Alumni Soccer Match

WORDS BY DOUG RUDNICKI, HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER PHOTOS BY ABEL BLANCO

When one thinks of human contact, the Second Law of Thermodynamics often comes to mind. This law posits that the universe tends toward chaos; since the Big Bang, the universe expands at an incredible rate of 72 kilometers per second. Thankfully, the Second Annual Maxime Leigh-Wood Memorial Alumni Football Match fundamentally breaks this stalwart scientific truth, is, in fact, a reversal of the Big Bang at a sub-particle level: Chaos is stilled as the globe shrinks to a football pitch.

And what was the Second Annual Maxime Leigh-Wood Memorial Alumni game but a reconnecting of body, mind, and soul, interactions that re-energized, reconnected, reconfigured who we are as both individuals and an AISB community.

On the south side of the football pitch, with a phalanx-like ensemble of red ML shirts– adorned by former players from as far back as 2004, positioned shoulderto-shoulder with players from as recent as graduating last year– stood the alumni team: bravado reborn. On the northside of the pitch, standing on the wide precipice of hope and optimism, stood the line of white MLW shirts, our current AISB varsity football team. And in front, painted in the intangible colors of exuberance and endurance, from the brushes of eternity that are multi-age-children to the canvases of introspection that are 12 graders, spectated the 800 plus-student body.

With the opening ceremony’s words still written in the air– instructions, guidelines, jokes, and aphorisms to guide all those well-beyond this magical moment in time–the more than 40-peoplestrong opening handshakes commenced. And in that moment, the ever-growing time/space continuum paused. In a process of the Alchemist-like forging of gold, smiles were ignited, brief stories were retold, laughter mixed with passion, tossed with sparks of jest. Hands did not just touch hands. Atoms from all over the world, from different strata of time, were placed in the warm kiln of community. Family. Sport.

This humble recount of the event would be remiss in failing to give youth its due: the Current beat the Past, Team White beat Team Red, Present AISB defeated the alums. The speed and accuracy of youth outwitted the boisterous, complaining, diving theatrics of yesterday’s heroes. But they are not called heroes in mockery or jest. For the world is large and the AISB alumni are brave, weatherworn, and filled with the fire of redemption. Like the Phoenix, they will return, emboldened, for revenge.

And return alumni, do. A highlight of this Big Bang reversal was reconnecting with Aja Anderson (‘03, traveling from the US) and Julia Heltai (‘06, traveling from Australia), Alums who not only predate the Nagykovacsi campus, but who once embraced the beloved Alex Paduano (‘05). Alex won Nagykovacsi-campus’s first football championship in 2000. He also, recently, succumbed to cancer. My embrace of Julia was the sublime personified, for as she hugged me, I could feel a fleeting touch of Alex, for it was Julia’s hands that had carried Alex’s coffin to its grave. As much as Mr. and Mrs. Leigh-Wood’s and Otto’s (‘23) and Emil’s (‘21) impassioned opening words gave air to Maxime’s unforgettable voice, Julia’s embrace allowed me, for a brief moment, to feel Alex’s warmth a gentle repose to the chaos of life.

When the day was finished, we all left with our bellies filled with food, a little bit more love in our hearts, and a renewed understanding that we are, as Blazers, together even if we are apart.