After earning the Most Valuable Player status in a provincial soccer tournament, Carlos Correa of Humboldt came up with these words:
"What I love most about sports is that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but all times the outcome is specifically reflective of your own personal commitment."
The team Correa was playing for didn't place in the Saskatchewan Soccer Association 2012 Masters Provincial Championships, although two years ago they did win Provincials and he went to play with them at the Western Championship in Victoria, B.C.
"We didn't make it to the final," said Correa, who travelled to Swift Current to play for Regina's WCP Deportivo, August 11 and 12. "It was a round-robin tournament, and we were missing some key players.
"What's interesting is how that lack of players made me work harder in different positions on the field."
Correa shares the 2012 MVP title with another player in the tournament, Babak Ghazanfari of the Prince Albert Silver Pikes.
With his Uruguayan origins, Correa is a true example of how kids grow up playing on the street whatever sport is most popular in their country. In South American countries, it seems to be soccer; in India and the Caribbean, it is cricket; in Canada, it is hockey.
It is quite a trek for someone who lives in Humboldt to go to Regina to play soccer every week. But there's a saying that if the mountain doesn't come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain. That phrase sums up Correa's approach to soccer. Though he lives and works in Humboldt, Correa will drive the extra mile to play soccer.
"I've been playing for this team in Regina for three years, because when I started working with Access (Communications) it was in Regina, I was there to do my training," explained Correa. "And the first time I played in this tournament, we won Provincials.
"Then last year I played with them again," he continued, "so I was travelling from here to Regina once a week to play soccer, and I started playing in Saskatoon with a Masters team over there, too. I was trying to keep myself in shape."
Since he's been in Humboldt, Correa has been trying to help bring more awareness to the game locally.
He helped start up an adult indoor soccer league in the fall of 2011, and has been involved with coaching an Under-18 team as well as Humboldt Collegiate Institute's high school team.
While soccer is a popular activity among the younger ages, it doesn't get the same attention in Saskatchewan as other sports, such as hockey and football. Fewer and fewer players - be it high school students or young adults - stick with it when they get older.
The mixed adult soccer league blossomed over the winter with a Facebook page for easy messaging and by word-of-mouth. Its numbers grew, and by mid-winter about two dozen men and a few women were showing up regularly for some fun and exercise. The group met on Friday nights at St. Peter's College gymnasium in Muenster.
But, with summer came other occupations, and the numbers gradually dwindled down to nothing.
"We tried to move the indoor soccer out-of-doors for the summer, and for awhile it worked," he said. "We were helping the Under-18s train, but because the Under-18 team was a mix of players from all over - Swift Current, Kindersley, Melfort - when we tried to get together to play, there weren't a lot of team players in Humboldt.
"It was the same issue when I was coaching the high school boys last year," he added. "We had a hard time getting enough players to fill the 11-a-side team."
Although he'll never stop wanting to play soccer, Correa says his focus is on coaching these days. He is busy taking as many coaching courses as he can so that he can get his coaching certificates, both provincially and nationally.
"The field of play is one of the best avenues for today's youth to learn basic skills such as hard work, determination, commitment, and perseverance," he said. "It's something that will prepare them for the field of life."
