May 16, 2008
HAMILTON, N.Y. -- The Colgate University field hockey team will take to the air on Tuesday, May 20 for a 10-day international adventure through Switzerland and Italy. The group of 18 players will have the chance to play some international competition all the while getting a taste of different cultures and creating memories that will last a lifetime.
The Raiders will document their adventures daily on a blog available on both the Colgate Athletics and Colgate main Web site. It will feature pictures and also highlights of the days' activities throughout the trip. Simply click on the ad on the right-hand side of the Colgate Athletics Web site to follow the Raiders through Europe.
This is the second trip head coach Cathy Foto has taken with a Colgate field hockey team on in the past four years. The team last went abroad to Belgium, Germany, and Holland in 2004. The NCAA allows a team to take an international trip once every four years.
The trip, organized through Harvard Sports Management Group, Inc., includes nine nights accommodation in hotels, four games against international competition, guided tours through various cities and plenty more sightseeing.
The Raiders will kick off the trip at 2 p.m., on May 20 when they depart Hamilton for JFK airport. They hit the tarmac officially at 10:30 p.m., via British Airways to London Heathrow Airport. From London, the group will transfer to Zurich to begin the first part of the tour.
Colgate will get its first taste of international field hockey on May 22 against Grasshopper FH Zurich at 7 p.m. After some more sightseeing the next day, the Raiders will take on Olten I on May 23. The third of the four games will come on May 24 against Wettingen. The Wettingen Field Hockey Club is the champion field hockey club of the Swiss League and will christen their newly installed playing facility against the Raiders.
One of the highlights of the trip will come on May 25 when the group goes white water rafting within the alpine slopes and glaciers. With two days off from competition, the group will make the trip for Switzerland to Northern Italy.
The final game of the trip will come on May 28 in Venice against Padova. Colgate will spend the final day in Milan with a local guide who will conduct a tour of Milan. An appointment also was made for the Raiders to view the Last Supper by Michelangelo.
Colgate will depart Milan on the morning of May 30 for the trip back to JFK and eventually Hamilton.
A list of cities Colgate will visit during the 10 days: Zurich, Aarau, Lucerne, Interlaken, Lake Gorda and Verona, Venice, and Milan.
