If you know your Ted Lasso (my first quote from a TV show in the 17 years of this blog), you are familiar with Dani Rojas’ smiling face and “Football is life”. Outside of going to school or playing video games in his room, Evan plays soccer. Hence the American version of Dani’s quote.
Evan has been playing soccer since he was big enough to kick a ball, starting with Soccer Shots at Grace Garden and the Russian coach at Magellan in the early years. He spent most of his club soccer years at Lonestar with some amazing coaches like Coach Stevens, Coach Luis Papandrea, and most recently, Coach Jason. Stevens famously crept up on his young players and pushed them so they learnt to fall gracefully and get back up quickly, a skill Evan highly values even today. Stevens used to yell “There’s no walking in soccer.” When the season finished we made a t-shirt for him that said that. Papandrea used to look up at the sky and yell a player’s name from the sidelines during matches. That was all the communication they ever got but that was all they needed to jolt them into a higher gear. Papandrea moved Evan to defense, and Evan has been a central defender since. Jason joined the team when a previous coach left abruptly after telling parents to not expect much from the boys. Jason promptly took the team to multiple tournament finals and a championship.
The last one is his school team from 7th grade. They were undefeated for most of the season but then lost in the play-offs. There is boy in this photo who has played with Evan for many years. And 3-4 other boys who used to be at Magellan but have continued to be friends and play on the same soccer team. For a few years back there, from early spring onwards several of us parents (ok, dads) would conspire to keep the key group of friends together for another soccer season.
We parents traveled a bit with the kids for tournaments, ate ice creams after games, and saw each other on weekends and practice at the sidelines. The kids horsed around in hotel swimming pools or on one occasion took over an entire hotel for a game of hide and go seek. Sometimes, outside of my family, this soccer family is the most familiar and frequent visitors in our lives. As soccer parents go – we are pretty chill. We’re there to encourage our kids and have some fun. As you can see, for the first several years of Evan’s soccer career, the only photos I have of him are smiling with a medal after a tournament. Contrast that with the lovely action photos below and those in a previous post (Memphis and Mesa). Last year Evan and four boys moved to a new club based out of San Antonio and promptly doubled the number of games they played. Evan was suddenly in practice three nights a week and had to be driven to San Antonio for Saturday and Sunday games. And occasionally to games at cities like Memphis and Mesa. Thanks to a player’s mother I got some great photos of Evan in action. Soccer is life!
Till one day late last year when Evan had enough. He wasn’t having fun and I was burnt out from the driving. With bittersweet emotions, he gave up the rest of the club season. Evan still hopes to play school soccer this season and will most likely tryout in high school next year.
Jo and I didn’t expect Evan to go to college on a soccer scholarship. We just wanted him to do something fun. He went further and played harder and better than we expected. When he was on the pitch he was fully committed. One of my favorite pastimes in the last two seasons has been to see Evan defend. Someone with the ball jukes Evan or one of the other defenders and suddenly he is free and heading towards the goal with the ball. The fans of the other team start cheering him on. Evan turns around and gives chase. Our parents know what is going to happen. Evan runs like a dart. He makes himself pointed and sleek and moves faster and faster. Most of the time he catches up with the player and takes the ball away. The player looks around incredulously wondering how someone caught up to him. After the game a parent usually asks me how he trains. I tell him that he lays in bed whenever he’s not at school. What does he eat? Uh, ramen noodles. It’s the truth.
Evan had a great group of friends at soccer. He will miss seeing Adrian, Niko, Sevi, Vincent, and Roshan four or five times a week. I will miss hanging out with their parents. We had fun. Evan learned a lot from soccer. He learned being in a team, contributing to the team, winning with grace and losing with a smile. I hope some of these lessons and friendships stay with him. Me – I have my weekends back. Last weekend I camped with friends at Enchanted Rock. This weekend I went skiing with Vivian. Evan’s old team had tournaments both weekends.
Soccer is life. But life goes on, actually pretty nicely.
Notes from Dad 