A few weeks after wrapping up a long, multi-week run of Europe-based programming, I was eager for more. I shifted focus to the domestic front, at least for the summer, and I reached out to a familiar beneficiary: the Springfield Boys & Girls Club.

If you can remember, we ran a program with them in August 2022. That was a fun one, since the sessions attracted the help of a local professional athlete, Rashawn Dally, who was currently lending his talents to a USL Championship side after being drafted into the MLS. Even though Rashawn had signed for the 2023 season with Memphis 901 FC, our Around the Worlds connection with the Springfield BGC was still a very strong one.

In fact, their current Athletic Director, Elijah, had reached out to field interest for a repeat session this summer, rather than the other way around. Sports week was to be held yet again in August, but I figured I’d push my luck since my legs were already getting eager. 

“Would you still be open to a session or two if they don’t fall during Sports Week?” I asked, optimistically.

“Of course!” Elijah answered, listing out a couple possible dates that worked for them, with some as early as the following week.

I targeted a Wednesday morning and pitched the final details. Two sessions, fielding 40 total participants. The first session with the BGC’s younger crowd, the second with some of the older kids. Since we had done a new ball for each kid last year, I planned to do a drawstring bag for every participant this time around with a couple new Puma balls sprinkled in for prizewinners, just to keep the spirit of competition alive.

This collaboration, unlike the year prior, was intended to be multi-faceted, with an arts and crafts element thanks to my ever-creative mother. Basically, this, the first week of camp, was following a theme of ‘friendship’. Just like past sessions in Mexico, the Philippines, and elsewhere, the idea was simple – friendship bracelets, done in a make one, give one model.

A bracelet to keep, the other to be given to a kid somewhere else in the world, creating bridges across cultures, countries, distance, and more. Sometimes it’s difficult for these kids to think bigger than their surroundings, to know that the world is far bigger than just Springfield, or Massachusetts. This was a way to introduce them to that concept, only to further reinforce it thanks to the BGC’s many other events like “heritage week” and a “foods of the world potluck”.

That was the plan – two hours of soccer, followed by 30-45 minutes of bracelet-making.

“This should be perfect,” I said to Elijah excitedly, also aware that the kids had a field trip to Six Flags scheduled the next day (Thursday), so the drawstring bags would be a perfect addition in order to hold their stuff together for a fun day at the park. Because I was so excited, I was already prepared for the session by late Monday afternoon.

I inflated 12 soccer balls, packed a little under a dozen training pennies and some cones and loaded 40 Better Everyday and Around The Worlds branded bags into my car. Safe to say, I sure was excited. Plus, unlike the last two sessions, this day would likely be carried out purely in English, an underrated treat these days and one that always leaves me feeling a bit spoiled scattered among the French, Spanish, and Tagalog-speaking programs from the past six months alone.

Finally, Wednesday rolled around and just like 10 months ago, I was feeling ever so grateful to not have to Uber or commute via public transportation to a clinic, instead piling all our gear into the car and beginning the 35 min drive just over the border to Springfield. We arrived around 9:45 for the 10 AM first session, and after a quick exchange of pleasantries with a bunch of familiar faces in the office, Elijah had one of the junior staff members assist in carrying my equipment out to the field.

It was dark and cloudy outside, but I prayed the rain might hold off for at least the first of the two sessions, though we had carried out last summer’s ones in the big, airy, BGC gym.

“Hey I’m Chris,” said one of the junior staff members.

“I’m Christopher,” said another.

“And I’m Nasyah… but you can call me Naz,” said the last of them.

They were all eager to help and I tucked my captain’s bands away into my bag knowing I’d have plenty of help from these teenage club members on the day. Weather was still cooperating (for now), so I enlisted their help in setting up our listening exercise.

I trusted the kids would remember this one from last year, but I failed to think whether or not these kids would be familiar or new faces. Ten little youngsters poured out of the gym’s back doors and made their way to the center of our outdoor soccer field.

We only used it for one short scrimmage the year prior due to heat, so I was stoked to have it for the majority of our two morning sessions this time around. As I began to explain the drill, asking the 10 participants to partner up, five more kids spilled out onto the field, so I just started back from the top.

Not wanting to leave him a spectator for long, I asked Elijah to run the next round and he did so energetically, much to the delight of our younger group. As a light drizzle began to trickle down, I moved onto our next drill, which my junior staff members had helped set up while the listening exercise was playing out. Surprising (I know), but I was actually introducing a new element to the curriculum today. One I’d seen done before, but one I hoped to someday incorporate as long as we had the right group and space available for it.

The game was simple, at least on paper: Tic tac toe with two teams about 20 feet away from our hashtag grid, to the side of each team – a pile of size 1 soccer balls, red for one team and white for the other. In front of the lines, that makeshift hashtag grid formed entirely out of loose pennies and cones. Knowing my audience and not wanting to leave too much idle time between activities, I called the group’s attention.

“Okay guys! Who here knows how to play tic tac toe? Raise your hand if so,” I yelled out.

Most of the entire group was in agreement, though a younger boy quietly said ‘no.’

“Excuse me young man,” I said to the team’s line leader. “Can you explain tic tac toe to him for me?”

He obliged. “So basically… it’s just like Connect Four, but you want to get three in a row, not four.”

I turned to Naz and chuckled, “What if he doesn’t know how to play Connect Four either.” We both let out a big laugh, intrigued to see how things would play out.

You see, this game should be pretty simple, but with kids you never really know. Plus, you’re trying to keep competition alive, but also introduce ball control and other soccer elements to a basic, childhood game – so let’s just say there really was a lot going on. I just knew if we didn’t sort this out properly the kids were 100% going to cheat.

The first round went okay, but kids were running off their starting marks before the teammate before them made their way back to the line, and at one point – one team even had two or three players charging towards the grid with white balls in hand! I tweeted my whistle, knowing I had to make a fix.

“Listen up guys! You absolutely have to wait until your teammate comes back, then you can run and grab a ball and put it in the grid,” I said. “You have to wait until they give you a high five,” I added, hoping to put it into child-friendly terms for them.

This fix seemed to do the trick, though I was convinced some of these little guys still didn’t quite understand how to play tic tac toe. I let out a big sigh of disbelief followed by some laughter when I watched one young fella approach the grid with a red ball, the white team already having two balls lined up in a row. The obvious move would be to block them, right? Nope… he deposited his red ball into a row below the two side-by-side white balls and I could do nothing but shake my head. Man, kids are funny.

Wanting to put a soccer spin onto this one, I added a little twist which the kids took quite well to. This time, a white or red ball in their hands and a bigger ball at their feet. Instead of running to the grid, they would need to dribble there. This was a test of multitasking, ball control, concentration, and more. It really did tick all the boxes. With time in our first session running thin, I moved quickly to “head it, catch it” with a couple of our older, but still young participants like Bree and Jeciel surprisingly remembering this one. That grabbed us two winners, and I quickly ran over to one of the goals and set up a single file line to get us the other three or four winners.

It was time for penalty kicks! Christopher was in goal, but with his icy Air Force ones on feet, I didn’t expect him to last long. Carnival-style, scoring one goal would win a prize, a new soccer ball. The first boy lined up, depositing it immediately into the bottom corner of the net. “Alright Christopher, you’re out bro, next one up,” I said, with a laugh, as Naz gladly took his place in goal, ready to try his best as our next shot stopper.

A couple big saves and close calls later, we finally had our list of winners as we reconvened over by the bleachers to pass out new soccer balls and Better Everyday bags. Naz was kind enough to pass one to each kid, before the six victors hung back to choose from our pile of a dozen soccer balls.

“Ready for the next group?” Elijah asked.

Mid-drink of water, I poked my head back into the gym, “Absolutely! Feel free to bring them out.”

Let me tell you, compared to that first group this next one was full of familiar faces.

“I remember you!” said one boy.

“Me too!” yelled out another.

“Hey I still have the ball you gave me, the blue one!” Exclaimed the tallest boy in the bunch, who had somehow grown even taller since our last session 10 months ago.

Alex, a younger boy, had a sad expression painted on his face and said his popped and that his sister threw it away. 

“Not to worry young man! We’ll have some to give away later as prizes,” I said, watching his eyes perk up, as the sides of his mouth curled towards the sky.

Not wanting to waste any time, I counted up the group and instructed them to divide into groups of four for our listening exercise. I watched with joy as they played with just that – joy, giggling at each other, falling on top of one another, just for one single victor to rise up carrying the ball proudly in their hands.

Cycling through quickly, I designated two participants to stand in as captains to pick us two teams for relay races. One side led by an older girl, the other led by another familiar face, a glasses-wearing lad named Johnny. Teams of 11 set, we broke into the first variation – a zig-zag race through the cones. I loved seeing the kids’ energy on this one and I won’t lie they were even more into it than the youngsters! They yelled out and cheered, they encouraged their peers, and they gave the maximum effort they could to complete the task faster than the other side.

From there, the two middle cones of each line were eliminated and we moved towards a dribbling drill from one cone to another. I was impressed watching Captain Johnny at work.

“Come on team, single file – fall in!” he said with authority.

He kept his team in perfect order and did so proudly. It didn’t take a captain’s band to see he was a real leader. Torn between wanting to break into a prize-winning drill or a scrimmage, I ended up going with the latter. Plus, we had the full-length field with goals at each side – that’s a rarity these days, so I had to make sure to take advantage of it when available.

I watched from afar, acting only as a referee when needed, though the kids hardly required any supervision on this one. Seeing a couple goals hit the back of the net, I watched Naz enter the fold, ever-so-determined to get the other team back in the mix. One last shot hit the goal and our time was up. I circled both teams up and allowed them to each step forward to claim a drawstring bag for tomorrow’s six flags trip.

“Wait, are we doing bracelets now?” asked a girl, yet another familiar face, excitedly. She was creative through and through, as evident by the black and red hair she was sporting, different from the purple hair she rocked just less than a year back.

“Honestly coach, I only came to soccer today because I was told we’d do bracelets after,” she said.

“We’re going! We’re going!” I assured her, making my way into the gym and to the arts room.

Before setting that up with mom, I had one item left on my agenda. It was now 12:00 and Naz’s junior staff member shift was over. He had been ever-helpful so I wanted to thank him properly. Elijah told me that though Naz was only 14 years old, he was a real go-getter, a self-starter. He began working at the club at the beginning of the school year, but always lended a helping hand or a listening ear. Knowing what I had to do and having seen him admire the soccer balls from afar as our prizewinners claimed them earlier, I rewarded him with a puma ball of his own for his troubles, “Thanks bro!” he yelled out, as we snapped a pic and parted ways.

It was time for me to now shift from teacher to student as ma was given the spotlight for our friendship bracelet portion of the day. Kids were hard at work, concentrating carefully as they weaved blue, red, and white strings together – some following ma’s instructions while others decided to freestyle, recreating the same braids in their hair with the strings in front of them.

“Can I make mine in Puerto Rico colors?” asked a younger girl.

“These are the same colors!” I said back to her, “Somos boricuas!” offering her a smile and receiving one back in return.

Apparently, her and her younger sister, Valentina, were heading to Puerto Rico for the next couple of weeks, hence why PR was fresh on her mind. Bracelets done and dusted, it was time to package them up nicely in some heart-shaped cards. Some kids wrote nice messages, others drew flowers and hearts. They were all personal, and well-thought out. Valentina came running up with a homemade card in her hand, “I love you -Valentina” it read. On her other hand, a brand new bracelet around her wrist – “I’m going to wear this for the next 80 years!” she exclaimed. The 5-year-old was adorable, that’s for sure.

Some of the kids had destinations in mind, while others just wanted them to go to children who needed them most.

“Mister can you bring this one to a kid in Puerto Rico?” asked one of the girls.

Alex chimed in next, “Can you bring this one to a hospital? Even one just close by like Springfield Hospital.” It was an incredibly touching thought, from a kind young man with a big heart.

As more and more bracelets and cards piled up, I headed over to the front of the classroom to chop it up with Elijah and Johnny, my captain from our second session earlier. If I said it once, I’ll say it again – this dude Johnny was a gem.

“Johnny, any idea what you want to be when you grow up?” We had asked him, and boy am I glad we did.

He didn’t even skip a beat, “thanks for asking! I am going to be an entomologist,” he answered.

“They even have some in the military but I would eventually like to make my way to Australia because that’s the Mecca when it comes to insects,” he added.

Apparently, this dream had come from the most unlikely of sources, a basement level classroom that given its location, was chock-full of ants and other insects. The rest was history. Insects were his passion right from that day.

“He’s actually not a half-bad stand up comedian too,” said Elijah with a smile, talking about Johnny’s mixed bag of impressions playfully poking fun at himself among other staff members. Our conversation continued to flow as another junior staff member from Puerto Rico joined in. Elijah spoke about his Vietnamese roots, what exotic foods he had tried, while I went down my extensive list just from the Philippines alone.

Johnny jumped in quickly, “Wait, Stephen, how many languages do you speak? 4?”

“Ah man, I always wish I learned Spanish at home because my parents are boricua but I gotta work on that for sure,” he added.

“Yeah bro!” said the junior staff member. “Do that, it makes you so much more employable like even if you’re working at a call center or anything like, just putting that you’re bilingual can get you a nice pay bump.”

Credit has to go to the staff cuz they really were being led in the right direction on all of this stuff. The time flew by and it was already 3 o’clock. It was time to head for the exits with a now empty soccer ball bag full of bracelets and cards in tow. Passing through the front doors yet again, it was time to bid farewell to this summer’s Springfield BGC run of sessions, but we were certainly doing so with smiles on our faces thanks to good company, good conversation, and the comfort of faces both old and new.