Angel

"It felt better to come to school knowing I was part of a team."

By Students of NYC

May 17^th, 2024

"Whenever I played soccer, it was like I was genuinely happy. As a kid, every Saturday and Sunday my family would have these huge barbecues in Highland Park in East Brooklyn. I'd always play soccer with my dad. When I first started out, I couldn't kick the ball at all, but I kept playing and got better quickly, so I started playing on a team. When I was 7, I did a bicycle kick and scored a goal while my mom and dad and uncle were on the sidelines, and they went crazy. I continued playing until I was 12 and even when I moved to Georgia and then Chicago. But when I came back to high school in NYC, there was no team for me to join.

I'm not going to lie. Freshman and sophomore year, I didn't love coming to school. My teachers were great, but I just didn't have anything to really connect to. I collected a list of names — people who wanted a soccer team and who would be willing to play, but we still weren't able to have a team. I'm Honduran; a lot of my friends are Hispanic and love to play the sport. We didn't feel like we were being represented. I would come late, be absent. I would go to the park every day after school and play.

Junior year, I heard there was a team started by Coach Baron. I found out through text — the word spread quickly. We were all so excited. I knew I killed it at tryouts. I remember Coach Baron gave us a talk about school: He said, if we want to be on the team, we have to be here. We have to do well in classes. It felt better to come to school knowing that I had a team and knowing that I had people that I could connect with. Not on just a school level, but on a personal level. We were from all over; some of us were Honduran, Ecuadorian, Mexican, Dominican, one kid is from Barbados. But we all loved the sport, every single one of us. We'd all been playing since we were small. And when we were together and playing, it felt like we are all kids again, just laughing and having fun.

We started mid-season and had already missed four games. We hadn't practiced together yet, so we didn't have the right chemistry. It was hard, I'm not going to lie. That was a learning season, season for practice. But we kept working all winter. We showed up at six every morning to use the gym and practice before school. I went from not wanting to come to school to being there two hours before everyone else. And this season, we came back so strong. Our first game was a draw. At half, Coach Baron talked to us and was like, You guys need to play with more confidence. He reminded us how hard we had been working. I looked around and realized, he was right. We were really good. We won seven games in a row after that.

Some coaches make players fall out of love with the game. But Coach Baron makes us fall more in love with the game. Whenever we do something wrong, he never screams at us or gets upset. He just pushes us to be better. I've seen the way he develops different players on our team. It's amazing. Our centerman, Marco, he was a good player. But now, under Coach Baron, he always knows exactly where everyone is on the field, and he has the most assists on the team. My teammates and I have gone from being good to being great. And he helps us on a personal level, too. We always talk soccer and argue — because he's part Argentinian, so he loves Messi. But I love Ronaldo, you know? Out of all my coaches my whole life, from New York, to Georgia, to Chicago, Coach Baron is the best coach I've ever had."