Jasmine celebration.

Picture of team at the Tianjin-Teda soccer game.

Team captains. Left to Right - Kalina (from USA), Jasmine (from Korea) and Rachel (from Australia).

An American, Australian, Canadian, Chinese, Columbian, Frenchwoman, Japanese, Korean, and Singaporean walk onto a soccer field….what happens?

Would you believe they communicate effectively, play well together and have fun?

I have been a soccer coach for over 15 years. I have coached high school boys, club level boys, club level girls, middle school girls and high school girls. The greatest satisfaction I get is when I see my teams improve over a season. The best teams I’ve had were good listeners, hard-working, dedicated, without egos and fun to be around. Of course, winning is important too, but if a team works as hard as they can and does the best they can, it’s all you can ask for.

I have been coaching, for the past two seasons, with an International School’s High School Girls’ Soccer Team. It has been the most rewarding coaching experience of my life. Not only for the aforementioned qualities but because they are a group of girls from all over the world who came together for soccer and ended this season playing the best soccer yet.

One of the team Captains, Rachel, from Australia, explains “It is more than a sport where you just kick around a ball. It is about teamwork, skill, pushing oneself to the limit and trusting your teammates to do the same. We are all from different places but when we walk onto that field none of that matters because we are a team.” Another Captain, Kalina, from America, said, “Coming to China from America was my first overseas, international experience. I have made great friends with people from all over the world. My friendships with people on the soccer team will last forever.”

In the past two seasons, we have had players from all the countries listed in the opening sentence. These girls have developed lasting bonds despite being from different cultures. I remember our first practice of this season. We had many new players, over half of the team. They had trouble, not only with their skills, but with understanding me as their American coach. Every time I would give instructions, I would see and hear teammates talking to each other in Chinese or Korean. I do not tolerate players talking while I am talking. I was about to say something to the team when I asked my assistant coach (Yuan Yuan from China) what was going on. She told me that some of the girls English is not perfect and the other girls were explaining what I said to them. I went from ready to have them run sprints for disrespecting me to praising them for helping each other. I had to learn to expect these times of translation during practice and games. I noticed as the season went on, there were less and less of a need for translation to a point where it disappeared entirely.

One of our new players, Luo Lan, who came to our school this year from a Chinese school, said “In our big and compassionate soccer team, we incorporate many girls from multifarious countries. Though we are from different nations, and speak various languages, in the soccer team, we stay as one. During soccer ACAMIS tournament, 12 girls from 6 nations all played for one team. Everyone was the center of the stage and strive for the victory. We didn’t have strangeness because of the nations, but get on well with each other forever.”

This group has fun together and also serves together. One service project they did was to bring toys and gifts to children at the Tianjin Cancer Hospital. We rented a bus for the team and friends, and went from Teda to Tianjin. After going to the Hospital, we went to dinner together and then went to the Tianjin-Teda professional soccer game. Other service they do is help coach younger girls’ soccer teams. Every girl on the team does service work, whether it’s at an animal shelter, orphanage, hospital or somewhere else.

We started a program this year called the Senior Recognition Game. This game is meant to acknowledge our seniors, who are graduating, for all their years of service to the team and the school. This year, we had just one senior, Lee Kyung Seo (Jasmine). The entire team worked together to plan the event. Our 12th grader and a Captain, received flowers and gifts, and we had a ceremony during half-time of the game. Our Australian and American players made the speeches that recognized our Korean 12th grader. It was truly a global ceremony. Lee Kyung Seo commented, “I felt extremely grateful to be acknowledged as a leader by the team, and it made me feel special. I am very proud of my teammates and they have provided me with the best memories. Soccer has always been my ‘partner’ throughout my high school life, and I will miss my team and the coaches so much. It was especially impressive when my teammates said that they will win the tournaments for me! I will never forget the big hugs they gave me in the senior recognition game."

Also this season, we were at a tournament and staying in a hotel. It was our Goalie, Zhang Ming Yang, aka Linda’s birthday during the tournament. The girls had a big surprise party for her. Quoting Linda, “Soccer has lit a spark in every player’s life. It is more than a sport that teaches one the importance of teamwork, responsibility, communication and camaraderie. The team has given me one of my most memorable and precious birthdays. I couldn’t be more surprised and touched to see all my teammates come together to celebrate my birthday. And it was in that moment, when I walked through the door that I realized, ‘I ain’t got teammates, I got family.’” (adapting quote from Fast & Furious 7)

In our final tournament of the season, everything came together and the team was unstoppable. It was a dramatic difference from the team that started the season. They were confident, won every game, didn’t let in a single goal, and became champions. Our player from France (Ilinca) was named tournament most valuable player and our player from America (Kalina) won the Golden Boot award for scoring the most goals (9) in the tournament. What I was most impressed with is that, top to bottom, no matter who played where or with who, everyone knew what to do. Everyone played their positions well and made great decisions on the field. It was like they came to know each other so deeply that they didn’t even need to communicate at all. What a great ending to a memorable season.