Items

• 
  2022-05-01

  Disposable mask on soccer field, urb 15 de enero

  After a game of soccer, that ended when the ball was kicked out of bounds and landed on cactus (rendering the ball flat), I took this picture of a disposable mask left behind on the soccer field.
• 
  2022-05-01

  Mask trash soccer field in Parque de la Independencia

  This is a mask left behind on a cement soccer field in Parque de la Independencia, Urbanización 15 de enero in Arequipa, Peru.
• 
  2022-05-01

  Mask trash parque de la independencia

  Mask trash on the football field at parque de la Independencia urb. 15 de enero
• 
  2020-11

  Group Homes and the Pandemic

  To understand my story, I will give some context as to the nature of my work. I worked at a group home made for 14–17-year-olds unaccompanied minors coming from Central America. When they entered the program, they are put into one of the many houses that we currently have and given a room, education, structure, all the things that make for a normal life. These many houses would interact with each other quite frequently, many times, the best friends of one house were in a different house. Many of the kids were in soccer and other sports, they would go to church, and different places in town on a regular basis. Once the lockdowns began, our program proceeded in a similar fashion to prevent anyone from getting infected. One of those things included stopping the normal interacting between the houses and confine everyone to their own homes. Besides the obvious social loss, school provided them with access to English almost the entire day; to make friends here, they would learn on their own, to meet a boyfriend or girlfriend, they would work at it every single day. You can’t measure what the pandemic took away from these kids. Each one of them is no doubt less fluent in English unless they had actively worked at it, they missed out on getting to know the culture and embracing it for their future, so many things that we can not measure, but without a doubt were lost. For some though, the pandemic turned into a very good time for learning and becoming better than they were before. Hours would pass very slowly in the house, and you can only watch and play video games so long before getting bored, so one youth found something that they were very good at. This youth would spend his time crafting all sorts of different things. Eventually, his walls were filled with rosaries, charms, bracelets, animals made of beads, and all sorts of other random crafts I could not name. He had a zest for life even during the pandemic and worked hard to keep learning more and more. The necklace in the picture is one that he had made for me that I hang on my shrine at home. He was a very religious, and it was that religion that helped him get from his home country and make it to the United States. This is a common story for many of the youths in my program, they take religion seriously and try to continue the traditions they had in their home countries. They could not go to Church during most of the lockdown and found other ways to express their religiosity, this is how the youth in my story expressed his.
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #11

  Yo quiero ser un jugador de fútbol
• 
  2022-04-12

  VAP and SMhopes #9

  Ser el jugador, estrella de todo el mundo.
• 
  2021-10-03T14:23

  Brianna Biagini Oral History, 2021/10/03

• 
  2020-08-27

  Playing D1 Athletics during the Covid Pandemic

  I am on the women’s soccer team at Arizona State University, and the world’s way of handling sports during the pandemic was ever changing and interesting to say the least. This photograph depicts me playing soccer outside while fully masked. At the start of the pandemic, all sports were put on a complete hold and all athletes were sent home. The next progression was that we were able to return to campus, however we must practice fully masked and maintain no contact with other athletes. As you can imagine, running sprints in August in Arizona was no easy feat, but nobody complained and everyone was just happy to get back on the field. Within a couple of months, we were able to resume contact, remove masks, and play against other schools as long as weekly testing was enforced. As the year has progressed and vaccinations have become readily available, the restrictions for vaccinated individuals have been almost completely lifted and testing is no longer required. This pandemic has completely changed my outlook on sports and life in general. It is so easy to dread the early morning practices, the hard team workouts or count down the days until your next off day. However, once those things are completely taken away from you, you truly realize how lucky you are to even be on the field in the first place. This pandemic, in all that it has taken from us, has given me a sense of appreciation for all the little things that I used to dread. I find myself being much more optimistic in the hard moments than I was before, and I have been able to be much more grateful for the opportunities that I have been given. I truly do think that this lesson will carry over into my life beyond athletics, and that I will have a different outlook on seemingly dreadful tasks. You never know when a global pandemic could suddenly put your life on hold.
• 
  2020-09-30

  No Room for Activities

  I am not overly social. Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic’s stay-at-home orders were not a big deal to me. However, the mandate meant no after-school activities for my kids who had a very hard time with it. My ten-year-old son took it the hardest as it meant no soccer, no chess, and no playdates which also meant no touching, no tag, and absolutely no wrestling. After classes, I would pick them up and chauffeur the kids around town to all their activities. If we had time we would sometimes stop by the mall and grab a bite to eat. If we had an hour to kill, we would run into the arcade for a quick game or two of Mario Kart. But all that stopped once COVID struck. There was no room for the kids’ activities—no sports, no music lessons, no mall eateries, no more Sbarro on the run, no arcade—so in essence, no more fun. Due to COVID constraints, my boy developed a small case of depression from not being able to play with his friends and soccer buddies. Seeing my son miserable affected me, especially after reading some children were committing suicide due to these restrictions. I forgot just how much bonding with friends and socializing meant when you are ten and surrounded by thirty other kids for five days a week. While the pandemic gave parents like me a respite from all their children’s after-school extracurriculars, it was not worth seeing my son sad like that, and socializing was not the only aspect affected. My kids really missed getting their hands-on activities with other kids at the playground and soccer field. Kids simply love playing anywhere and touching everything, so not being able to do so hampers their growth through play and touch. Soccer was an outlet for all my son’s pent-up energy and once it and the other sessions were taken away, he felt trapped at home. We would play in the backyard, but it was not the same for him. Although he may complain about school now, he still needs his friends. Luckily, the pandemic is over, and soccer and their clubs are all back on. My son is back to his normal rambunctious self again. My children are back to being full-time kids again!
• 
  2020-04-09T13

  Adapting to New Life Style

  I was one of those people that when the warnings of a virus was coming I did not think much of it, and me being an only child, my parents were always concerned about my safety. They made me wake up early in hopes to catch a bus with less people to go to school, made sure I washed my hands for 20 seconds every time I came back home. I still always went out with my girlfriend and hanged out with friends. Luna Park was also reopening and I got an invite to work there again. I was really excited and then we hear the news that quarantine has begun. I decided to not take the offer even when they send the email that they promised great care for the staff. Most of friends and their parents got sick and I started to take it seriously when my best friend's father died. It was a big group of friends that knew each other for a long time so it was a very sad time for all of us. Later however my mother did get sick but she did recover quickly and me and my dad were lucky not to get sick. We were not able to return to work however our church did help us when it came to food and our landlord was very understanding and allowed everyone in the apartment to pay rent until 3 months. It was difficult to make that money. Things have progressively gotten better and I've always been much more careful outside especially with me having asthma effects of the virus could be much deadlier to me. These experiences made me learn to take the pandemic more seriously and take care of myself and my family
• 
  2020-03-03

  Postponed season

  Our spring soccer season was cancelled because of being sent home as a result of the pandemic, so we had workouts etc. that were to be done at home. I am a keeper so this is a small clip of me doing a training exercise at my house.
• 2021-01-25

  COVID Thoughts and the Journey through the pandemic

  I thought the pandemic was not as bad as I expected for me. Since soccer was still open, I got to get a lot of physical activity during the pandemic and I love playing soccer. School was different since the first semester I was online the whole time. This was very frustrating since I had no social interaction with any of my friends. The second semester however I transferred schools and it is going much better now than before. In general the pandemic was very hard to get through with all of the rules you had to follow and everything else, but it also made some memories.
• 2020-12-14T14:22

  The Beginning of COVID-19

  I honestly can't remember a time without the virus. A time when things felt normal or ordinary. Life before the pandemic, it wasn't perfect, not even close, but I didn't ever feel like I was being strangled, gasping for air. The month of February, only 10 months ago, but feels more like a lifetime since then. I was a 7th grader then, thinking about things like schoolwork and friends and soccer; normal things. I remember I was so happy, so happy that I had such amazing friends, and such a normal life. But, I wanted school to end. I mean, what 13 year old doesn't? Now, I realize how much that wish has effected my life. The day I found out about COVID was a day like any other; I was at school that day, you know, normal things. After school, I checked TikTok and saw all these random videos about some virus that had popped up. At first, I thought nothing of it. When the district announced that school was shutting down, I was told it would only be 2 weeks; just 2 weeks! I thought it would be like a short break from the day-to-day school life, so if anything, I was happy. As the weeks went by, though, I started to panic. What was this coronavirus and why was it ruining my life? I thought eventually it would end, but then we got the alert we were out for the rest of the school year, then the alert that COVID cases were rising once again, then we got the alert that there was no chance of us going back to school in the Fall, and during all of this, as you can imagine, I was going crazy, wondering if life would ever go back to normal. Life right now is bizarre, but we just have to keep pushing because nothing lasts forever. When I think back to February, oh so long ago, I realize how much has happened throughout this pandemic; the rallies, BLM, the election, and above all, change. I have changed as a person, everyone has. Now if that change is good or bad is questionable, but whatever the case, we need to embrace it because we can't change reality; all we can do is hope for the best and keep pushing on.
• 2020-12-12

  Before Covid-19

  In January of 2020, life was normal. No masks, no constant hand sanitizer and no social distancing. Everyone had regular schedules. Mine consisted of school, soccer and seeing friends on the weekends. It was not until I was on a family vacation that I found out about the virus. It didn't really sink in until the day our school announced a two week quarantine. I expected it to be a short two week break and then life would go back to our normal routines. As quarantine kept getting extended, I knew that Covid was not going anywhere for a while.
• 
  2020-11-10

  Liverpool Covid Journals: III

  Liverpool might have to cancel their game vs. Midtjylland. Futbol poses the hardest challenge for COVID-19. So much international travel is involved in the sport. How will teams deal with travel restrictions and obstacles? Will there even be a Champions league final?
• 
  2020-05-17

  Time to Watch Calcio

  I'm not one to watch sports, but I do love futbol, or calcio as my favorite Italians call it. During the pandemic, as professional sports have been cancelled, and then gradually brought back in, my husband and I added ESPN+ to our streaming in order to watch SERIE A finish the 2020 season (albeit late) and then recently start again. Doing so has brought a sort of life to our home lockdown. We both love hearing the sounds of the games in the background and cheering on our favorite teams. New this year as a result of the pandemic are the club's choices as to how (or if) they add in dubbed sound, and getting used to that has been interesting. Some might filter in synthetic crowd noises (which hasn't been as bad as I would have thought). Where there has not been any sound, the feel of the game is definitely not the same, however now it is interesting to follow the players and coaches' communication firsthand. My link shares an article in which a few of the team members from my favorite team, Parmia Calcio, were recently diagnosed with COVID and what occurred following.
• 
  2020-07-20

  High school fall sports throughout California postponed due to COVID-19

  I was not able to play sports because of Covid-19.
• 
  2020-10-04

  Liverpool Covid Journals: I

  Liverpool lost 7-2. The biggest in franchise history. Perhaps its the hangover from winning the Leauge? I mean it only did end July 26th. To Aston Villa?... Honestly, only reason this happens is because of COVID-19.
• 
  2020-04-15

  What I Did During Isolation

  I played soccer constantly during my free time and my season was about to start but Covid hit and my season got canceled before my first game
• 2020-08-22

  Social Distance

  2. A simple sticker has now become such an important concept in my current life. At first, I remember seeing them and thinking that this measure was a little extreme and really not needed. Now, my whole mindset has changed. At stores, I am now that person that dislikes if you’re too close to me. It makes me feel like I’m covered with germs if we have to squeeze by each other in an aisle. If I’m paying for something and you’ve already started unloading your items in your cart to pay and moving near me, it makes me feel very disrespected. Something so small such as personal space is now a thing that I think about every day. While at times it helps me to feel safe, it also impacts my personal life too. Things like random hugs, hanging out with friends, playing soccer, or just being able to touch another human being. Socially distancing represented by this small sticker has taken over how I live my life.
• 
  0018-03-18

  "COVID took one of the most important things in my live" by Alfredo Serrano

  Soccer has always been a huge part of my life. Soccer has been one of the most important (if not the most) things in my life, not only has taught me a big majority of my values and has opened the gates of college for me. After the outbreak of COVID-19, I was forced to come back to Spain, my native country. Leaving in the middle of Spring season left me a feeling of sadness and emptiness... But that was not the worst thing no, the worst thing was not being able to play soccer for five months straight. COVID has taken away what soccer represented for me, and I couldn't be more excited to play again in a couple of weeks... I'm truly nervous.
• 2020-08-07

  Dealing with Disappointment (or Adjusting during Covid)

  While everyone has had to adjust. As a parent of a Senior in high school I felt a sense of loss for my youngest son who had to make a series of adjustments. 2020 did not start off on a great note for him. He was supposed to leave for college in January but that ended up getting pushed to Fall of 2020. He quickly adapted and took some college courses at the local college and decided that playing club soccer one last season with the boys he has been with for ten years wasn’t that bad. He had decided that heck why not try to win Nationals this year. They did once before, and the team looked pretty good. He would be leaving for college to start practicing for his college men’s team in July anyway. Then March came. Our school district shut down for what was to be two weeks. I was out of a job temporarily or so I thought. His college classes went online. Soccer practice was put on hold until they could figure everything out. I guess it was good that he did not make it to college in January since he would have been coming home in six weeks had he gone. The two weeks soon became 2 ½ months. Club soccer tried to start getting some practices in and there at one time was talk that we would be playing some games this summer. Our travel schedule spans several states in the Midwest. Covid-19 hotspots started popping up everywhere we were supposed to travel. Soccer fields were closed and locked. That did not deter they boys just jumped fences and hit the fields. Erich had me jump the high school fence so I could take video of him practicing for his college coach. I must admit – it was fun. College soccer was put on pause. The Division 1 athletics is still trying to figure out what they are going to do about the fall. Meanwhile, the boys are moving in August 12th. They will be tested twice when they arrive and once a week for who knows how long. Just recently one D1 school suspended three players and dismissed 3 other players from their soccer team for having an off-campus party where 29 students (most athletes) tested positive with no symptoms. While this may seem harsh student-athletes are given many opportunities that other students do not have; however, they also have a responsibility to behave in manners that other students are not held up to either. I feel the disappointment of my son in not being on the field, trying to practice and maintain his skills. I never played a sport, but I have been there since he started – in the past 15 years this is the longest he has been without playing. He broke his leg and he was only out 4 months before he was back. For me, the toughest part has been seeing the things that he missed that his brother and sister were able to do – prom, senior ditch day, a graduation with the family, his final soccer season, college orientation, getting to go down to school early, and celebrate his birthday with family and friends. As many people say this group of kids started their childhood with 9/11 and ended their childhood with a pandemic. I pray that this does not turn them into weary adults but adults with resilience. Being awakened to the fact that disappointments happen, and adjustments need to be made may just make this group one that will make changes and not be passive about their futures. In the meantime, I still do not know what is happening with my job with the school district. Hopefully, I will know by mid-August if the students are going back in-person or virtual.
• 
  2020-08-04

  Soccer Ball

  The object I choose are my soccer balls and my training equipment. This is pretty much what these four months of quarantine have been for me. Since I am going to be playing soccer at Rollins College, I decided that I was going to train as hard as I could for those quarantine months, even though if it was only by myself.
• 
  2020-04-17

  Life In Isolation: The Coronavirus... Romy Marisa Schwaiger

  A virtual exhibition by the Evansville Museum of Art, History and Science
• 
  03/18/2020

  King County Field Hospital

  An article from the digital version of the Seattle Times discussing the building of a 200 bed field hospital on a local soccer field.
• 
  2020-04-15

  Peyton Butterfly

  Soccer practice had been cancelled since March 16th. Peyton wanted to be outside again doing something creative.
• 
  2020-04-27

  Where the Major Sports Stand Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic

  An insight on the possible calendar return dates for major sports.
• 
  04/18/2020

  Empty Sports Field #6

  This soccer post looks even lonelier than usual.
• 
  2020-04-14

  Belarus chief defends decision to continue amid coronavirus pandemic

  ESPN article regarding sports in Belarus
• 
  03/24/2020

  Alexander Oral History, 2020/03/24

  Alexander describes how his life has changed in the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Some of his challenges include teleworking for a new job, watching over his kids now that they can’t go to school, and coping with shortages of necessities and lack of normal entertainment such as sports. He talks about how he thinks it is a good thing that his kids are not at school, as primary schools are known to be germ spreaders. Alexander conveys his hopes that the lockdown will end soon and normal life will be able to continue.
• 
  2020-03-22

  "U.S. SOCCER TO RE-AIR MOST MEMORABLE NATIONAL TEAM MATCHES FOR FANS"

  March 22, 2020 announcement that U.S. Soccer will re-air memorable national team matches as part of their plan to address the COVID-19 situation.
• 
  2020-03-17

  Cancelled Baseball Game

  Due to COVID-19 athletic events in schools were cancelled. Additionally county events such as FFA, PAL Softball, Little League Baseball, School Concerts, and Youth Soccer were also cancelled. Despite this reminders of scheduled events remained visabl.e