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Jared Morales

8/12/10

A Father's Dream

It was July 27, 2004. A sunny day in Crosby Park and my dad Alejandro yelled "shoot son shoot!" from the goalie area, where he was watching intently. He once told me that he wants me to fulfill his dreams of becoming a professional soccer player. He wants me to play because he didn't have the chance to become a professional soccer player. He planned to play for a team in Mexico that was called Los Caneros De Zacatepec, but he didn't have the money to travel to Zacatepec were he was going play. Zacatepec was a futbol power house back in 1978-1981. In 1983 the manager, Ignacio Trelles, offered my father the chance to pick his own jersey number, and my dad decided on the number 19. The manager told him that he needed money to travel to Zacatepec. I still could not believe how well my dad played when he was 19. My dad asked me if I could fulfill his dreams. I jumped and said "of course I will anything for you!",and from that day on it is my dream to become a professional soccer player for my dad.

"Soccer!" I began playing soccer in 2003 with my friend Ignacio, but I was not good enough. So instead, my father started to train me to play the same position that he played, defense, because he said that it one of the most important positions on the field. I listened to my dad and started playing as a defender even though I wanted to play as a forward so that I could score some goals just like my cousin Rey Rebolledo. I thought that being a defender was easy, the only thing they had to do is to kick the ball out of the goalie area, but it wasn‘t that simple to just kick the ball out of there. Being a defender is hard because the defender had to stick with the player and try to take the ball away from him. After a few days of training, I still wondered why my dad was teaching me to be a defender.

It was a cloudy but bright Wednesday and I woke up with a question in my mind. I went to my parent’s room where my dad was watching television. I sat down and I asked him “why do I have to play as a defender instead of a forward?” My dad explained to me why he wants to me play as the last man on the team. Over that half-hour, he told me that he wants me to play the same position as him because he wants me to fulfill his dreams of becoming a great professional soccer player. My dad felt sad because he wanted to have played so we could have a good life. I told him that we did have a good life and that without him, we wouldn’t be happy that I wouldn’t be happy and without your training and all his hard effort. He said that I must fulfill his dreams because he didn't have the chance to be one and that is why he wants me to play in that position.

I asked him why he didn't have the chance to play in the Mexican league. He told me that he could not play because he did not have the money to travel to Zacatepec to play with the team called Los Caneros de Zacatepec. My dad said that in the past it was harder to get money then today. He had to work two jobs to get 200 pesos only. The manager offered him any place on the team, and have his own choice of jersey, but he needed about 12,000 pesos to travel to Zacatepec and to get his uniform, he had to get the money by the next week Monday. My dad told me that without money or education then you cannot achieve in your goal. I started thinking about what my dad told me about education and money to travel. For me, my dad is a hero because he taught me everything that he knows and he wants me to be better than him. When I get older I will pass my skills to the next generation and make them a better defender than my dad and me. Maybe they will play in Chelsea F.C., Barcelona F.C., maybe AC Milan and possibly take Mexico to the Word Cup Finals.

It was a nice Saturday. It was about to be 9:37am I woke up to go and play soccer with my team called Union Guerrero. By 10:05am, I was ready to go and my dad took me to the 45th park. The game had just begun. As I went in a teammate passed me the ball and, just then, I heard “shoot son, shoot!”