Soccer is hereditary in the Csotya family. Five-year-old Jayden Csotya, a kindergartner at Joe Nightingale Elementary School, inherited the soccer gene from his father, who also started playing the sport at a young age.
“Playing soccer as a kid was one of the fondest memories of my childhood,” Kyron Csotya, Jayden’s dad, told the Sun. “Soccer, like most sports, is a great way to have fun and meet friends. But it also teaches invaluable life lessons like working as a team and following directions.”
Jayden didn’t discover soccer through his dad though, but rather by positive word of mouth from some of his classmates, his dad said.
“When his friends joined the Orcutt Tigers, Jayden got curious and asked me about soccer,” Kyron said. “I showed him some YouTube videos of kids playing and he was hooked. He asked if he could join, and I thought it’d be a great idea.”
Currently in his third season with the Orcutt Tigers, a division of the Orcutt United Soccer League (OUSL), Jayden loves the game more than ever, Kyron said. Jayden’s proudest moment so far was beating his dad at the kids vs. parents game.
“The kids beat us by one point, but it was a blast,” Kyron said. “We all just enjoyed laughing and running around. Everyone had genuine fun, kids and parents alike.”
Jayden practices with the OUSL at least once a week and is occasionally joined by his dad, who fills in as the Tigers’ coach from time to time. Kyron strives to be a positive role model when coaching, someone his son can look up to.
“If you ask Jayden who his hero is, I hope he would say me, but I doubt that,” he said. “He would take it way too literally and say someone like Batman.”
Although he replied with Superman rather than Batman when asked the question, Jayden said he feels like a different superhero when he’s out playing on the soccer field.
“I feel like Iron Man when I’m playing soccer,” Jayden said. “Except when I don’t have the ball, that’s my least favorite part of the game.”
Jayden recommends soccer to anyone who has never played before, no matter how young or old.
“You should try it because maybe you’ll love it,” he said. “You’ll never know until you try.”
This article appears in Apr 20-27, 2017.
