Lifestyle:
It would be difficult for me to name 5 world-class soccer players. Years ago I would probably know but not even sure of that.
My soccer chops were based on Long Island City’s high school asphalt fields next to the main building. We had no grass fields for any sport. Traveling was how we got to play on grass. The baseball team played on PAL field in Astoria which was about 5 miles away from the school.
The soccer team practiced and played wherever they could. Same went for most of the school varsity teams. We did have a gym but it was antiquated, tiny and stifling. In the warmer months kids would drop from the heat as there was not any AC. There was in fact not AC in the whole building. Any teams that succeeded did it on their own as facilities or equipment was not on the agenda.
In gym class when the weather got warmer we did have some outdoor activities mostly running around the field of softball but without softball gloves. There also was a small separate area where pick up soccer games were played.
Usually what happened were the kids would choose sides not according to ability but where what neighborhood you lived, or what country you were from. The latin kids were one team, the Greek kids were another team and the white kids were the scrub team.
The games lasted about 30 minutes and whoever played the white kids would end up kicking their asses. There were no mercy rules so the scores were lopsided and humiliating for the white kids.
I would play mostly with the white kids but sometimes if a team was short a player I would make it over to the foreign kids teams. Not that I had any ability but I could run fast, so that was my only redeeming value to them.
The black kids mixed in with the inept white kids too but their soccer skill set was not any better than ours. Mostly we played to run around , have fun and claim we would beat them the next time but that never happened.
Despite the meager facilities the LIC soccer team won the New York City soccer championship 7 years running.
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