03/12/2020
Hi All,
I hope you are all well and safe!
Chapter 2 of my coaching journey took me to Brazil and a Unicef Project in Pontal Do Coruripe in 2009.
It was a pleasure and a privilege to teach these kids sports and social sciences in the small beach town.
The village was humble and work was hard to come by or far away, as such kids attended school only half the day and were with myself the rest of the day. With a free-ish script of what we had to teach 'life skills' was what we decided to teach.
Keeping them healthy, active and thinking so that they could remain as open minded and as ambitious as they could be under their life scenarios.
These kids were always laughing and smiling and telling me funny stories about life through their anecdotes. They were always positive and realistic of where they thought their life would go and what was in store for them. But nothing phased them and they would smile through the harshest of times, and it was absolutely genuine.
I formed a football team and we trained on the beach until we had the courage to play against the elder teams on the villages coveted concrete cage. The 7 a side cage was in the middle of the small village and every night, while the generator held, there would be floodlit football. It was not a place you could just turn up to, right had to be earnt to play on that pitch every night.
There was also pride at stake here, lose heavily and you are the laughing stock of the whole village and surrounding areas. It meant a lot to everyone and especially these kids.
Such was the nature of my work and the culture in place the parents invested a huge amount of trust in us with their kids in the way that we were essentially being their guardians, but more like a big brother. We all lived at most 5mins bike ride away from each other, but most folks were a stones throw. The kids would come hangout at the project early until late and we all loved it, like a big family.
One day, after many months hard work and fun on the beach training and playing until the sun went down we were approached by one of the cage organizers. It was time for our debut.
The scene being kids versus's teenagers and adults didn't overly favour us and the kids were nervous, as was I. It really struct me when we walked into the cage the first time to see the whole village sitting in the stands waiting for the nights entertainment, samba vibes all round.
Before we kicked off my boys asked me to play with them, I was leaving the village soon and it was an honour I could not refuse. I have never been more nervous for a match and playing on a pitch with such talented kids and opposition, the aim here was to not embarrass myself really! After a rough start we settled and found fluency and ended up going into the final match of the evening. We were all relaxed, sweaty, grazed knees and elbows but the kids were smiling ear to ear and this made us all so happy.
As fate would have it we would win the final game with the last kick of the game before the lights went out 15 seconds later. It was a wonder goal made on the beach in Brazil and executed to perfection in the cage that night! The kids went off heroes and we celebrated the night watching City of God and reliving every second of that night, and the number of times I got nutmegged...
It was an unforgettable memory for all of us and always reminded me the joy we can make out of nothing with just a ball and a fun and positive attitude.
If you are down for a free session please let me know!
www.ace13fc.co.uk
