About four weeks ago, my friend the administrator of the Hospital, invited me to a meeting at the town hall. The town is forming a soccer team, and he wanted to introduce me to the board that's been put together for that task, to present me as someone who could "coach the coach", who could be the team trainer. Perhaps my best selling point is that I'm a foreigner, but I was honored, and went.
The meeting went well. Some members had grand ambitions of someday having an athletic club like they have in Europe or Argentina, with the men's soccer team being the main part of the club, but having all sorts of other teams for both genders, all kinds of facilities, a restaurant, etc.
Others simply wanted to prepare for the fair that's coming up on July 24, that Santiago Atitlán won't gets its ass kicked.
The area doesn't have a great soccer history. There is one guy in town who played semipro for a few years, what they Division 3 in Guatemala. He was picked for the coaching job, but the board feared he didn't have a lot of drills to offer, and that a foreigner could be more like a drill sergeant and command more respect.
The idea was to invite 30 or so players, practice for a month or more, and then select the best subset for the games in late July. Some wanted to invite less; a few of us wanted to invite more. If discipline is expected to be lacking, you'll do best uninviting the first few that show a lack of respect for the team's interests.
Most of the board were hoping to start June 1. I let them know I'd be gone until the 7th, and the coach suggested we start then.
A budget was also presented at the meeting, with some rather ambitious requests, such as practice shoes for the players (I mean, come on!), but many necessities as well like balls, cones and vests.
I met with the coach again the following day; we exchanged ideas and I let him know I'd call him the day I was back in town, and that whatever day and time he wanted to practice would be fine, that I could arrange my other activities around that. (That's right, I have no real schedule at this point in time. It's amazing! I'm doing several web-based projects, and was planning to return to teaching, but Guatemala has closed all schools for two weeks due to swine flu.)
What happened next is depressing, but it gets better, so you can probably handle it. We got back Friday, and I saw him Saturday. Most people play soccer Saturday and Sunday, and we were hoping to start Monday.
The equipment wasn't due to arrive until Wednesday. I suggested we start training anyhow -- we can run, discuss strategy, do all kinds of strength training exercises. "Well, the committee doesn't want that. They want us to wait until Wednesday."
On Wednesday, he told me, "They've arrived but they're too big. I'm sending them back." I guessed correctly -- "The cones? What about the balls and vests?" "The cones are too big, and we still don't have balls or vests."
The story drags on, with similar events on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with he and I staring at an empty field some of those days. It wasn't his job to notify the players -- someone else on the committee was allegedly in communication with the captains of the teams of the town, and advised them to send So-and-so and Whats-his-name, but somewhere communication was breaking down.
Today, Monday, practice was to happen at 11. I showed up at 10:50 with a sheet of paper with a sequence of drills scribbled on it. There was the coach, sitting in the bleachers by the dirt field, with some cones and a bag of balls. Today, the president of the committee is going to talk to the players, he told me. We sat until 11:30, when he said, maybe I should come back tomorrow. I walked up to the market, and bought cucumbers, carrots, sweet peppers, a mango and some spicy chili powder for tonight's food. (We made hummus the other day, and I've got some whole-wheat bread with nuts and garlic worked into it rising at home.)
I passed the field on my way home, and saw the committee president's motorcycle in the middle of the field. Nine players were jogging around the perimeter of the field.
Practice was happening! I quickened my pace, shook hands with the president and the coach. The players were nearing their last lap, and we set up for drills.
The players are 17 and 18, enthusiastic, decent, but with lots of room for improvement. We trained, then scrimmaged some other people who happened to be around (but only managed a tie!), and then I suggested, almost jokingly that we run more. They'd already been going hard for an hour and 15 minutes. The coach disagreed, but every one of the players wanted to do more training, so we pressed on, and then the coach organized a few more drills. We went until everyone was quite exhausted, and set a time for tomorrow.
Despite the fact that much of the conversation was in Tz'utujil, I felt things went pretty well. We'll see how many people show up tomorrow...
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