THE END AND THE BEGINNING (Blog date Nov 4, 2012)

It is a sad day to be debuting this blog. But in retrospect, it is the best way to honor those who have inspired it - namely the women's soccer teams of Texas Southern University, Rice University, the University of Houston and Houston Baptist University.

I thought that I had already come to discover everything there was to appreciate about the sport of soccer. I had been studying and analyzing this game for decades, following its evolution, expanding my knowledge with coaching education and through its application as a gang-intervention mentoring program for economically-disadvantaged kids in middle schools, and as an avid spectator of domestic and international systems. I embrace the sport's value from a social development framework, to an intense exercise in team collaboration, to a medium of communication that transcends linguistic, political, economic, social and religious barriers. I thought I had learned all the aspects to be learned about this game - until the women of the NCAA opened up a whole new world for me. Since September of this year, I have been witnessing the women's home matches of these four universities, following them through struggle and victory, discovering an entire dimension of the game that is often obscured by the men, yet played with just as much heart and intensity, if not more.

I can go on and on with comparisons between the men's and the women's games, but that is not what this blog is for. This blog is to document the intensity, the depth, the passion, the strategic and tactical nuances, the stars, the spectacular play that I witness in the women's teams at the college level. And in doing so, it is my hope that others might be inspired to discover for themselves the beautiful game brought by the women.

So why is it a sad day to be debuting this blog? All four of the women's soccer teams representing the major institutions of higher learning within Houston, Texas were eliminated over this past week in their respective conference post-season tournaments - TSU at the Southwest Athletic Conference (SWAC), U of H and Rice at Conference USA, and HBU at the Great West Conference. The most heart-breaking part of this is that three out of the four went into their tournaments seeded second in the conference and were dealt first-round exits by lower-seeded teams whom I watched them beat in the regular season. I'm not going to dwell on this disappointment though, because I am too eager to get started on the glorious seasons they each had, and the fantastic games and players I was blessed with the opportunity to watch on the pitch live and in person.  

Kokoy Severino has been coaching junior high school soccer in the public school system of the Greater Houston area for 19 years. He holds a National Youth Diploma from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, two coaching certifications from the United States Soccer Federation, and a Master in Educational Leadership degree from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. His research focuses on the relationship between interscholastic competitive soccer and the academic success of at-risk students. He returns regularly to his native country of the Philippines and conducts soccer training sessions for economically disadvantaged youths.