Culture of Football

Both the boys have now made their debut for Ringsted F.C. There are many differences between playing soccer here and playing in Masset. The most obvious difference is in the numbers and I think most of the other differences follow. There are way more players, and the players are all dedicated to playing soccer, they have chosen soccer over other organized sporting options. The season never ends here, when it is winter they move inside until it is nice enough to go outside, the boys aren’t so much on a team as they are part of a club. They train twice a week for an hour and a half, the boys are chosen to play in some games and the ‘team’ is made up of club members invited to play on any given play day.

Gus has been to two Saturday tournaments where they played three games each time. Games at his age and level consist of 2 seven-minute halves so they are over pretty quick and playing 3 games is not an all day affair. Gus has represented Canada well and was quite proud of his beautiful crossed in pass last weekend that was buried in the back of the ole onion bag.

Jesse missed his first game because we didn’t sort out where exactly he was supposed to go, the athletic center is a sprawling affair and it is sometimes hard to know where to go, I think we were supposed to go to the clubhouse, I won’t bother with trying to guess how many fields there are but there are lots. Jesse finally made his debut on Tuesday this week and to my eye starred in his defensive role, also supplying an excellent ball through that ultimately led to the winning goal. Other parents seem surprised that they can play as well as they do, first because we are from Canada, a hockey nation, and second they only play organized soccer during a brief 3-month season!

On the ride to our last out of town game talk turned to where we live and then to fishing. Our ride was Gus’ coach and he told of how his mother in law had bought him a fishing rod, something he didn’t really know what to do with. As he said, “This is my culture, playing soccer, I’m not going to fish.” I wish soccer was a little bit different back home, I wish the boys could play as often as they do here, but I’m also pretty happy that fishing is such a big part of Haida Gwaii culture, even if I didn’t appreciate fishing when I was a kid. Sorry Dad, maybe if we had caught fish?