Alaskan Bulgarian

Football With the Kids

Call me adaptable, but when somebody mentions the word "football" to me, two sports spring to mind at the same time, and in Bulgaria I naturally assume people are talking about the kind that invloves the feet more than the arms. It has made conversation easier here and when my two eighth grade classes said they were playing a football game against each other, the thought of American football didn't even enter my mind.

The kids had asked me to come watch them after school and I obliged. Of course, as is so often the case with sports in Bulgaria, a few of the kids didn't come so they asked me to play. I'll admit to never really being an expert at the game. I played in a youth league eons ago and have only had the rare casual school or pick-up game since. What's interesting about all this is that I seem to have more natural ability at football than I do in basketball. My height has been my main inspiration in basketball, and I've practiced a lot to best make use of it since I love the sport, but as far as having a natural basketball sense, I don't think I ever did.

But here, after having only played twice--maybe--in the last six years, I was able to play, compete, and actually score a few goals playing against eighth graders. Well there we go right there, huh? They are just kids after all. Well, no. I'll admit I used my size once or twice to get to a header, and over a certain distance I am probably faster than most of them, but these guys have been playing for most of their lives, they all had a few tricks up their sleeves, and none of them looked like a rookie out there. They were all impressed with me as a beginner, and seemed to be putting their all into the games (They weren't giving them away. The class I played with in the beginning got whumped just as badly as they say they normally do.)

So I seem to know what I'm doing when I play football. What does it all mean? Well, it gives me something to play other than basketball, and it gives me some incentive to start up a project Jeff has been working on in Isperih. He's starting a summer youth league in his town and says that everybody's getting excited about it.

I've already mentioned the possibility a few times around Silistra, a much larger town, and have gotten the usual "If that's what you want to do" shoulder shrug I've gotten when I suggest a project here. And I'd be okay with that shrug if there were a flood of ideas behind it, but no one, and I repeat--no one--has come to me with an idea an Silistra. No one has said, "Say Mr. Young. I hear you're the type of fellow that could bring a bit of money into this town if you wanted to, how about..." All project ideas have come out of me, and they get met with the shrug.

Part of this is probably because I work with the wrong people for project ideas. Jeff, a teacher in a smaller town, lives his life with everybody, working out with the police chief, for example. In Silistra I've met everybody I've needed to meet, right on up to the governor of the region, but I rarely so much as run into them walking down the street. I spend a lot of time with the teachers in my school, their spouses, and our director. They love the school (sort of), but as far as community projects go, most of them just don't seem to have the time. And I understand that, so i've decided to go younger.

If a youth football is going to work here, I think the kids are the ones who have to get the ball rolling on it, starting the rumors. I mentioned it to the eighth graders, they liked the idea, and I hope they'll bring it home to their parents. I think the kids here need something to do in the summer, and this still sounds like a pretty good idea.

Posted by Rob at January 16, 2004 06:42 PM