ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Soccer players with Atletico New Mexico Soccer Club got the offer of a lifetime this spring break. They traveled to the Canary Islands to practice with pro coaches from Spain and got a chance to play with semi-pro players. 

“Just give them that top level experience, not just in soccer but even the facility we were at, the field, it was just a dream come true for a lot of players. Made us coaches wish we were still playing, that we got to do that, but it was just awesome,” said Aaron Fox, a coach with Atletico New Mexico Soccer Club. 

The once in a lifetime trip hit some turbulence on the way back home. Several of the group’s bags were lost from the Canary Islands to Madrid, causing delays. 

“We were running through the airport, I always see that in the movies and never had to run through the airport to make it to your gate,” said Fox. 

Nate C’de Baca said to make things worse, their flight from Madrid to Dallas was overbooked, and the soccer club is feeling the effects of the power outage at London’s Heathrow Airport last week. The airport had to temporarily close, causing travel delays across the world. 

“There were some shutdowns in London Airport, I think there were fires and some other issues, so they did overbook our flight,” said C’de Baca, president of the Atletico New Mexico Soccer Club. 

Out of their group of 60, 25 didn’t make it on and are stranded in Madrid. C’de Baca said American Airlines should be more forthcoming about the situation. 

Instead, they are paying for hotels and clothes out of pocket in hopes they can get reimbursed later. 

“There are still several players that are left here that couldn’t make it back to school Monday. Several of our parents are delayed getting back to their jobs and there is a lot of difficulty and issues and stress with all of it and in the meantime American Airlines don’t want to assume responsibility for any of it,” said C’de Baca.