Great Moments in Soccer - Selection #5
High Interest Day
My colleagues and I were working a grade school High Interest Day. For us, the event was an opportunity to advertise soccer and our soccer program. For the teachers, it’s an opportunity to not teach. I kid. I come from a long line of teachers – it’s a chance for an all-day smoke break in the teachers’ lounge. For the kids, it’s an opportunity to choose between a variety of exciting interests like Taekwondo, baking, blood transfusions, painting, oral surgery, coin collecting, taxidermy, soccer, and Go-Karting.
I remember High Interest Day at my grade school. I remember little Jackie almost sliced her hand off in Wood Carving, someone started a small fire in a cooking class, and the line for Go-Karting was really long and I never even got my turn. They were allowing us to drive Go-Karts solo, but with a rope attached to another Go-Kart driven by a certified Go-Kart Driver, also known as someone who may or may not be high. Then the rope snapped, and my friend Danny whipped that Go-Kart around the parking lot at over 30 miles per hour while all the instructors chased him like a mini Fast and the Furious. Alas, our High Interest Day never had Go-Karting again.
When I first did High Interest Day, being the professional I am, I was determined to teach kids some soccer skills they never learned. Then Pat, my coaching partner for the day, started a game of “Head/Catch” and the kids were enthralled. “Head/Catch,” for those of you who’ve never worked or attended a soccer camp, is a brain-twisting game which makes no one better at soccer. The coach tosses the ball in the air to the contestant and yells “Head” or “Catch”. The contestant must catch if the instructor says “Head” and head if the instructor says “Catch.” I’ll admit, it’s fun. It’s easy to make the kids laugh, and they always want another round, like throwing a stick to a dog.
Although one child wasn’t having any fun at all. His name was Charlie, and he was obese and must have outweighed all the other kids by, at least, double. He seemed upset before arriving and then failed miserably at Head/Catch. We tried to encourage him, but it didn’t help. I asked him if he was okay, and he said he was fine; he just didn’t enjoy High Interest Day. My heart was breaking. When our session ended, he slowly walked away by himself to the next station. I didn’t see how he was doing because I had some serious Head/Catch to facilitate.
After another hour, our shift was over, but High Interest Day was still in full swing. As Pat and I were walking to our cars, I couldn’t stop thinking about Charlie. I wondered if he got picked on. I wondered what he wanted to do on High Interest Day. I wondered if everyone in his family was heavy. When I was in grade school, there was a family with five overweight kids. My friends and I would watch them show up for school and cheer and laugh as their car rose up each time one of them exited. Maybe that’s why I’m fat now – it’s karma for being a twelve-year-old-asshole.
Then we heard some cheering, the loudest cheering of the day – louder than anything during Head/Catch. There was a game with a massive inflatable ball, about five feet in diameter and all Pat and I could see was six or seven little kids hopelessly pushing at the ball as they got shoved backwards by the indifferent rolling sphere. Kids left the other stations to see this epic match. The entire school was turning out to scream and cheer and then we saw why. With a beautiful flushed face of joy and determination, Charlie was pushing that ball all by himself and the kids were loving it. They chanted his name, “Charlie! Charlie!” and he seemed to get stronger and more powerful with every step and every cheer. I went to the sideline and joined the chants, at my favorite High Interest Day ever.
