During the summer months several Gardner Edgerton High School students travel to other countries for educational reasons.

Likewise, over summer break juniors Rees Taylor and Vika Ploetz had the opportunity to travel to Chester, England and Dublin, Ireland to play soccer.

Taylor traveled through KC Legends and Ploetz traveled through Super Clubs National Team. However, once over seas they competed for the same club.

“All of my teammates were from the US, five from Kansas, including me, two from Texas, and six from Virginia,” Taylor said. Although Taylor had a coach from Ireland he was still playing alongside players from the United States.

Ploetz said his coach was recruited from Virginia and he had teammates from Ohio, Kansas, Colorado, Texas and Alabama.

In a span of 12 days the team played five friendly games against teams from England and Ireland. Although they lost four games and tied one, Ploetz said he is not mad about it because he was playing in Europe.

“I don’t think I could narrow it down to a certain thing about it that I enjoyed,” Taylor said. “The whole experience was incredible,”

While soccer is becoming more mainstream in the United States, it has yet to reach the level of popularity here than it experiences in Europe.

“Soccer is a lot different [in Europe] because it is their main sport and practices are more technical,” Taylor said.

According to Ploetz competition in Europe is known to be more creative with plays and more aggressive.

“Everyone is way better technically developed and more intense,” Ploetz said. “I had to work 110% harder.”

In addition to games, the players had mandatory yoga every morning and one to two practices a day. Each practice would last up to two hours.

While they were not playing soccer, Taylor and Ploetz toured London, the Manchester United Stadium and went to Wicklow Mountains National Park in Ireland. Ploetz said they also spent time in the towns going to different shops.

“My favorite place to visit was Old Trafford,” Taylor said. “It was cool to visit a place I see on TV every weekend.”

Taylor had this opportunity presented to him by his club manager while Ploetz was selected after being watched.

“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” Taylor said. “It was fun making new friends from all over.”