Weekday programs done and dusted, it was time to look forward to the weekend and the training sessions to come. First on the docket, a morning run with the Agricola Red Triangles football club, set for 10:00 a.m. Luckily for us, and certainly far different from our work thus far in the country, this session required a short commute, just down the road from our home base to the neighboring community of Agricola.

The venue barely five minutes down the road, I rolled out of bed around 9 a.m. and waited for Coach Winter to scoop mom and I up in the team van. A short ride later, we arrived at the field, and when I tell you, this one was a beauty. Trust me, the two sand pitches we had used for our first two programs certainly had character, but I sure was missing the comfort and give of a soft grass field. Agricola’s field, bordered on all sides by residential streets, was a perfect, fenced-in oasis. With bleachers on one side and goal frames at each end, I was excited to utilize the space we had for some different drills from days prior.

As kids slowly filed in through the front gate, Winter and I chopped it up with their coach, a passionate fellow by the name of Coach Colin. Now, Coach Colin is as much a father figure to these kids as he is a coach to them. To these kids, he’s everything. This was obvious in the manner in which he interacted with each player. He was gentle, he was kind, but he could be stern and put his foot down, if need be, just like a father would. Plus, he knew the dangers that existed out there in the world if these kids slipped up too bad. The last thing he would want is for any of them to fall into that.

Just like so many of our sessions before, we started things off with a dynamic warm-up. The kids would dribble around our rectangular grid – trying to maximize all the space given to them. They would motor along with the ball at their feet, before coming to a stop at the tweet of my whistle. Then, they’d look up to me or Coach Winter for further instruction.

*Tweet!*

“Okay guys, toe taps on the ball!” I yelled out, demoing it for them first.

*Tweet!*

“Next guys, ball slides!” yelled Coach Winter. “Try to keep your eyes upwards!” I added.

*Tweet!*

“Stationary stepovers now!” Myself and Coach giving them all an example.

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“Bring it in guys!” I yelled out. Though our morning session gave us plenty of time to work with the kids, the drawback was the scorching Guyana sun absolutely toasting our bodies. Winter sensed this and called the players in for a long water break. Once they’d finished that, we split into three separate ball control grids run by Coach Winter, Coach Colin, and I, in order to work on passes, volleys, and headers.

My group nailed this one, as did the other two. Another extended water break later, we broke into two different teams to run our 1v1 drill at goal.

“Wait guys!” said Coach Colin, “Watch us (Coach Winter & I) as we demo this drill for you.”

“Ready, y’all?” I asked.

Unbeknownst to me, Winter almost pulled his hamstring on this demo, but I could hardly be surprised because Coach Colin was really moving! As we observed the kids doing the drill themselves, Winter tapped me aside. “You know, Stephen, I nearly pulled something on that sprint,” he said.

“Bro, I knew mine had no chance of surviving that one – why do you think I made you do it, not me!” I said, with a hearty laugh.

1v1 variations fully ran through, it was time to move on over to full scrimmages. With a beautiful grass field at our disposal, I wanted to make the most of the space we had been given – especially with the two sand fields the days before. For 30 minutes, we ran through some lively scrimmages with the older, then younger kids. While each age group sat off to the side, we took the time to pass out program giveaways, including bags, footballs, and other prizes.

Winter came up to me midway through the session, sensing emotion from the program’s youngest attendees, while knowing we had the means to put a smile on their faces. Apparently, the smallest boy in the session, a young man named Stephen had approached Coach Winter with tears streaming down his face. He wanted a ball for himself and in that moment, it truly seemed like him receiving that ball or not was the difference between falling in love with the game or falling out of it.

Winter came up to me. “Coach Stephen? Would it be okay with you if we gave every player on Coach Colin’s younger team their own ball?” he asked.

I appreciated him checking in, but anyone who knows me knows what my answer was always going to be.

“Absolutely! 100% yes, Coach,” I said, emphatically.

Winter explained the enormity of the situation, saying how for these young kids, from a particularly rough neighborhood – that could very well be the first time they ever received their own ball. He was used to visiting Agricola, usually with 1-2 footballs in tow, and now, there he was, with one for every single kid.

“They’re never going to forget what happened here today,” Coach said, with a smile just as large as the kids’.

As we began to close things out and the kids approached Mama Roxanne, my mom, to have their names written on their new footballs, I enjoyed some light conversation with our curious little Agricola Red Triangle athletes.

“Coach, what country are you going to next?” asked one boy. “I’m not sure yet man! Maybe Barbados, but I really wanna go back to a country in Africa,” I said. “Ooh,” he said, as his eyes got big.

“Coach watch this!” said a younger boy, lining up for a shot.

“See that, Coach?” he asked. “Take me with you to America, Coach, look at my skills!”

By now, you’ll be aware of the various animals that have crashed our sessions. Mainly, in the last two – a monkey and a duck. We can now add “chicken” to that list, with one participant, an older girl named Demarai, rolling up with a whole (live) chicken in one hand and her new soccer ball in the other.

We took some snapshots with the mascot because how could we not?

Another boy, albeit a quiet one, came up to me. “You know, Coach, I was wondering… where are you from?” he asked.

“From America bro!” I answered.

“You look like this guy I watch on YouTube – Dhar Mann,” he replied.

Still though, I sought context.

“What’s his deal? Is he a vlogger?” I asked.

“Nah nah.. he teaches us,” the boy answered.

“Teaches you what?” I asked.

“Like life lessons, how to do the right thing.”

“Oh man… I gotta check him out forreal!” I answered, just happy to know that the kids were receiving some other positive influences in their lives outside of Coach Colin, too.