06-09-2024 Capital Style - Flipbook - Page 54
Oliveira Santosa spent his youth competing in his home country Brazil, then played seven years
professionally in Romania before coming to Maryland to play indoor soccer for the Baitmore Blast.
Oliveira Santosa, above, kicks the ball during warm-ups.
‘I reconnected
to my essence’
Settling into his new home and partial
career in 2016, he filled the other half of the
year coaching for The Baltimore Celtic youth
soccer club. After years of serving coaches
that extracted his talent through screaming
demands, he’d nurtured a desire to become the
sort of coach he’d always wanted: a direct but
permissive hand to let players flow within their
own style, make creative choices, and connect
with their coach.
But even as Oliveira Santos molded scores
of young soccer hopefuls his way, he felt like
a fraud.
“I stopped watching soccer,” Oliveira Santos
said. “I was never in the mood where I wanted
to. I can’t tell these 9-, 10-year-old kids to watch,
be passionate about soccer if I’m not.”
The coach didn’t just flip his television back
from Netflix to the Premier League. He also
cut out alcohol, for his own health and to be a
better role model to his pupils.
“And I didn’t just feel like a better role model.
I reconnected to my essence,” he said. “When
you’re really young, you only want to do one
thing and that’s to play soccer. That was a good
twist in my lifestyle.”
But there was still a hole in his heart that
indoor soccer couldn’t fill. The small, fourwalled arenas couldn’t replace the feeling of
turf beneath his feet, the roar of an outdoor
crowd marrying the wind rushing around him.
He missed structure, too. At 6 years old,
he joined a team of 11-year-olds as a striker
and even scored two goals, he remembered
with a laugh.
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The structure of those kinds of clubs shaped
his preferences, and throughout his life, when
he found them again, the clubs fit him like a
well-tailored suit. It’s what eventually attracted
him to the Annapolis Blues because it’s what he
found with Blues coach Colin Herriot.
“Honestly, it was like I was blindfolded,”
Oliveira Santos said, “and he took the blindfold
off.
“He sees soccer differently — and he’s a lot
of fun to play for, very competitive. So when
he tells me about this new team that’s very
competitive and professional, I say I want to
be a part of it.”
As the start of Blues tryouts neared, Oliveira
Santos worried about how much time had
passed him by. Then 37 turning 38, he knew the
boys wearing the same and opposing uniforms
would be fresh from college with young legs and
unbridled energy. One of those, Georgetown
star graduate Jacob Murrell, would springboard
from the Blues to Major League Soccer within
the year.
“My biggest fear was getting embarrassed on
the field,” Oliveira Santos said. “That someone,
everyone, would outpace me. But it didn’t
happen.”
His legs remained loyal, and his energy
endured. The system Herriot implemented
played to Oliveira Santos’ strength as a defender,
he said. And most importantly, his wife watched
from the stands.
‘It’s magical’
At first, when her husband came to her with
a new job opportunity, Kait just thought about
how it’d mean more travel. She attended indoor
Above: Oliveira Santosa, right, greets teammates
prior to a scrimmage. Before he tried out for the
team, he worried about his age,“My biggest
fear was getting embarrassed on the field. That
someone, everyone, would outpace me,” he said.
soccer games, but without a lick of athleticism
in her history, she’d never really understood
the difference — until she walked into NavyMarine Corps Memorial Stadium for the Blues’
home opener. She finally fell in love.
“There’s just something about it. The fans,
the players, the excitement — it’s magical,” Kait
said. “And I know he loves indoor because he
loves soccer, but I think this is really his lot.”
Along with the travel, her husband’s life did
change. Oliveira Santos hits the gym five days
a week, runs 2, 3 miles, three days a week. He’d
always worked his body to be quick for indoor
soccer, his wife recalled, but once she witnessed
