By Jenny Drabble//Co-Editor

Photos courtesy of North Carolina Fusion

A dozen hyper boys, a 10-hour flight and an airplane brimming with passengers cramped in tiny seats. Sounds like fun, right?

When you’re headed to the land of spaghetti and the birthplace of pizza, you’re willing to put up with just about anything — even a very persistent screaming baby in the next seat over. The chance to see the world with your teammates by your side? David Lauffenburger can’t imagine anything better.

“I wanted to go because I knew the experience would be amazing,” David, 15, says. “We toured castles, played lots of soccer and ate lots of good food.”

David ventured to Italy in the summer of 2012 with his soccer teammates from Winston-Salem and Greensboro, North Carolina, to compete against international teams and see a new corner of the world.

The kids toured around the country with their coaches and competed in a tournament with the local teams, placing sixth overall. No parents, no siblings. Just some of his best friends and the whole wide world in his grasp.

When David found out about the Italy trip, he was adamant about going, as he had never been out of the United States.

“David was so excited about the opportunity and wanted so much to go that we found it hard to say no,” his mother, Polly Lauffenburger says. “The trip gave him a little freedom to gain a broader perspective of the world and time with teammates — new and old — in a foreign country doing what they love most: playing soccer.”

But amid the dizzying nonstop schedule of games, training and exploring, it was seeing Venice that stood out to David.

For Coach Wade Forte, that’s one of the best parts: watching the expressions on his players’ awestruck faces as they see the water lap up against the streets of Venice or as they behold the Hohenzollern Castle in Germany for the first time.

“There’s nothing like seeing their faces light up when they see something extraordinary they’ve never seen before,” Forte, 34, says. “They learn responsibility and gain maturity from being out on their own in a new culture. These trips are once in a lifetime opportunities.”

Forte had always wanted to travel growing up. After his soccer career at Virginia Tech, he was asked to chaperone a trip to Europe with a local soccer team. When he returned from the trip, he decided to become a coach.

Forte, who has been coaching soccer for 15 years, has led several trips in Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, where his teams have competed against players in professional European youth academies.

“Being able to compete against such a high level of teams helps our kids grow as players,” he says. “They get to see the level they want to achieve, and it gives them something more to strive for.”

One out of every 16 soccer players in European countries, like Italy and Germany, will play professionally, compared to the one in every million players in the U.S. that make it to the big leagues, Forte says. Playing against such steep competition helps the kids improve rapidly.

But the trips are more than just to polish the kids’ soccer skills. The experiences help the teens grow and develop into the adults they will become.

“Foreign travel exposes young people to culture, language and traditions that they have never experienced,” David’s dad, Mike Lauffenburger, says.

“This exposure may shape their outlook on the world around them and give them a global perspective on current events.”

Broadening their horizons was exactly why Anne Slowey encouraged her two sons to play soccer tournaments abroad.

Born and raised in Ireland, Slowey had always made getting out to see the world with her family a priority. They return to the U.K. each year and visit countries around Europe.

So when her 12-year-old son, Oisin, had the opportunity to play soccer in the Mediterranean International Cup in Spain, Slowey leapt at the chance to expose her family to yet another country and culture.

The annual tournament, held at Costa Brava every Easter, attracts youth teams from all over the world — Germany, Australia, Ireland, France, you name it — providing endless opportunities to experience different cultures.

For Slowey, it was the game against Russia that stood out most clearly in her mind.

Despite being down 2-0 at the half, Oisin’s team, the Carolinas, were determined to fight until the bitter end. They hadn’t come 4,000 miles to lose.

“The Russian supporters were very loud, and when they got a goal, went crazy,” Slowey says. “We came out on fire in the second half and won 4-2. It wasn’t long before the Russians became quiet and the Carolinas got rowdy.”

Although they may not have placed first in the tournament, it soon became apparent that the trip was so much more than just winning a few games. It was about the adventure.

From eating breakfast at the hotel with teams from across the world to accidentally ordering $50 worth of tapas for one hungry, little 12-year-old — oops! — the trip was nothing short of exciting.

The team traveled to Barcelona and was enthralled by the intoxicating ambience of the city: the people and their trendy clothes, the funky architecture of the Sagrada Familia outside their apartments, the mouthwatering food… and, of course, the fact that soccer in Spain is as essential as oxygen.

Soccer and travel. To a group of young boys, nothing could be better. No soccer fields in sight? No problem. They brought their soccer ball with them everywhere, content to play on the narrow streets and back alleys. “I think Oisin learned that the world is so different,” Slowey says. “Speaking a foreign language, getting lost in big cities, how old Europe is, different money and, of course, the love other countries have for soccer.”

In April, her other son Ben, 14, will get a chance to experience this all for himself when he travels to Germany with a dozen of his teammates on the ‘99 Fusion Elite team in a no-parentsallowed extravaganza.

The 8-day trip, led by NC Fusion coaches, will include guided tours of German cities: Munich, Stuttgart and Tubingen. The kids will compete in several matches against local teams, train in professional facilities and attend professional games.

NC Fusion, a competitive soccer club in Greensboro, North Carolina, organizes European trips for some of the younger teens nearly every year.

For Ryan Drabble, 14, this is something he has been waiting his entire life for.

Although he was born in Canada, Ryan has never been out of North America. When he found out about the trip to Germany a year ago, he began campaigning his parents and fervently teaching himself how to speak German.

“Soccer is big in Germany, especially since they just won the World Cup, so the teams there will be tough to beat,” says Ryan, who watched nearly every game of the 2014 World Cup. “The teams will be well-trained, and I think it’ll be a lot of fun.”

His Fusion Elite team has traveled all over the southeastern U.S. to compete, but he never thought their next stop would be Germany.

“Since I’ve been playing for about 11 years now, I thought it would be a really cool opportunity to go and play overseas,” he says. “Also, I’ve always wanted to go to Europe, so what better time than now?”