PORTLAND, Ore. – Michelle French was a little worried. Maybe not worried, but at least a little confused. It didn't totally seem to be sinking in for her team what was about to happen. Did they not understand what they were about to do? Was there confusion? A miscommunication?
 
The reality was that the team was in shock because an idea that had floated around for years was finally about to become reality – the Pilots were going international.
   
For their first few years they kept building those funds, but their plans were halted by the pandemic in 2020. As the years went on, it seemed unlikely that they would get the chance.
 
But then a lifeline emerged in a donor who wanted to give something more than just another scholarship.
 
"There was a donor that wanted to give to the program, but not in a scholarship or software type of fund," French said. "They wanted it to be something that was memorable, impactful and very influential on the student-athletes for the rest of their lives."
 
French, Zabala and the whole soccer staff had just the opportunity. They could finally go international.
 
With the donation, the Pilots finally had the money for the trip. Then it became a matter of figuring out the logistics, what company to partner with, how long to stay, etc. As those details came together and the trip became real, it was time to tell the athletes.
 
The coaching staff decided to tell the team over Zoom while they were on break for logistical reasons – they needed to make sure everyone brought back to school their passports or got them updated in case they were expired or about to expire. So they gathered the team on a Zoom call and broke the news: they were going to Portugal for an eight-day trip in the Iberian sun.
 
What followed was a universal look of shock across everyone's faces. For Aliyah Dockter, a midfielder for the Pilots, she felt the whole concept of a foreign trip seemed so abstract, like this thing that was always floated as a possibility but might not ever come to fruition. Now it was real, and as the days led up to the trip, they got increasingly more and more excited.
 
"That was the first wave of emotions," Dockter joked. "Then the second wave was just like, pure excitement."
 
"It was later on once it sunk that they started shooting texts being like 'Oh my gosh, this is amazing,'" associate head coach Tina Ellertson said. "I think they were a little shocked for sure."
 
Once the shock was over, it was time to prep. The Pilots were off to Portugal. After a flight that involved a quick stop in London, the Pilots were there, set to truly explore. A key tenant of the trip was that the focus was not to be fully on soccer. Obviously, the soccer would be scheduled in and become a focal point later in the trip, but more than anything, this was a bonding activity for the Pilots, a chance to do something unique with their teammates and grow closer in the process.
 
 
"I thought it was going to be very soccer focused," Pilots forward Xayla Black admitted. "I thought we were going to go down there and train every single day, have like three games, and that we wouldn't really have time and be so focused on that, but we had the perfect balance."
 
To underscore that point, before embarking on the journey, the staff gave their student-athletes a task – to present as separate groups on different aspects of the Portugal trips. Whether that was food or the cities or anything in-between, the goal was to immerse the players into the culture early and to truly emphasize this was about more than soccer.
 
Dockter and Black were in the same group, presenting on Sintra, a small town near Lisbon famous for its beautiful architecture and picturesque views. As the team walked through the town, Dockter and Black became tour guides themselves, becoming increasingly excited as they put together what exactly they were seeing and explaining that to the group.
 
"Sintra is on top of this hill/mountain and they have these two palaces, one's yellow and one's red," Dockter said. "We were driving in and we were on the bus with the tour guide who was like 'If you look in the distance, you can see those two palaces', and me and Xayla were like 'We know what those are!'"
 
All players seemed to have moments like that throughout the trip, moments where it clicked for them why they presented in the first place. Those moments happened between great food at the markets in Porto (pastel de nata was enjoyed frequently by everyone) and soaking in the gorgeous architecture.
 
Portugal is one of the oldest nation-states in Europe, with numerous cultures leaving their mark on the country. It left an indelible mark on the Pilots.
 
"You go from the U.S., and we're a relatively young country, and you go to Portugal which is one of the oldest countries in Europe, I think, in terms of establishment, just to see the architecture and the beauty… just seeing the influence of all these different cultures is cool." Zabala said.
 
Another highlight of the trip was a beach cleanup along the Atlantic Coast. Following a stretch of storms in Portugal, it was an opportunity for the Pilots to provide a service while there, cleaning plastics.
 
"It was eye opening," Black said. "We're like 'Oh, this beach is pretty clean' but then you really looked and really got to cleaning and picking up all the microplastics on the sand, there was so much we had picked up, so much trash in a super small area, and it was kind of eye opening for all of us."
 
It wasn't just volunteer work at the beach either. The Pilots also got the chance to do a surf clinic, riding the waves. The team was split up into groups to see who had the best stuff on the water (consensus among those interviewed was that goalkeeper Sophia Hills had the best skills, with assistant coach Ken Krolicki also performing admirably).
 
From volunteer service to architecture admiration to catching waves, there certainly wasn't a lack of things to do in Portugal. But in-between all the fun, the Pilots still had soccer to play. Even though the focus wasn't fully on soccer, there was plenty of it on the docket. Most notably, the team got to visit one of the most storied franchises in the country, SL Benfica in Lisbon. Portland trained with the best club in Portugal's women's league and played against both their academy team and senior team.
 
Since the women's team's inception in 2017 and their first season in the 2018-19 season, Benfica has been one of the best teams in the country, earning promotion to the first division in 2019-20 and officially winning the league title every year since the 2020-21 season. They've played in the UEFA Champions League each of the last six seasons, advancing as far as the quarterfinals in 2023-24.
 
Portland found out quickly what it means to really train with a top-flight European team. The Pilots arrived and did some light stretching before what they thought would be a dynamic warmup. Instead, they stretched and immediately jumped into high-intensity one-on-one drills, specific scoring drills and lots of running. It was constant movement the entirety of the session.
 
It was simultaneously shocking and highly informative for staff and players alike.
 
"For me, it was showing just what they (the Pilots) are capable of," French said. "I think we think so much about load management, which you have to, but at the same time, they just kept going and going and the distances were so big and there was so much sprinting, it was just like, whoa."
 
"We all kind of assumed we were going to do some sort of other warm up, but they brought us in, we talked for a few minutes, and then it was straight to 1-v-1's," Dockter said. "It's a different style of play over there, and I think we had to adapt to that style of play in the training and in the games that we played there."
   
After the training came the matches. The Pilots played an academy team for Benfica before taking on the senior team. Against the academy squad, the Pilots played well, putting together plenty of moments of good soccer on their way to a win.
 
The match against the senior team was a different story, as both the staff and the players saw what it's really like to go against a top-flight team. There's a level of technical play and calm that Benfica exuded that made it difficult to fluster them. Nothing threw them off; they move the ball quickly and efficiently and they never panic regardless of how you play them.
 
The Pilots are no strangers to playing high-level Division I teams, but playing Benfica was a whole other beast. It was yet another informative experience for the staff watching it all unfold, and they felt even when things went awry, it was a great learning moment for the team.
 
"I mean, stereotypically, in the college level of the women's game, if you high pressure somebody, they're going to cough the ball up. We tried at times high pressure and they would just play through us," Zabala said. "It was great to see the girls being like 'Oh my God, they just broke us down so easily.'"
 
Even as the results in that second contest didn't go as planned, it was an invaluable learning experience. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to test themselves against some of the best competition they'll face as a team. And after testing themselves against the best, they got to watch some of the best, as the Portuguese National Team took on Finland for a FIFA World Cup qualifying match.
 
The match ended in a stellar 2-0 win for the Portuguese side. It was another example of the calm and high-level technical play that they already experienced playing Benfica. It's something they hope to translate into their play next season.
 
"I think we're going to carry that into our season," Dockter said. "Being able to be super adaptable and also just taking away what we learned from those coaches there and from playing other teams, we'll be able to carry that into next year."

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When the women's soccer staff conceived the idea of an international trip, the goal was to create a holistic trip where the players felt encouraged to step out of their comfort zone and grow closer together with the shared experience. In review, they feel they've done exactly that.
 
"I think it was a unique experience that our program hasn't had before," French said. "To have a donor that felt like it was going to be something that could impact our program in a really positive way, both from a chemistry standpoint and then that trickling into relationships on the field, I think it was really, really special."
 
Black already felt close to her teammates heading to Portugal, and the trip only strengthened those bonds. It's a shared experience that can't be replicated.
 
"They already were like sisters to me, but just being able to experience something completely new across the world was just a different type of bond," Black said. "You create a different type of bond experiencing something out of your comfort zone."
 
Trips like this are often only available to student-athletes once in their careers. Most don't get the opportunity at all. It's not something that's lost on the team, as they got the chance to explore somewhere they not have otherwise had the opportunity to see.
 
"It was just great. Obviously, we got to play soccer there and do one of our favorite things all together, but one of the things that the coaches said was it's not just a soccer trip," Dockter said. "It's also about experiencing the culture and trying new things, trying new food, exploring. Overall, it was an amazing experience."
 
For the staff, the reason why they fought for this trip early on was because they knew the impact would go beyond the soccer field. After this trip, the group feels as if they scratched an itch that allowed them all to grow as people as well as athletes and coaches.
 
"I think it allows for curiosity," Ellertson said. "When we think about the holistic experience of our student-athletes, I think being curious is the coolest thing… I think that allows for you to grow and that allows for you to figure out more about yourself. And I think this trip fed their curiosity, and I think it hopefully helped them to be braver and open themselves a little bit more."

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