Coach Marco and SCORES poet-athletes at Bret Harte Elementary School

Coach Marco Bonilla is one of the longest-serving members of the SCORES community. We talked to him about his work with SCORES poet-athletes at Bret Harte Elementary School, his military service, and his early roots.

You’ve been with SCORES for a long time now. What’s your SCORES story?

I’ve been with SCORES from the beginning here in the Bayview at Bret Harte Elementary School. It’s been more than 20 years. I work in the bilingual department during the school day and with SCORES after school. Most of our kids are from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. They’re newcomers, often learning English for the first time.

The funny thing is, even before SCORES started, I dreamed about the program. I used to play soccer after school here with the kids on the asphalt playground; we didn’t have the beautiful turf field we have now. We would invite one or two schools from the community to come and play friendly games, but I always imagined making it much bigger. So when SCORES came around, it was like a dream come true for me.

Our community has changed over the years. Now it’s a safer community and a safer place to live. And our school plays a big role in that. Bret Harte and SCORES together provide a lot to families here: education, support, sports, and poetry.

SCORES has made a great impact in our community, especially with the canceled learning during the pandemic. Our students are learning how to write, how to recite poetry, how to serve their communities, and how to play soccer. All these things are involved in creating leaders in our schools.

Looking back over 20 years, it’s just amazing. We’re all over the country now. I’m grateful because we needed something like this, and I’m very happy that SCORES is still going strong.

When you were first dreaming of SCORES, were you familiar with poetry?

I wasn’t that familiar with poetry, but I embraced the idea. And after going through several trainings with my SCORES colleagues and partners, I started doing poetry with the kids. It was a little hard in the beginning because some of the kids just wanted to play soccer. But I explained to them that SCORES is not just soccer, it’s also about learning to write and perform poetry.

Poetry helps the kids to express themselves and to communicate. It helps to bring out the feelings they have inside of themselves – that we all have inside ourselves – and to interpret ideas and different ways of thinking. It makes them feel good about themselves and gives them a way to expose and share their ideas and feelings in so many different ways.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in El Salvador and then moved to San Francisco when I was fifteen. I had to learn English. I remember how new and exciting it felt when I came here, especially coming from a country that was at war. It felt safe. It wasn’t easy back home with the Salvadoran Civil War (1979-1992). We were in danger living there, and my mother was here.

I remember when my parents went to pick me up and showed me around San Francisco. I had never seen such a beautiful city. There were so many different kinds of people. You could meet a Samoan person, an African American, or a Filipino, Chinese, or Korean person. Everything was different, and I was happy here.

Sometimes I talk to my (bilingual) students today about how it was back home. I can relate to them because of my own experiences because I felt what they feel. I always try to help them.

Have you always been involved in education?

For a long time yes, but I’m also retired from the US Army. I served from 1988 to 2010. I went to Afghanistan after 9/11, and Egypt, Panama, Honduras, Germany, and several states here in the United States.

When I was growing up in El Salvador, I saw soldiers everywhere. So when I came to this country, I would see all those commercials and wanted to have that experience. And I wanted to serve this country, be a part of it, and wear the uniform with our flag. I was young, ready to get out of the house, and wasn’t thinking that much about going to war or being in dangerous places.

The experience definitely changed me. I saw a brighter, wider picture of the world and of cultures and people in general. It gave me compassion and an understanding that no matter where we’re from, we’re all human. We all have the same needs and we all just want to live our regular lives with our families.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I love to go see the Warriors, the 49ers, and the Quakes. I’m a major Quakes fan. I’d love to send a special thank you to the San Jose Earthquakes organization. Four times this season, on a special night, they’ve sent a nice new bus to pick our SCORES kids up from school to take us to a game. Last time, the kids got to hold the soccer players' hands to walk on the field for the National Anthem. There we were at this new stadium with 18,000 people looking down including the kids’ families, who were so proud. It brought a tear to my eye.

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