MVHS Soccer Players Visit D.C. School

Three members of the Mount Vernon High School boys soccer team visited Luke C. Moore Academy Senior High School on May 18 to help celebrate its 2nd annual International Day festival.

Seniors Amardo Oakley (captain), Damaro DaCosta, and junior Foday Sillah spoke to students about their upbringings in Jamaica and Sierra Leone and how soccer helped change their lives for the better.

Coach Robert Garza told the players about the school’s International Day; Garza is a history teacher and history department chair at Luke C. Moore.

“I asked them if they would like to participate and they were eager to get involved,” Garza said in an email to Patch. “With a lot of the students at LCMA never having left DC and the few we do have that do come from other areas — the players really wanted to show the students at LCMA how soccer has changed them and to share some of their stories and customs from their native countries.”

Oakley spoke to the students about setting goals and working hard to obtain them, and explained how soccer helped him get to where he is today. The three players showed off their skills and played against some of the Moore students in a scrimmage.

Garza said the visit was a positive experience for the soccer players.

“It truly was an experience the boys appreciated and an opportunity to not only be active in our community, but to reach out to neighboring school districts and be a mentor to them,” Garza said. “The LCMA students were so excited to meet the boys and told them they had new few fans rooting for them. They came by [my] room everyday asking how the boys did and pumped their fist in the air when they found out the won the championship.”