Each day that the John Carroll Football Team is on its journey to and from France, Blue Streak junior Luke Whitworth will correspond through jcusports.com. His reports will be posted as soon as they are received. This entry represents days six and seven - prenez le champ (Take the field)

Day 6

Today we made a two hour trip to Amiens, France, to take on the Tourani Phoenix. I must apologize because I originally had said the Belgium All Stars, but in fact we took on the Phoenix. In the Belgain American Football League (BFL), the Phoenix reached the semifinals of their postseason playoffs. The Belgian Bowl was taking place the same weekend back in Belgium.

The first thing that happened was a football clinic. We worked in four main areas during the morning with our coaches leading the way. We broke into offensive line, defensive line, defensive backs and offensive backs. It was a chance for us to meet the team and get a sense of how much they knew of the game.

We won the game and truthfully, the score was not important. Alex Furth, Bobby Mangiarelli, Devin O'Brien, Cory Castro and Mike Locke all scored offensive touchdowns, whole Emmett Lydon and Kyle Fiegel scored defensive touchdowns. Without any true placekickers on the trip, Hayes Cooper was our designated extra point guy and actually connected on most of his attempts despite never doing it live since he started at JCU!

A special mention goes to Matt Dee, who not only caught a touchdown but had an interception return for a score as well.

We had a chance to spend time with the Phoenix and some fans afterwards. It was just a great day to be in France.


Day 7

Today was the lightest day so far for us. We had a later start to the day with our bus leaving the hotel at 11 am.

We began the day by taking a driving tour of Paris. We saw pretty much everything including the Eiffel tower where we will go to the top tomorrow. Fun fact: The Eiffel Tower was nearly torn down in 1910 but was saved because of its potential value as a radio tower.

We stopped at the famous Opera House for lunch but the majority of the day was spent at the Chateau de Versailles. This place was incredible. I realized the other day I thought I had seen the most beautiful thing in the world. Then, I spent a few hours today in the Garden of Versailles. It was truly remarkable. If possible in your life time, you must visit this place because it is almost indescribable.

After a nice few hours at Versailles, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant and had ourselves and early evening. We are all excited for tomorrow's adventures as we will actually visit the Eiffel Tower and end the trip with a boat ride dinner.