Before I could pass through Kigali New Life Christian Academy’s front gate, I was swarmed by some of the school’s energetic kindergartners. Barely able to even put my bag down, their tiny little hands were already digging through it, touching and inspecting the newly inflated footballs resting inside its black, plastic walls. From there, I made my way into the principal’s office to chat with my contact, Mrs. Ingrid. Right from the jump, Mrs. Ingrid had been an incredible help, coordinating our sessions from afar, even quickly drafting up a customs letter that worked fantastically upon my arrival. So well, in fact, that the customs agent took one look at it, nodded his head, and waved me right on through. I made sure to thank her for her proactiveness, making known just how appreciative I was of her contributions to our upcoming collaboration.

As we chatted, the kids had just finished lunch and were engaging in sports like basketball and football on the school’s quad. Soon, the premises would be vacated and replaced with our very own football classes.

“Stephen, they’re supposed to have lunch now, but there’s a chance they might not even eat… that’s how excited they are for football!” said Mrs. Ingrid.

I smiled big.

“And really, you know, this is such a blessing for us. Just a while back we were praying for an opportunity to properly nurture these kids and their love for football, hence why I was so thankful for your offer to collaborate,” Mrs. Ingrid shared.

She even elaborated on plans to build a nice turf pitch for the kids, knowing just how passionate they were about the sport. Thankfully, Mrs. Ingrid and I had squared away many of the details prior to my arrival. We would be leaving the footballs and football shorts (Nike & Hummel) to be distributed at a later date, so as to not cause any conflict between participants and non-participants. “They’re all yours, Mrs. Ingrid, do with them as you please,” I told her, my trust knowing no bounds.

“With these footballs, we are so rich now,” she said, us both sharing the sentiment that when it comes to kids, football, and Africa, there is simply no such thing as ‘too many footballs.’ She gushed over the precious, brand new resources to be given to the football-loving pupils at some point in the school year. Never one to miss an important detail, seeing just how excited the kids were upon my arrival, Mrs. Ingrid called an audible. Of course, she knew to run it by me first.

“Stephen, I was thinking… could we maybe do a 30 minute session, then another 30 minute one, followed by an hour-long class?”

She wanted to allow more students to participate on the day.

“Let’s do it!” I exclaimed.

The clock at 1:50 and the kids wrapping up recess, I made my way to the cement court to set up for our first (of three) sessions. First up were the 6-9 year olds, shepherded to the field by their teacher in orderly fashion. Our time was short, so I hit a very quick chat to discuss expectations – quizzing the kids afterwards just to make sure they were listening.

“Respect, attention, and energy! Yes, Coach!”

Clearly, they very much were. From there, I hit a couple simple drills working on dribbling, stopping the ball, listening, and spatial awareness. The kids were a wonderfully-behaved bunch, and boy was I thankful for that as I wrapped up day three of a three-day marathon of Rwanda-based sessions.

I had woken up with a hoarse voice, and was hoping I wouldn’t leave the academy with that hoarse voice now completely gone. Thankfully, this didn’t seem to be the case, because of my awesome participants. They smiled and they laughed, sitting on top of their own footballs, stopping it with their ears, their knees, their behinds, and EVEN their armpits!

The clock struck 2:30, and it was out with the old and in with the new, as another group of 6-9 year olds was led in by their teacher – Mr. Albert. With three sessions on the day, I wanted to keep things exciting, constantly mixing drills up so both myself and the kids would not grow bored. So this time, we jumped into a fun childhood favorite – Red Light, Green Light! Say what you will, but this one was a BIG hit. I’ll blame it on the fact that I binged Squid Game last week, so the game was fresh on my mind. I looked up as all our participants hugged the white sideline of the cement court. One boy, however, had crept ahead prematurely.

“Now I know you’re not gonna cheat like that right in front of Coach!” I yelled out, the boy quickly scurrying to join his classmates at the starting line.

“Hey Mr. Albert! Do me a favor and watch that side, I’ll watch this one,” I called out, obviously my eyes were no match for the 20 kids standing in front of me.

Now, we all know that this game can be a challenge right? Even without a ball, but then when you add a rolling object? The difficulty multiplies tenfold.

You know kids, they have a tendency to move fast or at least, want to move fast. A kid could easily kick the ball ten steps ahead and reach the other sideline in one touch, but we all know moving objects have no place in Red Light, Green Light! We grabbed a winner, ran it back, and then hit one more variation with the kids hopping like kangaroos with the ball between their legs. I knew time was dwindling, so I sat the kids down in front of me at center court, quickly showing them my premier trick, the neck stall.

“Oh my gosh, Coach!” they yelled out, as I spun around, walked forward to give a young man sitting in the front row a high five, even retreated backwards to kick a wayward ball back towards two boys playing off to the side.

I hit the two, then hopped to my feet, flinging the ball into the air then back to my neck three times, to more oohs and ahhs from the crowd.

Mr. Albert helped me grab five volunteers from the crowd to repeat the trick, with a young boy on the end even managing to do a whole push-up! Amazing. We did two more cycles of five students, before quickly breaking into “head it, catch it” to grab two drawstring bag winners before our 3 o’clock end time. Mr. Albert’s circle drew a winner named Eloi, while mine saw victory in a little fella named Davion. Coincidentally, Davion is Mrs. Ingrid’s son! One of a set of quadruplets, I had all four participate in the second session, which had me seeing double, triple, and more from start to finish!

Davion smiled ear to ear, holding the bag up with pride alongside Mrs. Ingrid, his Principal-Mom, and Eloi. As the class wrapped up and I ran towards the restroom with the quick 30 second break I had, I gave Mr. Albert a handshake and thanked him for his help throughout the session.

“My pleasure, Coach!” he said, cheesing all the while.

Last, but not least, were our 9-12 year olds. I had this group for an hour, so I was excited to hit a bunch of clinic mainstays. Twenty-one participants signed up, I had them all sit at center court to hit a pre-session chat.

“Guys, listen up, my voice is almost gone so I’m going to need you guys to pay close attention for the next hour,” I started. “You guys don’t want Coach to raise his voice, right?” I asked. The kids nodded their heads. “Perfect, me too,” I answered, glad we were all on the same page.

Expectations established, we opened things with our listening drill – first using hands, then followed by feet – in order to simulate dragbacks in a 50/50 challenge. Some of the kids were familiar with the exercise, and I managed to save my voice with a young man stepping up to describe it to all students present.

“Listen up guys, who won once!” Everybody’s hands shot up.

“Twice?” I asked. A few less.

“Thrice???!!!” Even less.

“Okay… and who won five times?”

Two boys kept their hands raised.

“Now I know that’s not right, considering we only did four rounds!” I yelled out, the boys putting their hands back down in between shared giggles.

This drill exhausted thanks to rounds led by myself and their teacher, Mr. Fred, we broke into dynamic relay races. The kids helped demo these as well, as we continue to give them little opportunities to display leadership qualities to their peers. First, stepovers, then zig-zag dribbles, followed by sole of the foot dribbles, with kangaroo jumps at the end, just to make things fun.

“Coach, I won my race!” a boy yelled out several times, wearing pride on his face like an irremovable tattoo.

The kids were bright, taking a couple moments to understand concepts before imitating them flawlessly. Next on the list, I recruited a goalkeeper to one side of the court while we counted off 1s and 2s in order to run our 1v1 at goal drill. Obviously, six or seven kids wanted to be goalie, so I managed to swap them out every couple turns just to keep everyone happy. Plus, our one girl participant on the day, Ella, was one of them! How could I say no to that?

I waited patiently as the kids sorted through their lines, but would blow my whistle unexpectedly every once in a while so that our teams knew they needed to be ready at all times. Goal after goal, celebration after celebration, the kids smiled and yelled in unison, “Siuuuuuuuu!” in homage of the great CR7.

Informed by Mr. Fred that there were only four minutes left, I drew the kids in for “head it, catch it,” before grabbing two winners to bring our last of three sessions to a close. Of course though, we weren’t going to end just like that! I took out my yellow Rwanda jersey from the day prior and asked the kids if they would oblige me to share their autographs to the piece. They lined up behind Mr. Fred and did just that – yet another keepsake for the collection.

With 20 footballs bagged up, along with 15 pairs of shorts, I made my way back to the Principal’s office to debrief the programs.

“How was it, Stephen?” she asked, having witnessed joy in its purest form across all three classes.

“It was perfect, Mrs. Ingrid!” I said, offering my gratitude to her, the teachers, and especially, the kids.

“They were all so wonderfully behaved,” I said… “which makes my job so much easier.”

“Actually, Stephen, the kids were even asking if you could come back tomorrow!” she said, with a grin.

“I know!” I said, with a chuckle, knowing that Wednesdays at the school were already reserved for swimming – but we all know how kids are when it comes to football, right?

“Stephen, we even have a school-wide assembly this Friday, and I already know the kids are going to be asking ‘where’s Coach?’,” she said.

I had so many positive words for Mrs. Ingrid and the school, and couldn’t help but thank her once again for bringing it all to life.

“That third session was such a surprise, but what a blessing it was,” I said, thankful I had gotten a chance to add another set of kids to the day’s schedule.

“We have 180 students enrolled here, Coach, and I bet you all 180 of them would’ve loved to participate today.”

I dropped my head in regret, knowing that my previous Thursday was completely free, but there’s always a reason to return and perhaps, this was it. The school nurse, sitting across from Mrs. Ingrid, shared a similar thought in between sentiments of praise for the session.

“This was so amazing for the kids,” she said. “You did such a good job.”

She kept going, adding how her kindergartners were glued to the classroom’s window, and one boy, Adi, almost had to be peeled from the window bars in order to return to his desk. It would’ve been a challenging group, but I know it would’ve been worth it – all in the name of football.

As a staff member helped hail a motorcycle to head back to my homebase in Kabeza, Mrs. Ingrid handed me 1,000 RWF for the fare and left me with one last expression of thanks.

“I’m a hugger, is that okay?” I asked.

“Me too!” she said, giving me a bear hug in the same way a mother would, while sharing just how beneficial the football classes were for her kids.

So there I was, legs all but noodles at this point, bouncing over dirt roads on the back of a motorcycle, a backpack full of bananas from Mrs. Ingrid on my back, hydration salt-filled water in one hand, a (now) empty gear bag in the other, after hitting seven successful sessions in hardly seven days.

If my wobbly legs were any sign, it had been a jam-packed run of sessions, but a beautiful one – with over 100 faces at three different schools getting to experience our curriculum and share in our resources. So, thank you, Rwanda. Thank you, football.