The Coquitlam Metro Ford Fire will have a hole in its lineup — and in its players’ hearts — when it takes to the pitch for its U16 boys' soccer match Saturday in Cloverdale.
Kamyar Ebnoddin-Hamidi, 15, was a fullback on the third division team while his father, Ardalan, was an assistant coach. They, along with Kamyar’s mother and Ardalan’s wife, Niloofar Razzaghi, were among the 63 Canadians who perished in the crash of a Ukrainian Airlines flight shortly after it took off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on Tuesday.
The Fire’s head coach, Iain McVey, told The Tri-City News Kamyar was a hard-working player who played steady defence and had a knack for kicking the ball a long way, so he was often called upon when the team was awarded free kicks.
McVey remembered Ardalan, whom he called Artie, as a keen coach even though he came to his sideline position with no previous experience beyond playing himself in a local masters league. He said Ardalan’s enthusiasm even made him late for practice one day because he was busy at the library photocopying diagrams of a new formation for the team as his home printer wasn’t working.
McVey said he first learned about the tragedy when he was listening to U.S. President Donald Trump on his car radio. He said he knew the Ebnoddin-Hamidi family had gone to Iran for the holidays so he emailed Ardalan’s Hotmail account expressing his hope they weren’t on the downed plane.
When he didn’t hear back, and as more information about the passengers on the doomed flight filtered back through the news media, reality sank in.
With a team practice scheduled for Wednesday evening, McVey used the online communication system Coquitlam Metro Ford employs to connect players and parents to let his team know of their loss.
“We wanted to make sure the boys knew about it before they got to practice,” he said.
At practice, McVey said, each player and coach was given an opportunity to share their memories of their teammate and assistant coach. He said the kids talked about Kamyar’s smile and his easy, joking nature.
“I could tell some of them were shaken,” McVey said. “Everyone deals with it in their own way.”
Afterward, he said he polled the team whether to proceed with the practice, which they did.
“It was useful for them to do something in practice,” McVey said.
While all Coquitlam Metro Ford teams will observe a minute of silence before their home games this weekend, McVey said his charges will hold their own moment of remembrance before their match in Cloverdale. He said it will be important for the players to get back on the pitch.
“Sports is a good distraction from what bothers people.”
