Baylor School's historic campus off Signal Mountain Road often causes visitors to look up at the scenic surrounding mountain ridges or toward the Tennessee River. Or at least they quickly glance at the various brick and Gothic-style buildings that give off the vibe of being on a small college campus.
But for a few weeks recently, most of the attention at the school was focused on the north end close to Walmart on a small plot of well-manicured athletic field grass and a couple of metal, non-descript pavilions normally used for indoor tennis.
That was because, as most now know, the FIFA World Cup had come to Baylor School in the form of Spain. That is right, Spain, which has been one of the top World Cup powers of recent years and is highly ranked this year and beat next-door rival Portugal, 1-0, on Monday to head to Friday's quarterfinal matchup against USA-conqueror Belgium.
Since so much of Spain's visit to Baylor and Chattanooga was closed to the public for security and privacy reasons because the team is so well known on the world soccer stage and they needed to focus, I thought it might be fun to revisit the Baylor fields where they had trained. I also wanted to talk to a school official who was on hand about what all took place.
Veteran Baylor soccer coach Curtis Blair, who had been there every day except for his son's birthday, kindly met me there and offered his perspective of the unique experience, which he called memorable.
I ended up getting to the soccer fields via the back gate a little before my 8 a.m. appointment with coach Blair on Tuesday, so I glanced at the fields for a few moments. Some of the tall and temporary security fencing and even black fence coverings were still there, and that and the seemingly weedless grass befitting a private country club let me realize this had not been a typical high school soccer complex in recent weeks.
The visit was also like a "George Washington slept here" experience, although it was instead probably more of a "young Lamine Yamal and some of the other famous Spanish soccer stars kicked soccer balls here."
Coach Blair after he arrived was obviously still relishing the last few weeks and said the whole experience was quite enjoyable and rewarding. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience," he said. "How many chances do you get to experience one of the top teams in the world getting to come to your place and train every single day?"
As coach Blair discussed the logistics of Baylor hosting, he said it came about in part through the efforts of well-connected soccer person Bill Nuttall, who moved to Chattanooga in 2015. He had one granddaughter, Campbell Hoss, play soccer for Baylor before graduating from Baylor two years ago, while another, Charlotte Hoss, will be a junior this year.
Through Mr. Nuttall's work with the Chattanooga Sports & Events Corp. and his insistence that Baylor had the proper facilities and infrastructure to host a team, Spain made the decision to use the complex. The school had also hosted Auckland City from New Zealand as part of the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 and still has four nice goals sent last year by FIFA and which were also used by Spain for training.
Among the tidbits of information shared about the last few weeks at Baylor, coach Blair said that the Spanish team actually trained on the school's varsity field with the built-in grandstand as well as the partial field that adjoins it on the north end. A barrier had existed between the two fields, but the Spanish team – which, like Baylor, also has red as a primary color – preferred not having any fencing. As a result, coach Blair said Baylor has also decided to keep any fencing down as well for the time being.
Stars Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams had been battling injuries and actually spent much of their training time in the initial days on the half field with some of the coaches as they were trying to recuperate, he said.
The current Baylor soccer complex opened in the fall of 2005, and Coach Blair said the original soccer field on that part of campus was one no longer there but stood where the Zan Guerry pavilion and some adjacent tennis courts are on the right as one enters from the back school entrance.
Knowing they wanted to keep the main training field nice, he said that his Baylor team had actually trained, practiced and played more on the artificial surface field up the nearby hill, where lights and a new turf had been installed knowing it would be used more this spring.
He said the Spanish team would usually practice each day they were in town around 11 a.m., with some of the assistant coaches arriving around 9:30 and the head coach/manager, Luis de la Fuente Castillo, arriving closer to practice time. The players would come over from the Embassy Suites in downtown Chattanooga in vans carrying about four or five players at a time, coach Blair said, preventing the need for a police escort on a large bus.
Practice time would consist of rondo keep-away drills with the ball, then they would work on the bigger passing game and some attacking drills, and they would finish with some simulated playing that would include five players on five, six on six, or 11 on 11.
"They would practice no more than an hour and 15 minutes, and most of the time it was geared to an hour," he said, adding that Spain had also installed some towers for filming the training and that the normal Baylor scoreboard was covered for privacy.
As a coach, coach Blair obviously took note and said he picked up a few pointers. Besides wishing he had that size of a coaching staff, what caught his eye the most were the positive attitude and camaraderie of the players and staff as much as their skill or training techniques.
"You could tell they made it fun," he said. "And they enjoyed each other."
He said this was also evident when the fans were allowed to watch the Spanish team's formal opening day of training at Baylor on June 6 after they held another practice earlier in the day. While 900 admission bracelets were handed out to the public, with more than 100 going to family, supporters and others connected with the team, he said around 700 or so others were allowed to watch the practice after entering the online lottery. One TV station reported that 27,000 people had signed up for the lottery.
Although a special fence barrier was set up between the stands and field, the players kindly broke that down figuratively by staying and signing autographs and posing for selfies with the local fans after the practice, even though that was not a requirement. And young Mr. Yamal was the most accommodating and signed the most autographs of all, he added.
Coach Blair said some Baylor soccer players also were able to get bracelets to watch practice, and it was a meaningful event for them and the others. "For the people here, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see great players train, but also get their autographs and get selfies," he said.
The Spanish players also seemed to have a good attitude throughout their stay. Coach Blair said that they were also able to shoot basketball and throw darts in the Zan Guerry pavilion, which also had a small turf for soccer drills and some training room equipment.
And because they knew several players were avid golfers and four had sent their golf clubs with them, Baylor provided them with some range balls on the small school golf practice facility only 100 yards from the soccer field and closer to Baylor Lake. The Baylor staff would pick up the practice balls and put them back into a bucket each day, he said.
It was definitely a more relaxed time than a Green Bay Packers pro football training camp of yesteryear under Vince Lombardi, although they have been responding well in games so far. And coach Blair thinks they might have just been trying to relax amid the important time.
"When you think about the pressure they were under, and they are like kids, they tried to find ways they could relieve the stress of playing the World Cup," he said.
He added that the school also provided some golf carts for them to use while on campus.
Coach Blair said that around 100-150 Spanish-based media members were sent to Chattanooga and the U.S. with the help of Spain, and they used the older Alex Guerry pavilion on the left as one comes in the back entrance road. Coach Blair said they were fed daily and would be briefed by a player and coach each day after practice. A TV recording studio was also set up inside the building.
They also got to watch practice very briefly at the start before being escorted out, he said, although Spain had its own media team and communications people there at the entire practice, with a woman coordinating all the work.
Coach Blair said two local media members came over to Baylor regularly during their stay – "Big Will" Levenson from WTVC Channel 9 (ABC and Fox) and Patrick MacCoon from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The Spanish team and staff did not eat any meals at Baylor, due to their close proximity to their hotel, he added.
He said security coordinated with the help of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department and the River City Company was in place around the fenced-in area, including in the Walmart parking lot. There, some people did sit with binoculars in their cars and tried to see through small openings in the trees, he said.
A big billboard-like structure that is now black and resembled a centerfield wall at a baseball park had been put up to block views from a sidewalk near the railroad track. The board had some Spain signage on it put together by Chad and Betsy Mize's Chattanooga business, SpeedPro, but the sign had been removed when I arrived.
Baylor hopes to add some Baylor signage over it, coach Blair said, adding that the Mizes' daughters, Sophia and Zoey, had played soccer at Baylor before going to UTC to play.
Both pavilions were also carpeted, although most of it had been removed when I arrived on Tuesday. At the wishes of Spain, both pavilions were also installed with temporary air conditioning.
Also representing the school along with coach Blair in coordinating the daily work at Baylor with Spain before the team left Chattanooga for good on June 30 was Samantha "Sam" Green, who was the Baylor director of operations and systems. She has left in recent days to take a job at the Christ School in Asheville, N.C.
And director of grounds James Bergdoll was in charge of the field and would work daily with the Spanish team to make sure it was to their liking. Mario DeMatteo also regularly helps with the Baylor fields on a contract basis in adding grass treatments, coach Blair added.
Mr. Bergdoll happened to walk on the field while coach Blair was showing me around, and he admitted it had been quite rewarding as well getting to work closely with the high-profile Spanish team.
"It was an experience of a lifetime for someone like myself, who has done this as a career path," he said while standing in the middle of the field. "Just the magnitude of that tournament and what it means to the U.S. and world for my industry, the turf grass industry. Just being able to be a part of that is an honor."
He was also apparently pulling out a few proverbial hairs over the weather and other factors while regularly cutting the grass.
"Absolutely I was nervous," he said with a laugh, citing the ups and downs of the weather over recent weeks and having to assure Spanish officials it would be good by the time they began their formal training camp.
"They came here and then went to Mexico for a friendly (exhibition game). And I said, 'When you get back in a week or three or four days, the field will be ready to go.' But we were on pins and needles just a little bit."
But now they can sit back and relax and relish the moment that even felt like a victory of its own.
As coach Blair added, "That's the thing we are going to sit back and look at and say that we had Spain that came here to Baylor and showed up every day and trained on our facilities, and they continue to win. That thought process of them being here every single day and using the same facilities that all of our kids get to use is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
John Shearer: Learning More About Spain's Soccer Visit To Baylor - Chattanoogan.com
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