Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Sub umbra floreo

Belize is often the forgotten Central American nation. "Central America" conjures up thoughts of the area's largest country (Nicaragua), it's most populous country (Guatemala), maybe some rough terrain, humidity and political strife. And it also brings up the Spanish language, as all Central American nations are Spanish-speaking nations... except for Belize, where English is the official language.

Belize will take on Mexico in World Cup qualifying. On Saturday, Belize "hosts" Mexico in Houston's Reliant Stadium in the first leg of their series.

If you're wondering how a tiny nation like Belize, a tried-and-true soccer minnow, functions, here's a great profile of their coach, Ian Mork of Wichita, Kan. Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune caught up with Mork and talked to him about all things Belize.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great story! And great for Mork! It's always inspiring to see someone living their dream and doing what they want in life by taking a path less traveled. Just goes to show that if you should if you do what you love and are ambitious and opportunistic that good things happen. What a story!

Anonymous said...

dude, Belize is toast...

Joseph D'Hippolito said...

Viva Belice! Chinga a Mexico!

A.C. said...

What's unsaid in the rest of the motto for Belize, "In the shade, I flourish, in the frickin' heat I pass out".
I've always wanted to go to Belize, though, and swim with the manatees.

Dan Haug said...

I think I mentioned this before, but...

I lived in Belize in 1993-94 and played a little soccer with the local semi-pro team (from the Belizean league). There were two or three players on that team that were also on the national team. They won the league that year, but they were about at the junior college level of play from the US.