Saturday Night Soccer

Hoops Sagrado is a basketball program. For the five weeks we are in Guatemala we pretty much eat, breath and sleep basketball. However, for two hours at some point during the five weeks, we take a break from basketball and enjoy "the beautiful game."

Xela's professional soccer team, the Super Chivos, has won four national championships throughout the years and is one of the better professional teams in the country. On this Saturday night they were playing Marquense, a rival from San Marcos. The game was fairly typical of La Liga Nacional with some goals, a lot of bad passing, a lot of diving, numerous yellow cards, two red cards and a fight. In the end Xela tied 2-2. Not a loss, but a win sure would have been nice.

This was the first professional soccer game that many of the Hoops students had ever attended and we sure did pick a good one. The stadium was absolutely rocking (probably due to the two for one ticket deal that night). Our seats were at one end of the stadium that is known for it's raucous cheering. There are two large suppport groups for the Super Chivos. One is sorta like DC United's Screaming Eagles and the other is like the Barra Brava. We sat with the Super Chivos Barra Brava.

We're never totally sure how the Hoops students will react to the soccer game, but they usually have a pretty good time. I would say (and I think based on the photo with this post) that this group of students embraced the experience probably more than any other group we've taken to a game.

While basketball will always be the focus of Hoops Sagrado and the students we bring to Guatemala, we may have just gotten a soccer convert or two out of this experience.