After a short break from programming, we were finally back. I was super antsy and tried my best to keep busy in the meantime planning out sessions, but I wanted nothing more than to be back out there with the kids. Easter passed and I was on a flight to San José, Costa Rica.

I was set to arrive Monday, giving myself plenty of time before our first program scheduled for later that week. I was excited for this slate of sessions for a couple different reasons. Firstly, Costa Rica is lovely. Incredibly warm people, and the food here is a delight. Secondly, and most importantly, much like the last run of programs in Monterrey with the Rayadas players and the sessions in Mexico City with footballers from Pumas, we planned to host a few special guests as well.

Ahead of my flight, I exchanged messages with Aubrey David, a defender for Deportivo Saprissa, which is the biggest, most storied club in the Costa Rican league, and arguably one of the top sides in all of CONCACAF. On a global level, Aubrey represents Trinidad & Tobago as a consistent starter on their national team, which is how we got in touch.

We’ve always had a strong link with Trinidad & Tobago players, dating as far back as 2018. We ran a program in Trinidad with the Can Bou Play Foundation with players like Yohance Marshall, Keston George, and Sean DeSilva, to name a few.

Then, in 2020, Julius James, an MLS veteran and Trinidad & Tobago national team legend, kicked off our virtual series with a bin challenge, which went on to receive responses from kids all over the world, even garnering some traction on national T&T media outlets.

Thanks to some help from friends in Trinidad, I got in touch with Aubrey to see if he’d be interested in helping out with a session.

“It would be a pleasure, sure I can,” he said.

We set up a Thursday afternoon session at Lifting Hands Foundation, a new beneficiary for us but one that was doing inspired and important work for a community that truly stood to benefit from it.

Having these professionals come through programs is really cool for the kids, the foundation’s staff members, and for me as a fan of the game and those using it as a vehicle for good. I always hope it is equally as cool for the pros participating.

Logistically, these programs are always challenging with their many moving parts: the foundation’s schedule, the player’s availability, and of course, our schedule. With the players training almost every day in the morning, we have to mostly focus on afternoon programming. On top of all that, there really was a fourth factor in play too. The rain. THE RAIN. I’m so sick and tired of this rain. They say the rainy season only lasts a couple of months yet everytime I’m here it seems like it’s the rainy season!

Alas, all I could do was hope for the best. After a couple days of settling into Lagunilla, a new neighborhood for me but a nice, peaceful one with a park and plenty of tasty restaurants nearby, it was time to prepare for programming. Knowing I’d likely have three straight days of sessions, I wanted to inflate as many soccer balls as I could ahead of time. I think before Thursday’s training even began I inflated 35 of 50 while in the comfort of my new home. 

I was monitoring the weather too, trying to see what it was like in the afternoon each day. Every day in the early afternoon, it rained. Not a light sprinkle either. I’m talking about RAIN, rain.

It wasn’t a good sign but I held my breath and hoped Thursday afternoon would be different, but unfortunately it wasn’t. The roads were practically flooding and it wasn’t even 4 p.m.  I walked outside and made two trips to my Uber to load up soccer balls. By the time I sat down in the backseat I was drenched. My shoes and socks were soaked and it really was a mistake to wear an all-white fit. I was planning to arrive at the foundation 30 minutes early to set up, so I prayed that the rain would disappear by then. But, it continued to downpour the whole Uber ride, there wasn’t a clearing or soon to be clearing in sight, my heart sank. I got to the foundation and was met with some possible bad news.

“We’re supposed to have 19 kids today but we’ll wait and see… sometimes if it rains they don’t come here because they have to walk through a river to get here. The rain causes flooding and won’t allow them to pass.”

I was getting pretty bummed out. Coupled with that, I opened my phone to a couple texts from Aubrey.

“Sorry I can’t make it today bro, can we do it another day?” he wrote.

I was in the middle of starting the session and didn’t really have time to let my focus drift, so I told him we had another group of 19 the next day, same place and time, kind of just throwing it out there as a Hail Mary. We broke into some relay races, but before beginning I stopped to tell the kids I had some bad news, Aubrey wasn’t going to be able to make it. Then, out of the corner of my eye, a man came running down the side stairs of the foundation in a white shirt and a bright red hat – the “AD” logo tattooed on both. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t tripping.

“Man, I thought you weren’t coming!” I exclaimed. 

“Bro I was just joking,” he said with a laugh. “I was sitting outside in my car. I just wanted to see how you’d respond,” he said, all while approaching each line, each team, and personally greeting every kid with a fist bump. 

I regained my cool and addressed the group as a whole with Aubrey standing by my side. 

“Ok guys, this is a surprise,” I said, as I thought about how surprised I was too. “I’m here with a professional footballer from Saprissa, el se llama…” I began. 

“Aubrey David!” a youngster yelled out from underneath his mask.

“Ah, ya tu sabes bro,” I laughed.

“Yes, he’s number 52, right?” another kid said. They really did their homework. 

With our extremely special guest finally present, it was time to get things going. We broke into three teams for relay races, since I had already ran through our listening drill while waiting for Aubrey to show. The relay race portion of the program was cool because Aubrey essentially ran most of it, and with a big smile on his face the whole time. I sat off to the side, snapping pictures here and there, just marveling at the way he interacted with the kids. He was patient, even gentle with them, walking each kid through each technique, guiding them through everything with the same smile the whole time.

Anyone looking from the outside in could tell he gave every single participant the attention and care as if it were an individual, one-on-one lesson. Some kids could be seen doing things slower, dribbling, ball slides, etc. Just grasping techniques at a bit slower pace than everyone else – Aubrey would take time with each of them to help their technique. The competitive part of the relay race no longer mattered and he just wanted to make sure the kids who were struggling a bit more than others felt seen.

The foundation did a good job of hyping up the program because a bunch of participants showed up donning Saprissa jerseys and even all-over print Saprissa masks. We broke into mano o cabeza with Aubrey running both rounds to get us five winners. Parents arrived to pick their kids up, excited to take pictures and just as thrilled to see how happy their kids were. Some were fortunate enough to snap a lucky pic of themselves with our resident pro as well!

I had the group sit down on a brick lined wall, and thanked them for their time once again, requesting a big round of applause for Aubrey who graciously shared his time with us in between a busy run of games with his club team. I then deferred the spotlight to him, asking if he had anything to say.He began to share incredibly wise and important sentiments about the game, about what it took to get to where he was, and how the kids might get there too.

“Who here wants to be a professional footballer?” he asked. 

Every kid raised their hands. 

“¡Claro que sí!” I exclaimed, raising mine too.

He took it a step further, stirring audience participation and encouraging the kids to engage, asking them what they thought it took to become a professional athlete. Discipline, hard work, studying, passion, speed were common answers.

Then, he shared three things that helped him reach this level. The kids all sat there intently with their eyes glued on him and their ears just the same. All in all, he stayed there until 6 p.m., spending nearly two hours with the kids. I told him he only had to stay for 30 minutes if he was busy, but he stayed the whole time and then some! It just goes to show you the type of guy he is. 

Beyond that, he asked what I was doing next and expressed a desire to come to our second session, but the team was traveling for an away game that Saturday.

“I’ll hit you up after my game and we can link before you leave,” he said.

After the official part of the program ended, a couple kids stuck around the foundation just to talk with and juggle with Aubrey. Honestly, they just wanted to keep playing. There’s always a couple kids after sessions who just simply do not want things to end. I know because I was always that kid and still am!

I called Aubrey aside and told him that usually at the end of programs, if we have time, I would teach kids some freestyle moves. We began to teach kids how to do neck stalls, before breaking into a game of keepy-ups. It was Aubrey versus well… everyone. Things started off tame, but eventually the competition heated up. I even caught word of a bet going down between him and one of the older boys from the foundation. Apparently, the older boy won the juggling battle. The prize? The red “AD” logo hat Aubrey was wearing. A special prize and a well-deserved one, which was even more special knowing it was earned through a hard-fought duel. The cherry on top? An autograph from AD on the bill. 

As Aubrey prepared to leave, I took him aside once more asking him if he wanted any money for gas, a nice dinner, or anything else. “It’s our way of saying thanks, you don’t know just how special it was to have you here,” I said. 

Despite multiple attempts, he wouldn’t accept anything. He said after talking with me and our mutual friends back in Trinidad, he just wanted to be a part of it and to make it happen for the kids. “Don’t worry, it’s my pleasure” he finished.

I wished him good luck at their game and he departed the same way he came. “Let’s keep in touch,” he added, as a final word.

It was now Friday and I was gearing up for our second session at Lifting Hands. This one was set to focus on female beneficiaries, as we hoped to have a pro from the Saprissa Women’s side stop by. I called an Uber and he met me in less than five minutes at my front door. We were just having some small talk and I mentioned the program with Aubrey the day before.

“Oh! I’m a Saprista (fan of the team),” he said excitedly, and with pride. 

I thought about the driver who brought me back home from that Thursday session. On his front windshield he had a morada flag with the big Saprissa “S” on it. These people REALLY love this club, huh, I said to myself. Everyone seemed to be a fan, and honestly, so was I after interacting with the few players. They are just good people doing special things on the field and more important things off it.Small talk became big talk, as we chatted about big name players like Keylor Navas, who once started his long and storied career at Saprissa.

“Someday…” I thought to myself, keeping hope that one day the kids might get a chance to interact with someone like him. 

Finally, I got to the foundation and it was raining, again. 

A couple familiar faces dropped by the second session which always puts a smile on my face.

“¡Hola, profe!” they shouted with glee. 

One boy came down the stairs wearing a nice Joma branded Trinidad national team long sleeved jersey. 

I yelled out “Where’d you get that?”

“Yesterday after the session Aubrey gave it to me,” he shared.

“He called me and two others over to his car before he left and gave us some gear,” he said with a big smile on his face. 

He was so stoked about it that he had decided to wear the jersey the next day, and heck how could you blame him? I asked him if I could snap a pic and immediately sent it to Aubrey.

“Young man came through today’s session drippin!” I wrote to AD.

The session went smoothly, with a young girl running it as our captain. We went through our usual drills before closing out with a ball for each participant, and bracelets for prizewinners. We entered that “post-program” time period and a couple boys stuck around to just pass around.

The weather cleared up and we decided it would be best to get into a little competitive scrimmage.Things were constantly fluctuating, with the game starting off 2v2, then 2v1 with two youngsters versus me. The game was quite cool actually, we didn’t have any goals because they were broken and laying lifeless in the corner of the playing grid, so instead, we stood two tree trunks/logs upright, one at each end of the court. To score a goal, you needed to hit the trunk with the ball. The kids were on board, so we kicked things off.

“Until how many goals?” I asked.

“10!” a younger boy yelled. “Yeah! 10!” 

I knew it would be getting dark out soon, “That’s too many, let’s just do five,” I answered.

“¡Ok, profe vamos!”

We hit four goals super quick and I decided to extend things until first to seven. Six came even faster and I agreed we could play until 10. The kids definitely approved. 

Overall, it was a special two days of programs with a great group of kids. On top of that, hosting a professional player, who represents a beloved team here in San Jose, was extraordinary. I could not have asked for a better return to this country and a return to programming. ¡Pura vida, Costa Rica!