Sports in Society
SPORTGRAPHY
JUAN ERAZO
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 2013
My life as an athlete
My name is Juan Erazo and I was born in a Cali, Colombia where soccer is the most important, viewed and practiced sport. My sport life started when I was 5, but not by playing soccer. My father was a really good basketball player. I loved watching his games along with learning his techniques during practices. He was my hero, I looked up to him and I just wanted to play basketball like he did. This was the reason I joined my first basketball team at the age of 6. The team was called “los superheroes” (in English: superheroes), so my life in basketball began. Coaches didn’t expect an ample amount of skills from me, but since I touched the ball in my first practice, they were surprised by how well I performed. I was really fast and smart with the ball, so nobody could handle me. Two months later, my team was registered in a local tournament, and due to the hard practice and dedication, we expected to win it. I used jersey number 8 because it was my father’s lucky number when he played. We beat everybody in the first round, but something unexpected happened. The semifinals were against one of the teams that we beat in the first round, but this game was totally different. They beat us and we were out of the tournament. After the game, I decided to stop playing basketball, and just go to school and get focused on my grades.
Soccer was a really famous sport in Colombia, and I always heard people talking about it, and how players performed in the last game. I never expected to kick a ball, and to be honest; I considered soccer a boring sport because I never tried it. However, my life changed when I kicked the soccer ball for the first time. It was some day in February 2000, when I was 9 years old. My father gave me a gift because I got the best grades out of my class, so he decided that I deserved something for being so dedicated in school. I opened the box he handed to me, and it was a
JUAN ERAZO
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 2013
My life as an athlete
My name is Juan Erazo and I was born in a Cali, Colombia where soccer is the most important, viewed and practiced sport. My sport life started when I was 5, but not by playing soccer. My father was a really good basketball player. I loved watching his games along with learning his techniques during practices. He was my hero, I looked up to him and I just wanted to play basketball like he did. This was the reason I joined my first basketball team at the age of 6. The team was called “los superheroes” (in English: superheroes), so my life in basketball began. Coaches didn’t expect an ample amount of skills from me, but since I touched the ball in my first practice, they were surprised by how well I performed. I was really fast and smart with the ball, so nobody could handle me. Two months later, my team was registered in a local tournament, and due to the hard practice and dedication, we expected to win it. I used jersey number 8 because it was my father’s lucky number when he played. We beat everybody in the first round, but something unexpected happened. The semifinals were against one of the teams that we beat in the first round, but this game was totally different. They beat us and we were out of the tournament. After the game, I decided to stop playing basketball, and just go to school and get focused on my grades.
Soccer was a really famous sport in Colombia, and I always heard people talking about it, and how players performed in the last game. I never expected to kick a ball, and to be honest; I considered soccer a boring sport because I never tried it. However, my life changed when I kicked the soccer ball for the first time. It was some day in February 2000, when I was 9 years old. My father gave me a gift because I got the best grades out of my class, so he decided that I deserved something for being so dedicated in school. I opened the box he handed to me, and it was a