion,” said Willers. “It was really captivating to see the amount of emotion he conveyed.”

A trip like this one gives the players an interesting and unique experience to get to know a foreign culture and compare it to their own.

”When I got the job a couple years ago as a varsity soccer coach, I always just wanted to have ways that made SLUH soccer different from a lot of other soccer programs,” said O'Connell. “And travel was always one of the things that I think you can do to add some differences.”

Not only does this annual trip separate SLUH soccer as a truly unique program but it also offers one-in-a-lifetime experiences found within Argentine culture.

“I learned about all different ways of life and how people lived across the world,” said Adams. “I thought it was really interesting and I would definitely do it again.”