2018 Spring Trip Announced: Paris, London, and Normandy
Per Harbaugh, the 2018 Football team's Spring trip will include stops in Paris, London, and Normandy.
"Yeah, we took a straw poll," Harbaugh said. The result of the vote? The team chose to go to three places in Spring 2018, returning to Europe. "Paris, Normandy and London."
http://michigan.247sports.com/Bolt/Harbaugh-team-going-to-Paris-London-and-Normandy-in-2018-53215018
Courtesy Isaiah Hole at 247sports
But I love the Normandy choice.
I would add the Somme and Verdun, but they won't have the time,
think we will land at Pas de Calais.
Hopefully Harbaugh will pull a Stanton and say, "Lafayette, we are here!"
Seriously, what recruit can resist the Michigan choice now? Who could not want to be a part of this?
has more to offer than all three places put together. The Waffle House crowd will believe him (btw/ I like the occasional Waffle House breakfast).
but it seems appropriate - the Michigan difference.
Trips are fantastic. Some of these kids may never have the opportunity to travel overseas again.
would as well.
Visiting Normandy is a bucket list item for me.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae
I'm with you pal. A bucket list for sure.
Maybe a 2018 MGoBlog tour or Europe???? ;)
This is of interest to me...
Ffff
But his heart was in the right place
There is a Belgian Flanders and a French Flanders. Both were battle scenes in WWI.
Normandy is further to the southwest, along the Channel coast. I have been to Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach. They are something else. The German fortifications have been largely left intact and even the craters from the Allied bombs are still there. Pointe du Hoc has sheer cliffs that are almost vertical - it's astonishing that soldiers climbed them under gunfire. As for Omaha Beach, it's huge - the troops had a long way to go tand get from their ships to the hill, with no cover. It is quite the experience to see these sites now.
It is further up the coast of France.
McCrae was inspired to write the poem after a friend who died in the Second of Ypres.(Belgium)
Yes, I noted that.
and the Battle of Flanders....
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, Blueprint for Armageddon II. In the first 2 days of the German invasion, 70,000 French troops died and another 250,000 injured, leading to the Flanders battle. It's a long recording but very interesting for those who are interested.
Very entertaining!
27,000 died on the August 22 the Battle of the Frontiers. 75,000 Frenchmen died in August of 1914.
These kids are getting once in a lifetime experiences.
I wonder how much I'd have to donate to get invited to this trip - man I'm jealous.
France and the U.K. are free countries, you can vacation in those places while the team is there.
I am in London a couple of time a year for work, I will see if I can work out the timing and try to hit a practice over there if possible.
Could have recruited some 17 year old rugby stars :) Maybe for 2019
Every major college football program will be doing this in 10-15 years. It is wonderful to have the most innovative coach in college football.
They can already travel around Columbus and see the sites (according to Mr. Smith).
On a serious note, I don't see too many ACC / SEC programs having any interest in this - not their style. Many would think it's weird for people to be interested in foreign countries / cultures.
My wife is from Tallahassee and the people down there are really nice and hospitable, but most people down literally have zero interest of anything outside the U.S.
Man o Man do I hope to tides turn in Columbus and we just start kicking their ass year in and year out. And Harbaugh goes for two up 30.
Its not the fact they have interest in other cultures, but recruits will want to go abroad. They'll absolutely start taking these trips also.
In general, the players being recruited by those schools would be less interested than the kids Michigan is recruiting.
The P5 schools where you will may this are Stanford, Cal, ND (if they can swallow their pride and copy Harbaugh), USC, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Wiscy, Minnesota, and Northwestern. You have to think of high academic that can afford it.
I'm not entirely sure what you're saying. how many top recruits has Michigan lost out on to other schools? this won't happen only at the schools you mentioned. once Alabama, fsu, etc. realizes that kids want to go to Europe (for whatever reason, learning experience, foreign girls, etc.) they will hop on board the trip train. it doesn't matter if Michigan is recruiting them or not. when you were 17, if you could've had an all expense paid trip to Europe, you'd definitely be interested, right?
Would I have liked to go at 17? Of course and so would a lot of the recruits. But I can also guarantee you that a lot of kids couldn't care less.
My point is that Michigan (and the other schools I listed) tend to recruit more kids that will be interested in this type of thing. Schools like Alabama and LSU tend to recruit less kids that are interested in broadening their horizons.
Of course, there are exceptions at both schools and overlap between the kids their recruiting. But it would be less of incentive at those schools. Add in the fact that their coaches and administrators would hate to set up that kind of trip.
Bottom line - don't expect to see Da Coach O or Saban taking their kids on a tour of Europe anytime soon.
recruiting a more well rounded kid than most schools. I am sure it makes for a great lockeroom.
I know if I was on the fence between two schools enrolling early and going on this trip would be a factor.
I get what you're saying but it doesn't make sense. Just because Alabama and lsu recruit a kid doesn't mean they're dumb or couldn't get into Michigan. Those teams have plenty of highly intellectual young men on them that would love that opportunity. Mark my words, within 2 years, one of the big boys will be heading over seas.
We can all debate whether and the extent to which athletes should get paid. While that debate goes on JH has made sure to get his kids the same kind of opportunities that so many other college kids enjoy but that are hard (financially and because of their time commitments) for student-athletes. Next big step (which I believe is being looked at) is getting athletes chances for work experience/internships.
Guy continues to compete to be better; it would be great if this led to other teams doing more things to help athletes get the full student experience. Truly a Leader.
There are a lot of coaches out there you can say are true leaders but would never do something like this. What I love about Harbaugh is he is a true mentor taking care of the kids minds, bodies and souls. Thats what is truly rare in todays educational climate.
Souls?
Twisted blue steel souls
There are a lot of coaches out there you can say are true leaders but would never do something like this. What I love about Harbaugh is he is a true mentor taking care of the kids minds, bodies and souls. Thats what is truly rare in todays educational climate.
The expected reaction from our ess eee see friends.....
Awesome.
Man I bet Normandy is awesome, but I wouldn't set foot in London or Paris with all of the terror issues going on.
them in anyway (different conversation for a different website). But stastically speaking you have a 10x better chance of dieing in a car accident backing out of your driveway than a terrorist attack in London or Paris.
There are literally millions of people going into and out of those cities on a daily basis - the odds are literally negligible.
You can't live your life out of fear of getting caught up in a situation of something negligible happening to you.
Iagree. I would liken it to not leaving your house for fear of a bird shitting on your head. The consequences are dissimilar but the liklihood is the same.
The likelihood of a bird shitting on your head is much greater - but point made.
sitting with the hottest girl in the senior class. I had been chasing her all semester. We were having a really nice conversation and things seemed to be going my way when a seagull laid a huge white crap that landed right in the middle of my chest.
All I could say was anybody want to go for a swim. So I guess i must agree with you.
Downplaying the seriousness of Islamic terror and its potential to target an American sports team that would surely give the sickos lots of publicity. When you're a high profile American traveling with a public itinerary, it puts a major target on your back.
Not to make this political -- that's not my intent -- but how many people are killed (or injured) each day by acts of violence in the US as compared to Paris or London?
And yes, I know, I'm trying to compare a country to two cities...but you get the point.
You'd be a fool to pass up a trip to either of those places.
You can compare any of the 100 largest cities in the U.S. to those two - our cities are statistically more dangerous across the board.
The U.S. also experiences significantly more terror attacks than Europe. We just lie about it and call our terrorism by other names. (When a guy shoots up 20 kids at Sandy Hook, somehow that's not an act of terror, but a "school shooting".)
You are trying to compare apples to oranges. The homicides you are pointing to are ghetto thugs killing each other in the hoods. Unless you are hanging out in the hoods, the murder rates are actually low. London and Paris have experienced a string of terrorist attacks on innocents, in what are normally safe areas of town. In fact, they are in areas of historical significance and so they already have added security. Stop trying to politically, equivocate Democratic strongholds like Chicago and all of their carnage, as indicative of typical US safety and security. Get your head out of the sand, and recognize that Islamic terror is a threat to civilization.
Sandy Hook? Orlando? The Charleston church shooting? The San Francisco post office shooting the other day?
You consider these cases of "ghetto thugs killing each other in the hoods"? That's one hell of a rationalization.