Birth of the Coastal Georgia Soccer League August-Sept., 2009

(Letter to brother Richard)

Unlike the previous nautical adventures I have written to you about, this adventure is on dry land and still unfolding.  You see, about five months ago I was in Selden Park, the site for Hispanic soccer games on Sundays for the past few years.  I teach tennis to some Mexican student/friends Sunday mornings in the park and I recalled the games were halted in mid-season.  I asked  my friends why.  They said drinking and fighting caused the police and park authorities to shut down the games.

I thought it a darn shame that these folks, here with so little, should lose the opportunity to  enjoy their national sport, especially when it was one recreational activity that had to be virtually free.  As director of LARC, whose mission was to aid Hispanics, it seemed natural for me to wade in and get to work putting the games back on track.

At LARC, I asked students who they knew that had been involved in soccer. One student, Candelario, told me his brother-in-law had been an assistant referee at the games last fall.  I met with this man, Valdemar, we agreed to work together to get things going once again.  
We found two other men with a similar interest.  One of them, Tito, had served as an assistant referee last fall, and the other, Ruben, had managed a Honduran team.

At the initial meeting, Ruben and Tito announced, emphatically, that we could not have an Uruguayan team in the new league as the Uruguayans were trouble causers and loved to fight.  (They also let slip that the Uruguayans happened to be the best players and invariably won --  I stored that information away.)  Ruben also said, with a sly grin, that there should be a decent pot of dinero for us commissioners to split at season’s end.
 

We met again the next Saturday.  Ruben brought his six month old daughter and three year old son, and Tito his four year old.  The children were a major distraction from the git-go.  In addition, both men announced they could not stay for long.  It was thus apparent to me that family obligations would likely prevent both of them from being of substantive assistance in running the nascent league.

I suggested we call ourselves Commissioners of an organization to be called the Coastal Georgia Soccer League and that we give ourselves titles that befitted the responsibilities we were willing to assume.  Valdemar thought that he and Tito, since they were referees, should be designated commissioners in charge of disciplinary matters.  Ruben said he wanted to be president.  I asked Ruben if he had any experience creating or running such an organization.  He admitted he had none.  I said that perhaps it made sense for me to take on the role of president, as I had some experience creating similar organizations.  Ruben quickly settled for vice president.  Little did I know that before long Ruben would decide to resign, and I would be not only president, but treasurer and secretary as well!

Valdemar was the only other man who seemed to have the time and sincere interest in creating a new organization.  He had played in a semi-professional league in Mexico for years until injured in a bus accident three years before.  He was working only part time, and his brother-in-law, Candelario, finished work at McDonalds at 1:00PM.  We agreed to meet in the afternoons.

We went to work with a passion.  The two men would arrive to meet with me about 3:00.  At 5:00 they would prepare a Mexican dinner.  We would work on as we ate, and then the two of them would continue working in my administrative office while I taught evening ESL classes.  When classes ended at 8:00, I would join the men to continue the league work.  

Let me tell you what we specifically did.  Valdemar had helped create a soccer league for his daughter to play in back in Mexico a decade before.  He therefore knew how many teams were required, how a game schedule could be laid out and team rankings reported, etc.  He set all this up in rough fashion.  I used Word and Excel to produce templates and finished materials.  I created an Access database to manage players, their scores and infractions.

And then there were The Rules!  The former soccer program was haphazardly organized and casually managed by a paid non-hispanic.  There were no written rules.  On top of that, the recreation and parks department never enforced its no-alcohol stricture, didn't even post warning signs.  Add to these sad facts a strong dash of hot latin temperament, and you had a sure recipe for disaster.  It was no wonder the soccer games had to be closed down by the police the prior year.

Valdemar, Candelario, and I worked hard to change things.   In addition to creating the administrative infrastructure described above, we wrote comprehensive rules.  There were 36 of them, covering things from no drinking by players and spectators, to team area policing and cleanup responsibilities, to even player decorum off the field.

The result was a very successful six month season:  Eight teams (after quite a battle, I found a way to include an Uruguayan team), 230 players, excellent competition, strong spectator attendance, even fabulous team trophies and medals for 80 players.  And no fighting!

I even got a Nissan dealer to pay us $1000 to sponsor the league.  We mounted a 20 foot long banner high on the abutting baseball field backstop.  Players, spectators, and even cars out on the highway, could see that our league was sponsored by GOLDEN ISLES NISSAN.

The league lives on.  Valdemar had to return to Mexico, and I left Brunswick, but Candelario Pina is now President of the Coastal Georgia Soccer League.  He somehow, all on his own, manages to administrate it, carrying out his many duties, and successfully enforces the rules. 

The two brothers-in-law from Mexico have certainly served their community well!

Christmas, 2009 in Georgia January 7, 2010

Two weeks ago grades K through 8 of a private school on St. Simon’s Island held its annual Christmas program in the gym.  A featured event was the Giving Tree ceremony during which each grade went on stage carrying in shopping bags gifts each student had bought for someone less fortunate.  The dozens and dozens of bags were deposited under and around a large tree until the stage was overflowing.  After the program I and an associate from my parent organization loaded about half the presents (we shared the gifts with Amity House, a non-profit that helps battered women and their children) into the suburban and drove them to the parent org’s headquarters for sorting and wrapping.  This work took several of us a good part of two days.  On the third day I transported about 60 gifts down to LARC.  I maintain a data bank on all LARC’S English students and their families so was able to create a spreadsheet displaying all active students and the age and sex of their children.  Then I organized the gifts by gender and age and attempted to match them to the children on the spreadsheet.  At my evening classes the next week, and during the day, I gave appropriate gifts to the parents, using their descriptions of their children’s preferences as a guide.  It was quite a project and my great fear was some child might not receive a gift.  However, I ended with a few gifts left over and will easily get them placed.

In addition to the gifts, I distributed 30 boxes of food to needy families.  The food courtesy of the Second Harvest program of the federal government.

On the 23^rd I had an evening class and toward its conclusion a Honduran tutorial student of mine came into the classroom and quietly asked me if I had eaten.  He added he and his wife would like to take me to a buffet for dinner (buffets are big in the South).  So after class I climbed in their car and off we went uptown.  Their 18 month old boy was a delight and the wait staff at the restaurant greeted him warmly, making it clear this was the family’s favorite spot to dine out.  I manfully concealed the fact I had eaten before class and managed to put away a couple of plates of good food and deserts (of course).

That Saturday I attended a large Xmas bash at the family compound of Georgia natives, adjacent to one of the wonderful marshes.  I was invited as a friend of a family member. There were oysters roasted over open fire and the popular “low country boil” of shrimp, potatoes, corn and sausage.  I find this typical fare quite bland (and not particularly healthy).  After a couple of hours, I was happy to leave for there was too much booze flowing and too many cigarettes!

I spent Christmas eve with a delightful family from Uruguay, participating in the gift exchange after a wonderful Christmas dinner featuring a tasty turkey prepared unlike any I had ever seen.  Last night I dined at the home of a social studies teacher and New Year’s eve I am invited to a barbeque at a student’s house.

And of course there was doubles tennis Saturday mornings and then Sunday mornings I hit with Mexican and Costa Rican students, using the ball machine I brought down from Maine.  The machine, as big as a shopping cart, lives in the back of the suburban when it isn’t shooting balls at us on the court.

While I have been using the internet as a source of instruction materials for the past few months, using my digital projector and movie screen from the boat, I recently came across a new ESL website created by the US Dept of Education.  It builds upon elements created over the past few years in California (for Mexicans) and Minnesota (for Humongs from Vietnam & Laos).  The website is USALearns.org and is the best thing I have come across so far.  I now have a dozen daytime students using it interactively with computers donated by the huge Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, located in Brunswick.  I also use the program as my main instructional tool for my nighttime classes.  My students love it as they know they are truly learning.  Perhaps as a result, I was the recipient of a number of Xmas gifts from them.  Makes me want to ball (and now I am as I write this!) because they are so poor and struggling so hard to survive in this lousy economic and politically hostile climate.