Blog Roll: Desiree Davila |

It was an Etrvsco Unico soccer ball, the official ball from the 1990 World Cup in Italy. I opened up the blue cardboard box and there it laid deflated and dead, waiting for life to be breathed into it. For an 8 year old soccer fan, it was perfect, so perfect you wanted to fill it up and put it in a glass case so it would never be touched by human feet. Little did I know, in a few months time I would beat it to a pulp. It would become my feets' new best friend, it would be kicked everywhere. “This is for you, I want you to take this home and kick it every day as hard as you can for as long as you can. When it’s destroyed I’ll get you a new one and you’ll do the same thing all over.” What Janet Mika said, you did. I had seen her lift a 17 year old boy off the ground by the neck of his shirt. She’d once thrown a water bottle, maybe not at but VERY near, a player who was blowing the game by not listening to her directions. What Janet Mika said, you did, and you did it right! It was U-10 soccer and although I was quick and could zip my way down the field past the best of ‘em, my leg strength left something to be desired.

Next, I took a walk over to the fence with Susan Filippone, the other half of the power coaches. Susan was the laid back balance you needed, a little more ‘have some fun and give high fives’ to Janets ‘rip some heads off make the other team want to cry’. “Walk up to the fence and put a mark at how tall you think you are.” I took a good look, reached out and put my mark up. For an under-10 team I was very small, I’m talking ‘ankle biter, had to be number 2, because it was the smallest uniform, so I only kind of swam in it’, small. I was quick on the field and could work my way past a good number of defenders, but truth be told my ‘speed’ was a survival technique. I had to be quick, there was no choice, for both my life's and legs' safety it was be fast or join the bowling league. Now it was time to be measured. Susan put the mark for my actual height up and I turned around to check it out, I had over estimated my height by a good 5 inches. “That’s good, in your mind you are thinking bigger than you really are. Why stop there? Raise the bar even more, think even bigger, like 6 feet big and you’ll play that way.”

That summer while 8 - 10 year olds everywhere were watching reruns of Saved by the Bell and MTV music videos, I was slamming my 1990 Etrvsco Unico against the side of the house busting up some stucco. I had a mantra, Play BIG, that instantly transformed me into a 6 foot monster that would destroy little kids. That summer I learned a lot from Janet and Susan; don’t sit on your legs, cover your mouth when you yawn because if you don’t your tonsils show and it’s rude and upsets Janet, chew with your mouth closed, and oversized black jerseys truly do have magic in them. It’s funny, I could write a books worth of material on stories from coaches and how these part-time parents have molded and shaped my life. I’m sure neither Janet nor Susan, would have thought about the impact those moments would have on someone and the lessons they would learn. In that summer of 8 year old awkwardness I put 100% trust in my coaches and I was rewarded greatly. I learned the importance of hard work, power of the mind, and how to dream big.

18 years later it’s the same story, different sport. I certainly didn’t have the greatest credentials coming out of college. My mileage was an inconsistent 65-74 miles a week and my once, survival quick lightning speed, now is the element that leaves something to be desired. In post-collegiate running there is no more hand holding; I already know the routine. I carefully follow the plan mapped out by Kevin and Keith, the new coaches I put my trust in. I have new mantras, ‘run smart’, ‘be patient’ and ‘relax’. I never grew into that 6 foot tall monster, but my dreams and goals grew much larger than that. The Etrvsco Unico? replaced by my Ravenna’s. Just the other day I opened up a brand new pair feeling a little ‘tier two’, I have no desire to put them in a display case, I want to beat them to a pulp so I can promptly replace them and repeat.