Building a Better Baller?
Several months ago I was given the task of producing a new short film to show at our fundraising events. Initially, my thoughts were filled with the ideas of fast-moving “soccer action” and triumphant celebrating players dancing on the pitch. After some thought, I realized that soccer (like all sports) is about teamwork, teamwork is about people, and people are essentially what we do. As crazy as it may seem, soccer is a bit of a byproduct. So I went hunting, looking for people whose own personal stories help tell the story of Soccer in the Streets.
After talking to various sources, I hit upon an Atlanta young professional named Troy Morris. Troy played with us in the late 90s and early 00s, since then, he has gone on to college and a career in real estate. What struck me most about Troy is that we gave birth to his soccer career. He came to Soccer in the Streets a fleet-footed natural athlete who had almost no idea about the game of soccer or how it is played. Three years later, he was an accomplished player who continued in high school, played in college, and was invited to a couple of development tryouts later on.
Our interview work with Troy was completed weeks ago, but I was thinking about him just this past Saturday morning. I was fighting a stiff breeze out on our StationSoccer Lindbergh pitch, taking photos of a West End vs. Lindbergh match. There was one player in particular that you could hardly take your eyes off. I snapped several pictures of him dribbling around his opponents and making some impressive passes to his teammates. Doing my work on the sidelines, the sounds of parents cheering on their kids can settle into an unintelligible din. I try not to interrupt their experience, so I quietly track back and forth snapping photos. At this particular game, there was one mom whose call stuck out. She was posted up near the corner of the field, so I decided to stop down and strike up a bit of conversation.
It turned out her name is Allison, and her son Riley was the impressive little baller who’d been capturing my camera lens. As we chatted, she explained that this was Riley’s third year in the program and that when he started, she had almost no idea about what soccer was, how the game was played, (and most importantly) why her son wanted to play. Both mother and son slowly developed a passion for the game. Not all sentiments I hear from the sidelines are positive reinforcement, but Allison’s voice was all about the love; missed shots or bad plays didn’t deter her from supporting her son AND his team.
The parallels between Troy and Riley were so apparent to me. And it made me so excited to see someday who Riley becomes. During Troy’s interview, he spoke very intentionally about all the lessons he learned from the game: success, failure, teamwork, and personal achievement. And here we were, watching young Riley follow that same path with such powerful support and involvement from a loving mother. As a wise man once told me, “the sky is not the limit; there are no walls beyond the sky”…
