By Dan Plouffe
The young players’ heads are hanging low. They only steal a glimpse up at their coach when absolutely necessary. They’re getting a bit of a lecture from Urbain Somé, who calls himself a “very, very tough” coach.
It’s the first practice for the 2011 East Region Cup-winning team since they got knocked out of this year’s ER Cup by an opponent that plays a level lower.
Somé remembers one time when his first-place club lost to the last-place team. But his punishment wasn’t a thorough tongue wagging. It was two days in jail.
When Somé came to Ottawa for the 2001 Francophone Games, he intended to return to his native Burkina Faso. But when his squad failed to make it out of group play, it made him think twice.
“In Africa, when they send you to play soccer, they want a result,” explains Somé. “If you don’t have a good result, be ready. You can be put in jail. It can happen easily.”
So at age 23, Somé and a teammate decided they wouldn’t go back home, electing to stay in a country that struck him from the moment he arrived.
“The first thing that impressed me was that when I walked in the streets and I met the police officers, no one asked me for my ID – I was so shocked,” Somé recalls. “In Europe, there’s no way. You could see how people here live free.”
With no money, Somé spent his first few days in Ottawa at the Salvation Army downtown, but soon after he applied to be a refugee and found work pretty quickly too with the former Ottawa Wizards Canadian Soccer League franchise.
The day Somé at last got his citizenship seven years later coincided with the end of his playing career. He’d just had surgery to fix a spinal cord nerve problem, which made for an even more memorable swearing-in ceremony.
“It was a very nice day,” Somé laughs. “I was there with a neck brace, but I was so happy.”
Although he’d previously got his certification, Somé didn’t immediately jump into coaching. But after a stint as a church custodian, he changed course.
“I figured why am I wasting my time when there’s players that need help?” recounts Somé, who now sends money back home so three family members can go to school. “I thought, ‘You have a lot of experience, you can help the children. Why stop doing something you love?’”
His first gig was not with kids, however, it was a “moms team.” He moved on to coach the Université du Québec en Outaouais squad, and now prowls the sidelines for West Ottawa Soccer Club.
His U16 boys’ Level 3 team did receive a shock to the system in Cup play, but their regular season in the East Region Soccer League is going much better as they carry an undefeated 4-0-3 mark. Somé believes a division title is definitely within his team’s reach.
“They love soccer,” highlights Somé, who also has plenty of fun with his squad aside from the serious moments. “They’re starting to understand my philosophy. It takes time, but they’re coming through.”