Personal Narrative: Why I Love Soccer

Soccer is a sport that connects people from all across the world. Once I began my soccer journey I felt alone because I was the only African American in my league. For six years, I was surrounded by the people who defined the norm of soccer in my community. This norm was that Latinos play soccer and African Americans play football or baseball but I didn't follow it. Practice was one thing, but during games the eyes of coaches and parents were locked in on the only African American in the league. My first game was what I would call a beautiful disaster. I arrived at my first game and felt the pressure of what seemed like 100 eyes watch me . I stood out, I was not the same color as my teammates nor was I as experienced as them. This was the beginning of my journey and how I came to love soccer. Frequently, I was questioned by my brother and friends, “ Why do you play soccer only. Mexicans play this sport?”. I did not know how to answer this question until my passion for soccer became stronger. Soon I began to question if I should continue playing or not. Initially, when I started

These hopes did not turn out as planned the transition was tough and once again I felt alone when I signed up from my school team. Again I was the only African American who signed up for the team and out of fear of being known as the “ black kid on the team” I did not join. With my club the feelings were different, my team had just started to play competitive and the lonely feeling began to drift. Little by little I began to see more people like me, and saw that they were also going against the norm of a sport belonging to Latinos. My first year in high school and competitive soccer taught me valuable things and those helped me answer the question that was still being asked to kids like