By Ben Joravsky
According to Morote, soccer was the means by which he overcame shyness and insecurity as a youngster growing up in Peru. He played day and night, and rose through the ranks of organized soccer until at age 20 he was a highly regarded goalie on Alianza Lima, a professional team.
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But in the 1970s, he says, he gradually lost interest in the game. He worked as a journalist, joined APRA, a left-of-center political party, and felt compelled to leave Peru after he ran afoul of the ruling conservative party. In 1982, at age 28, Morote and his wife, Catalina, settled in Chicago, where he earned a doctorate in psychology, bought a house, had two children (Jaime, 14; Cynthia, 11), and built a practice. In 1991 he returned to the game when he decided to coach his son’s team. What he saw he didn’t recognize. “In Latin America soccer is the main sport,” he says. “It’s played and followed with intensity and passion. The goal is to become a premier player.”
Morote was determined to change that, at least for his daughter Cynthia, who showed remarkable talent at a very young age. So when another parent, Hilliard Blank, suggested they put together a traveling squad, Morote jumped at the chance.
To build those skills Morote, a large man with a booming voice, drives the team hard. They practice twice a week during the winter, three times a week the rest of the year, a relentless series of dribbling, passing, and shooting drills, not to mention sprints, stretches, and jogging. The hard work seems to be paying off, as the team is now handily defeating teams that once trounced them.
Morote says he struggles with other issues. “I have much to learn, particularly about coaching girls. They are different than boys. When boys come to practice, they come to play. With girls, it is more like, ‘Hey, how are you doing? I’ve got this new Beanie Baby.’ I say, ‘Girls, did you come here to socialize?’ They say, ‘What’s wrong with that?’ And, you know, what is wrong with that? Why can’t they take time during stretches to talk and socialize? Maybe it is I, the old coach, who has to learn.”
Afterward, Morote gathered them for a pep talk. “I like how you played through the sluggishness,” he began. His talk carried on for 15 minutes. Parents looked at their watches. It was after nine. The storm was coming. The kids were tired. “I know our coach is a great speaker,” parent Kathleen Walsh teased. “But it’s time to go home.”
