By Andre Boudreaux
Spring break – a time for college students to get away from class, professors, assignments and the stress that comes with school. The University of Louisville men’s soccer team definitely escaped that stress.
We spent our spring break in Brazil – first in Sao Paulo for five days and then in Rio de Janeiro for three days. Originally, this was going to be just a soccer trip to gain experience and compete against teams from another country and players with different philosophies on soccer.
While there was a lot of soccer played and watched, it was not the only reason we went to Brazil.
The trip included going to a professional match, playing four games against professional teams, and spending time on the beach in Rio. This was our spring break, after all.
All of the games were high quality and we only managed to win one. Despite being on the wrong end of the results, the games were a great learning experience and the lessons we learned will benefit us next season.
One of the games was against the Flamengo under-20 team. The team won the Brazilian championship for that age group the year before, making it the best under-20 team in Brazil. This was the best team we played, with some of players making appearances for the full professional team. The other standout aspect of playing against them was getting to visit their training facility. The field we played our game on was the same one that Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho practices on. If only he had been there.
The Flamengo training complex consisted of more than just soccer fields, which surprised a lot of us. We had assumed it was solely a soccer club. However, it originally started as a regatta and swimming club, which was evident by the four swimming pools we walked past to get to our field.
For as much soccer as we played and watched down there – and it was a lot – we also found time to do community service.
Before going on the trip, we partnered with EDGE Outreach, a Louisville-based nonprofit that provides clean, safe drinking water to countries around the world. EDGE developed a system for purifying contaminated water using only the water, a handful of salt and a car battery.
Before we went to Brazil, EDGE educated us on how to install and use the system. We took 10 systems with us to Brazil. Once down there, we partnered with a church just outside of Sao Paulo, and donated nine of the 10 systems to the church. The other one went to a medical boat that travels up and down the Amazon River helping communities with medical needs.
The systems will eventually provide clean drinking water for thousands of people in need all over Brazil. As we showed the church members how easy it is to use the purifying system, their faces lit up with joy. It was a sight none of us will ever forget.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime trip. We were fortunate enough to go to the soccer capital of the world and play against the best teams Brazil has to offer. But the feeling of knowing we helped to improve and to save thousands of lives is one we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.
