Full day at school

The son of my neighbors downstairs plays ultimate. He and his friends introduced me to some folks at their school here in Beit Sahour. On Wednesday I met the principal, one of the sports teachers, and somebody else who was really nice but whose position and name I forgot :-/

Fortunately I got invited back to the school -- they have school on Saturday. And I think every student in the school has P.E. at some point on Saturday (not the case other days). I had asked to see what they do there, thinking it would be helpful to observe the coaches, their styles, and how students play, work with coaches, etc.

So today I was out on the schools' court from 7:30 until 2:00. The morning started with standing in lines by class, all facing forward for announcements, then singing the school song (the older students are of course too cool to sing it). After about ten minutes, everyone was dismissed and dispersed.

The classes were all different - all had a soccer game going on, sometimes there was volleyball, basketball, handball, and frisbee. I got a good mixture of introducing the game, introducing myself (kids are curious about the foreigner, not surprisingly), playing a few minutes of soccer, and watching the classes, in general.

One really great thing at this school is the feeling I get from the older kids. Basically, there's a great couple of years of players in this school - they are anxious to play more, throw more, etc. And they do it where the rest of the school can see. I see it as a huge recruiting tool for the next few years of players. And its just fun to see in and of itself.

Lessons learned: teachers have a very hard job, kids reflect leaders' energy, and say yes if coffee or tea is offered repeatedly. Below is a little video of ultimate today :-)