Mexico City, Mexico (Part 2)

With the two Monday sessions and an in-between rest day out the way, Wednesday rolled around. With it came three classes we scheduled with Afeeci alongside Proyecto Cantera. I was told to prep for 47 kids across the sessions. Because of luggage constraints, I opted to bring a handful of Puma soccer balls for the session along with 50 Around the Worlds drawstring bags to give out to participants. Much like the first day of programming with Ednica Morelos, in reality the participant count was much lower – maxing out at just under two-dozen in total, though as always it’s better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Ahead of the sessions, I got a text from Paula, my contact from Proyecto Cantera with the directions to our session. Having far too many previous run-ins with the treacherous Mexico City-traffic, I put the destination in my GPS and held my breath. 6 minutes away it said! This was not by car; it was walking! The park was literally just down the street, I had already walked past it multiple times. A little further away, 10 minutes walking distance, was Afeeci’s main office – where the kids would be coming from. What a lucky turn of events this was and I was stoked.

We were set to be working with Afeeci, an organization doing incredible work to promote the rights, health, and general well-being of at-risk, street youth. I arrived at the park about 15 minutes early and began to set up shop. Right on cue, the kids began to file onto our playing space – a beautiful, vibrantly colored multipurpose court, which took me back to a similar one we had run sessions at in Colombia back in 2020. Just behind the kids was Coach Abi from Monday and a new face, but one I had seen all over Proyecto Cantera social channels for quite some time – Coach Carmen. She was an all-star coach, so I was looking forward to seeing her in her element while hoping to grab some fun new drills to incorporate into our curriculum moving forward.

After introductions were made and greetings were passed along by the kids, we prepared to kick things off. Before we could get into a warm-up drill, everybody circled up in the center of the court.

“How is everybody feeling today?” asked Coach Carmen, giving each kid a chance to respond,

along with the profes.

“I feel good today,” said one.

“I’m excited,” said another.

“I feel a little tired,” said a young boy.

The opportunity for kids to express themselves and their emotions can easily and often be forgotten, so this was important to see from the Proyecto team. Once everyone got a chance to respond, we jumped straight into a warm-up exercise to get our bodies moving. This one was super fun, basically using the entirety of the court as our playing grid, each kid and coach with their own ball in their hands. Two participants were chosen and held back off to the side, counting to 10 before they could be deployed. Then, those two had to chase after everyone else in the space, trying to tag them gently using the soccer balls in their hands. If caught, the person would ‘freeze’ with their legs open wide. The only way to become ‘unfrozen’ would be for another person to roll the ball under their legs, sending the frozen person back into motion. The kids LOVED this one, so much so that I’m going to have to steal it for the futuro. I’m not gonna lie, I was gassed after a couple rounds, the altitude change of Mexico City hitting me like never before.

Luckily, switching over to our listening drill after, I had some time to cool down. The kids enjoyed this one too, trying their best to beat their partner to grab the soccer ball between them first. Coach Carmen even threw in her own and never before heard commands like “hop on one leg!” “hop on the other leg!” “switch positions!” and more. I made a mental note to use these in

the future just like after our program with Coach Julio in Puerto Vallarta.

With these sessions running from 3-4, 4-5, then 5-6, our time began to wear thin. With a small window before breaking into a scrimmage, I circled the kids up for mano o cabeza. We only had six additional prizes for the day, a couple mini Sondico soccer balls I had as leftovers from programs past. We would be playing for two size one balls this round and the last two kids standing would win them.

The kids took a bit to understand the game, but quickly settled in, which made the process of

eliminating the players very challenging. Finally, with two winners left, we broke into a scrimmage that ended 0-0 after nearly 15 minutes. Soon to depart back to Afeeci, each child received an orange Around the Worlds drawstring bag to thank them for their effort and attention. 

Group 1 exited the fray and just as quickly, group 2 replaced them. These would be kids aged 7-11 years old, which is always a fun range to work with. The session started off light, with only a handful of kids present. Luckily, Carmen had some tricks up her sleeve, opting for a unique warm-up drill involving hula hoops. A line of kids would stand single file beside her, she would roll a hula hoop out in front of her, and each kid would need to run to their corresponding hoop trying to grab it before it spiraled to the ground. For the next variation, Coach Carmen would instead throw two hula hoops at once, with each kid trying to retrieve both of them before they met the ground. For the last round, came the most difficult of them all. Coach Carmen would roll a hula hoop out, then participants would need to dribble the ball with their feet in front of them, and attempt to kick the ball through the moving hula hoop.

“Ok guys, so we have a line here a distance from the goal, I am going to stand next to the post and throw a ball gently towards you,” I began. “Then, you’re going to try to head the ball into the goal. But, after this – you have to go into the goal to try and save the header of the person behind you!” I yelled. 

It was basically a conveyor belt, a well-oiled machine, though often explained better than practiced.

“Here, we’ll do an example,” I said, beckoning for Coach Carmen to throw me a ball head-high. I deposited it into the lower left corner and quickly ran to the goal, turning to face the next player. Coach Carmen gave another ball a quick toss, the player facing me heading it through my legs and into the back of the goal.

“Eso!” I yelled, quickly heading to the back of the line before dropping to the ground to do five push-ups because rules are rules and we honor those around here. Honestly, the kids struggled a little bit with this one. They kept forgetting to run to the goal line after performing their header at net, but in their defense, every time they scored they would jump up and celebrate so big that it was the furthest thing from their mind. As each child lined up to receive a parting gift, I made sure to pass a tarjeta verde to a younger boy who I had tried to nutmeg during the scrimmage, a failed attempt that had caused him to topple to the ground in a heap. He walked it off like a champ, though, so I made sure to offer him the card as recognition of his bravery and an expression of my own fault.

Once this group wrapped up, our last class entered the fray. These were the ‘adolescents’ a group I was always fond of working with because of their heightened skill level. As with the two prior sessions, the kids took a moment to describe how they were feeling ahead of a warm-up.

“I feel happy, pero bien cansado,” said an older boy.

“I feel bad,” said a younger boy, before elaborating on a reason why. “I wore the wrong clothes and it is warm out today,” he said, rolling the long legs and sleeves of his school uniform up to his knees and elbows.

Soon, we reached my place in the circle, “Pues, I feel happy to be here in Mexico again and with you all, pero estoy muriendo de hambre,” I said with a laugh, one that was matched by others in the group. 

I turned to Coach Abi smiling, telling her that immediately after the session my mother and I would be heading to a nearby restaurant to grab some dinner. I’ll admit, I really enjoyed Coach Carmen’s warm-up for this group as well. We had a reduced-size grid, nearly the size of a regulation field’s ‘eighteen’ box – in it, we would all dribble our own ball while trying to knock everyone else’s ball out of the grid. It was a real battle royale, every man and woman for themselves. My highest mark was a top three finish, as I’d always abandon my ball to try and play defense only for a lurker to tap my free ball out of the grid. Standing off to the side, I turned to an older boy rocking a pair of Copa Mundial turfs, which is a tell-tale sign of a baller, for those that might not know this unwritten rule in footy.

“Bro this drill is very bad for me, I don’t like defense,” I said, offering an explanation for my early departure from the round.

“Ah, what position juegas?” he asked.

“The 10,” I answered.

“Oh soy defensa, so I love this drill!” he said proudly as we shared a laugh over his fortune and my misfortune.

After the warmup, we moved over to our 1v1 towards goal drill, deploying an older boy sporting combat boots to act as goalkeeper. This guy was a baller and certainly put on a show despite the odds being stacked against him with such a close-quarters drill as this one. After 15 minutes and several different variations of this exercise, it was time for a much anticipated cascarita.

Three kids were standing off to the side for the entirety of the practice, eager to get involved if they could. The older boy, with a tattoo covered right arm, had even timidly asked me if he could borrow a Puma ball just to juggle off to the side while we trained – which I obliged. Recognizing their interest and the importance of eliminating barriers for participation in sport, Coach Carmen asked if they would be interested in playing in the scrimmage – as they all jumped to their feet and entered the court.

Before the reta could begin, both teams lined up at center circle, greeting each individual player with sign language for “good luck” – I’d seen this before in Proyecto collabs from before and I always appreciated it. As far as friendliness went, that was all as this one ended up being a tense scrimmage, with plenty of action on both sides of it. The boy with the tattoos even performed a chilena! Though missing on his effort, it was still worth a tarjeta verde at halftime for having the guts to even try something so insane, especially on a cement court.

Luckily, we were able to stifle some of the opposing team’s heavy-duty attack, thanks to our trusty goalkeeper in combat boots. Honestly, thank god we had dude back there because the other side could’ve easily dropped a 10-piece on our heads. Finally with a 5-4-3-2-1 countdown from Coach Carmen, the scrimmage ended with three goals a piece, a fair result maybe more so for us than them. Before heading to the sidelines for a charla and mano o cabeza, we all lined up in the center again to greet each player “good game” in sign language. With one last round of mano o cabeza left for two more mini soccer balls, we jumped straight into it. Ultimately, our winners were a boy from Afeeci and the tattooed boy from before – the latter of which approached me shyly asking, “Stephen, is it okay if I trade my mini ball for a bag?”

“No, don’t worry, this is just an additional prize, you get a bag too just wait a little bit!” I said.

“Gracias Profe!” he said, delighted to hear the news.

As we all made our way to the sideline for our little charla, the green cards came out and began to get passed around.

“I would like to give this one to our portero, err… our porterazo!” I said, congratulating my teammate on an excellent game and a great performance during the 1v1 activity.

The boy held the tarjeta verde in his hand, looking at with a smile before opening his mouth, “I would like to give this to our entire team – thank you for supporting me a lot in defense, and even though three goals were scored against us, you guys stopped far more than that from going in,” he said. What a player, what a lad.

As the kids packed up their gear and made their way across the nearby footbridge to Afeeci campus, I passed along two new soccer balls to one of our contacts, to keep just in case the kids ever wanted to play the game.

“Our doors will always be open to you whenever you want to come back to Afeeci. We thank you,” she said with a smile.