Uncle Ben Was Right

"With great power comes great responsibility". After the fifth reboot of the spider man movies this phrase is now engraved in pop culture, and maybe just like spider man discovered this in order to become an adult , I have to do the same? I've always been pretty self-sufficient. I've never needed much from anyone, and I was always happy to follow orders, do them as fast as I could. and continue on with my life. I had managed to live my life while avoiding any position in which I had power, mostly because I knew it would be extra work. This radically changed the moment I became the manager of a soccer field. Not only the I became in charged of a business with between 4 to 6 people at my charge, but i also became the authority figure in charge of making sure 14 adults don't murder each other , or my referee. I'm also in charged of the scariest part, making sure an army soccer of moms doesn't  murder anything in their sights after one of their kids gets hurt, or looses a game. Now to add insult to injury i look like a 15 year old kid who had never killed a fly, and everyone thinks can walk all over me. I've heard thousands times how people desire power... for god sake i have not seen a single plus of having a little power, and i imagine it only gets worse when the power increases .

Potential In The Valley

 Mostly every Hispanic kid daydreams of playing soccer the same way every kid wants to be an astronaut or a fireman. In  many countries , specially Latin America, a child first toy is a soccer ball, and unlike the astronaut, or the fireman, the dream of becoming a professional soccer player is more likely to stay right up until their formative years. The Rio Grande Valley is no exception to this. During the course of the 2 years I've been in charge of my business, I've encountered a surprising amount of kids with natural born talent. From 17 year old high school seniors who can run all day withouth having a drop of sweat, and control what the ball does as if they were playing a video games, to 7 year old that can score a free kick from 25 yards away. Now if all this sport talk doesn't make sense to you, all you need to know is that this kids are good. Good enough to at least get their college paid for thanks to soccer, yet the amount of talent wasted is just plain stupid. I meet a guy last summer who would play between 7 to 10 games a day. The kid was brilliant!  The kind of person who you would see flourish the moment he stepped into the field. He was so good that sometimes he would text while running past defenders. He received a full scholarship to play soccer. Everything paid for! room, board, food, and even a freaking car. All he need was to graduate, and get a 16 on ACT. He decided taking the test was too much work, and did not even attend the exam. The only thing more frustrating than this is that he's not the first person I've meet who has done this. It makes me wonder. Why does so much potential in the valley is wasted? Is it just soccer? Is it the place? our culture? and most importantly what can we do to help?

Where's is the "Civil" in Civilized ?

      Before I begin  I want to preface that I do understand jobs are not meant to be fun, and that I probably have 100 times better than a lot of people. I'm just discussing the interaction I encounter with people every day at work.


      I work at a soccer field. To be more specific my job is to schedule the games , inform at what time every team is supposed to play, keep track of  the scored, make sure the rules are upheld, make sure the referees show up, making sure nobody tries to murder the referees ...Well actually just making sure nobody murders anyone, but more on that later. So I have three different leagues, children, men, and woman. Each has it's own difficulties, but none of them seize to amaze me. It is incredible what people will do or say once a little of passion is inserted into their minds. For example children games are a sight to be hold. You've never faced true fear until you have jump in between the clutches of two angry moms' trying to murder each other based on the result of a bunch of 6 year old kids playing soccer. Once I had to ask 70 year old women to please stop throwing water bottles to the referee, and she replied by spitting on me.


Now a parent being too passionate over their children is something I can maybe comprehend that, but it is the men games that baffle me. I can not comprehend how irrational this people sometimes get. Today I had to stop a person from punching my referee because he didn't call a penalty fast enough!. I mean I'm not even saying because he didn't call it at all, but  just because he didn't call fast enough!! . I usually just ask them to leave, and if the try to fight me which happens very often, I  call the police. Today I deiced to try a different approach. As an angry 40 year old man furiously approach me to tell me the referee was the worst thing to ever happen to him.   I though  we're adults here, surely if speak politely to him, and explain it is just a game, that the referee was just doing his job, and nobody should get his , "Teeth kick in"  as he described it, for a game. I tried my best to be nice andIi assured him I'd do my best to solve his problem. Well his response was to inform me that he planned to beat me and my referee to a pulp and then defecate in the middle of the field.. I proceed to call the police which caused him to immediately  run away. Now I'm sure that every job that consist of dealing with rowdy costumers but it genuinely pains me to know that people can't understand that the person in front of them is just trying to do his job. The fact that it is easier for people to solve they're problems with violence, instead of just talking to people its just plain sad. The way he reacted better to threats and insults, than to a rational conversation scares me. What if we're not as civilized as we imagine to be. Is this the way or people act? For the good of everyone I just hope there's just something about soccer that make people act this crazy.