If you know me just a little then you know that I’m a bit of a soccer nerd. I did play a little in high school, and have continued to play recreationally ever since. My former roommates can attest to how many random soccer games I’ve watched on FoxSportsNet over the years. I’m also a big fan of the KC Wizards and the US Soccer team; however, now that I’m in Peru I’ve switched my focus to Santa Maria’s team.
A majority of the players are in my classes so I enjoy going to games to show my support. Every Monday and Thursday after school you can find me at the soccer field cheering on Edmundo, Alvaro, Gonzalo, Gustavo, Renzo, and the rest of the students. (Yes, you’ll find that many of the names end in “o”). The semifinal of the ADECORE Cup was at Santa Maria last month and I couldn’t miss it. We were playing our oldest and most hated rival, Imaculada. I can’t really describe the amount of contempt the two schools have for each other simply because I’m still the ‘newby’ teacher, but based on what I saw that afternoon during the game I can tell there’s some bad blood between the two.
Some of my students actually came into my classroom during recess and lunch on the day of the game to request my presence that afternoon. “Okay! I’ll be there.”
Promptly after the last bell of the day, beating their drums and singing their songs, the students went straight from their classrooms to the soccer field. By the time I got to the game it was already a few minutes in and 4 policemen and about 8 Santa Maria teachers were separating the two team’s fans. No punches were thrown or people kicked out, just some friendly chest thumping and loud yelling.
The game was a good one and the level of play was impressive. I’ll spare you the dorky soccer details and just say that we scored the winning goal with less than two minutes remaining in the game. 1 – 0 in favor of Santa Maria. The students celebrated the goal by rushing the field and acting completely inappropriate and immature. Expected. However, I thoroughly enjoyed chasing them, grabbing them by the back of the neck, and telling them how stupid they were (in Spanish… admittedly, it sounded kind of funny).
When the final whistle blew, our students did the most obvious next step – completely ignored our own players, turned to the opposing fans, and started to yell obscenities and cheers to rub it in their face… as if somehow they had something to do with the victory. The teachers did quite well to keep the two schools separated so that no fights broke out.
The following day at school our students were proud of their victory and before each class I took a few minutes to talk about the game, the fans, and the rivalry. One student put it very bluntly. He said, “Honestly, Brian, we just hate them so much.” As other students are nodding in agreement, he went on to say, “We don’t even know why, but just talking about them now is making me hate them even more.” And just to get a little laugh out of them I said, “You know what Nicolas? After yesterday, I hate them too.”
Promoting uninhibited, unwarranted hatred one young Peruvian at a time –
- Profesor Brayan
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