English gents play soccer with Mount Si
April 22, 2009
By Laura Geggel
The pupils at Bishop Heber High School call cleats ‘football boots’ and they’re more likely to be seen rooting for Manchester United than they are the Seattle Sounders, but they do have one thing in common with the Mount Si boy’s soccer team.
They all love soccer.
Mount Si social studies teacher and assistant soccer coach Ben Tomlisson is the brainchild behind the English soccer exchange. From 1999 to 2005, Tomlisson taught history and coached soccer at Bishop Heber High School, a school near Liverpool in England. Then, he fell in love with an American from Maple Valley who was studying veterinary science at the University of Liverpool. The two married in 2002 and moved to Maple Valley in 2005.
Members of the Bishop Heber High School and Mount Si High School soccer teams.
As soon as he began coaching at Mount Si, Tomlisson decided to extend an invitation to his old soccer mates. The Bishop Heber soccer team often traveled to cities around Europe, like Madrid and Barcelona, to compete against other teams and learn about other cultures.
Inviting them to Snoqualmie Valley “seemed like the natural thing to do,” Tomlisson said.
The team of 16 boys and two coaches visited in 2007, and again this year from April 10-19. In addition to playing against the Mount Si boy’s varsity soccer team April 16, the Bishop Heber students played against several select soccer teams at a tournament April 18.
Mount Si sophomore Cody Taylor, who watched the Heber-Mount Si match, said the game was intense. Mount Si lost 2-1, but they put up a good fight.
Heber scored the first goal on a penalty kick, and the Wildcats evened the score with a penalty kick of their own.
Mount Si goalie Sam Evans missed the deciding goal, kicked from outside the 18-yard line, by a hair, Taylor said.
The Wildcats will have a second chance to play against Heber in the summer of 2010, when the Mount Si boys and girls soccer teams plan to visit Bishop Heber in Malpas, England.
Taylor said the student he was hosting, Robbie Kerr, was already making plans for the Mount Si visit.
“Robbie says that they’ll at least teach us how to play rugby, and maybe cricket,” Taylor said.
For now, both teams had kept busy since the Heber’s arrival, going to Mariners and Seattle Sounders games, taking a tour of downtown Seattle and doing the ropes course on Snoqualmie Ridge.
Bishop Heber 16-year-old students Louis Moss and Joe Sumner said they enjoyed Snoqualmie Valley and even said they were used to the rain.
Moss noted the school’s stadium was different from the one in England. At Bishop Heber games, fans usually gather on the sidelines to watch — there are no bleachers like there are at Mount Si.
“I’m more excited to play in front of so many people,” Moss said.
Both students said they were especially impressed by the Sounders game, even though the Kansas City Wizards won 1-0. Still, they said English fans are a tad more devoted.
“There is more atmosphere at home at the English games,” Moss said. “The stadiums get really loud. They hate when their team loses.”
There’s no saying Seattle fans can’t equal or top their European counterparts. After all, we’ve already got the gear, and now a few more followers from across the pond.
“I liked the Sounder scarves,” Sumner said.
Reach reporter Laura Geggel at 392-6434 .221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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the english boys should definatley come back To mt. si….. its good for soccer. PLEASEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! have them come soon (: