Exciting School Visitors (click here to comment)

Nice view.

This week one of Honduras' biggest soccer teams visited my middle schoolers. Marathon is one of the two major teams in San Pedro Sula, one of the "big four" teams in the country, and the current Honduran League Champions. Following up on a campaign pledge from the middle school student council president, the team came on Thursday to play some of the students in a scrimmage and sign autographs for others.

While not exactly the same in size and scope, it was roughly the equivalent of the Pittsburgh Steelers coming to visit your local middle school. Students in the U.S. probably wouldn't bat an eye at the Major League Soccer champions coming to your school, much as the American football champions wouldn't get anyone's heart racing down here (except for maybe Jesse, who Steeler's quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is his doppelganger)

I was absolutely floored that a REAL soccer team was coming to our school. Some of the kids complained that "Marathon had already come here before" or "Marathon sucks." These criticisms coming from bitter fans of the other major Honduran teams. Given my ongoing obsession with documenting Honduran soccer there were no objections to being so close that I could get a good nostril shot of a professional soccer player.

The game was a wash. To begin with Marathon lined up against the middle schoolers head-to-head. The Honduran league champions were quickly up a half dozen goals before it was decided that maybe the teams should be mixed.

The originally line-ups were tossed out the window, along with any requirements for clothing and/or skill. As the match progressed different students took the places of the actual middle school team who most took to the field in blue jeans and lack of balance against their Honduran soccer heroes.

The local TV stations and newspapers were all there covering the event, making the day seem all the more important. The head coach was interviewed on TV, the team's president (and uncle of one of my students) made an appearance, and players were flocked to by autograph seeking students. One player, Franco, was declared the cutest by an otherwise indifferent group of girls and hunted down for photos and autographs on their arms like he was a Jonas Brother (an extremely popular, but musically talentless, pair of singers).

Despite the loss of two periods of instruction it was a pretty cool event to witness. Students are already planning how to lure the other popular teams to our school, a suggestion I laughed off forgettting for a moment the power that their parents wield. Hopefully, I'll have another soccer team to show off soon.

- Dan

Picasa Gallery of Marathon's visit here.