Similar to SSUSA, Kaig Lightner, the founder and director of the Portland Community Football Club understand the importance of providing soccer to marginalized communities. But Kaig has his own story of success that he has shown with his players and the rest of the public interested in lending a listening ear. He was willing to use his story as a gateway to let others understand the importance of acceptance.
To truly capture the powerful story of Lightner, we’ve added dialogue from a video clip of Lightner speaking to his players in a huddle after practice. In the quotes below, we see a true example of self acceptance and self love.
“We ask a lot of you guys to show up and be yourselves and be who you are and get to be better players and I haven’t totally shared something with you about myself that’s sort of important — that some of you may or may not know,” Lightner said.
Lightner then came out to his players, saying it was something he’s kept close to the chest because of how sports have traditionally dealt with issues of gender.
“We have a lot of rules in sports about how boys play and how girls play and that’s not really fair,” he said. “I got told a lot of things about being a soccer player as a girl — that I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t do that. I wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t strong enough, or I was too strong — I acted too much like a boy.”
Lightner told Buzzfeed News that he’s been involved in youth sports since he was a teenager. He stepped down from a coaching position at 26 to begin transitioning. He told the outlet and his players that he felt a responsibility to come out in order to practice what he preached in his work.
