Interview with Doug Cardwell, Pt 2
- mary sanichas
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
Mary:
Could I ask you questions about soccer to add on to your blog story about growing up in Bolenge?
Did you play soccer barefoot? If you ran around barefoot how did you manage to avoid for the larvae that would burrow under your skin and create a painful boil? How many miles did you say they run in a soccer match? Can soccer be played with minimum of gear? What did they do about nets? How is soccer different in Congo?
Sometimes we had a real soccer ball, but we also played with tennis balls, woven wicker balls, or anything else that rolled.
Doug:
I started playing soccer soon after I arrived in Congo, at six. The local kids I played with were always barefoot and would have objected to my playing in shoes. I went barefoot all the time, so my feet toughened up, especially since the roads were gravel. Sometimes we had a real soccer ball, but we also played with tennis balls, woven wicker balls, or anything else that rolled. Real fields had regular goals and sometimes fishnets.
There were two pests to be concerned with in the feet. The more serious were hookworms, which bored into the feet and then migrated to other parts of the body. Jiggers just bored under the skin and established a nest that could be as big as a pea and had to be dug out with a needle, preferably intact so the offspring didn't spread into the body. Fortunately, neither bored in quickly, so by careful foot-washing every evening both could be stopped.
Toes are not made for end-of-toe kicks, so I quickly learned to imitate my playmates by kicking with the top of the foot. No one had shin guards, so we all took care not to hit shin on shin too often. We could play on most any surface, large or small, with a couple of sticks to mark each goal. Unlike the modern emphasis on teamwork and sharp passing, then it was on individuals dribbling around opponents—two skills that are particularly combined in the Brazilian and Spanish teams today.
I am watching as much of the World Cup as I can, including the US, Congo, Brazil and Spain, and whatever else I have time for. As I got older, I played daily in pickup games with local school kids at the end of the day. There was not time for a full-length game, but the full-sized field we played on still meant running five or more miles. Incidentally, the equator crosses the middle of the field we played on.
When I went to college [in the US], there was no soccer—no youth leagues, no high school or college teams, so I played a lot of tennis until my senior year, when there were enough students like me who had played youth soccer elsewhere that we started a team that the school designated as varsity and continued after I graduated.
When I started teaching at a small college I started a club team as a player-coach, and when I went to Salem, I started and coached a women's team. In Winston-Salem, I played in a local league into my fifties. I also helped coach the youth teams my two kids played in and started refereeing. As the sport grew I started refereeing in high school and then college and adult, which I continued into my sixties.
Mary:
Can you explain what is special about this sport other than being so physically demanding? What makes people love soccer? Why do you love it? How did you offset the heat caused by so much exertion? Jump into edge of the Congo River? Were you actually leaping in the air and rolling on the ground? Were there injuries? Any photos of you playing, even at an older age?
One thing I don't remember in Congo is taking drinking water everywhere as we do here. And I don't remember being thirsty. Did you boil your water for 20 mins as we did?
Doug:
There are several reasons people love soccer—all it takes is a ball (contrast what American football players have to wear), so all kids play it growing up, even on city streets; people who have grown up playing it know how much skill it takes and appreciate the skills and moves of the players. Action is continuous, unlike baseball or football. The rule book is short and simple, so everyone knows the rules and can usually understand the play and the referee's decisions. All 22 players (except the goalies when the ball is at the other end of field) are in constant movement and involved in the play. You always know where the ball is; movement is created by the players and not predetermined and called by coach, as it is in American football. Those are also the reasons I love it. I loved playing, and coaching, and refereeing, and training referees, and watching.
In Congo we drank only water that had been boiled and filtered. My conditioning was such that I could sweat all afternoon, then come home and drink a quart or two of water before dinner, and more during. It was too inconvenient to try to carry a bottle around.
I liked being in the shade, but I never felt overheated, and I was too lazy to go down the hill to the river's edge. Also, single people don't scare the crocs away. We went in at a shallow backwater, since the current was so swift you could get swept away, and in groups, to discourage the crocs.
I am attaching the only picture I have of me playing. This is in the adult league in my forties. Jumping in the air, yes. Being tripped, frequently. Minor bumps and bruises weren't rare, but I never had a serious injury.
At Bolenge, in the afternoons, it was almost always between 90F and 100F—both temperature and relative humidity, similar to a July day on the Gulf Coast where we spent our furloughs.
Mary:
Doug,
You have no photos from childhood aside from passport photos, then the only photo you send me is this photo of you midair. So, follow-up question: What is happening? Why are you in the air, and how did you land?
For the first time ever tonight I watched part of a soccer match on television. It looks like they have magnetic feet. And I can see they have more power kicking than they would have with throwing. I do have one indelible experience with a soccer ball which demonstrated to me how heavy the ball is. In 2nd or 3rd grade in France I decided to run across an opening where boys were kicking a ball around. Suddenly an extremely dense and heavy ball hit me in the head and nearly took my head off.
Here is a YouTube from the Portugal/DR Congo match: massive Congolese guy springs straight up into the air, preparing his body to strike the ball with his head midair with maximum force. Amazing.
—think of the skill involved in a round head hitting a round ball that is flying through the air at that kind of speed and steering it that precisely into the upper corner of the goal.
Doug:
Hi Mary,
I'm glad you watched this game and hope it induced you to watch more. The score by the DRC player is indeed impressive—think of the skill involved in a round head hitting a round ball that is flying through the air at that kind of speed and steering it that precisely into the upper corner of the goal. Many head balls go astray. A good example of why soccer is so much fun to watch. The way they can control the ball with their feet is another reason.
The ball weighs one pound and can be very hard when it is fully inflated, so it can truly knock you for a loop if you are small or unprepared. It can hurt if you are neither. I've had many examples of both.
If the picture of me had been taken a fraction of a second sooner you would have been able to tell that the ball was coming off my head. To get the ball I had to jump higher than my opponent. With experience you learn to come down on your feet after a jump like that.
During our second furlough our house at Bolenge burned down, so childhood pictures and everything else burned up. Since our marriage I was the photographer, so I don't appear in them.
Mary:
Doug, I'm sorry your house burned down.
And yes, about the goal made by the Congolese player—I have been thinking about the skill and timing involved. He launched straight into the air and arranged his massive shoulders midair so that he had the power behind his head to strike the ball with great force. Incredible focus and intention! Then, like you said, he had the skill to land on his feet after.
I have to say you have really opened my eyes to soccer Doug. The moves are unbelievable, the acceleration is amazing. But I really feel for the goalies—the way those guys launch themselves, they don't land on their feet.
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