ATTACK 2008 in San Antonio

4/11/2008

“Sport Tours International did a great job organizing our spring trip to San Antonio. The tour directors were very helpful and very flexible. The facilities were just right and the weather was great”.

Karen Borbee, Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach, Swarthmore College

“Sport Tours made our spring break feel like an actual vacation. Everything was well organized. As a coach, I only had to worry about practice and game preparation. The practice and game facilities were great and the transportation friendly and punctual. I would recommend Sport Tours to any school interested in planning a team trip”.

Carol Schmoeller, Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach, St. Mary’s College-Maryland

The women’s lacrosse teams of Swarthmore College, St. Mary’s College-Maryland, the University of Dallas and Drew University participated in Sport Tours International’s inaugural spring break event in San Antonio, Texas from March 7th to the 13th. Four matches and seven practice sessions were held over 6 days on the campus of St. Mary’s University in west San Antonio.

Swarthmore College was involved in three of the matches. The Garnet won Saturday’s contest over Dallas, 15-2, before falling on Tuesday to Drew, 19-10 and then to St. Mary’s College on Wednesday afternoon, 21-16. Drew University was victorious in both of their games, besting Dallas, 16-1 on Sunday before prevailing over Swarthmore on Tuesday morning. The University of Dallas dropped both their matches while St. Mary’s College-Maryland won their lone contest versus Swarthmore.

The matches’ featured outstanding play by all the teams with plenty of offense and some excellent defensive work, as well. Officials for the games hailed from Texas and Virginia. Chip Rogers assisted Sport Tours in assigning two officials from Charlottesville, Virginia, Dave Cain and Todd Bowman. Dave and Todd worked with four officials from the Texas region to cover all four games. Jason Van Dong, the Central Texas Board Chairperson, was instrumental in coordinating this effort to insure all the matches were staffed with three qualified officials.

Attack 2008 wasn’t all games and practices as the teams were able to explore historic and vibrant San Antonio. The Residence Inn/Alamo Plaza was the headquarters hotel which allowed the teams to walk to see the sights. The Alamo (2 minutes) and the River Walk (5 minutes) were waiting whenever the players and coaches had time to spare. San Antonio’s amazing history, the beautiful sites, the unique shops and the fabulous restaurants all contributed to a memorable stay.

The weather during the event was great. It did rain on Monday morning and early afternoon but, by 3pm, two of the teams were practicing outdoors and Monday’s game was rescheduled for Tuesday morning and was played under clear blue skies.

Tuesday afternoon saw Drew and St. Mary’s visit SeaWorld. Everyone had a fantastic time and enjoyed a rare opportunity to visit a major theme park when there were few lines and little or no waiting for performances or rides.

Sport Tours International wishes to thank the head coaches of all four schools for their participation in our first spring break lacrosse event. Karen Borbee, Swarthmore College; Carol Schmoeller, St. Mary’s College-Maryland; Elia Kochen, the University of Dallas and Kim Christos of Drew University were excellent to work with and very helpful in making suggestions on how Attack 2008 could be most beneficial to their teams.