In Praise of Portland City United

The photograph to the right is from last summer.  It captures something of the beauty of Peter's club team, Portland City United.  The guys just won a tournament, in a game in which the opposing team's coach seemed on the verge of a heart attack, but our guys aren't too wound up about it.  A couple of older boys who had just graduated from high school guest played, and we were missing some of our better players.  Everyone adjusted and worked well together and supported each other.

When our athletes are just starting out, they and their parents imagine great futures for them, playing in the English Premier League, or MLS, or at least going to a big college program.  As the years go by, the realization gradually sinks in, as one young man who during elementary school was most always the best player on the field, put it, "it's really hard" to succeed once you get to high school.  Part of standing out is positioning yourself to get on the "best" club team while at the same time garnering the optimal position or amount of playing time or exposure to college coaches.  I have noticed that most of the parents at the clubs who take themselves very seriously seem to have a chronic sense of dissatisfaction and restlessness.

And I've noticed over the years that many of the sons of such parents either quit the game or talk about how much they would like to.  It's too much pressures, hundreds of boys competing for one slot--or perhaps none on all.

What I've loved about Peter's four years at PCU is that his coaches and the club have put more emphasis on loving the game and supporting each other.  I suspect that the great majority of the young men pictured above will be playing soccer ten, twenty, even forty years from now, and will be fine teammates, too, on and off the pitch.