COLUMNS

COLUMN: Soccerfest kicks off fall season

Lee Goodwin

It isn’t the soccer part that makes soccerfest what it is.

No, not by a long shot.

It’s the sights and sounds of dozens of children in their blue, orange, green, yellow, black, white and red jerseys. It’s the contrasting look of excitement and trepidation as they take to the field for their first scrimmage against players from another team.

Take away the children, take away the game. Literally. Because, someday, for some, not too long in the future, those “children” will be donning Blue and Gold and kicking it around on the turf at Buchanan Automotive Stadium at Waynesboro Area Senior High School.

Ah, but that’s not what soccerfest — that is, soccer (insert your sport here) is all about either. The sport at this level is not a feeder program (cue the angry rebuttals, T-Rex roars and Vince Lombardi quotes). That’s for the travel teams. For the rest of the kids playing in the Waynesboro Youth Soccer Association, it’s about getting out there and trying something different, learning a new sport, and overcoming the butterflies and tears of not feeling good enough to be on the field with others their age who might have been playing a year or two — or three.

I saw first hand the display of gratitude for a program that has become an iconic part of the community and is an outlet for children, indelibly marked by a spirit of sportsmanship and steered along by caring and dedication from coaches and parents. Some coaches, in the words of WYSA founder Bob Stum, haven’t even coached soccer. They’re as new to the sport as some of the kids.

The only fundraising request: partake of food and drink at the concession stand.

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A six-year-old, a seven-year-old, an eight-year-old, a nine-year-old, a 10-year-old doesn’t have to make a choice between soccer or cheerleading or baseball or basketball or dance. He or she will, with the help of parents and their own growing intuitive understanding of what they can and want to do, come to that determination soon enough. For now, there’s enough pressure with reading and math homework and evening practices before getting enough rest to do it all again the next day.

It became clear how true this really is many years ago in a kitchen table conversation between two grown men. A 10-year-old boy’s father was chastened by another adult for not picking “the” sport he would become great at  in the future. The boy was good at golf, but he also liked baseball.

“He’s only 10,” his father said calmly and rationally, despite the provocation of the other man.

“Bull,” said the other guy. “He has to make a decision.”

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The beauty of Saturday’s soccerfest — which featured a long menu of friendlies named in honor of the late Ethan Barnhart — was this: for one day, and, hopefully for all who played, a season, soccer will be a positive part of their lives. That they didn’t go home with their heads down because they made a mistake or they didn’t score a goal or stop a goal from being scored.

Hopefully, the message is a continuing one rather than a revelation, an epiphany.

A sport isn’t just a sport to a child. Witness the little leaguer offering a hand to an opposing player who has just hit a home run. Or the lack of significance attributed to scoring a goal or a touchdown, trading it for a chance to say ‘Hi’ to a classmate in school or a friend from the neighborhood. It’s as much about socialization as competition.

And, whether they play next spring, the year after or the year after that, or they become the next Carli Lloyd or Landon Donovan, what matters most is they learn self-confidence and not to fear the adults in their lives who are entrusted with the task of nurturing the talents and abilities of those many inches shorter.

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Smart lad, to slip betimes away

From fields where glory does not stay,

And early though the laurel grows

It withers quicker than the rose

— A.E. Housman, An Athlete Dying Young

Which leads us to Ethan Barnhart, who might have easily epitomized the essence of sport more than most people still living.

Classmate and teammate at WASHS Jesse Smith gave a very brief but moving speech about Barnhart, who died in December 2013 of cancer.

“I played soccer with him when he was nine and he wasn’t good,” Smith said with wry humor.

But Barnhart got better. And better. And then his short career became even shorter after he was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a vicious form of cancer that attacks the bone and soft tissue.

Barnhart was only 19 when he died. So much ahead, yet so much accomplished by sheer will and optimism and faith.

Here’s hoping the lessons learned from Ethan’s life resonate and reverberate like a mass chorus throughout the entire Waynesboro community and beyond.

In the meantime, keep calm and soccer on.