By Earl Gray
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Armando Rodriguez, member of Silverbacks Youth Team.
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LAWRENCEVILLE - Like father, unlike son. That’s not how the saying goes, but sometimes, not following in your father’s foot steps can be a good thing.
As a boy growing up in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Armando Rodriguez didn’t play a lot of sports. His parents steered him in other directions. Now, a parent himself, Rodriguez is very supportive of his children’s interests. It just so happens that his son Armando is into all kinds of sports. If there is a ball involved, Armando is into it.
“In Mexico I didn’t have all the chances that he has,” Rodriguez said. “That’s what’s great about this country.”
At the top of Armando’s list is soccer. He must have gone right from baby shoes to a pair of Nike’s, because Armando was playing in a soccer league at the age of three. Now granted, at that age the kids move around with all the precision of the players in one of those old vibrating football games. But to say Armando was off and running at an early age is a bit of an understatement.
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Dad Armando with daughter Vanese and Armando Jr.
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“He learned the skills quick,” said Rodriguez. So when little Armando got a little older he started playing at a soccer academy in Lawrenceville. He followed that up playing in the Lawrenceville YMCA league. Armando plays the midfielder position. From that spot, he creates scoring opportunities for his teammates, and himself.
“I enjoy making good passes to my teammates so they can score,” Armando said. And how does he feel about scoring goals himself? “It’s exciting. I feel a lot of joy in my heart.”
Last summer, Armando went to an Atlanta Silverbacks sponsored camp in Norcross. The Silverbacks are a professional team that plays in the United Soccer League. Armando was named MVP at the camp. It seems he does amazing feats with his feet. Impressed at what they saw, the Silverbacks invited him to play on one of their age group club teams. Not a bad beginning for someone who aspires to play professionally. Who needs to Bend It Like Beckham when you can Aim It Like Armando?
“I have passion for the game,” Armando said. “It’s a healthy sport that keeps my brain alert. And it keeps me out of trouble.”
With thoughts like that it’s not surprising that, off the field, the 11-year old is an honor student at Killian Hill Christian School in Lilburn. It seems that the younger Armando is displaying a lot of the same heart and determination that the older Armando did when he first came to the United States.
In the mid-80’s, Rodriguez was washing dishes in the kitchen at the Gwinnett Marriott. After a lot of hard work, and a few promotions, Rodriguez was trained as a cook. Five years later he opened Cuernavaca’s Mexican Restaurant on Grayson Highway in Lawrenceville. Today, he and his wife, Martha, still own and operate the restaurant.
Maybe it’s “like father, like son” after all.
