The kickoff

By Armando Gonzalez

This is the story on how I discovered my passion for soccer. As a child, I enjoyed watching games and making friendly bets with my dad about who would win, we also used to play the FIFA video game series together whenever we had  the chance as he owned various editions.

My parents soon realized how much I liked the sport and decided to sign me up for a soccer team. My mom and dad were not together at the time, so my dad would occasionally take me to practices, but most of the time, it was my mom who drove me and showed up to my games.

Initially, my dad was my role model because he was the one who first introduced me to the sport. But my mom's consistent support meant the world to me. She put so much effort into encouraging my dream of playing soccer, always taking me to and from practices and games, even when it was difficult for her. She would sacrifice her own time and needs just for my passion. 

My dad remained my idol for a while. We would play FIFA and go to the park to practice. However, when I was about five years old, I started seeing him less and less, and he became more distant. As time passed, I no longer had a role model, and to this day, I prefer not to idolize anyone; I want to be my own person with my own personality.

I was around nine when I stopped playing and lost touch with the sport. At that time, the COVID-19 pandemic was at its worst, so I stayed home gaming all day, not doing much besides going out skating and biking with a group of older kids.

I continued to stay home and play games until my family and I moved from our house in McLaughlin to a neighborhood on the East Side of San Jose. It was mid-summer, and by the time we settled in, I was already enrolled in a new school.

The school had a soccer team, but I didn't know many people, so I still mostly played soccer by myself. Eventually, I made friends with a few kids who played, and I started reconnecting with the sport I loved the most.

I went on to play on my school's soccer team. We qualified to play in a tournament hosted for schools in the Alum Rock district, called "La Copita." We competed against other local schools such as Ocala, Hubbard, and others.

Our first few games were okay. It was our first tournament, so we weren't fully prepared because our coach had originally been told we wouldn't be able to participate. We had stopped practicing, but when another team dropped out, they let us in. We managed to get a little warm-up practice before the games and ended up doing better than we expected.

We handled our initial games pretty well, winning by one or more goals. As we got used to the competition, we started winning and scoring so much that we had to focus on passing for entire games because scoring more goals would have invalidated our previous scores due to the district rules on scoring margins.

After we won, we reminded our coach that he had promised to buy us pizza, and he kept his word. We ate Pizza Hut, and honestly, it was the best meal after playing all day.  We ended up winning the tournament and taking the trophy home. It's a core memory for me. Now, coming into high school, I'm looking to get back into the sport this summer. I had lost my touch and enthusiasm for a while, but I've opened my mind to new choices, and I want to dive back into soccer.