DeJohn cherishes his bonus time
Stalled season gives defender chance to enjoy newborn son
Entering his second preseason with Orlando City, defender Alex DeJohn faced a challenge.
The Lions were booked to leave Orlando on Jan. 27 for a 10-day training camp in Cancún, Mexico. It was part of new coach Oscar Pareja’s detailed preseason plan, which was structured to physically overload the team to lay a strong fitness base for his first season with the team.
But DeJohn had another focus — the birth of his first child, who was due on Jan 22. If his son came late, DeJohn knew he couldn’t leave his wife, Lisa, to deliver their son on her own.
“It was a little bit unsettling,” DeJohn said. “Obviously I’m gonna be there for the birth of my kid, but at the same time we have a new coach in Oscar and I want to be there to show that I can play and get in the lineup.”
The defender joked they were lucky their son — named Madden — knew the training schedule, arriving on Jan. 21. The timing gave DeJohn almost a full week before he had to depart, with his mother-in-law helping his wife while DeJohn was away.
For DeJohn, the best part the trip was coming home.
“It’s the greatest feeling ever,” DeJohn said. “Being able to come back home to your child for the first time, it was a really good feeling.”
If there’s been any silver lining to the season getting suspended due to the coronavirus, DeJohn says, it has been the chance to spend more time with Madden.
He’s been able to witness the array of firsts that come in the first months of a baby’s life. The couple wasn’t expecting it when Madden laughed for the first time; he said they looked at each other in disbelief, then excitement.
“They grow so quickly,” DeJohn said. “He’s gotten so much bigger already. I feel like almost of every new.”
As the league began to plan different formats for returning to play, DeJohn said he noticed a shift in his mentality. Before Madden, his primary focus would have been getting back on the pitch — anywhere, anytime, in whatever fashion the league could manage.
Now, however, DeJohn’s main focus is his family.
Throughout the pandemic, DeJohn has been the one to run errands outside of the house for his family. Although he and Lisa had planned for how to manage two- or three-day trips for games during the regular season, the concept of a weeks-long tournament will be more demanding on his wife.
“It’s going to be very for her,” DeJohn said.
The voices of parents like DeJohn made an impact in how the tournament will ultimately be structured. Initially, the league pitched a format that would pull players away from their families for more than 10 weeks. The plan was criticized by players, especially those with young children.
The tournament will now be played over a shorter period of day there’s something difficult time, with players guaranteed to spend a maximum of 35 days at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando. After the opening round, teams can leave immediately after they’re knocked out of the single-elimination round.
DeJohn noted a difference in thought between players who do and don’t have families. Young players are typically champing at the bit to get back onto the pitch, bored and restless after months of being cooped up without soccer.
DeJohn gets that mindset; he remembers when he felt the same way. But for fathers in the league, he said, the decision to agree to the tournament was more calculated.
“It’s difficult for the younger players who want to go back out there and play and get into it because they don’t really have much to worry about,” DeJohn said. “They don’t have a little kid. It’s different for everybody. For me, you know, obviously I’m very eager to get back out there and play, but just doing these workouts, it’s not enough. That’s not all we have to worry about.”