Futbol!

By Leta Ward

Home Field Advantage (uh yea, that’s it).

Last Wednesday there was a break in the school routine at the Asturias academy. Breaks are always welcomed by students, even when they come in the form of fire drills. Imagine the excitement when the cause for skipping afternoon classes was to play fútbol at the local indoor/outdoor soccer arena, a once-a-year occasion for upper grade kids. To play on artificial turf instead of their small concrete school play ground in organized teams on a regulation size indoor field is a rare treat. Even more rare is the opportunity for these young fútbolistas to use their fancy footwork against a bunch of librarians who did not grow up with the sport coursing through our veins. In the days leading up to Wednesday, there was a general sense among our group that we were about to be slain by these jóvenes (youngsters). The message became clear when we saw the children’s cleats lined up neatly in the sun on the school roof. We were willing to give it a go though, despite their intimidation tactics.

Our group filed out of the school around 3 pm, over 100 of us between staff, students, and volunteers. We made our way through the neighborhood streets to the soccer recreation park surrounded by high chain link fencing. We had assumed that it would be librarians against students, which of course wouldn’t have been possible considering the ratio. The Asturias teachers created eight teams and we were divided up among them. Phew. Over the next several hours all configurations of teams were arranged. There were bouts between the co-ed numbered teams, librarians against teachers, librarians against students, boys-on-boys, and girls-on-girls. The 10-minute rounds flew by and the excitement from the sidelines was palpable as kids screamed for their classmates on teams called “Madrid,” and “Melvin and His Friends,” and “Guate”. While benched, I was seated next to a future professional commentator who entertained his friends while they ate chips and watched the short games with rapt attention.

We were glad the Asturias students didn’t go easy on us as we took our turns with them as teammates or faced them as opponents. The boys were tough and so were the girls, but they never played dirty. The rules were more malleable than what I had recalled from my soccer past as a youngster, and positions (other than keeper) were anything but fixed. We all had a blast and no blood was let. No harsh words were exchanged.

The boys cheered on the all-girls match. No cleats were ever used, since it was turf. We discovered later why those soccer shoes were airing out on the roof; they were donations to the school in sizes the students couldn’t use. The shoes will be sold and the money raised will go to buy uniforms for communal use. This is how things go at Asturias, emphasizing the principles of sharing and fairness. School director Jorge Chojolan goes to great lengths to ensure that every kid will have a fair shot, and that couldn’t have been more true on the field on Wednesday afternoon.