Father and son break the boredom with an online soccer challenge
The first week of no school for nine-year-old Gabriele De Fazio was fun. He relaxed and didn’t miss the homework.
But by the time the second week rolled around, the sheen had faded, and with no confirmed date for schools to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic, time was passing at a snail’s pace.
“It was getting very long and boring,” Gabriele said.
So dad Joe De Fazio came up with a plan that would keep his son busy and physically active while respecting social-distancing protocols. Joe is a soccer coach with the Lachine Soccer Club and Gabriele has been playing “the beautiful game” since he was four years old.
Something to do with soccer seemed like a good idea, so Joe launched the soccer-skills challenge Défi #jerestealamaison and invited members of the Lachine Soccer Club to participate.
Players normally practise at either the indoor Soccerplexe Catalogna or at the outdoor field at École secondaire Dalbé-viau, but with the start of the season up in the air, he figured the challenge might help fill a bit of the void.
Joe said he was perhaps a little ahead of the curve accepting the possibility of a protracted shutdown of schools and essential businesses in Quebec because he’d been watching Italian television for weeks. Italy was hit hard and fast by COVID -19 before it spread in North America.
The hashtag he chose for the challenge was inspired by Italy’s hashtag #iorestoacasa.
The first challenge was 12 consecutive soccer-ball juggles. Not as easy as it sounds.
“I like it,” Gabriele said. “I’m outside in the fresh air. I stay healthy and I’m practising my skills.”
The driveway and the street are the practice zones.
Like so many parents, Joe is working from home.
He works in IT at Novartis Pharmaceuticals as a specialist in virtual meetings and is busy helping colleagues who are now relying on virtual connections to keep their work running smoothly. But he’s not complaining.
His relatives work in the restaurant business and are struggling to keep afloat following the shutdown of all non-essential businesses.
The silver living for Joe when it comes to working from home is that it cuts out the travel time to and from the office and allows for more father-son time with the soccer ball.
“My son is always ‘on the ball’ as they say, so I thought the challenge would help him and his soccer friends stay active,” Joe said.
Participants practise the skills, then send a cellphone video of the results to Joe with the hashtag #jerestealamaison along with instructions about where they would like it posted, be it on Youtube or Instagram.
Each challenge is progressively more difficult.
The second challenge, which began Friday, is to execute 20 juggles, up from the previous week’s 12.
“You try five juggles and then six and one more and one more. It’s a little addictive, actually,” Joe said.
Challenge No. 3 gets a parent involved.
The parent/child duo must complete five uninterrupted volleys.
“After two hours of practice, we are up to four volleys,” Joe said.
There are no prizes. It’s just for the fun of it.