Canales Daily: WPS Inspires Young Players

Basketball star Kobe Bryant was wondering how to turn his young child on to soccer. It was easy for him to fall in love with the game when he was little himself. He lived in Italy, and despite the fact that his father was there to play basketball, the love for soccer, or "calcio", as the Italians called it, was entrenched in the local neighborhoods. When kid Kobe ventured out to play with the locals, they usually played soccer together, not basketball. Unlike many AYSO children who only kick a ball on the big green fields of local parks, youngsters in Italy play soccer everywhere, learning how to try to control the ball in tight spaces and to find creative ways around obstacles. Being surrounded by a soccer-loving culture, one in which fans march in the streets and entire cities shut down for important games also helps to increase both motivation and interest in the sport at an early age. Short of suddenly moving to Italy again, Bryant couldn't really hope to replicate that environment of his childhood. Instead, he did what so many in today's age do in times of need. He turned to YouTube. "I went on YouTube to show my daughter clips of Marta doing her thing, so she could see how cool it is and get excited about soccer," Bryant explained, revealing himself as a fan of the women's soccer star.Bryant's eldest, Natalia Diamante, is now six years old, just the age that her father was when he first moved to Italy and started playing soccer. "She was excited to see all the moves Marta can do," Bryant said. Though he obviously is well-paid to participate in another sport, Bryant remains enamored of soccer. He hopped in a helicopter after a Los Angeles Lakers practice last week to make it to the Los Angeles Sol's introduction of Marta as their newest player. Bryant has brought his two daughters out to watch soccer at LA Galaxy games before, but he noted that it would be a slightly different experience for them to come to Women's Professional Soccer games. There the Bryant sisters could see top-level female athletes perform and realize, perhaps, that Marta and her teammates started in the sport as little girls once, too.
The Sol will kick off the WPS season on Sunday, March 28, playing the Washington Freedom at the Home Depot Center. "I'm here to work hard for my team," said Marta, who has won FIFA's Female Player of the Year Award multiple times. "People know that women's soccer isn't yet on the same level as that of the men. It's special in its own way."