Las Brisas' women's team is playing a soccer match in their new, stylish team jerseys and is spared from wearing the sweaty kits that the men's team usually offers them after they have finished playing.
Men’s, women’s, and children’s teams are all playing today. When teams from other villages are invited to the tournament, all these teams typically play matches. On such days, the Las Brisas soccer team prepares and sells meals and fruit juices to raise funds to keep the village’s activities going.
Almost every afternoon, regardless of the weather, you can see villagers playing soccer on one of the three simple soccer fields in the area. But when a well-organized soccer weekend takes place, families walk down from the various settlements in the rainforest. The area around the soccer field fills up with people. The atmosphere is lively, and most people are clearly engaged in the game. Laughter and cheers are heard everywhere. These are some of the best days in village life in Las Brisas!
Soccer is big in Costa Rica, a country with just under 5 million inhabitants that reached the quarterfinals in the 2014 World Cup and has sent its national team to every subsequent World Cup.
University professor Carolina Saenz researches wild cats in the rainforests around Las Brisas. In collaboration with Nama Conservation (https://official.namaconservation.org/), she invited a group of former national team players to Las Brisas last year. They played a match against local teams, and funds were raised to make new uniforms for the men’s team. This year, Saenz found a sponsor through her English partner organization, Katie Adamson Conservation, which recently presented the women's team with their first set of uniforms.
The jerseys and shorts feature a design donated by one of the team members, Natalie Rojas.
Natalie, who is part of the family at Barbilla Rainforest Lodge and is also an artist (@amynatalierojasart), describes the choice of motifs and colors as follows:
"The turquoise color represents the rivers and rainforest of Las Brisas. The orange details are inspired by the jaguar, which is the team’s symbol. It stands for strength and can give our opponents a sense of the power we bring.
The fur spots and paw prints are from actual photographs Carolina has taken with her infrared cameras, which she placed in the nearby forests. The jaguars around us give us strength and confidence when we play."
Support from various entities has been crucial for both Las Brisas and the two nearby villages. There are now several soccer teams as well as school teams in the four schools and the middle school in the area.
Back in 2011, Olivia Jansson and Elina Enarsson, two young Swedish girls from Örbyhus in Tierp Municipality, came and held a soccer school for two consecutive years. Together with Lena Dalnert, a key female enthusiast for the village from Uppsala, and a group of friends from Hallstavik, led by Britt and Mats Eriksson and with support from the organization Mar a Mar in Costa Rica, we have received help to improve the soccer field, build goals, cover transport costs for traveling and playing, acquire instructional materials and books, and obtain equipment such as whistles, soccer cones, balls, soccer shoes, and more.
Here, as likely in all parts of the world, sports are important for quality of life and for providing a place for young people to meet, engage, and develop.
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