What ‘Field of Dreams’ taught me about Soccer in Guatemala

If you remember the classic “Field of Dreams” baseball movie with Kevin Costner, you know that there is an iconic line that runs throughout the entire movie, “If you build it, they will come.” Costner’s character spends the movie finding out the meaning of that phrase, by which the revelation (spoiler alert) at the end allows reconciliation & restoration through the game of baseball of what was a broken relationship. That very message of reconciliation & hope, through sports, is what we brought to Guatemala – and what many other organizations (such as Love Futbol) seek to provide to underprivileged nations as well.

Soccer / Fútbol / Football… Whatever you want to call it, this game is loved by the whole world. I just returned from Guatemala (Central America), where I spent 9 days – in partnership with my church – working with youth & adults, teaching them different ways to train & improve as a player/team & how to build relationship through Fútbol. I think the most important thing in soccer is that people feel good to be a part of something, whether it be a competitive team or just a pick-up group. I encouraged the people of this Guatemalan community where I stayed to organize days for both the adults & youth to just play.

A Brief History & Why Soccer Matters in Guatemala

Not too long ago, there was a terrible civil war in Guatemala that left the country without a large portion of it’s male leadership. There are estimates that between 140,000 & 200,000 people ‘disappeared’ – most of these being male.

When I first visited Guatemala, I observed almost no males in my age group. As I began to learn more about why this was so, I began to understand what had been, up to that point, very frustrating experiences for me. For example, I had only a few soccer balls on my first trip over. In spite of my repeated attempts at explaining how these were my only resources & that I would be leaving them with the people, the youth would disappear to never return with the balls. The older men would try to take the balls from the younger men for their own games. It was in complete disarray.

Now that I understood more about the gaps in age groups, I began to try to ‘coach’ the older & the younger men simultaneously. It is hard to never have a childhood and it is equally difficult to not have the examples you need for how to be a young man, a leader, a father, & more. How can you do this without coming across as condescending or if you are not gifted as a teacher or in the language? My answer? SOCCER!

So I began to hand out the shirts & jerseys that I had brought by age – spending time with the middle and older youth and working with them. When our time came to an end, I gave them jerseys for the younger kids, jerseys too small for the older kids, and encouraged them to do for the younger kids what I had done for them. We tried to encourage them to teach and encourage the younger players.

“If you build it, they will come.”

Through soccer, people can be communicated with even if you don’t know the verbal language. Like the voice in the “Field of Dreams” that Costner’s character hears, if you make the time & effort to establish a field, start a game, or whatever your ‘it’ may be, the relationships will come.

One memorable moment came on our first day in the mountains. I had a memory of a scene in the movie “Field of Dreams” when the baseball players first emerge through the crops onto the field. We were there on our small dirt field that had been painstakingly cleared for our visit. The mountains are lush and the opening small and surrounded by crops planted by local farmers. You cannot see houses from the soccer pitch for this reason. So when it was time to play, youth and adults began emerging onto the pitch out of the fields – just like the baseball players do in the movie.

One highlight of this trip for me was that we were able to give out 40+ Soccer shoes & tons of shirts, socks & balls to kids who really needed them. This was a big part because families in Texas were able to donate to these people so that I could grow relationships & I thank all those people. The smile the kids had after they put on those shoes was priceless! Not only will they use them for play but also to wear around town. Then, even better, approximately 80 kids accepted Jesus in their heart. My faith brings me hope & now I was able to witness others sharing in that hope. While I’m not a guy to shove this down anyone’s throat but I do feel that God & Soccer are good to me so I’m just giving back to both. I was able to plant my own seeds of support and care through my actions & explain them in ways that these farmers would understand – through the analogy of a seed being planted by me & by them in the lives of others with our actions.

A second highlight was witnessing what I thought was a great act become small in comparison to how deeply some give. I admit I was pleased with the number of kids who would receive the donations – and for me, as the kids lined up to wait to be fitted, that was enough. Like my previous trip, I noticed that some kids did not have shoes, few had socks, and many had feet that reflected the lack of long-term & quality covering. However, there was a woman on our team who saw their feet and went to wash each & every child’s feet before they put on their ‘new’ socks & shoes. WOW!

The Choices We Make

Near the end of the film, an argument between Costner & his on-screen brother-in-law affects his daughter, who gets knocked down and begins choking. One of the players on the field walks off of the field and instantly reverts from a young baseball player to the elderly doctor he had chosen to be after baseball. He gives up his baseball dream to save a life and states that this was his true calling. I am like this doctor – I love the game of soccer but my true calling is now to help grow others & provide opportunity wherever I go in whatever ways I can.

On our second day in the mountains I shared part of my story: about how I grew up fatherless, an only child, biracial and who moved frequently. I spent a large part of my life in bars from ages 4-7. I began learning about God at age 7 because I went to live with and near my grandparents, who put me in a school for this reason. From this moment on I would always pray but was not really living the way the Lord would want me to while in High School, College & up to my young 20’s. Luckily, in college, I found my wife-to-be & she stuck with me till I was smart enough to get married. 🙂 Now I have a great relationship with the Lord who has blessed me with a wonderful wife & 2 healthy daughters. After I shared this, I told the kids & young adults that life is hard for all of us but as long as we try our best every minute & day to do the right thing we will help others to make good choices. I’m just lucky to be born in America with a great family who gave me much opportunity.

Opportunity for Guatemala

I was talking with one of my new friends, Carlos, about how you can know in just 10 seconds if a player is good with the ball and it’s cool to see because, for most, it takes much practice. The frustrating thing in Guatemala is that the Guatemalan Fútbol Federation only cares about money & making their connections happy, which means they only give opportunity to rich kids in the city who have parents who know someone important. But if they cared about their country’s Fútbol they would recruit the kids in the mountains & build a stronger Fútbol nation. Maybe one day someone will have the opportunity to change this problem. I know FIFA & the Guatemalan Fútbol Federation were patting each other on the back to benefit themselves but hopefully with the changes in both of those organizations things will change for the better.

One thing people from around the globe have in common is just playing the game for the love of it, whether it be on grass, dirt, turf, court or sand. It’s amazing to see the talent from players who have never been taught technical or tactical drills. The difference in America compared to most places is the kids who are not natural Soccer players in America still have a great chance to be good because of proper training (i.e., an opportunity). But in Guatemala & any poor Country the people who are not naturally good at soccer have no chance & especially the people who live far from the big cities. But no matter where someone is they will get a game going, and while the hard part for me is the ones who are natural & have desire to be great but have no opportunity, I hope I planted seeds with my team on our trip and that I helped build something important.