By Justin Pope: Special to www.longwoodlancers.com
 
WEDNESDAY
 
London. Morning arrival after an overnight flight to start the Longwood Men's Basketball's summer 2023 trip to England and France.
 
The upcoming schedule includes a tour of the city, including Borough Market, museums and history. But on the Lancers' first night together abroad, Assistant Coach Ronnie Thomas wants to introduce the players to England through sports – and the country's unique bond between club and community. He's taking the Lancers to Emirates Stadium, to watch Thomas's favorite English Premier League football (soccer) club, Arsenal, on their world-famous home pitch.
 
The journey is as much the experience as the destination. English football stadiums aren't built for parking, or really much of any kind of fan convenience; they're crammed into densely packed neighborhoods of the communities they represent. Thomas navigates the players to the Emirates via London's Tube (subway), where the trains are packed – 70,000-plus fans en route, jammed together, many in Arsenal kit and already chanting the club's cheers and songs. Szymon Zapala, Longwood's 7-foot center from Poland new to the team this year, provides a usefully prominent guide mark for the team to follow through the crowds filling the subway and streets of North London.
 
What Thomas, a Longwood assistant coach since 2020 and huge soccer fan from his own days living in Ireland, wants the players to experience is less the match than the connection between sports and community that defines English soccer. Stadiums here are built for communal experience, not amenities and elbow room. "In America, professional sports feel like time off. In England they're time together," Thomas says. For young players, many of whom have never traveled abroad, the educational benefits begin with the simple recognition that things can be and are different elsewhere.
 
The players find their way to their 10^th row seats. "I think initially, they thought it would be boring," Thomas says. But not for long. The energy in the stands is pulsating – and positive. Nearby supporters recognize the team as first-timers, and take them under their wing, leading them in chants and cheering them on. The pace and skill of top-tier soccer are eye-opening. The match against AC Monaco ends in a 1-1 draw, but Arsenal wins the penalty shootout, sending the crowd happily back out into the neighborhood.
 
THURSDAY
 
What are the Lancers doing traveling in Europe this summer? With the generous support of a group of donors, the program is taking advantage of an NCAA rule that allows teams to take summer tours that combine basketball and cultural immersion/education once every four years. They'll play three games in France, but first are two days to experience London – the city head coach Griff Aldrich and his wife Julie called home for five years and are eager to show the team.
 
One benefit is simply bonding a new team, including both veterans and newcomers who have been together for just a few weeks of summer practice, in the inimitable manner travels strengthens friendships. There's also an important educational component. Many of the players took a preparatory course back on campus before departure, and there will be professionally guided tours of historic sites regularly along the way.
 
Four Longwood players have lived most of their lives overseas (two from Finland, one from Poland, and one from Cameroon). So, like many college basketball programs, Longwood is becoming more international. But many of the Americans haven't had a chance to see other cultures. Foreign trips also demonstrate a level of wherewithal and philanthropic support that shows the world Longwood is an up-and-coming program.
 
"Just pulling this off is also a statement about where we are with the program, along with the Joan Perry Brock Center coming online," Aldrich said as the team was preparing to depart. "Doing these kinds of trips is what higher-level programs do."
 
Last but not least, there's a chance to play a series of exhibition games against quality European opponents who bring a different style of play, testing Longwood as it prepares for the upcoming inaugural season in the Joan Perry Brock Center. But first, a day of sightseeing and exploring London. Basketball awaits in Paris.
 
FRIDAY
 
An early morning bus to Saint Pancras Station to board the Eurostar Train to Paris begins the day.
 
Helping organize the Longwood trip is Brian Ratzliff, a one-time tech executive who now runs summer travel programs for a range of college programs, helping them line up both educational programming and games. Over more than a decade, Ratzliff says he's seen broad impact these programs have on student-athletes – sometimes immediately, sometimes long-term. Generally, due to their sports commitments, student-athletes don't have the same opportunities as other students to experience study abroad while in college.
 
"It opens up the world for them," Ratzliff says. "They're exposed to another culture. Sometimes, it's something as simple as just learning to navigate the subway, getting the confidence that they could live and thrive in a different place."
 
For some players, it opens the possibility of playing overseas after graduation. Less obviously, on a team with international players, it helps the Americans develop empathy and understanding for the very different worlds some of their teammates may come from.
 
After arriving, Longwood heads to a Paris gym to practice. Aldrich isn't sure what to expect on the heels of so much travel, but the guys are sharp and focused tuning up for their first game -- Saturday against Parisian Select, a mixed all-star team of players from France's club and semi-pro system.
 
SATURDAY
 
Johan Nziemi is one of eight newcomers to Lancer basketball this season but already a popular guy on this trip. He's the only player – or member of the full Longwood delegation of coaches, staff and supporters – who speaks truly fluent French. Nziemi grew up in Cameroon, speaking French at home and spending summers and holidays visiting France, where his dad was a professional volleyball player. His sport as a kid was soccer; Nziemi didn't start playing hoops until he was 16, after he had moved to New York City.
 
For the players gingerly setting out to explore a new city, Nziemi is indispensable. With a laugh and a broad smile, he recounts the barrage of questions from teammates about food, how to get around and much else.
 
"I think they like Paris a little more than London," he says. "It seems more vibrant to them, there's a bit more energy."
 
He has fond memories of visiting France – particularly the food and Afro-beat music at parties. Diverse and cosmopolitan, Paris is like a culinary homecoming. He loves both North African and sub-Saharan cuisine, and reported taking teammates Walyn Napper, DA Houston and Michael Christmas to a kebab place tucked away in a neighborhood a few blocks away. "They said it was the best food they'd ever had," he said proudly.
 
Nziemi is a sharp young man. Longwood is staying in a hotel at Plaza de la Republique, home to a renowned "Liberte" statue dating to the French Revolution that has made it a popular location for political gatherings and protests. Today, hundreds of Senegalese ex-patriots have gathered for a vocal demonstration and then march through the streets in support of a jailed opposition leader in their home country. A keen observer of African politics, Nziemi starts explaining the further nuances that have brought the group out to march. The recent coup in Niger has rekindled fears of French intervention in Africa, he explains, which despite their protests of the Senegalese government this group opposes.
 
Late in the afternoon, the Lancers board a bus to the Paris suburbs and a community center for their game against Parisian Select. The University of Miami, on its own summer trip, finishes a game before Longwood. Nziemi's father and some other French relatives have come to see him play, and Aldrich honors the occasion by starting Nziemi. But it proves hardly an honorific. A few moments into the game, Nziemi scores the Lancers' first basket. Shortly after, he gets their second too – one right-handed and one left. He goes on to have a strong night at both ends of the floor, showing real potential to contribute this year. Nziemi's strength, he says, stems from his upbringing playing soccer – quick feet that enable him, despite his 6 foot, 5 inch frame and broad soldiers, to be quick enough to defend guards as well as post players.
 
Aldrich had wondered how Longwood would play in these unusual circumstances -- unknown competition, international rules, and with eight new scholarship players in the program and just a few weeks of practice. But the Lancers move the ball crisply and are relentless on defense. They bring wave after wave of substitutions with little apparent drop-off in effort or athleticism. Their opponents are physical but Longwood answers and runs its offense with authority. After an even first few minutes, Longwood pulls away and wins handily.
 
After the game, Aldrich singles Nziemi out as one of a number of players whose performance he's pleased with. "He's a very bright young man," Aldrich says. "I thought he played really well. He's very composed, patient, scored easily around the basket. He's strong. But he's 225 pounds, and he can guard anybody. Just a fantastic kid. We talk about character a lot as a program, but to me if you don't have the character you're not going to have the staying power to go do what we do and be successful. I think Johan is a great kid. I'm excited to see him play more."
 
Back at the hotel, Nziemi is smiling broadly. "It was fun to be out there," he says. He loves being in Paris – but don't wory, he says -- he thinks Longwood is really beautiful, too, and he's excited to be a Lancer. Farmville, he says, already "feels like home."
 
SUNDAY:
 
A group of Longwood program supporters is traveling with the team, and on Sunday morning, on a bus with the group, Aldrich talks to them about last night's game. His high standards are well-known, and there are plenty of caveats given the unusual circumstances. Still, he's pleased. "I thought they really remained competitive throughout. That's what really impressed me. We had a handful of really beautiful possessions where the ball was moving extremely well. Extra passes – very unselfish."
 
Returning veterans like Walyn Napper showed leadership, newcomers like Nziemi showed ability and effort, and even some of the younger guys got quality minutes. Best of all, everyone kept playing hard even with a lead. In short, a good start – though word from the hosts is that the competition in Game 2 on Monday will be tougher.
 
The rest of the day isn't about basketball. The team, along with staff and supporters, are taking an all-day trip to Normandy for a guided tour of the D-Day landing sites.
 
The first stop is Pointe du Hoc, the sheer cliffs up which Army Rangers scrambled heroically on June 6, 1944 to disable a key battery covering American landing zones. Nearby is Omaha Beach, the deadliest of the five invasion beaches, where more than 1,000 Americans died on D-Day alone, the intensity of the violence there captured in the film "Saving Private Ryan." The final stop is the most somber of all, the American Cemetery, the breathtaking home of 9,387 impeccably kept American graves on the cliffs above Omaha.
 
The team arrives at the cemetery in late afternoon, in time to witness the daily ceremony to lower the American flag as "Taps" is played, against the backdrop of a sea of crosses. The players, and hundreds of other visitors, pause to observe the ceremony in near-perfect silence, the only sounds the crashing of waves in the distance, and the wind rustling through the trees and descending flags. Brian Ratzliff and the group's local guide have been speaking to the players about the significance of the spot, and why they have come to bear witness.
 
There's the gratitude and appreciation for sacrifice – all the more acute for players who are the same age as most of the men who perished. No visit here can fail to provoke questions about our obligations to others. And finally, there is the teamwork, planning and commitment that went into the immense D-Day operation – lessons that hold meaning on the basketball court, too.
 
As with any group, there are noteworthy threads between the stories of the visitors and the history they are commemorating. A Longwood athletic trainer, accompanying the team, is the granddaughter of an Auschwitz survivor. The grandfather of Zapala, the 7-foot center playing his first season at Longwood, was a butcher in the town of Auschwitz, and at great personal risk tossed food to starving prisoners being transported to the concentration camp there. Aldrich himself comes from a U.S. military family.
 
After watching the flag ceremony, Zapala reflects on the other World War II cemetery sites that cover his own native country, which was devastated by Nazi conquest and later the Soviet-German battles of the Eastern Front. "This is a very sad place," he says. But if somber, the setting, particularly in late-afternoon sunlight, is also peaceful and inspiring.
 
"It is strange because this is such a beautiful place," Jesper Granlund, one of two Longwood players from Finland, says afterward. Of the cemetery, he says it is "hard to believe this is just the loss of one day, of one side. It helps you to start to understand what an enormous war this was."
 
The sacrifices commemorated here made possible the free and prosperous country Longwood's players are now discovering.
 
Soon after, the group is back on the bus to Paris. Monday is their day to explore Paris on their own before a second game Monday night, and then travel to Nice for a final few days of this journey, and one final exhibition contest.

To keep up with the Lancers on their journey on a daily basis, follow the team on X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram.

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