From July 25-August 8, a CUNYAC men’s soccer team went to South Africa. For many players, it was a taste of what it’s like to be a superstar athlete, minus the big paycheck.
What’s being called the Goodwill Tour is part cultural exchange, part athletics. Each year a different CUNYAC athletic team, made up of members from all 18 CUNY colleges, heads overseas to compete while gaining exposure to a foreign country, its people and cultures. This was the first international trip for the soccer team, and Kenichi Yatsuhashi was a co-coach for the CUNYAC team after BMCC ranked number one among all the competing CUNY community colleges. The other co-coach was CUNYAC athletic director Zak Ivkovic from City College.
Before coming to BMCC, Kenichi worked for the New York State Soccer Association, which sent him to work at several soccer training camps that recruit professionals.
“I was coaching coaches and the New York State Select Team,” Kenni explained. “They send players to the U.S National team, so I was coaching the best players in the state.”
It was Kenni’s coaching experience, his ease in foreign settings, and his obvious dedication to the students that gave the CUNY community confidence that he would serve his role well as 2006 CUNYAC soccer co-coach for the summer Goodwill Tour in South Africa.
“We’ll have less time to play and practice than see the country,” Kenni said as he prepared for the trip to South Africa, a country with which he was unfamiliar but knew to be one that embraces all things soccer. “The students and I are very excited about holding clinics for the locals and really seeing the country of South Africa.”
The CUNYAC-team tournament started only a few weeks after The World Cup, which was hosted in Germany this year.
CUNYAC Players Did Their Rounds At Hospitals and Clinics
Coronation Hospital in Johannesburg
Thirty three percent of South Africa’s population has been diagnosed as HIV Positive. Many of the infected are orphaned children who contracted the virus at birth, from parents who are carriers. Most of the children the CUNYAC players met ranged in age from three to thirteen years old, though there were those as young as six months old. The players and coaches came to the hospital bearing gifts like backpacks, calculators, coloring books, pens, pencils, crayons, water paints, sketching pads, and teddy bears.
As one CUNYAC member remembers the visit, “We weren’t just giving out gifts; many players were playing with children, drawing pictures for them and just having regular conversations.”
The children who were not orphaned tended to have their mothers by their sides. The CUNYAC players learned that many of the parents were from the poverty stricken areas of the country.
Soccer Clinics
After the hospital visit, the CUNYAC coaches and players headed over to a field to teach local kids a thing or two about playing soccer competitively. Most of these clinics were held for younger children who’ve played the game before on local or school sports teams. The CUNYAC coaches and players worked on brushing up on the fundamentals of the sport and focusing on improving the fitness levels of the kids. The last part of the clinic was dedicated to just playing the game. Many of the kids showed amazing athletic ability on the field.
After all the hard work, the players and coaches handed out t-shirts and soccer balls to the kids. They in turn began to dance and sing songs in their Bantu language. The CUNYAC players joined in, ending a very touching day.
