Soccer ⚽
⚽ Football (soccer)... also known as The Beautiful Game. An apt name for the sport, I think. It’s fun, brings people together, creates moments of awe and wonder (especially when you watch Lionel Messi highlights). Also, what we’ve found at a2f, it’s great for cardio and meeting people!
Different ones of our mentors and students have been playing soccer during the week to meet new people and just gather to do something fun and active.
Level Up Summer Sports Camp
This past summer, we had a Level Up camp where some of our more experienced members led a 4 week sprint of sports training for other postgrads and students on Fridays before dinner. The two sports we focused on were volleyball and soccer.
As the coach for soccer, I gotta say… people definitely leveled up. Obviously there was a wide range of skill and experience. Some people had played club soccer as kids, others had never participated in team sports before in their life. But what was really cool was getting to see our church’s values shine through even in something as seemingly random as soccer training: we’re down to do whatever, we’re in it together, and we’re going to encourage each other through it. It didn’t matter what anyone’s skill level or athleticism was - everyone was down to go through the drills, learn, and try to have a good time together.
At the end of the Level Up series, we had an awards ceremony to recognize the Most Improved, Most Hustle, and Best Teammate. It was fun as a coach to let everyone know how much they’d improved since the first week and to hand out these awards. It was especially cool because I got to give the Most Improved award to my wife (it wasn’t rigged, I swear).
By the end, everyone was a little bit more comfortable with playing soccer, had gotten some good exercise, and had a good experience. I’m thankful that our church has so many people who are down to share even these parts of life together - spending a Friday evening to just play sports and have a good time together.
Soccer Intramurals
One other highlight for soccer has been our intramural team (A2F FC), captained by one of our student leaders.
Throughout the year, different ones of our members will go to the Rec Cen fields to just play pickup soccer and meet people. We’ve made lots of friends over the years, and so one of the student leaders has been setting up an IM team each quarter to bring together the soccer people at a2f and the new friends we’ve been meeting.
While we don’t exactly have a winning record 😅, it’s been really fun being able to bring together these strangers to have a good time each week playing the beautiful game. Here’s a team pic!
Justin Lin (c/o 2019) graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Psychology Major. Hit him up to play soccer. He's currently serving as a mentor with students at a2f SB.