If you had to describe the Idaho State women’s soccer team’s recent tour of Europe in one word, it might be “beauty.”
As in the beauty of seeing historic European capitols like Vienna, Zurich and Munich.
Or seeing the beauty of soccer expressed as a sport through the precision execution of a Swiss professional team.
Perhaps even the beauty of spending a week (June 23-July 1) 5,000 miles from home with your teammates and sharing new experiences in a totally different part of the world.
“The best part was being with my best friends and experiencing the trip,” said Taylin Butterbaugh, a senior defender from California. “We don’t see our teammates much during the summer. This was a great opportunity to be together and experience something many of us have never experienced before — and may never experience again.”
The NCAA allows college teams to go on foreign, offseason tours every four years. Idaho State head coach Dustin Downey, who is now heading into his third season at the helm, has been conceptualizing this foreign adventure almost from the time he got hired at ISU.
“It’s something I’ve never done before and wanted to do,” said Downey. “I’ve always thought that was something you go to college for is experiences, independence and learning. ... So giving this team and these student-athletes the opportunity to go do something they might never have the opportunity to do again for the rest of their lives, it’s just such a cool thing. And Idaho State and Idaho State soccer can give that to them.”
The trip was built around two central axis — three soccer games and a lot of sightseeing.
“The amount of walking we did there was insane,” said Sam Steele, a sophomore outside back from the San Diego area. “Every single day we had a game, we also had a two-hour walking tour. Our bodies were super tired, but it was a good test for us. It was hard, we got to Vienna at 8 a.m. and only a couple of us slept on the plane. We were going on 30 hours with no sleep, and then we went right to an amusement park. But I was super happy to see all the places we did.”
Most of the Bengals were making their first visit to Europe, and they were taken by the architecture, the history and, yes, the beauty of the grand cities they were visiting.
“In Munich, we did a city tour, walked up 15 flights of stairs in a church and then the whole city view opened up to us,” said Butterbaugh. “I’ve never seen such a beautiful site in my life.”
Mixed in with the sites, of course, was soccer. With only two practices behind them and about a half-dozen new players to introduce to the program, Downey wasn’t worried about the final results of the contests. He split his team into two platoons, and both played 45 minutes each of the three games. ISU finished 1-1-1 on the trip, tying an Austrian team 2-2, getting blown out by a Swiss professional team, 8-0, and ending the adventure on a positive note with a 3-1 win over an Austrian squad.
The beatdown by the Swiss national team got everybody’s attention.
“Sometimes I think we all look at it as an experience, not a success or a failure,” said Virginia Wallace, a senior outside back from West Point, Utah. “That’s what that (the loss to the Swiss team) was to me, an experience to play a team so good, so well-oiled, they played the game so beautifully.”
Two aspects of the game left an impression on Downey. The first was the play of freshman goaltender Sarah Maxfield from Salt Lake City, Utah.
“I half-jokingly said to my assistant coaches, I said, ‘Guys, we’re going home short a goalkeeper because they’re going to sign her after this game,’ ” Downey said. “She was fantastic — kick saves and dives. She’s about 6-foot, so she kept a couple of high ones out. It was great.”
The other was the incredible technical capability of the Swiss team.
“We couldn’t get the ball off them,” Downey said. “If you lost it, you didn’t get it back right away. If you lost it, you had to really work to get it back. I thought we were giving the ball away too easily. Our touches were off, our passes were off, we were not as composed. So actually, in preseason, we have planned technical training sessions every day before our evening practices. That’s something we need to improve on, based on what I saw.”
Even outside their own contests, the scent of soccer infused the entire trip for the Bengals. The men’s European Cup championships were going on all around them, and all three countries they visited — Austria, Germany and Switzerland — still had teams alive in the tournament when ISU came calling.
The Bengals took part in the festivities, touring Allianz Arena in Munich, where storied club team FC Bayern competes, and then taking part in a watch party, joining the locals who were viewing the Euro Cup action on television screens.
“I wish soccer was so big and so much more appreciated here, like it is in Europe,” said Steele. “It was such a different experience. But since we play soccer, even I got chills watching it.”
Downey, his staff and his players spent a couple of years fundraising to pay for the trip. Players worked at camps and other fundraisers, on and off campus, to raise money for the excursion, and they also had to pay a portion of the cost of the trip out of their own pockets. Each player paid in the neighborhood of $1,500, depending on how many camps and other fundraisers they participated in. New players or those unable to participate in fundraisers, will be paying the program back with donated labor in the future.
Bengal supporters also helped cover the cost of the adventure.
“The support system around our program continues to just honestly go up and up and up,” said Downey. “It’s been great. I think Crew (Keller, assistant athletic director) has really done a great job with that, reaching out to people. The alumni — we had our alumni game in the spring and I think we had 50 alumni out. They’re more involved, they’re paying attention and they’re excited about what’s going on here.”
So, too, is incoming freshman Camille Kollar, a midfielder from Littleton, Colo.
“The recent trip to Europe confirmed why I committed to Idaho State,” Kollar said. “I can see coach Dustin is building something special and now that I’ve been able to play with the girls in Europe and spend a week on campus, I can’t wait until we start playing games. Europe offered us the time to bond as a team while also seeing other parts of the world. Europe was also a chance for the incoming freshmen to not only play together for the first time, but also with the returning players.”
Players are expected to be back on campus by July 28, with the first practice for the upcoming season on July 30. The Bengals begin their season at Colorado State on Aug. 15.
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