Welcome to 2022! More than a month ago, I was in Burkina Faso and I was itching to get 2022 programming off on the right foot. I had been home prepping some collaborations out for early into the new year and doing a speaking engagement or two in the meantime, but I was ready to get back to los niños. I think this was the longest I had been back stateside since the pandemic began in 2020.

In December 2021, we hit a huge milestone. Fifty countries with Around the Worlds Programming was an incredible feat, but after the celebrations ended, I felt lost. When you dream of something for five years and think about it for what feels like a lifetime, it can be hard to let go of. I found myself thinking, “So, now what?”

Mentally, that’s where I was for the last six weeks. Last year was all about the “comeback”. Going as hard as we could for the kids our organization exists for, so that their lives might experience even just a small piece of normalcy during times far from such. But what would 2022 bring? What was our angle and focus? I guess that was the million dollar question.

I decided that 2022 would be the year we enhance our product, meaning we would improve the programs we provide. Everything I’ve done has always been beneficiary-driven, but how could we take these already special moments and make them even more magical. The first thought that came to mind was bringing in special guests. Let’s add another level of inspiration. Let’s give these kids something to aspire to become, a positive role model to emulate, not just in the game but in life in general.

It was settled. Mentorship was the focus, but now it is time for the hard part: execution.

We would go on to run similar ones in Trinidad & Tobago in 2018, and in St. Kitts & Nevis as well – with National Team level athletes. But these opportunities were always sporadic. They were difficult to facilitate, and so they took a backseat to our programs. Special when they happened, sure, but not the end-all, be-all of what we do.

Alas it was time to get to work, for the kids. I reached out to a friend named Stephanie Ribeiro from my alma mater, the University of Connecticut (UConn).  I told her we would be running a few all-girls sessions in Mexico City (el Distrito Federal), where she was currently playing for Club Universidad Nacional, more commonly known as Pumas, after spending the last season with Club America. These teams are both incredibly big and storied clubs in Mexico. As a result, players like Steph are superstars in Mexico, so I tried to gauge her interest in coming through despite knowing it was likely a longshot.

“Hey! 100%.” she answered, enthusiastically. “When are you going to be around?”

We chatted through some brief details, and she even offered to bring a Spanish-speaking teammate along to help us out. “The more the merrier!” I told her, knowing that just having one pro present for the session was amazing enough, let alone two of them. We scheduled something between her team’s games after an afternoon training session, and that was it – excitement bubbling.

With all that said, it was time to head to Mexico. Early Saturday morning, I went to the airport excited to find our path for the year. Defining a path was the hard part, or so I thought. That flight never left. Neither did the next. Nor any of the flights that Saturday, or most the following Sunday.

Winter Storm Bobby hit the northeast on Saturday and did a number, dropping about 12 inches on our heads. So alas, I would not be heading to el Distrito Federal. I panicked a bit, knowing that we had one program scheduled on Monday afternoon, ahead of that special collab with the pros on Thursday evening. We ended up having to cancel Monday’s because of the storm and being unable to get out, which was a bummer to be quite honest.

With Thursday’s session still on at this point, I decided to try again on Monday. Gracias a Dios I was on my way, por fin ya estaba en camino. I landed in CDMX and settled into a new, unfamiliar colonia by the name of Cuauhtémoc.

The trip honestly remained off on the wrong foot, and I feared what that could mean for our first set of programming for the new year. I locked my keys in my Airbnb’s door only for my host to find them 18 hours later still attached to the lock in the entrance door. Basically, things were not getting better, yet.

Insult to injury, I got a text the next day from the organization we were supposed to have worked with back on Monday.

“Sorry for the delay in my response, Stephen, but we won’t be able to do the program another day because we have a positive case within the organization.”

My heart sank yet a little bit more. We still had Thursday. I hoped that maybe, just maybe – Thursday’s session could right the ship. After several worried and sleepless nights, Thursday finally came, and with it – a text from Steph. Knowing how my luck had been all week, I held my breath anxiously.

“Hey, is this the location? Just want to make sure since my teammate and I will be driving there. We’ll get there 15 minutes early too, coming straight from training,” she said.

Exhale. Finally, a W. We needed that one, we really did!

I arrived at 3:30 for the 4 o’clock session, setting up equipment and scoping out the area so that Steph would have a place to park. As promised, she pulled up in a Subaru promptly at 3:45, extending a warm greeting before introducing me to her teammate, Marlyn Campa.

“Just call me Marz,” she said, with a noticeable smile under her mask.

I had already briefed Steph that she’d be running some drills and demoing some techniques & other skills but made sure to pass along the same message to Marz. Finally, 4 o’clock came around and it was time to begin. The girls flooded into our little playing grid like they’d been shot out of a cannon.

They sat orderly in front, while my contact from the organization, Rodrigo, briefly introduced the session to the girls. I asked him if I could add a few words, and he happily obliged.

“Hi everyone,” I started, in Spanish. “Today we have a soccer program, a soccer class of sorts. But we have two very very special people with us.”

Their eyes widened.

“I’m here with two professional players from Pumas, their names are Steph and Marz, maybe you would like to greet them with a little applause?” I said while gesturing with my hands.

A thunderous roar of applause followed. Then, we were off and running like we never took a break. 

We broke into groups of two for our active listening drill, with Marz and Steph providing an example of proper positioning and then a quick run-through of one round of it. Every time I said a body part in Spanish, you could hear Marz whispering its translation in English to Steph. 

The kids loved the drill, no surprise there! From there, we broke into our next activity – relay races. For the first variation, Steph demoed some stationary stepovers for the girls to replicate.  I saw her play before at UConn so I always knew she was nice with a stepover. It’s been a few years, but she certainly hasn’t lost it!

From there, Marz demoed a couple of variations to include jumping and other basic activation-type movements. Once we were through, we broke into a water break while setting up coned grids for a ball-control exercise, to be demoed and carried out by Steph and Marz. During the short break, I got to talking to Steph as she was very curious and interested in Around The Worlds.

“So like, this is what you do?”

“Yep, always kids, always free, always soccer,” I responded.

We talked a little bit more about her experience playing here in Mexico, and how cool it was to see women’s football being invested in. With the water break done as fast as it started, we headed to our two grids with Steph and Marz leading the girls through push passes, controlled volleys, and headers. Fresh off of that, I circled the group up to jump into mano o cabeza as our pros excitedly cheered the girls on from just outside the circle. As I moved from participant to participant, I overheard Steph sharing a conversation with Marz “hey, we can do this. Like we can totally do programs like this for the kids.” This really is such a small detail, but man that’s special. 

As soon as a list of winners was filled, we circled up yet again to pass out new soccer balls and bracelets. Steph and Marz displayed them in their open palms while each participant approached to pick their favorite set of colors. Retreating back to a seated circle, I thanked the girls for their attention before asking them if they had learned anything during the day’s session.

“I learned leadership,” said one.

“Manejar la pelota,” added another.

“Mano o cabeza,” one girl shouted. 

“¿Te gusta este juego?” I asked. 

“¡Si mucho!” they replied.

“Stepovers!” a girl shouted as the final thought.

Back sitting cross-legged with new bracelets in hand, I revealed 22 soccer balls in the center of the circle, each participant would be leaving with one.

“Ooh look at the little ones! I want one!”

“I want the red one! The blue one!” I felt like Morpheus for a quick second.

A participant tapped me on the shoulder and said quietly, “You know, I really like Pumas.”

I smiled, “Do you have a favorite player?”

“No, I just like the team,” the participant said with a smile.

After all our little prizes had been distributed, we broke into a small autograph session and photoshoot. Every girl crowded around our two pros, asking for signatures on their new soccer balls and for photos together. One girl, who had donned a Pumas jersey for the entirety of the program even had her jersey signed! She was so excited!

As we grouped together one final time, Rodrigo tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to remind him of the name of our organization. 

“Around the Worlds, “ I responded. “Tal vez Vuelta al Mundo aquí pero es okay amigo” I laughed.

The girls clapped their hands and cheered loudly, “Pumas, Pumas, Somos Pumas!”

Followed by “¡Somos Vuelta al Mundo!”

As I packed up cones and leftover equipment, Marz approached me with a final, but incredibly special last thought.

“Hey so I told Rodrigo you would give him my contact information so we can get the girls tickets to one of our games,” she said.

I was over the moon. At the time, I was in disbelief, to be honest, but I can’t tell you how stoked I was for the girls. For Marz & Steph, they didn’t have to do that but by going above and beyond and even just thinking to give our participants tickets took an already special day and somehow took it to another level for everyone. With a smile on her face, Steph hopped in the driver’s side seat and reversed out of the gate, throwing up a peace sign to match Marz’s smile.

Later that night, I texted Steph just to reiterate my gratitude.

“Hey Steph, I just wanted to thank you and Marz again for showing out today. It’s not a coincidence at all that that one girl who had her shirt signed showed up repping a Pumas jersey, you guys just being there really is that special. Thanks for doing that for them… Y’all got my respect for forever, always have,” I typed.

Steph mentioned how she really enjoyed the experience and how happy she was to have been asked to be a part of it. She and Marz had recently been talking about volunteering and getting involved in the community, so it couldn’t have been better timed, she said.

“Thanks again for having us! Always down to come through to another one so just let me know whenever you need a hand,” she concluded.

Before I could respond, the kicker, “Yes, send them our info because we already asked our manager and he said just let him know how many tickets they’ll need.”

Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

I passed the good news along to Rodrigo and received some in return. “The girls spent the rest of the day playing with their new soccer balls,” he wrote.

2022 started on a rough note: weather delays, scheduling nightmares, and trouble defining our path. But as they always say, it is about the journey, not the destination. This program is part of our 2022 journey and lets me say, this long adventure started off on the right foot.