Everyone Welcome by Daniel

Everyone Welcome by Daniel - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

For as long as I can remember soccer has been a part of my life. I began only because of the influence that my older brother and sister had on me. They played so I played. It wasn't long before I began to love the game. Through soccer I have learned many life lessons, built lifelong relationships, and even gained emotional awareness and control. I never reflected on how blessed I was to be able to have the opportunity to play until I was older. Soccer is expensive. Sports are expensive. Not everyone gets to experience the things I was so fortunate to experience.

In 2014 I began working at a non-profit which aimed to provide year round sports to everyone. Pricing was on a sliding scale and allowed many to participate regardless of financial readiness. It didn't take long for me to realize that cost was only one barrier for many to participate. I found that many children were unable to be placed on teams because they did not posses a high skill level. Some families were not native English speakers and found it difficult to navigate our programs due to a lack of efficient communication.

One day at work a coworker came to me obviously stressed. "I hear you're a pretty good soccer player." she said hesitantly. She immediately began to explain that there were a surplus of kids from various school zones who weren't placed on a team. Either they didn't make a team due to skill, or weren't registered in time due to language barriers. I agreed to help her and volunteered to coach. I had a group of 11 year old boys from 6 different schools. Almost nobody knew each other. Many had never played. I was determined to make a successful season out of it. I was quick to realize that we wouldn't be winning any games. We may not even score any goals.

As the season progressed we continued to lose games and towards the beginning there was a a dark cloud hanging over the kids. I recalled various soccer seasons of my past, some of which where my team mainly won, and some that we mainly lost. I always remember enjoying playing. That was the dominating factor. So what was it that made playing so positive for me? Three things come to mind; Friendship, laughter, and improvement. For the rest of the season this was my focus. My practices became revolved around team building exercises with skill drills buried underneath. I continued to remind my team that we are all about fun. Try new things. If they something, they could come to me.

I would like to say we started to win games but we didn't. The success of our team could not be counted by goals scored. The growth I saw was incredible. I saw a bunch of kids develop amazing friendships and relationships despite adversity. As they started to care about more about fun and hard work I saw an amazing transition. Every game was filled with smiles. At the end of the season we had 0 wins and 8 losses but they enjoyed themselves enough to join me for again for the following session. I would lose 100 more games with any team to see how much these kids learned and how much respect they gained for other people who they would have otherwise never met. From that experience I will never lose a passion for making sure that all kids play if they so desire.