By Ottawa Sports Pages
Martin Guimaraes Neto wouldn’t be the first player to draw your attention at the start of soccer practice. He arrives calmly, almost discreetly. But he comes ready to work and hones in on the task at hand.
In his three seasons, Martin has become one of the top players in the Ottawa Community House Soccer program, but it’s just as much his demeanour and his kindness that’s earned him respect and made him a role model for his teammates.
“He’s got a lot of talent, but he’s very unassuming,” notes coach Raz El-Asmar. “Those are two good traits together.”
If there’s a scrimmage and Martin has helped one team build a lead, his coach may ask him to switch to the weaker side.
“He’ll do it without any hesitation,” Raz details. “That says a lot about his character.”
Now a Grade 9 student at St. Patrick Catholic High School, Martin first joined the soccer program at Russell Heights Community House while he was in Grade 6 at Vincent Massey Public School.
That carried on a family tradition in the beautiful game, his father having played for a club in Angola before he moved to Canada. Martin’s father now enjoys watching him play, along with his younger brother who’s showing promising talent at age 7.
Martin won’t draw a crowd by cheering and vocally pushing his teammates, but he inspires them nonetheless.
“He puts his head down and he does it by hard work,” Raz underlines. “That’s where I’ve noticed his leadership. It’s this quiet type of leadership.”
But with the example he provides, others now turn to Martin.
“I used to always be the one that would stay back and not try to talk much,” Martin reflects. “But now I try to coordinate the team more, because I see what they’re missing.”
Martin recognizes that he doesn’t have the answer or the solution every time, but is glad to continue to learn from one of the best himself.
“Coach Raz is very nice. I enjoy playing with him because he knows so much and he has so much experience in soccer,” Martin highlights. “Sometimes it’s weird, because every time something bad happens with the team, [the players] are always gonna be like, ‘oh, well, what went wrong, Martin?,’ or like, ‘how did this happen?’ But it’s nice [being a leader].”
An Ottawa TFC Academy coach, Raz is also the lead coach for the Community House Soccer program for the Russell Heights, Confederation Court and Blair Court communities, while the Ottawa Internationals Soccer Club leads the program at Banff Avenue.
There are weekly sessions in the communities from spring until the end of summer, and then all the south/east-side sites come together for an end-of-season festival at Franco-Cité high school.
“I remember the moment that I saw them back in May, the first question a few of them asked me was, ‘Are we going to do the tournament?’ So for me, that says a lot,” Raz recalls. “There’s something neat about it that they look forward to.”
Despite regretting his choice to wear his track pants kit instead of shorts, Raz felt blessed by the hot and sunny 28°C weather for the Oct. 4 festival. He loves seeing players enthusiastically returning year after year and he thanks others for helping to make it happen.
The Internationals donated the field time for the festival and Ottawa TFC gave the players T-shirts, while the Ottawa Community Housing Foundation, the Ottawa Sports Pages and staff/volunteers from the Community Houses helped with organization, and ML Bradley Ltd. provided bus transportation.
“It’s special because it’s only once a year,” Martin signals. “It’s really exciting, because you always want to get first (place).”
Martin was impressed with his team’s showing in the friendly 4×4 champions’ league format competition (like king’s court in basketball, where you have to win your way up to the top field).
He was pleased to see his team improve from fifth place last year to third this year, although their defeat in the second-to-last match on the champions’ pitch was still hard to swallow.
Amina Ba, a child and youth program leader at Russell, says that experiencing these moments of success and difficulties in a team environment is the biggest benefit of the program.
“Teamwork for one, and well, they learn how to lose, because not everybody can win, and just how to be a team player,” explains Amina, whose community did have the champion team, with the final decided in penalty kicks for the third year in a row.
Assembled together at the end, Raz told all the players there’s much to be learned from both outcomes – how to be gracious when you win, and the opportunity to improve when you lose. After all, tomorrow is another day.
It’s the life lessons gained through sport that Raz finds particularly critical for the participants from Community Housing.
“It’s about staying positive, regardless of the circumstances. That’s how we grow,” Raz underlines. “[The program] brings in a lot of kids together for something common, and I think we don’t see that often.
“It’s not so much the ball. The ball, yes, is the reason we come together. But it’s more to do with coming together and working together.
“I think it’s crucial for these kids to find something where they can learn that.”
This article is part of the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Inclusion in Sport series. Read more about local sport inclusion initiatives at: OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-Sports-Pages-Inclusion-In-Sport-Series/.
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