By Daniel Boamah
07/05/2010
Football as known in the United States as soccer was the first competitive sport I was introduced to. Not because I had the zeal for it or ever saw it on TV but it was like a norm for boys where I come from. Out of the many games and sports, football or soccer was king of all. Every boy went through the stage where soccer was the normal thing to do when not in school, at least when I was growing up. Even though other sports like basketball, tennis, and ping pong are now taking a lot more grounds, soccer is still what people talk about.
I decided to participate in competitive soccer with the Gulf South Conference after my second semester studying in the United States. As an international student with no record of play in school, I had to go through a lot of hoops to be able to make the college team. The paperwork alone to get you eligible to participate was a lot of headache and something new I had never experienced. The hardest part of my new experience was to get in shape since I had not played for at least a year. Playing in Africa at that level, there was barely hours of training without a soccer ball. All we had to do was warm up, perhaps 15mins of drills and the rest of the time was playing the game. To practice hours and days without the ball was very tough for me. I was usually among the few that were left gasping for breath at practices.
I did not see much play time for the whole 2 years I played. I enjoyed the few minutes I played and was able to get my name on the score sheet a few times. I personally think lack of confidence was the reason I couldn’t show my full potential till I started playing non collegiate soccer. Since leaving college and playing other teams at a second division level, I have shown my full potential and more room to be better. The only reason stopping me from going professional is because that is not what I want to do. I had the most goals and voted MVP this spring season and lead my team to the playoffs.
From my experience playing as an international student playing for the Gulf South Conference I saw some advantages and disadvantages with the whole scheme. Personally some of the disadvantages were that I could not take a full load of classes and therefore offset my graduation by some time. The scholarship I was offered was not good enough to take care of my education expenses since I was paying out-of-state tuition. I had to work alongside fulltime schooling and soccer to make ends meet. This was not an easy task since I did not find any free time for myself. Most weekends, I was out of town competing and weekdays was for school and work.
On the advantageous side, I had the opportunity to experience how semi professional soccer competition is. I learned a lot about teamwork, team bonding and interacting with teammates from various cultural backgrounds. It was a lot of fun taking road trips, visiting places and competing. I learned more about the sport than just kicking the ball around. In all what I learned from collegiate soccer gave me the upper hand when it came to looking for a team and also on the pitch since I am considered one of the most experienced on the field. Joggling soccer, school and work taught me how to manage my time and I can see it paying off now.
In all, I am very delighted to see soccer growing exponentially in the United States of America. Everywhere, there is a soccer field or soccer camps. In the street corners, you can see boys and even girls playing around with the soccer ball. Soccer is not only becoming a favorite sport but also becoming a lucrative business to invest in. The United States competing at the World Cup also is promoting soccer and giving rise to more competitive teams and players who strive to be better to compete at the level of European club teams.
This is my story; you can call me pkdann an alumni of The University of Alabama in Huntsville.