Going forward, we want to make blogs for parents to help show how big of an effect they have on their children's development in the game of football/soccer.
In the coming weeks and months, we will be sharing personal stories from a group of different people. These stories will come from our coaches, myself, and even examples from professional players.
Today we are going to start with one of my stories. This one is very important because this was the origin of my whole soccer career.
Since the day I was born I was destined to play soccer.
My father played high school soccer in New York. His team was one of the best in the state, winning the state championship two times. He also had offers to play collegiately in the state of New York, due to various reasons he didn't play. However, that never took away his love for the game.
As early as I can remember I was waking up early in the morning to watch Manchester United in the Premier League, looking at his championship trophies in the cabinet, and playing too much FIFA. I was already in love with the game and I didn't even really know it yet.
Fast forward, a few years later. All of the moves I saw watching games, and in FIFA transformed to the soccer field. Every weekend I would go to the park and play. The time had come at the age of 8 years old where I knew all I wanted to do was play soccer.
To this point, I had never played in a team and that was what I wanted to do most. I spent months begging my parents to put me in a team. At first, they couldn't due to financial reasons but down the line, I joined a team called Yonkers United.
My first ever organized game was on my birthday, October 21st.
The night before I was so nervous. I had never played organized soccer before so was I good enough? What if I played badly on my birthday and we lost?
My dad told me "Don't worry it's your birthday you are going to score tomorrow and your team will win."
At the time I didn't believe him at all, but exactly what he said came true. I'll never forget this moment it still feels like it happened yesterday. The game was almost ending and we were tied 0-0. My teammate passed me the ball at the edge of the box and I bent it to the bottom right corner and scored. This was ultimately the winning goal.
As soon as it went in I was in disbelief and I looked right at my parents. They were celebrating and at that moment I got a boost of confidence and joy.
I made my parents proud.
When the final whistle blew I first celebrated with my parents. Then as we were walking to the car to go home all of the parents of my teammates came up and said "Good job, Walter."
It was overwhelming because I never had a feeling like that at such a young age. I even asked my parents "Why is everyone coming up to me?" They told me "Because you scored the winning goal."
I made everyone proud.
This moment shaped my future. I would go on to play soccer for years even until this day as a young adult. Not only my parents, but the other parents around gave my passion a kickstart.
How We Can Help:
At FuturElitez Soccer, we emphasize a lot on our player's mindset and attitude towards not only football/soccer but life. Not only do we emphasize this with our players, but we try to put out information for everyone to see. With our podcasts on youtube and our blogs, we try to put out a message to help everyone live their life to the fullest! If you enjoyed this read, it would mean so much to us if you could share this with a friend/family member! Thank you in advance for always reading our blogs on a weekly basis!