Belize Day 2: More Than Futbol

Good Morning from our balcony!

What a big day we had today! 

An early start with a 7am wake up call, out by 8am! We loaded up the golf carts with 7 bags of gear and were at the school by 8:30am. We were all decked out in our green volunteer shirts which looked great! It made it really easy for the kids to identify us. Not only the kids but the teachers and parents can recognize the coaches well! 

When we arrived at the school we saw Lydia who was coincidentally wearing a lime green shirt as well! We joked with her, "Did you plan to dress as part of the group today!" We went from once a cordial greeting a few years ago to now greeting each other with hugs! We were very excited to see Lydia. Lydia is from New Zealand and has lived in Cambodia as well. She now is the volunteer coordinator at Holy Cross- her story is so interesting I told her she should write a book! 

Anyways, Lydia greeted us and then while everyone started to unpack and inventory, we looked at our field options for the week. The first option was a very big field with patchy grass, those sticker-plants that you step on (you see them at the beach and cause a ton of pain in the bottom of your feet), sea shells, and rocks. Due to some of the potential hazards, we decided to take a look at the second field. The second field was right outside of the school but had huge deep puddles of sitting water and the playable areas were doable for small group drills but we could never do our big scrimmages there at the end of camp. We were shocked because we used the field in our first trip to Belize and it was great! Now it is really messed up. 
We decided to use the small space right outside the school for the 5 and 6 year olds that get out of school at 1:45 and play with us until 2:45. Then the 7-14 year olds get out at 2:45 and their camp begins. Once we are all unpacked, and field locations determined we took a walking tour through San Mateo. This is where many of the kids live. The people were so friendly with us as we walked through their community, saying hello and waving. We felt welcome and safe touring the neighborhood. 

After we finished touring the community, we went around to each classroom. Once the teachers gave us permission to come in, the whole team entered each classroom, welcomed the kids to come out to play at camp and learn some cool skills, and then we introduced all of the coaches. After all of the classroom introductions we had a couple of hours to go into town and get some food. We hit up "My Secret Deli", it has great food, reasonable prices, and large portion sizes! My Secret Deli also has great smoothies served in huge chalice cups! 

After lunch we headed over to the big field to set up for the older kids coming out. We reviewed all of the drills and stations for each coach and then we left Luke and Kevin to watch the gear while the rest of the team headed over to the field next to the school to run the camp for the younger kids as they came out of school. The kids trickled out of school and as they came out we had Scott, then Deb, and then Cille start games of "Head it, Catch It." This was a big hit with the kids. Then we learned some skills and played a fun scrimmage at the end! Some of the kids even decided to come over and try their luck against the older kids after their camp was over! 

The second field space was a little down the street from the school so we made a chain of coaches to the field to direct the kids. Once the kids reached the field we gathered them all together and tried to get them to sit down but since they cannot sit on the ground in their school clothes, they all stood and kind of listened. After we got them to quiet down and listen up, we started the opening camp speech welcoming everyone to camp, discussing camp rules of behavior, and reintroducing the coaching staff to everyone. We divided the kids up into 7-8, 9-10 boys, 11-13 boys, and older girls. we had 4 groups adding up to about 50ish kids. Very manageable and a little less intimidating than the original sign up sheet of 112! 

The five stations were Shooting, 1v1 defending, Passing, and Dribbling. Deb and Cille ran a station on "team building" utilizing Cille's vast background in social work. The kids spent 20 minutes at each station and once each team had completed all 5 stations, we split the groups up into teams for 3 scrimmages. The 7/8s played boys vs. girls and then the older boys and older girls played separate scrimmages. All of the coaches had a blast and the first day went smooth like butter! Given our past experiences I expected some poor behavior and acting out by the kids but was very happy surprised to have ZERO behavioral issues today. The kids really seemed excited to see us when we visited their classrooms and I think that this being our 3rd year, the kids know the deal now and they were just all very excited to come out and play soccer. How wonderful to see such a positive change in the kids! 

After camp was over we were WIPED out! We came back to the condo, showered up and then went to Lonestar for dinner (since its right around the corner). Came home to blog and here I am now sitting in the living room with the salty breeze coming in off the ocean. Very much looking forward to having the morning free tomorrow. Today was our only full day for the week. From here on out we will be able to have some lazy (or adventurous) mornings! I will say this… tomorrow morning= LAZY for this girl. 

Signing off from Belize! Thank you all for following the blog. I hope you enjoy and we really appreciate your support!