I was determined to maximize my time in the country and had full trust that the best moments were still yet to come. I reached out to Berlin, who is my main contact from Fundación Bandera Blanca. We first worked together in September of 2021 with a full day of three sessions with varying age groups, so I was eager to return and see some familiar faces coupled with some new ones as well.

With a dozen bracelets and about nine soccer balls still in my possession, I shot a quick text in Berlin’s direction. It was short and sweet and it read, “Hey Berlin, I’m in Costa Rica and would love to drop by the foundation this weekend with a special guest if you guys have some time for a little football class.” Then, I waited.

“Hola, ¡qué emoción! Sí, este Sábado los esperamos,” she replied almost instantly.

Who was that special guest you might ask? None other than the captain of Deportivo Saprissa Femenino and the starting number 9 for the Costa Rica Women’s National Team – Carolina Venegas. Carolina and I were planning a program for a few weeks, but I was nervous it might take the stars to align in order to bring the session to life. Despite that, I was determined. I knew that it would all be worth it for the kids to have this experience of sharing the field with a professional athlete, especially someone with a footballing pedigree like Caro’s. Luckily, she was incredibly receptive to the idea of running a session together from the start, and as you can imagine mutual interest is key for collabs like this.

I just landed in San José and despite being far closer geographically than before, it still seemed like those stars would need to align in order to, well, have a star join us in the session. Before heading to Costa Rica, I was planning for a Thursday session with Caro at the San José-based Lifting Hands foundation. She had a game Wednesday night and another one Sunday, so this seemed to be the best option. But as life goes, the world had other plans. There was a last minute change to move their Wednesday game to Thursday, and so our program wouldn’t be happening as scheduled. Like I said though, Carolina was very very kind and apologetic, hoping we might find another date and time to make it happen.

On top of that, Aubrey David ended up coming through the Thursday session so it all worked out in due time.

“Is Friday okay?” I asked Caro. “We have another one, same foundation, same time, same place if you can make it.”

Unfortunately, she was celebrating her best friend’s birthday that afternoon and this one would be a wash too.

“I’m so sorry, Stephen” she wrote.

“Don’t worry at all, I wouldn’t want you to miss that. And mira we have one last option, I can change my flight and we can run a Saturday morning program at a foundation in Hatillo (one of the poorest and most dangerous zones in the city) if you’re free?”

She just had a scrimmage against the Saprissa U18s in the morning, “But I’ll come to the foundation right after,” she finished, as my wheels started spinning and I began to get excited for it all to come to life.

Finally, Saturday arrived. I didn’t sleep well since there had been non-stop programs since Thursday, with long, two or three hour afternoon sessions both days, but I ate an apple, took a lukewarm shower and finalized some last minute clinic prep. With bags full and my Uber pulling up, I exited my house for a 30 minute drive to Hatillo.

We drove down my street and hooked a left, living and dying by Waze’s guidance.

“Look,” said my driver, gesturing to his left.

There had been a car wreck, and the entire front of a little sedan had been smashed in – an ambulance idling nearby it.

“Eeks, Just one?” I asked. “No amigo, mira,” he answered

Behind the sedan, a crossover, completely upside down.

With all that out of the way, I finally reached the foundation. In the short couple months between programs, they’d had a huge facelift. The fencing was covered with beautiful, winding greenery. Over the playing grid, a “techo” to shield from sun and more importantly, rain, especially during the unforgiving rainy season. I said hello to some staff members before heading to the back of the foundation to see the kids.

“Is Berlin here?” I asked. “Not yet, but she’s coming soon,” I heard back.

*Ding* I received a message from Carolina, “Hey Stephen, I just finished my game against the U18s, I’m heading to the foundation now I’ll see you in 30 minutes.”

“Perfect, drive safe!” I responded, followed by a selfie of me and one of the little homies from the foundation, wearing Saprissa gear from head to toe, sporting a big ol smile.

My eyes kept shifting from the road to my phone and back, waiting anxiously for Caro to arrive, hoping maybe, just maybe, that today was the day the stars might align. I heard a loud commotion from the right and then a bunch of clapping. It was her! Trailing just behind was Berlin. Double the surprise.

With the kids anxious to begin, the program kicked off with a brief, brief introduction of Carolina’s impressive resume, followed by a thunderous round of applause. We jumped straight into a listening exercise, which the kids couldn’t quite figure out at first, as they were standing with their backs to the ball. Caro and I shared a laugh before correcting their placement. “I mean you guys can stand that way, but it’s going to be a lot harder to win,” I said with a chuckle.

I ran a round or two. Then Caro ran one and then I wrapped up with a final one before moving to relay races. Before we could begin, I passed a red captain’s armband to Carolina and asked her to designate a captain to help us with the session. Immediately, a sea of hands shot up.

“Ahh, ella” Carolina said as she picked an older girl from the crowd.

We jumped into some stationary stepovers, which Carolina happily demoed for the kids, her technique as good as it gets and far superior to mine if I’m being honest. After a couple different variations, we closed out with the kids hopping down to the cone, around it, and back. I had Caro demonstrate this one too, and with the ball between her knees she startled to waddle back and forth.

“I think it’s easier jumping,” I said to her with a friendly laugh, knowing there really is no ‘correct’ technique to this particular exercise

“Como pinguinos,” I said to the kids before getting ready to blow my whistle.

After, we split into two teams and two ball control grids, with Caro helping lead her group through push passes, controlled volleys, and headers. I knew we had a group of about 15 and only nine soccer balls. I realized sooner than later we had to find some prize winners.

I explained mano o cabeza to some of the new faces, and opened up a round led by Carolina – to give us at least three winners. Everyone laughed and smiled from start to finish, but we were still short six prizewinners.

“Ok let’s do another round,” I started to say.

I retreated to the sideline once teams were selected and had Caro’s team start off against the remaining other one, heading back to the center only to act as referee. Competition was stiff and the games were heated. Luckily, the clouds opened up and a light drizzle cooled us down, but wouldn’t cool down the competition. Everyone wanted to win, especially with a professional footballer present.

My team was on at this point, and we won a penalty for a hand ball in the area. *Pow* their goalkeeper stuck out a leg and saved it off his thigh, the competition continued.

Carolina turned on some flair, unleashing a string of no look passes to fool opposing defenders and in style, might I add. I noticed Carolina getting her teammates involved, putting them in the best possible situation to score goals. At one point, she was attempting a dribble past one of my team’s defenders and took a tumble.

*Tweeeeet* I blew my whistle loudly, despite being on the opposing team.

“Penal!” I yelled.

As I placed the ball at the penalty stripe, I took a few steps back and caught Carolina’s line of sight. Prefaced with a laugh, I gestured with both hands in front of me in a diving motion, insinuating she had flopped – she flashed a devious smile and a guilty shrug, before designating one of her teammates to take the spot kick. I think by the end my team and her’s both ended with the most wins with three each, which worked perfect for the six remaining soccer balls split amongst two 4 person teams, minus Caro and I.

We closed things out with a little autograph session that saw Carolina signing kids’ sweatshirts, jerseys, soccer balls, and more. The kids had all come prepared with plenty of Saprissa gear in hand, all to be returned back to their wardrobes a little more special than before. With that out of the way, we gathered again for a final chat. I thanked the kids for their time and had Carolina step in to add a few closing thoughts and little bits of advice for our participants.

“Listen kids, Carolina has a game tomorrow with Saprissa if you guys can wish her luck?”

“¡Buena suerte!” They said followed by another booming round of applause.

With the program done and kids still hanging around with their new footballs in hand, playing games and practicing tricks, I retreated to a corner to personally thank Carolina for dropping by.

“I completely understand that,” I responded, once again blown away by the players and their humility, following almost an identical conversation taking place days before with Aubrey.

With a little bit of downtime, I took a moment to congratulate Carolina about passing onto the next stage of World Cup & Olympic qualifying with the national team. “I’m definitely going to be watching,” I said, before wishing her luck.

“I think it was a very favorable draw, the best we could’ve ever asked for,” she responded, as I joked that I had tried my best to get her the scouting report on Trinidad & Tobago, one of the three other teams in their group, and a side a friend from college represents.

With one last thank you out of the way, she wished me a safe trip and departed with a fist bump and hug. I retreated back to a corner where the kids were sitting, and went in on some granola and yogurt prepared with caring hands from the foundation’s kitchen. I excitedly shared about the session with Aubrey and saw their eyes get big. They were all saying how their favorite team is Saprissa, how for many of them, their favorite player is this guy Cristian Bolaños.

I called an Uber and got ready to depart, but not before giving a big hug to Berlin.

“Thanks for everything, Stephen,” she said. “It’s the first time we’ve ever had a futbolista visit us here at the foundation.”

“It’s an absolute pleasure,” I told her. “Thank you for always receiving us with open arms here.”

Between our first session in September and this one Saturday, I had seen the foundation being visited by Valores Saprissa, a charitable arm of the club, but I really couldn’t believe the kids never got a chance to meet an actual player. It just made the day even more special, and amplified the gratitude I had for Carolina. On the way back, I was chatting with my Uber driver. He was asking thoughtful, curious questions about around the worlds and I was going on and on, gushing about the experiences from the past three days with our pro athlete guests.

“These futbolistas have such big hearts, man,” I told him.

“Ah, humilde también,” he added.

Like so many others, he was a fan of Saprissa too and familiar with both players, from the men’s and women’s sides, though only ever seeing them on TV or at the stadium. 

“I do have a picture with Francisco Rodriguez,” he said proudly, with a smile.

I just kept running my mouth, talking about how special the past two sessions were, how important it is to play even the smallest part in connecting these kids with these pros. The same ones they watch on television. The same ones representing the very jerseys they show up to each session wearing. I reiterated to him how important these moments are – for kids to feel seen, to feel represented.

I told him we don’t know what the future holds, but life and dreams are special like that.

I dreamed that maybe one day someone like Keylor Navas, hands down the best footballer in the CONCACAF region and one of the best goalkeepers in the entire world, would drop by a session. We joked about it too, realizing how complicated something like that could be given Keylor’s level of fame.

“I think if we did that, the kids’ parents would be there asking for pictures and autographs too,” we joked to each other.

It really was a special week here in Costa Rica. As I caught an Uber back to the airport, my driver marveled at the thought of connecting kids from these different foundations with professional athletes, mentors, ídolos.

“Mira amigo tengo a contact, he is close with Bryan Ruiz. let me see if I can set that up for you. He has a very big heart and I’m sure if you explained what you wanted to do he’d be happy to help.”

I was at a loss for words. I mean of course it wouldn’t be easy to link that up with a tico legend like Ruiz, but if these past two sessions with Aubrey and Carolina as well as the ones in Monterrey and Mexico City taught me anything – it’s always worth the effort for the kids.