The Strength to Conquer Yourself

There's no point, don't bother, nothing's going to change, are you mad, it's our country's fault, you'll never make it, and so on. Think about how many times a day you hear or say these words. In the evening you sit down, tired, in front of the telly with a beer in your hand and watch yet another syrupy American film about how a schoolboy from some small backwater town in Texas gets his chance in life, wins a scholarship, goes off to play at a prestigious university and ends up a millionaire playing in the NFL. And then you fall asleep, ready to face yet another boring day at the office with the thought that “only in films is there a happy ending”. You fall asleep, and in your dream you see yourself at 22, up early to go running, thinking about what you need to eat before the midday training session, how much studying you have to do between the two sessions, which programme will give the best results, whether you'll manage to make it at the try-outs… Halfway through your jog you realise that this isn't a dream, it really is you, and no – you're not in America or some other land of dreams, you're running on the dirt track of the old stadium in the Serdika district, now overgrown with weeds and unused. 50 Cent is blaring from the music in your ears, and the sun hasn't come up yet. There isn't a living soul outside apart from the early-rising Roma from the nearby ghetto, out on their morning round of the bins. That only makes the lonely lad put his headphones back in and keep running, running, locked away in his own thoughts and dreams…

Let me introduce Aleksandar Kenanov, born on 22 May 1989 – a Sofia Bears player. At just 18, having happened to see a billboard, he signed up to train in American football with Team Sofia (now the Sofia Bears).

7 years later, after dozens of games for the Bears and a whole season played for the Kraljevo team in the Serbian Superleague as defensive captain, he is sought after by a number of teams in Eastern Europe. But his dreams are very different.

The breakthrough came in 2013, when, at a training camp in Serbia, his talent and physical attributes were spotted by Mike Cochran, a coach at SNU, Oklahoma. Sasho received a full scholarship for a master's degree in business administration, and it was American football that made it possible.

Founded in 1899, Southern Nazarene University is located west of Oklahoma City. The university has a campus spread over a full 40 acres and is entirely Christian in outlook. The university's motto is “Dream with confidence” and it offers the humanities, social sciences and health sciences.

If someone had told him “in 7 years you'll be playing American football in the USA”, he would hardly have believed it. But why not? What stops us from fighting to achieve our dreams? Why is there no one to tell us, while we are still young, that everything depends on us? Whether you become a better person, stronger, smarter, more successful – it all depends on you. If someone asked me today what American football has given me and I had to answer in one word – it would be “strength” – the strength to conquer myself. To get back up after you've been beaten, to get up early to train, to step onto the field even though you know your opponent is twice as strong and fear fills your soul, to laugh when you can't go on any more and yet your legs and arms keep moving, to face life's hardships with a smile, because you know that nothing is impossible or unsolvable.

Sasho conquered himself in this, his first battle, and became the first Bulgarian to be admitted to a college in the USA thanks to American football.

Anton Doykov
Sofia Bears
www.sofiabears.bg

*Luck is the dying wish of those who believe that victory is a chance turn of events; sweat, on the other hand, is for those who know that victory is a matter of choice.

Photos:

Marina Mihaylovich

Yana Blazheva