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Becoming an Evertonian Saved My Life

How becoming an Evertoninan saved my life. A letter to the club, players and fans of Everton.

Dear Everton (club, players and fans),

In 2008, I became an Evertonian. I had just turned 17 and had been a typical North American "soccer" hater. Although I'm Canadian and not American, a lot of the population still thinks of "soccer" as a strictly European sport and therefore not worth watching.

Having grown up playing competitive baseball, rather than football, my "hatred" for football had been more than the average person. Since both seasons ran simultaneously, it was a constant battle to get players in order to make the leagues competitive. I had no interest in learning about football at all, even though games were readily available and there is good coverage of the Premier League in Canada. However, in 2008, that changed.

In 2008, two days after his 50th birthday, my father died after a four-year battle with cancer. It should not have been a shock, he had been getting sicker, but after four years of battling I had assumed that he would just pull through like he always had before. After his death, being a stereotypical male, I kept my emotions bottled up, letting everybody believe that I was fine, however I wasn't. It seemed as if I couldn't do anything without the constant reminder of my dad.

Because sports had always been a part of my life I naturally tried to turn to sports to make me focus on something other than the fact that my dad was gone. But sports had always been something that I enjoyed with my dad, so watching a baseball game, playing basketball, golf and even HOCKEY (which is basically illegal in Canada ? getting no joy from hockey) left me with an empty feeling inside.

So, I decided that I needed something that I could do without remembering my dad. I turned to football. Being a sports person, I knew the basic rules of football, and had seen a few World Cup matches, but had never jumped on the World Cup bandwagon and become a fan. So I started to do some research into the teams in the Premier League. I looked at profiles for all 20 teams playing in the league at that time, and that's when I discovered Everton.

I had remembered my mom telling me about my great-grandmother being from Liverpool. So, I looked into Liverpool and Everton. When I read about Liverpool, however, I just got the feeling that they were not my team. I knew that when I found my team I would just know. And I was right. Because after I looked into Liverpool, I found Everton. The Toffeemen. The Blues. And I knew at that moment that I would be a lifelong Evertonian.

I began watching the games, and celebrating their triumphs and bemoaning their losses. I discovered Tim Cahill, who soon became my favourite player, because of his work ethic and tremendous ability to head the ball. I also discovered Tim Howard, with his drive and absolute fearlessness inside the net. Mikel Arteta, Phil Jagielka, Phil Neville, Leighton Baines and the list goes on. Everton became my whole life. Reading the news, hearing transfer rumors, looking at their tactics, it gave me something that I could do without the constant reminder of my dad, because we had never watched or played football. It stopped me from becoming too depressed.

Now that I am a 19, almost 20, year old university student, I have had some chances to look back on that time. Of course, I don't know what would have happened if I never discovered Everton. I don't know if I would have found something else, or if I would have pulled through, or what I would have done if I would have let myself get too depressed. But what I do know, is that becoming an Evertonian saved me from going to a very dark and very lonely place. A place that many people have either not come back from or have come back a very different person. That alone was enough to make me an Evertonian for life.

So with the Everton fans grumbling about the recent performance of the team, I decided to write this, to let the fans know that there is something good with this team and club. I also wrote this as a thank you. A thank you to the club, the players and most of all the fans. Because although there are very few Everton fans in Canada, I love watching the games on television and hearing the support and knowing that I am not alone in my support. So, thank you Everton and everybody involved with the club. Thank you for saving my life.

Sincerely,

Chris Wilkinson

ps: Forever Everton!

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