Author: Jason Castillo
Jason Castillo, U3 Website
Jason’s Finish Project about Soccer
Jason’s Discourse Community
Jason Castillo                                                        Castillo 1
2/25/20
English Composition 2
Professor Penner
Wordcount : 1110
Being a part of a discourse community was an integral part of my personality. I’ve been a part of a lot of discourse communities but, the most significant community I was a part of was my soccer team, called Buenavista. At first, my definition of a discourse community was the complete opposite of the actual definition. I thought it consisted of an unorganized group of people, but an actual definition is a group of people that have a similar goal to achieve. My initial assumption of Buenavista was that it was a soccer club full of talented people, who were better at playing soccer, compared to me. I expected nothing much from me and thought I would never reach their level of technique and skill. Also, I thought that I was incapable of competing for my position in my team and for other teams because there were seven people competing for the same spot to play for Buenavista. I never thought I’d be given a chance, plus I didn’t get a lot of attention from the coach which didn’t help me improve as a player. The other players talked and were connected in a brotherly fashion, a brotherhood club. Initially, I did not fit in and the other soccer teammates were not welcoming, but afterwards, we all learned to communicate and work as a team together.
Buenavista is a club that is welcoming to anyone, but you’ve got to put in the work to improve and play soccer. The group communicates through tough love, by being harsh with each other. For example, if you don’t play well, you will be given rough treatment for “slacking”, but if you play amazing you’ll get praised. We took our games/training seriously, but we also knew how to have fun. The coach had his favorite players and they were usually the ones who had great technique and worked the hardest. I’ve interviewed former teammates of Buenavista and myself about their different views of Buenavista, while we were playing as a team. We had a similar perspective of the team’s goal, that is, learning the proper way to play in a game with certain conditions and still win. We mainly communicated verbally or through our performance in the field, but I wasn’t really socializing with my teammates because I felt as if I was getting distracted and it would affect how I was learning and receiving new knowledge. When I do talk
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with my teammates I ask how I can improve to fix my or someone else’s flaws part of my/someone in game. In addition, my teammates only communicated with the outside world by playing with other teams in our league. Finally, before a person wants to join Buenavista they
need to know how to understand English and Spanish. The club is primarily Latinos and we code switch between though the two languages and don’t take it too seriously. You can’t be lazy when it comes to training to learn something new or improve your communication. Most people in the club knew each other because they were previous players of the club or we played against their team before. Some of them knew each other since they were around 5 or 6. They were a part of the club for over 10 years.
I would like to talk about my experience being a part of the Discourse Community. Buenavista was a huge part of my life. I saw them as my family making me love them in and outside of the field. Sometimes I was overwhelmed with other things that I have to do, but I always managed to go to practice or Sunday games to play with them cause they made me feel relieved. We’re a really good team and I was a great player, but I didn’t go because I wanted to play soccer, I wanted to play soccer with Buenavista. I’ll put my body on the line just to win a game just to see everybody end the game with a smile that warms my heart. I’ll say that Buenavista made me the person you look at today. Even though I had a rough start with the club, nobody wanted to play with me and talk to me cause I was bad, things changed and I earned their respect through showing them that I want to improve and I would be an integral part of the team. It took me a long time almost 2 years. I finally earned their respect cause I was probably top 3 in the defense for Buenavista. Through that experience, I’ve got to earn people respect it’s not given. I wanted to quit so many times, but I saw improvements show of myself and some of the players who talked to me and the coach took some of his time to train me alone. I didn’t want to waste the time they put in me. They made a tuff cookie out of me. They wanted to win the game which is why I gave them that, even my body was going through a lot of pain, but still I loved hearing my coach and teammate that I’ve seen who were too good to play with. Now I’m playing next to those who I thought were better and who I admired to play with. Hearing them
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scream “Jason you can do it” “Jason keep running” “Jason you got this” “Wow Jason” “How did you do that Jason?!”. Being a part of this Discourse Community makes us understand each other. I would assist them to receive a win, which fulfilled me since I’ve always wanted to be on their team. Being in the soccer team, Buenavista has shaped me into who I am now.
In conclusion, being involved in a Discourse Community like Buenavista has surprised me because I always thought that my other teammates would never see me as a member in the team. I was confused about why there were a lot of people who joined the team for 2 weeks then left, never seeing them again. I always wondered why people even bothered to join even if they were going to leave no matter what. At first, I didn’t like the idea of being in this team because I needed to do something active, but during my last years of Buenavista, I loved it. I don’t regret joining my soccer team, Buenavista, my favorite discourse community.
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Works Cited
Lòpez, Bryant.Personal interview. 13 Feb 2020
